By Brian Solis,Contributor

Copyright forbes

AI Agents are here to help, but they need human orchestration and management

The narrative around AI in the workplace has often been dominated by fears of automation and job displacement. However, a more nuanced and ultimately more empowering vision is taking shape: one where humans and AI collaborate together, with people standing firmly on the conductor’s podium. This is the essence of what’s being called agentic workforce management. It’s a purposeful strategy to support agentic orchestration with people and AI working together to deliver real business outcomes and represents the next future of work. Companies that fail to adopt innovative workforce management strategies risk decreased productivity, loss of competitive advantage, and challenges in attracting and retaining top talent.

Beyond Automation: Orchestration of Intelligent Agents

A recent MIT study found that 95% of AI pilots have failed to show any return – that’s a huge challenge, and an even bigger opportunity.

Business and technology leaders need to think beyond AI as a scalable enabler of automated work. Realizing AI’s potential requires rethinking organizational constructs between people, data, and workflows.

Traditional automation focuses on replacing human tasks with machines. And traditional automation systems are often rigid, relying on predefined rules that struggle to adapt to real-time changes and nuanced decision-making. This limits their effectiveness in dynamic work environments.

Unlike traditional automation, agentic AI represents a shift towards systems that adapt to real-time changes, empowering human workers and fostering a more responsive work environment.

Agentic AI is Redefining How Work Gets Done

These systems operate autonomously, engage with users through natural language, and are purpose-built to deliver outcomes.

They’re becoming integral members of the modern workforce, managed with the same rigor as human talent, aligned to business roles, governed for security and compliance, and measured for performance. As AI agents take on increasingly complex workflows, organizations can reallocate time and talent to more strategic priorities. This shift enables smarter staffing, dynamic scheduling, and better workforce orchestration across the enterprise.

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This new era is about transforming work so that people and AI can deliver more, together.

Agentic workforce management envisions a world where AI agents act as teammates, with AI autonomously completing end-to-end work in support of broader goals. But here’s the crucial difference: humans oversee, coach, and guide these agentic workforces, ensuring alignment with organizational values and strategic objectives.

Think of it as conducting an orchestra. The conductor (the human manager) doesn’t play every instrument but guides each section to create a harmonious and impactful performance. Similarly, in agentic workforce management, human managers operate as agentic conductors to oversee AI’s capabilities while providing direction.

Highlighting the Downsides of Business and Data Silos and The Power of a Unified Platform

Today, business environments are largely limited in their potential to leverage AI because of fragmented data and operational silos. This significantly impedes the ability for AI agents to execute end-to-end workflows. These silos create barriers to information flow, resulting in disconnected processes that prevent AI agents from accessing the comprehensive data necessary for informed decision-making and autonomous execution of complex tasks.

As a result, AI tools are often confined to narrow, isolated tasks, unable to orchestrate actions across different departments or systems. And this legacy, fragmented approach restricts AI’s ability to learn from cross-functional interactions, adapt to evolving business needs, and ultimately fully realize AI’s promise.

To become an AI-forward company requires a new architecture and a unified platform to connect these silos, govern AI processes and assets, and enable agentic AI to operate autonomously across the entire enterprise.

The true potential of agentic workforce management is unlocked when AI operates on a unified platform. Siloed AI tools focused on narrow or isolated tasks fragment workflows and limit the scope of AI’s impact. To achieve true autonomous end-to-end work across these silos, organizations often require extensive customized software and supporting systems.

By leveraging a unified platform however, organizations can reduce costs, enhance agility, and gain comprehensive insights, ultimately fostering a more dynamic and collaborative workflow environment. More so, it also connects silos, allowing agentic AI to execute end-to-end, learn from past experiences, adapt to new challenges, and operate autonomously across various business functions.

For example, imagine a scenario where a customer service issue arises. Instead of a human agent manually gathering information from different systems, an agentic workforce, orchestrated by a human manager, can autonomously access customer data, identify the root cause of the problem, and propose a solution. The human manager then reviews the proposed solution, ensures its alignment with company policy, and approves its implementation.

Human Strengths Remain Central

Humans and AI working together toward exponential outcomes

The narrative around AI in the workplace needs to shift from fears of automation to a more empowering vision of collaboration.

AI excels at processing vast amounts of data, identifying patterns, and automating repetitive tasks. Humans, on the other hand, bring creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking to the table. By combining these strengths, organizations can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and innovation.

Agentic orchestration isn’t about replacing human skills; it’s about augmenting them. This vision is embodied in agentic workforce management, where humans orchestrate work together with AI agents through a central intelligent control tower. By leveraging a unified platform, organizations can integrate AI agents into their workflows, allowing them to process vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and automate repetitive tasks. This integration not only augments human creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking but also enables AI agents to act as autonomous orchestration layers across various operations.

For instance, in a complex supply chain environment, AI agents can dynamically forecast demand, identify risks, and replan transport and inventory flows in real-time, adapting to changing conditions. This demonstrates the power of a connected enterprise to transform traditional workflows into goal-driven, adaptable systems that enhance productivity, innovation, and competitive advantage.

A Collaborative Human and Agentic Workforce Future

Embracing agentic AI is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Businesses that leverage automation and real-time workforce insights will excel in operational efficiency and strategic agility. By adopting agentic AI, businesses are not only improving processes and work, but also future-proofing their workforce, ensuring they remain relevant in an evolving AI-forward business landscape.

To effectively orchestrate an agentic workforce, consider the following next steps:

Develop a Unified Platform Strategy: Conduct an audit of existing AI tools and data silos within the organization.

Map Human-AI Agent Actions: Identify and translate human-agent tasks into orchestrated executable steps between people and AI.

Enhance Human-AI Collaboration: Implement training programs for employees to effectively collaborate with AI agents.

Leverage Agentic AI for Dynamic Workflows: Pilot agentic AI systems in specific departments, such as supply chain or customer service.

Address Data and Operational Silos: Invest in data integration technologies and processes to dismantle silos.

Promote a Visionary Outlook: Communicate the benefits of agentic orchestration to stakeholders through workshops and presentations.

Monitor and Adapt: Establish metrics to evaluate the impact of agentic AI on productivity and innovation.

Optimize Performance: Identify opportunities for performance optimization and empower teams with actionable insights on metrics for improved agentic efficiency.

The future of work is not about humans versus machines, it’s about humans and machines working together.

Agentic workforce management and orchestration offers a path forward where AI enhances human capabilities, allowing organizations to thrive in an increasingly complex and dynamic world. By embracing this collaborative approach, businesses can unlock new opportunities, drive innovation, and create a more inclusive and empowering workplace for all.

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