Why essentially the most impactful AI methods nonetheless begin and finish with individuals
There’s so much excitement around AI agents. Agents can perform complex tasks, work seamlessly within teams, and drive outcomes. Agents are proving to be an extremely effective way for companies to unlock the value of AI.
But while AI is a catalyst for significant change, humans developed this technology and will determine its impact. The game changers—those who build businesses, create value, and turn big ideas into reality—are still human.
Dan is PwC US Chief AI Officer and Kathryn is PwC US CCO.
For decades, management teams chased automation and efficiency—often at the expense of innovation.
This was driven by shareholder pressure, technological advances, and rich data that enabled companies to deeply examine ROI. But today, intelligence is abundant, and transformation relies less on optimization and more on creative thinking.
Efficiency will happen naturally; the real imperative for executives is to invest in human potential. They should look beyond what AI agents can do and focus on how teams will adapt and thrive alongside them.
A clear signal of this shift is the intense competition for top AI talent. Tech companies are offering extraordinary compensation packages to recruit the humans behind the breakthroughs. The demand for deep AI expertise is accelerating across industries, underscoring that it’s people—not just algorithms—who are driving meaningful change.
With 73% of executives saying AI agents will provide a significant competitive advantage in the next year, it’s clear leaders see the potential. Success will come from designing teams and adaptive, agentic workflows.
Organizations that thrive will empower people to think differently and bring human strengths—like curiosity, judgment, and creativity—into collaboration with AI agents to drive performance.
Humans lead, AI agents amplify
The fundamental role of any team is to solve problems.
From revenue problems to customer support challenges and everything in between, you need teams to solve these mission-critical issues. AI agents do not solve these strategic problems—people do.
AI agents help support these high-performing teams by bringing insights and intelligence, creating efficiency, improving performance, and even identifying new revenue streams.
There is a growing narrative that AI agents’ presence alone will create high-performing teams. But the ingredients of an effective team cannot be replicated by AI agents. Deep specialization and expertise, diversity of thought, and the ability to be forward-thinking and creative remain uniquely human strengths.
AI agents themselves also require management. Their output is only as good as the guidance and oversight they receive.
And with 87% of leaders expecting AI agents to reshape governance within the next year, it’s clear that governance models must evolve in real time shifting from static controls to continuous oversight that keeps pace with innovation.
Quality doesn’t self-regulate—humans should check, calibrate, and continuously evaluate AI agent performance. AI agents alone will not be the game changers. AI agents will enable people to do their finest work, to be more strategic, to tackle complex problems, and realize the impossible.
Where are today’s opportunities?
Executives know they need AI to fuel their next stage of growth. But they are asking: how do we prioritize the teams we invest in and implement AI? How do we translate AI into tangible business?
AI has areas where it performs well and areas where it struggles. AI excels at repeatable, rules-based tasks. It can fill out CRM databases, reconcile data, schedule meetings, write basic documents, answer many customer questions and support software development.
It’s time to align your investments accordingly. Get quick, tangible wins so employees are energized by AI agents. Look for ways to implement AI agents into customer service, data science, and content marketing teams in the short-term—areas where you see immediate ROI.
Of those already adopting AI agents, 66% say they’re seeing measurable value through increased productivity; more than half say it’s reduced costs and improved customer experience.
But just as important as where to lean in—is where to pause. We see many companies uniformly implementing AI agents across departments. But the value these teams gain from AI agents depends on the nature of their work, the technological savviness of the team, and whether AI agents can perform department-specific tasks.
Each department is different. Rushing to implement AI agents into what may be the wrong team can create inefficiency, drain morale and cost your business.
There’s a great deal of change happening right now—but businesses are going to be spending the next decade implementing AI into their teams. It’s vital to make that transition thoughtfully, growing agent use cases and expanding the ways agents can support their human counterparts.
Why the game changers will remain human
Humans are extraordinary creators: The wheel, engines, economic systems, computer systems, art, and all the theories that explain the world around us. Each of these innovations changed the game for humanity. There are game changers in business too—people who think differently, teams that truly innovate, companies that create to win.
The shift to AI agents can be scary for workers. Suddenly tasks performed by humans are done by AI. Employees may feel insecure about their roles. The same people critical to driving impactful change are often those who are anxious about potentially being replaced. And that’s why empathetic leadership and transparent messaging is so critical.
Leaders should commit to investing in their people’s AI journey: how to collaborate with AI agents, how to use the company’s data assets and work as high performing teams— humans and AI agents—to innovate. The game changers of tomorrow should be developed today.
But this is not happening yet. Over 60% of workers expect to change the way they work in the next year with AI, while less than a third of the CEOs say they will invest in their upskilling. Without upskilling, we risk playing it safe at a time that calls for bold innovation.
As good as AI is at rules-based tasks, it hasn’t yet shown the kind of first-principles thinking, creativity or vision that defines true innovation. AI agents shouldn’t displace human relationships, lead teams, own people development or make strategic decisions. They can help us do these things, but these value drivers belong to people.
It will be easier to see these creative investments in the long-term, as the companies that invest in cultivating innovative thinking will stand out. AI can do a lot of tasks at a “good enough” level. The “floor” for companies will be raised.
Great companies that truly differentiate themselves will be those where innovative human thinkers drive their strategy forward.
Winning the future
Be on the lookout for disruptors. No one will wait for the large companies to change. JPs and small to medium-sized businesses will leverage low-cost computing and intelligence to disrupt corporations.
Often, small and focused firms succeed not by going head-to-head with industry giants, but by owning and reimagining a critical piece of the value chain. Many of the game changers we know today across social media, search, and tech, started as hungry, smart entrepreneurs who developed high performing teams.
The formula for winning tomorrow is likely similar. High performing teams are diverse—and bring the right people to the table, with different backgrounds, different ways of thinking and come from different organizations. AI agents add a new element of diversity to teams.
High performing teams are also incentivized to take risks and rewarded for their successes. And great teams have great talent. Find and develop your game changers.
Change is hard. Figuring out where markets are moving, what to do about it and making the right call—these things are all challenging. AI agents will help make some things less difficult, but humans will still be the ones to make executive decisions.
When it comes to AI, remember that as powerful as this technology is, it will not be a silver bullet for your business. AI agents won’t win the future.
It will be the people and teams that know how to use them.
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