The Rise of AI Agents: A New Mindset for Business Leaders
The Rise of Agentic AI
Enterprise use of AI agents is on the rise, with 25% of enterprises using generative AI forecast to deploy AI agents in 2025, growing to 50% by 2027, according to Deloitte. The rise of agents means we need to adopt a new mindset. Being prepared for reinvention is crucial in an AI-first future led by agents. Business leaders must operate like chefs, not cooks, in a world of hyper-automation, connections, and real-time knowledge sharing.
A New Mindset for Business Leaders
A cook uses recipes to create – learning by analogy. A chef does not need a recipe. A chef learns the taste of each ingredient and can combine the right ingredients to prepare a delicious plate – learning by first principles. A good chef also understands relationships between ingredients, dishes, the kitchen, staff, customers, and more.
The Importance of Relational Intelligence
Companies will invest heavily in AI agents as the world of work changes forever. According to tech analyst Gartner, agentic AI is the most important strategic technology for 2025 and beyond. Agentic AI systems autonomously plan and take actions to meet user-defined goals. The technology offers a virtual workforce that can offload and augment human work. Gartner predicts that, by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be taken autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024.
Healthy Relationships between Humans and Machines
So, how can businesses manage relationships between a human and AI digital workforce, collaborating to deliver value at the speed of need to all stakeholders? In a machine-led economy, how do we define healthy relationships between people and machines? The level of transformation ahead of us, including innovation velocity (speed and direction), will force business leaders to challenge legacy assumptions and orthodoxies.
Challenging Orthodoxies
The business world is full of orthodoxies, beliefs that no one questions because they are thought to be "just the way things are". One such orthodoxy is the phrase: "Our people are the difference". A simple Google search can attest to its popularity. Some companies use this orthodoxy as their official or unofficial tagline, a tribute to their employees that they hope sends the right message internally and externally.
Why "Our People Are the Difference" is an Orthodoxy
The most obvious reason is that most employees of nearly all companies have worked somewhere else before joining their current firm. And most have worked at one or more competitors. We know this fact because perhaps the most common phrase in recruiting history is the one in job postings that says, "Relevant industry experience mandatory." Human resource managers appear to think prior experience in their industry is an essential quality for a prospective employee, even a deal breaker. It’s another orthodoxy that should, by the way, be closely scrutinized for its value.
The Truth About "Our People Are the Difference"
There is another, less obvious, way this orthodoxy isn’t true. This way might even be a more significant blocker to innovative thinking. It’s the fact that what makes the difference is not the individual employee but the conditions set for them by the company culture and the relationships they are encouraged and allowed to make with each other, their customers, their bosses, and so on.
Conclusion
The truth is that individuals can thrive in one environment and struggle in another. We see this most clearly in professional sports teams where trades can result in surprising performance changes. Some players flourish in new surroundings and become highly valued team members after failing to differentiate themselves at their former club, while others fail to live up to expectations. In either case, the player is not the difference, though they can bloom or wilt. The determining factor is the conditions the players are placed in and the relationships they make, or do not make, that enable them to do so.
FAQs
Q: What is the rise of agentic AI?
A: Agentic AI is the most important strategic technology for 2025 and beyond, according to Gartner. It offers a virtual workforce that can offload and augment human work.
Q: What is the difference between a cook and a chef?
A cook uses recipes to create – learning by analogy. A chef learns the taste of each ingredient and can combine the right ingredients to prepare a delicious plate – learning by first principles.
Q: What is relational intelligence?
A practice that encompasses a framework for how people and machines can co-create real value for each other and all stakeholders.
Q: What is the most important thing for business leaders to focus on?
A: Business leaders must focus on designing healthy and sustainable relationships between humans and machines.
Q: What is the future of work?
A: The future of work is a machine-led economy, where humans and agents work together to deliver customer success.
