Behind the Scenes at PegaWorld: A Conversation with Kara Manton

Legacy systems do not fail because teams lack ambition. They fail because nobody has the time to untangle years of code, edge cases and hidden business logic. We sit down with Kara Manton, business director in Pega’s product engineering function, to unpack the biggest PegaWorld announcements aimed at changing that reality, starting with why Pega Infinity 26 is being called one of the best releases in a decade. 

TL;DR:

• Infinity 26 as a major step forward for AI powered workflow automation
• Blueprint AI inside Infinity Studio and an AI assistant that builds rules behind the scenes
• Calling Pega workflows from different AI tools while keeping execution predictable
• AWS Transform plus Blueprint to modernise legacy code into production apps in three months
• Designing business rules and user experience earlier to cut rework later
• No token charging and a shift towards outcomes based pricing

We talk through what it looks like when AI is designed to strengthen workflow automation rather than replace it. Kara explains how Pega Blueprint has evolved from an early idea into a deeper application design experience where you can shape process flows, business rules and user experience before you build. 

We also dig into Infinity Studio with its built-in AI assistant, where you can chat and have the system generate Pega rules behind the scenes, opening the door for more people to participate in creating workflow applications. 

The conversation turns to two big enterprise concerns: modernisation speed and AI cost. Kara highlights the on-stage AWS Transform announcement, describing how AWS Transform plus the power of Blueprint can take organisations from a legacy code base to a production app in three months. 

We also cover Pega’s decision not to charge for tokens, focusing instead on outcomes and predictable cost in a world where tokenomics and model changes can feel chaotic. If you care about practical, governed AI, agentic workflows and faster legacy transformation, this one is for you. 

Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with the workflow problem you want to modernise next.

#PegaPartner

Transcript

Meet Kara And The Keynote

unknown 0:02

Great.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

So yeah, my name is Kara Manton. I am the business director in our product engineering function. I've worked at Pega for seven years now, four of which directly for Karim, our chief product officer. I do a lot of Pega, but you know, one thing I did today at least was support him in his keynote and really make sure that we're expressing the best and the greatest things we're building in our product, you know, to everyone here at PegaWorld.

Infinity 26 And Workflow AI

SPEAKER_00 0:25

So the things Kim said that everyone should be really excited about. First off, is that Peg Infinity26 is one of our best releases in a decade. He said a decade, I'd say maybe even longer than that. It brings the power of AI with the best of Pega in our workflow automation to give you know a really impressive product that I hope people are really excited to get their hands on. He mentioned building, uh designing with Blueprint. He mentioned building with Infinity Studio and running applications wherever you use them, which is really powerful and a big differentiator, I think, for us. So many announcements today. The ones that I think excited me the most personally because I work in the product engineering team are the ones that I know we've been working on for so long and that are really, really exciting

Blueprint Inside Infinity Studio

SPEAKER_00 1:12

for our team. So Blueprint AI being inside

AWS Transform And Three Month Modernisation

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Infinity Studio. Infinity Studio itself, with the AI assistant built right in, means you can actually chat with the AI assistant and it is building Pega rules behind the scenes. You don't have to be a rules developer to build an Infinity Studio anymore. It's it's pretty wild stuff. And then of course, the announcement of the ability to use a pega workflow within whatever AI you use. You can be using Cloud, you could use ChatGPT, you could use Google Agent Space, you can call a Pega workflow right there. So you get the predictability of Pega Workflows in whatever AI you use. That's the future. Yeah, so there's a very exciting announcement about AWS Transform on Stage today. Omri Kessel from AWS joined Krim on stage and talked about how with AWS Transform and the power of Pega Blueprint, you can go from any legacy code base into a production app in three months. Things that used to take five years are whittled away timeline-wise, so you can actually use the power of AI to understand a legacy code base and have a workflow-driven application faster than ever before. We're very excited for our clients to really get hands-on with that. And anyone out there who has that legacy uh code base, which is everyone, um, should hopefully be pretty excited about that announcement.

Deeper Blueprint Design Before Build

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, so so part of the announcement is about how you can um rethink your your workflow applications using Pega Blueprint. So what that means is we can take away all the elements of that legacy code base, ingest it into Pega Blueprint, and create agentic workflows out of it. I think one of my favorite quotes from O'Marie today on stage was you know, AWS does all the, I'm ad libbing here, but AWS does all the all the um understanding of that code. When we find that it's a workflow application, there's no one better in the world to do it than Pega. And that's what we like to hear. Uh Pega Blueprint has really evolved over the last two years. We announced it two years ago at Pega World. Um that was when AI was really just starting to come out. We were giving people the opportunity to rethink their workflows using using Pega Blueprint. As Kurim uh described on stage during his keynote today, um, that was kind of just the beginning. This latest version of Blueprint lets you get really deep into that application design. Exactly how people are going to use that application. You can configure the business rules, you can configure the user experience, all in Blueprint, well before you go and start building an application. And the reason that matters is because you can spend a lot less time understanding and designing your work before you go and actually create all the rules and um do things that are harder to change later on. So um, in the end, it's a big,

No Token Charges And Outcome Pricing

SPEAKER_00 4:07

big one. Today at PegaWorld, Alan on stage announced something really exciting, which is that we will not be charging for tokens. Um the the reason behind that is we feel like we're using AI in such a um specialized and smart way that we don't need to charge for tokens. We want to charge for outcomes. So use our software, use Blueprint, use Infinity Studio to, with AI, to build the best solution, the best agentic workflow possible, and then run it using AI where it matters. We're not gonna charge you for tokens. We want you to get outcomes

Try Blueprint And Aim For Predictability

SPEAKER_00 4:43

from your work. So for people who weren't at Pega World, I want you to hear just a few messages. The first is go try Blueprint. Go to Pega.com slash Blueprint, come up with a workflow that you're interested in understanding. If you have any legacy documentation, upload that. Have it create a new workflow for you. I think you would be really surprised with what it can do for you. Secondly, hear our message about predictable outcomes and predictable cost. The world of AI is really confusing. There's a lot of messages out there. The tokenomics and you know what large language model is out there being released today is different than next week. Here at Pega, we're all about predictable workflows with AI built in in the right places, so you can leverage AI to the best of its capabilities, but also have predictability in your business. That's what we think is important, and we hope that people are excited about that.