AI 100 Trailblazer: Shelf - Knowledge and Data-First AI for the Agentic Enterprise

Shelf is an end-to-end agentic AI platform that helps enterprises unlock the next era of work through trusted, knowledge-grounded AI. Founded in 2017 by a team with 20+ years in knowledge engineering and process modeling, Shelf is trusted by the world’s leading brands to move beyond experimentation into production-grade agentic systems.

Most agentic AI breaks under business complexity. Shelf solves this by building an AI Data Model of the business, modeling the policies, workflows, and logic of how an organization runs. It unifies structured and unstructured data into a trusted foundation, then connects that knowledge to a reasoning layer grounded in business logic, compliance, and domain context, so agents interpret information accurately, decide, and act, with governance maintained as the business evolves.

Shelf operates on the premise that Knowledge Management is the foundation of scalable agentic AI. Without trusted knowledge and clear business logic, agents risk misinterpreting policies or automating broken processes. With the right foundation, enterprises deploy AI that is accurate, measurable, and compliant, driving outcomes across customer experience, employee support, operations, sales, and knowledge work.

Built on a layered architecture, Shelf delivers agentic experiences across chat, voice, and email, orchestrates how agents reason and act through CortexAI, and scales Super Agents across contact-center and back-office workflows. Recognized as a Gartner Category Leader, a Gartner Cool Vendor and an IDC Innovator, and trusted by enterprises including American Family, HelloFresh, Nespresso, KeyBank, and Roku, Shelf pairs knowledge-engineering expertise with AI innovation, helping organizations step into the agentic future.

Learn more at shelf.io.