Ideas lab
To unlock AI’s promise, retailers must master simplicity
Article
25-Nov-2025
Key takeaways
Change is accelerating — and it’s all-encompassing. Agentic AI will change everything from business processes to traditional roles, requiring organizations to continuously adapt.
Readiness is an agentic differentiator. Organizations that proactively manage workforce transformation will gain a competitive advantage.
Intentionally designed AI experiences are critical to success. Realizing agentic AI benefits depends on designing intentional user experiences.
By Michael Bradshaw, Global Applications, Data and AI Practice Leader at Kyndryl
Artificial intelligence has reshaped the modern workplace — not just by automating tasks, but by reimagining entire workflows and expanding what people can accomplish. And while past technologies created ripples of change, agentic AI promises a wave that is exponentially larger, introducing systems that can reason, adapt, and act alongside people teams in real-time.
Now is the time for organizations to start preparing
Building on automation, machine learning and generative AI technologies, agentic AI is the latest iteration of artificial intelligence. Where agentic AI surpasses the capabilities of its predecessors is in its ability to act autonomously. Agentic AI can reason, adapt, and execute in real-time, introducing significant implications for the future of work.
Already, there are signs of realignment. Companies are redesigning org charts to include both people and AI agents in a blended workforce. Technologists are advocating for the creation of entirely new leadership positions dedicated to navigating this transformation. Some companies have even gone to the lengths of fully merging their technology and HR departments.
Decision makers also see where we’re headed: AI investment is surging, with more than two-thirds of executives investing heavily in AI, according to the Kyndryl Readiness Report. Nearly 9 in 10 expect AI to completely transform roles and responsibilities at their organizations in the next year. And more than half of leaders surveyed in a recent McKinsey report say they’ve already started experimenting with AI agents.
Yet while most organizations can envision an agentic AI future, far fewer show signs of being fully prepared for it. Some 71% of leaders surveyed in a Kyndryl report said their employees could not successfully leverage AI at work. Even more telling, roughly a third said their organizations do not even understand the AI-related skills they will need in the years ahead.
These findings offer a stark reminder that technology alone isn’t enough. In every transformation, technological success depends on people and processes. Organizations that manage change proactively, and guide their workforces through it with intention, will emerge with a competitive advantage — seeing the greatest benefits from AI, positioning themselves to attract future talent, and winning new customers.
But the work ahead will not be easy.
In every transformation, technological success depends on people and processes.
Agentic AI demands a rethink of roles, workflows and skills
As organizations begin to embed AI agents into their operations, they must rethink how work gets done. With the ability to pull data from individual functions and cut across fragmented structures, agentic AI can drastically simplify complex processes and automate end-to-end workflows. But orchestrating AI agents across the business can be a considerable challenge. Leaders must evaluate existing business processes and rearchitect them for an AI-enabled workforce.
As the nature of work changes, so too will roles and responsibilities. While there will be no replacement for the innately human ability to execute judgment in high-stakes business scenarios, agentic AI will reshape roles across the workforce. Leaders must close skills gaps and invest in reskilling to retain and develop talent. They will also need to reconsider career growth and succession planning as traditional talent pipelines transform.
At every stage of this evolution, the success of agentic AI will depend on people willing to use it. When agentic AI implementations are solely technology-led, they too often result in interfaces that discourage engagement and serve as barriers to realizing AI benefits. The new mandate for organizations that want to build trust in AI and drive adoption is to proactively address user needs with efficient, effective, and intentionally designed user experiences.
Culture and change management will make or break success
Leaders who neglect this holistic approach to workforce transformation will not only undermine value realization but also increase the risk of change fatigue. With so much change unfolding on such a tight timeline, employees can soon become apathetic, disengaged, and fearful about what comes next. This fear feeds resistance to change — and causes transformations to fail.
To that end, building company cultures that prize adaptability, transparency, and trust will be essential to success. Indeed, organizations that have embraced continuous transformation are significantly more likely to have achieved positive returns on AI investment, according to the Readiness Report. Culture is now a competitive advantage.
An earlier survey similarly found that organizations using AI to unlock business growth were three times more likely to have adopted an AI change management strategy and fully transformed talent management processes. These pacesetting organizations were also more likely to have a deeper understanding of their employees’ skills, more confidence in their ability to close skills gaps, and a more proactive approach to AI training.
By taking actions like these, organizations will be better prepared to navigate the AI workforce evolution. But success will require more than the right tools and tactics. Organizations will need the right framework, the right partners, and the right mindset to navigate this moment of profound change.
It’s true that agentic AI represents a giant step toward a future where efficiency gains materialize on a macro scale. However, that future depends on today’s leaders' ability to bring their workforce along on the journey.
