Human-only workforces will soon become history. Over the next five years, the workforce will comprise humans and AI agents working together. But are workforces and employers prepared enough? Well, a whopping 85 per cent human- resource leaders say their organisations have yet to implement agentic AI, while 73 per cent say employees are yet to understand how digital labour will affect their work. However, what is truly assuring is that a whopping 81 per cent of chief human resource officers (CHROs) are in for reskilling their employees. In fact, 20 per cent are already reskilling, while a good 61 per cent are planning to do so in a bid to get their employees ready for future roles and opportunities.
Given that Salesforce surveyed 200 global human resource executives, this is quite a telling number. Clearly, there is a revolution happening. As per the report, AI agent adoption is expected to surge by 327 per cent over the next two years. This will improve productivity by 30 per cent. Naturally, there is no reason then for organisations to not embrace digital labour.
It is encouraging to note that HR leaders believe the future is all about digital labour and its integration is critical to their role.
About 80 per cent HR leaders believe that within five years, most workforces will have humans and AI agents/digital labour working together. Therefore, not surprisingly, 86 per cent CHROs believe that a crucial part of their job would be to integrate digital labour alongside their existing workforce. From 15 per cent today, the CHROs surveyed expect agent adoption to grow to 64 per cent by 2027—in merely two years!
They feel that once fully implemented, agentic AI will result in an average 30 per cent gain in employee productivity and a 19 per cent drop in labour costs.
That HR leaders are welcoming AI agents is clear because a good 77 per cent of CHROs believe AI agents/digital labour will transform their organisational structure. A whopping 89 per cent of CHROs believe AI agents/digital labour will empower them to reassign employees to new, more relevant roles. They expect 61 per cent of their workforce to stay on in their present roles and work alongside digital labour. They look forward to redeploying almost a fourth of the workforce (23 per cent) to new roles or teams. This is further endorsed by the fact that 88 per cent of CHROs believe redeployment is the most cost-effective approach compared to hiring outside the business for new roles. A mindboggling 81 per cent of CHROs are either already reskilling or planning to reskill employees for roles with better future opportunities
The study reveals a growing focus on AI reskilling programmes. Over four in five human resource chiefs are either reskilling their employees or seriously planning to reskill them so that they remain competitive in a market where AI agents play a significant role. Most HR leaders feel that collaborative capabilities, relationship building and other soft skills will be much sought after when humans work along with agents.
The time has come for industries to reskill talent, redesign tasks and redeploy workers. Why? Because digital labour is transforming work and it is here to stay. Therefore, each employee will have to master new skills—human, agent and business—to be able to survive and thrive.