Dive Brief:
- Despite a lack of trust in AI systems, enterprises are forging ahead on giving them autonomy. Only one-quarter of business and technology leaders said they have complete trust in their AI systems, according to a survey published Thursday by Kyndryl. The service provider surveyed 1,100 business and technology leaders across eight countries in March and April.
- Even so, the technology is deeply embedded in enterprise workflows. More than four-fifths of tech leaders said they expect autonomous AI agents to make decisions with material business impact within the next year, the survey found. Two-thirds said they have given AI autonomous read and write access to their core systems.
- The growing reliance on AI is underscoring the need to adjust talent strategies, Kyndryl found. Leaders should align employee’s skills and decision-making with the way work is changing, Mark Paulek, Kyndryl’s chief human resources officer, said in a statement. “When people understand their role in that system, trust and performance scale together,” he said.
Dive Insight:
As agent autonomy grows, an organization’s governance and accountability layer — and how they train their people to use it — will become more essential to successful AI adoption.
Governance varies by organization and even by team, but a proportional governance approach that gives different agents strategic levels of clearances can keep organizations from overextending autonomy, a Gartner report published in May found.
AI is becoming more broadly embedded in core business processes across the enterprise, with 57% of tech leaders saying it's fully integrated, up from 35% last year, the Kyndryl survey found. Many leaders reported that AI has not yet significantly changed their day-to-day work, but they are rethinking how people and AI collaborate.
More than six in 10 respondents said they have already redesigned roles to accommodate AI, and nearly one-quarter said they are creating entirely new roles focused on AI management. The vast majority, 95%, said they believe upskilling employees is preferable to hiring externally.
The organizations guiding employees through AI change by upskilling and rethinking roles are experiencing more positive outcomes than those who are not shaping their workforces around it, said Kim Basile, CIO of Kyndryl, in a statement.
“This is a critical moment for global enterprises as they race to adopt AI, redesign workflows and pursue innovation,” Basile said. “Yet they’re finding that their greatest assets – their people – need more attention.”
