The onset of AI tools is leading to drastic changes in the workplace with more and more companies outsourcing work to AI. Companies such as Duolingo and Shopify have recently positioned themselves as AI-first by telling their employees that using AI in their work is not optional. It’s becoming increasingly clear that those not adopting the latest tools will be left behind because the productivity increases that can be achieved are significant.
The latest developments are in agentic AI, which will be transformative for the workplace. AI agents are capable of autonomously doing work i.e. making decisions and carrying out tasks without requiring any input from a human. These agents have been around for a while but are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing them to perform more complex tasks. Google recently launched their Agent2Agent protocol which allows agents to communicate and collaborate with each other across systems. This interoperability makes AI agents an even more powerful tool.
While it’s understandable that the rise of AI agents may raise concerns about job security, they also offer the potential to act as supportive digital colleagues. By assisting with repetitive tasks, AI can free up time for work that draws on human creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking. Used thoughtfully, these agents can operate beyond the limits of the traditional workday, opening the door to greater efficiency, while helping employees focus on the aspects of their roles that matter most.
Start-ups have the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by developing and implementing AI agents into their workforce from the ground up. This may lead to much quicker integration of the technology than larger companies having to restructure previous workflows and train employees to adopt them.
Developing bespoke AI agents and providing them directly to customers to utilise is another opportunity for this growing technology. For example, Kayak, the travel search engine, is developing AI travel agents which can be used by customers to delegate planning, booking and post-booking management of travel. These agents can be tailored to the customer by learning their preferences to provide a personalised experience. The latest developments in intelligent personal assistants including Amazon’s Alexa+, Google’s Gemini and OpenAi’s Operator utilise agents which are capable of executing multi-step tasks autonomously without requiring any supervision.
Technical skills may be a barrier to developing AI agents in-house at some companies. However, there are also tools being developed that lower the barrier for entry to implement AI agents. For example, SAP’s Joule studio allows businesses to build and manage AI agents tailored to their business needs using natural language, therefore removing the requirement for any software experience to gain the benefits of agentic AI.
We see rapid development in this area of technology and are excited to see the advances gained by these new tools.
