Nick 00:00
This is one of the most requested topics that we have here From Day One. I’m really excited to see it today. We’re talking again about “Work reimagined: Unlocking workforce value with agentic AI.” So agentic AI is literally redefining how work gets done. It’s transforming workflows, not just by automating tasks, but by enabling intelligent autonomous systems that can drive real business outcomes. Today, we’re going to hear from leaders from PwC and Eightfold AI. They combine some deep transformation experience and some advanced talent intelligence, as well as a lot of information on how you can explore agentic AI and how it can empower CHROs and others in the space to build more agile and skills based organizations. We’re presenting the webinar today with support from our friends at Eightfold, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about them. Eightfold, AI, has a market leading talent intelligence platform. It helps organizations retain top performers, upskill and reskill their workforce, recruit talent efficiently, reach diversity goals. Eightfold has a patented deep learning artificial intelligence platform, and it’s available in more than 165 countries, 24 languages and languages, that enables cutting edge enterprises to transform their talent into a competitive advantage. With all that said, I’m excited to introduce today’s speakers. We’re joined by Rimple Patel. She’s the Chief Customer Officer at Eightfold, and Anthony Abbatiello, he’s the Partner and Workforce Transformation Practice Leader at PwC. Rimple and Anthony, welcome over to you, and I’m looking forward to learning more today.
Rimple Patel 03:13
Great. Thank you so much, Nick and welcome everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us today. I am so grateful to be joined with Anthony. Anthony is someone I have deeply admired since the early days of my professional journey at Accenture. Anthony, you’ve had a legendary career, if you wouldn’t mind telling us a little bit more about yourself and sharing a little bit more about your role at PwC.
Anthony Abbatiello 03:40
Hi, Rimple, and just as excited for us to be back together. And I think about the days on client projects and delivering now, probably what 20 years ago or 20 plus years ago, how time flies. But I really am honored to be here today, talking on one of our favorite topics. I’ve spent almost 30 years now. All of my career focused on consulting in the human capital space, everything from HR leadership talent and from the days of plugging in client server applications to today, where, you know, we’re seeing autonomous agents, and the pace of that change how it is just increased and made it more exciting for us as professionals. I love and am very passionate about this topic, about all things related to the workforce. And I think I hope today we get to go on somewhat of a fun path, exploring the opportunities and what’s really different in what we see today than what there was, you know, five years ago, and, quite frankly, five months ago, which, you know, I know you and your team are at the forefront of implementing.
Rimple Patel 04:55
Yeah, absolutely. So I know Nick laid some context, but let’s just start there. I think everyone’s heard of agentic AI, and it’s absolutely everywhere right now. We definitely think the promise is massive, not just to help humans do things faster, but it’s really taking on work with a level of autonomy that we’ve not seen before, like you mentioned, Anthony, and whether it’s a reasoning or adapting or responding, we’re seeing it drive real outcomes, and the pace is incredible and and also the potential, right? It’s pretty limited. So maybe our first question just, how do you see this changing how organizations actually think about work?
Anthony Abbatiello 05:39
Yeah, it is a huge leap from traditional automation to what we saw back in the days with RPA and, you know, predictive analytics. So, you know, we’re seeing such a spike in investment, and I don’t always say it’s a smart investment. We’re seeing a lot of investment and resources go into this without really understanding what’s there. We found in our recent study that 88% of business leaders plan to increase their AI related budgets over the next 12 months. And really that is driven by the promise of agentic AI. And agentic AI brings that, you know, the autonomy, the human mimicking capabilities. And this isn’t just tech companies. We’re seeing this cross industry, from health care to financial services to manufacturing, and, you know, even so far as into the public sector in all ways where, you know, we’re driving the sheer complexity of modern work. You know now organizations need to be more agile, more responsive, and more capable of doing things differently, not just faster. And that’s where I start to say how we think about a smart investment that organizations can make.
Rimple Patel 06:53
Yeah, and it almost feels like just the perfect convergence, right? Like, obviously, the tech is advancing rapidly, the fair nature of work as a result of that is also evolving. And then you factor in workforce expectations that are shifting just as quickly. How do you see these forces actually come together? And where do you see the biggest opportunity to lead at this moment?
