“The hardest part to master is decision autonomy,” Kinha says. Agents with too little autonomy will regularly check with humans, stunting automation. Those with too much will make mistakes that could be catastrophic. In addition to being explicit with goals and intents, organizations must make sure their data hygiene is sound, Kinha says.
The future looks bright(ish) — but unpredictable
When the technical and process challenges are reconciled, HR and IT partnership will be essential in assisting the transition from humans to human-plus-machine work. Every company introducing AI agents to their organizations must become more intentional about how they execute their business processes and measure outcomes.
“All of us in different functional domains need to up our game in intent-setting, boundary-setting, and measurement,” Hjartar says. “That’s going to take many years for us.”
