At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, it was suggested that technology company leaders will soon need to manage not only regular employees, but also new «artificial intelligence workers» to ensure «harmony between AI bots and people.»
At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, it was suggested that technology company leaders will soon need to manage not only regular employees, but also new «artificial intelligence workers» to ensure «harmony between AI bots and people.»
Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice, a company that develops HR management software, talked a lot about this.
Last year, it announced plans to treat AI workers like humans, giving them official employee handbooks and even giving them onboarding training like real human employees. Business Insider reports that people weren’t thrilled with the idea, and after a backlash, Lattice put the idea on hold.
But there’s now more talk of AI agents that can perform some routine tasks on their own, and Franklin says Lattice’s idea was «really prescient,» if premature.
This topic was one of the most talked about at this year’s Davos. One executive noted at the forum that «the time for thinking is over.» Companies want to get a return on their investment—and agents are one way to do that.
«I don’t think the world has had a chance to think through all the implications yet. For example, as a manager, I will be managing a human workforce and an agent workforce at the same time — they will have to collaborate. My agents will have to collaborate, for example, with agents from another company,» said Alan Flower, global head of artificial intelligence at HCLTech.
According to Flower, there is a question of how employers can «establish» collaboration between agents, including those from other companies, and motivate them to do quality work. «Will we get to the stage where agent AI is given KPIs? These are all considerations that the world of work will have to consider,» he added.
Sarah Franklin says one of the mistakes Lattice made when it announced this last year was how it communicated it.
«People like the word ‘agent’ more than the word ‘digital worker.’ There’s a huge lack of knowledge about what AI is and a lack of belief that AI can have the kind of conversations that it can,» she says.
According to Franklin, this is a huge opportunity for HR leaders. And, of course, for Lattice, which counts OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic among its clients.
«I think the first step in solving the question of how to manage these AI workers is how to deploy them and make them productive? And the second step is how to manage them?» said Becky Frankiewicz, chief commercial officer at ManpowerGroup.
She mentioned one consulting company that is already working on this issue and has created agents. Now that company is deciding whether it needs managers for these agents.
«The reality is that AI today is being implemented as agents that have conversations on behalf of brands, on behalf of people,» says Franklin.
Relying on AI without proper governance is a huge leap of faith, she says. As agents take on more responsibilities, more governance will be needed — but that means acknowledging a new reality.
Recall that there were recent signs that OpenAI is preparing to launch an AI agent called Operator, which can perform tasks in the browser on behalf of the user. It may be released in the most expensive Pro subscription for $200 as early as this week.
