How AI Agents Will Reshape Enterprise Workflows and Leadership

At Workday's recent Elevate conference in London, the focus was squarely on the real-world impact of AI agents on enterprises. While the technology is advancing rapidly, attendees were more interested in its practical implications: how will it change workflows, employee roles, and organizational structures?

Moving Beyond the Hype

Paul O'Sullivan, SVP Solution Engineering and UKI CTO at Salesforce, emphasized the need for tangible business value:

"The reality is, businesses and enterprises have spent millions and millions of pounds experimenting with this technology, but not realizing business value."

Jerry Ting, Founder and CEO of Evisort (now part of Workday), echoed this sentiment, criticizing vendors who treat AI as "magical fairy dust" without delivering actionable results.

AI Agents in Action

Ting highlighted examples of AI agents at Workday, such as:

• An HR policy assistant that answers employee questions without manual research.
• A finance audit agent that automates document retrieval, eliminating tedious tasks.

"When we talk about skills, these are skills that the agents are actually doing, and it's usually the parts of jobs that people don't want to do."

Balancing Automation and Human Oversight

Kathy Pham, VP of AI at Workday, stressed that AI excels at tasks like sifting through thousands of job candidates but leaves final decisions to humans. Prasun Shah of PwC shared a client example where AI freed recruiters to focus on candidate experience, transforming their roles rather than replacing them.

Flattening Org Charts and Redefining Leadership

Ting predicted a shift toward flatter organizations, with fewer management layers as employees gain more agency. Angelique de Vries, President of EMEA at Workday, emphasized the growing importance of emotional intelligence and purpose-driven leadership in an AI-augmented workforce.

Key Takeaways

1. AI agents will automate repetitive tasks but require human oversight.
2. Organizational structures will flatten, with a focus on skills over hierarchy.
3. Leadership must prioritize culture, purpose, and emotional intelligence.

As enterprises adopt AI agents, the "human stuff"—culture, connection, and creativity—will become even more critical to success.