From Enterprise Search to Enterprise Context: What AI Agents Actually Need
Glean, Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026
Glean argues AI agents need an enterprise context layer, not just search, to do reliable work across systems.
Glean argues that enterprise search alone is insufficient for AI agents to do reliable work.
What agents need is an enterprise context layer that retrieves the most authoritative information from connected systems, understands how that information relates across tools and teams, and enforces source permissions on every request.
Critically, it must deliver the right evidence at each step of a multi-step workflow rather than returning a ranked list once. Glean positions that context layer as the piece most enterprises are missing when their agent pilots fail to generalize.