Analyst Reports
Gartner®: Prepare for the future of AI agents in HR
AI agents are one of the most widely discussed trends in HR, with a majority of CHROs planning to use them for greater efficiency and employee productivity. Use this research to guide your strategy, navigate the evolving AI landscape and prepare your organization for the future.
Gartner®: Prepare for the future of AI agents in HR
Overview
Summary
Insights at a glance
Most CHROs (82%) intend to adopt AI agents over the next year, leveraging vendor solutions or custom-built platforms. To achieve long-term efficiency gains with agentic AI, CHROs must assess the market trajectory for AI agents and proactively guide their teams to prepare the HR organization for ongoing advancements.
Key trends
- The market is currently focused on single AI agents designed to complete small tasks. Over time, there will be a shift toward multiagent systems (MAS) — networks of AI agents that interact to accomplish more complex individual or shared objectives.
- Gartner predicts that MAS will evolve from single-platform deployments to cross platform environments, where distributed agents autonomously discover, interact and collaborate in real time to address complex challenges.
Recommendations
- Gain insight into the present and future capabilities of AI agents, weigh their limitations and potential risks, and learn how to use them effectively within your organization.
- Build AI agent literacy and technical expertise within the HR organization to prepare HR for building and managing AI agents.
CHROs can confidently navigate the evolution of AI agents and strategically prepare for the future by leveraging the insights and recommendations in this research.”
Gartner, Prepare for the Future of AI Agents in HR, Chris Hester and Stephanie Clement, 1 December 2025.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Strategic planning assumption
Issue context
Eighty-two percent of HR leaders plan to use some form of agentic AI within their functions by May 2026,1 propelled by the promise of AI agents helping to accomplish HR tasks and/or enhance workflow execution.
Despite this aspiration, most CHROs and their HR teams lack a foundational understanding of AI agents. The rapid evolution of the AI agent market further complicates this lack of knowledge:
- The AI agent market is still maturing, with approaches that range from buying to building.
- An emerging set of technological advancements will improve AI agent capabilities, shaping the future by increasing their autonomy and capabilities.
- The market will move beyond single AI agents to multiagent systems (MAS) — collections of AI agents that interact with each other to achieve individual or shared goals.
CHROs face increased pressure to separate hype from reality, evaluate AI agents and their limitations and risks, and learn how to effectively leverage these AI solutions. A lack of clear understanding and focus on realistic business opportunities and outcomes, combined with the need to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI offerings, will cause HR organizations to make misguided investments. As a result, they may develop AI agent infrastructures that lack future extensibility to meet business goals.
Gartner’s action plan for CHROs
Steps:
- Educate your team on AI agents and their role in the future of HR.
- Build AI literacy and technical expertise within the HR organization to achieve success with AI agents.
- Evaluate existing HR tech vendors for their AI agent functionality, and invest in those that align with your HR AI strategy. Where appropriate, focus on modernizing the HR tech stack.
- Upskill select HR staff to customize and manage vendor AI agent technology (in partnership with HR technology or IT).
- Instruct HR staff, in partnership with HR technology or IT, to configure and prototype prebuilt AI agent solutions available in HR technology vendors (i.e., ServiceNow, Workday, Oracle, SAP SuccessFactors, etc.).
- Prioritize business process redesign, workflow management, governance and data strategy to prepare your function for the future of AI agents.
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