AI agent technology advances with ketteQ and Y Combinator releases

The landscape of artificial intelligence is shifting toward agentic workflows, as evidenced by two recent developments in enterprise and startup infrastructure.

ketteQ has launched Quintus, an AI agent designed for supply chain decision-making. Described as ‘Free-Range AI’, Quintus is built to operate across existing ERP and planning environments, such as SAP IBP and Blue Yonder, without requiring a complete technology stack replacement. Unlike first-generation assistive AI that focuses on summaries and recommendations, Quintus aims to reason through operational problems, such as analyzing the impact of supplier unavailability and determining potential responses.

In the startup sector, Y Combinator has open-sourced QM, a multiplayer agent harness designed to coordinate AI-agent workflows across distributed teams. QM provides a cloud-based architecture featuring isolated workspaces, Slack integration, and shared memory. The platform offers varying levels of control over agent actions—ranging from ‘Strict’ to ‘Dangerous’—allowing developers to customize security and tool access for software development, data analysis, and operational management.