• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Commentary

I’ve worked in AI for decades. Agentic AI will irreversibly change our workforce whether enterprises like it or not

By
Swami Chandrasekaran
Swami Chandrasekaran
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Swami Chandrasekaran
Swami Chandrasekaran
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 24, 2025, 2:55 PM ET
Swami Chandrasekaran is Head of AI and Data Labs, KPMG.
Swami Chandrasekaran, Head of AI and Data Labs, KPMG
Swami Chandrasekaran, Head of AI and Data Labs, KPMG.courtesy of KPMG
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

I’ve spent more than 25 years working in AI & Digital, and I can tell you this — we’re past the point of asking if the technology will transform work. The question now is, how fast it will do so.

Recommended Video

The data already tells a remarkable story. KPMG’s 2025 CEO Outlook survey of over 1,300 global CEOs reveals that nearly three-quarters plan to invest 20 percent of their entire budget on AI in the 12 months alone. It is their top investment priority for the second year running. But what matters most is that these leaders aren’t preparing for mass layoffs, they’re actively hiring for AI skills and investing in upskilling. They’re investing in the emergence of what I call the “superhuman” employee — i.e., professionals augmented by AI to achieve what was once impossible.

AI agents are the catalyst for this transformation. Instead of following set steps, they focus on achieving specific goals. With the right context, they independently marshal whatever tools, knowledge, and resources are needed to achieve it, with optimal human agency. They don’t ask “how has this always been done?” Instead, they give you the leverage and power to ask, “what’s the best way to solve this?” — and even, ‘What’s stopping me from doing that?’ It sounds straightforward, but this simple shift has the power to unlock a “superhuman” effect.

This breaks down the artificial boundaries that have constrained how we work for too long — the silos between functions, the limits of individual expertise, the old assumptions about what’s possible in a workday. When a procurement analyst can seamlessly work with AI agents that understand finance, third-party risk, analyze vendor relationships and pathways through complex graphs, and vendor activity investigation and optimization, they’re no longer just doing procurement.

This augmentation boosts economic activity and creates new opportunities. Yes, there’s short-term disruption, but the reward is transformative. We’re rewiring how enterprises operate, creating entirely new ways to solve problems and deliver value that weren’t possible with yesterday’s constraints.

Three Roles, One Revolution

This will fundamentally reshape the workforce itself, and we will see a clear split emerge. Those who build, manage, upkeep, and govern AI agents – the Agent Bosses. Those who evaluate and operate them — the Agent Evaluators. And finally, those who collaborate with these agents as everyday teammates — the Superhumans. But the implications go deeper than job titles.

Traditional organizational structures — built around functional silos and rigid hierarchies — won’t support this new reality. We’ll need to rethink organization and team composition, newer responsibilities (who do you call when there’s a problem with an agent?), decision rights, and how work flows through a business.

A team might consist of three humans and a dozen AI Collaborator agents. New operating models will be essential. How do you onboard an AI agent and give it an identity? How do you measure productivity and business value when a single employee is orchestrating multiple agents across different functions? How do you maintain accountability when decision-making becomes a human-AI collaboration? Who is responsible for the upkeep of said agents?

These aren’t theoretical questions. Forward-thinking organizations are already experimenting with hybrid team structures, creating new roles like Agent Bosses and redefining performance metrics to account for human-AI collaboration. The practicalities matter as much as the vision.

Building the Foundation

But none of this works without the right foundation. The biggest challenge isn’t the technology, it’s context. Much of the expertise within organizations currently resides in people’s heads, and as such is tribal knowledge that’s never been formalized.

For Superhumans and their AI teammates to thrive, enterprises must build robust data foundations and memory systems.  This means capturing and protecting an organization’s collective intelligence — not just data, but the decisions, judgment, intuition, and know-how that usually live in people’s heads. It’s a bit like creating a Pensieve for the enterprise – a living memory any AI agent can draw from. We call these context cartridges and knowledge capsules. Without them, we’re building superhumans on quicksand.

Equally critical is the Agent Control System — a single hub to register, govern, operate, and continuously improve a federated workforce of enterprise agents. Think of it as the operating system for your AI workforce. Just as you have HR systems for human employees, you need infrastructure to manage agent lifecycles, give them identities, monitor performance, ensure compliance, and enable continuous upkeep. You also need to hold their Agent Bosses accountable. Organizations that build this infrastructure now will have an enormous advantage.

The interface revolution is already under way. In the next 18 months, expect to see radically new ways of working with AI agents — natural interfaces across voice, text, visuals, or gesture. Ambient systems that sense and anticipate what you need.

The superhuman workforce isn’t a future vision – it’s already emerging in pockets across enterprises globally. The question isn’t whether this transformation will happen, but whether businesses will shape it or be shaped by it. After more than quarter of a century in AI, I can tell you that the leaders who act now and build the right foundations, won’t just survive this shift, they’ll define it.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

About the Author
By Swami Chandrasekaran
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Commentary

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Commentary

sb
Commentaryclimate change
The climate policy triangle: why leaders can no longer choose between growth, security and sustainability
By Sebastian BuckupJune 23, 2026
9 hours ago
brett
CommentaryManagement
Middle managers aren’t going extinct—they’re evolving into something more powerful
By Brett HurtJune 23, 2026
18 hours ago
ravi
CommentaryAI agents
Yale School of Management: surveillance pricing is just the beginning. AI agents will be the real test of corporate trust
By Ravi Dhar and Jon IwataJune 23, 2026
19 hours ago
elon
CommentaryElon Musk
Elon Musk’s trillion dollars aren’t real — and that’s the point
By Douglas P. McCormickJune 23, 2026
19 hours ago
gen z
CommentaryCareers
Gen Z: if you want to succeed at work, you need to start friction-maxxing
By Michelle SobelJune 23, 2026
20 hours ago
rp
CommentaryLaw
Cooley CEO: Big Law won’t survive if it treats AI as just an efficiency tool
By Rachel ProffittJune 23, 2026
20 hours ago

Most Popular

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
19 hours ago
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
21 hours ago
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Investing
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
By Nick LichtenbergJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 23, 2026
18 hours ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.