Anthony Abbatiello 07:15
So you know, with an HR professional audience, I would say this is HRs moment to really be in the spotlight. I often talk with CEOs and CHROs, and I say, you know, this is the time for the CHRO to be the hero in the boardroom. And I see that really in two ways. First, you know, we see that the pace of change is, you know, has outstripped traditional ways of working. You know, you can’t reskill an entire workforce fast enough anymore to keep up with the tools and technology pace. The second is the rising pressure on leaders to do more with constrained resources. So budgets and headcount and time are all real. The reason why the CHRO can be the hero is this is the opportunity for us to look at as the owner of the workforce balance sheet. We can really see how we can impact the ways of working, how we can look at work, the workforce and the worker individually, to deliver on those two and bring this new technology forward into the workforce.
Rimple Patel 08:14
I love when you describe those three, and honestly, like in every conversation I’m having as well today, the pressure to do more with less is something I hear constantly, but it is a little deeper than just the efficiency, right? And the doing more with less, because it’s not just about how we work faster, more efficiently, it’s the ability to answer some pretty fundamental questions, like, what is the work that actually needs to be done? How is that work changing? And who is really best equipped to actually do those pieces of work? And this is where, you know, you mentioned HR playing a lead role. This is where the opportunity to lead really emerges. Because as you think about work continuing to evolve, organizations need to rethink not just the workforce, but the work itself, and whether it’s best done by a person. Often it’s automation, you mentioned automation earlier, or AI agents, so it’s almost like thinking about it on a spectrum. And to do this effectively, it’s so critical to shift to an approach where you can identify and essentially match the demand, which is really the work that needs to be done to drive the business value, and the supply is how I like to think about it, which is really whether the talent right, whether it’s human or AI, enabled to best deliver that actual work. And then you add the time dimension on how much that continues to evolve. And, you know, at Eightfold, obviously we’re a talent intelligence platform. I think that’s so essential, because it gives the leaders insight and agility to continuously align the work and the worker to get the job done. So any thoughts on that?
Anthony Abbatiello 09:58
It’s a great framing, because it really means it’s AI for capability. And, you know, we talk so often with, you know, leaders and CHROs about, you know, how do we have a zero sum game and create, you know, free cash flow for investment in technology, in the worker experience. And this is where we’re seeing agentic systems drive big transformations. So instead of looking at static org charts and annual planning and looking at workforce reductions and spans and layers, we’re actually using AI to continuously reallocate work, matching talent to opportunity, and adapt that in real time. And I think that is a new way of thinking, because we’ve always looked at the work automation, take cost out and move now we’re saying, okay, as this adapts, it’s changing, it’s learning, and it’s creating new capability for the organization where humans also have new jobs. So, you know, I do think that it is an interesting time, and I think this would be a great chance for us to ask our first polling question, and this is one for us to just engage with the audience a little bit to hear. You know, where is your organization on its journey to embracing agentic AI, so you can provide your thoughts there.
Rimple Patel 11:24
While we’re waiting for the audience to share just exactly where they are in the journey, I also think it’s not just a tech story, right? It’s really a leadership story, and organizations that will win with agentic AI to really achieve these outcomes are really solving concrete problems and having to rethink their entire operating model to really take advantage of the tech itself. One example, you know, is in the healthcare industry. I mean, when you think about the nursing profession, which sits really at the epicenter of today’s talent crisis, right? There’s critical shortages, incredibly high burnout, and really an urgent need to upskill and provide career mobility to meet, like a lot of the evolving care demands that we have today. And you know, there’s one healthcare system that found, you know, focusing on the experience through the development of AI based platforms really lets nurses, you know, gives them the gives them the ability to actually choose which shifts and gigs they want to take. And it results in so much flexibility, you know, higher higher rates and better patient care overall. So it’s not just about surfacing the data, it’s about how systems can make us make the right decisions and act. And that really is the promise of agentic AI, and it looks like our results just came in, Anthony.
Anthony Abbatiello 12:53
Yeah, it’s interesting. I was looking at, you know, there isn’t, there is a pretty even spread across, you know, the exploration, identification and starting to implement, probably the smallest being integrating agentic AI in workflows, and expanding adoption. 22% of our participants haven’t, have not begun exploring agentic AI. And I do think that’s you know, that is telling, you know, most organizations are starting that exploration. So, you know, there is, there is a starting on the back foot here, I will say, as you know, we’re in a different place than we were five, six months ago. And so those that are starting to explore, you know, this is an opportunity to learn quickly and adapt faster if you haven’t begun exploring yet.
Rimple Patel 13:47
Yeah, and I think it’s about how AI can really help, right? And I think, you know, I often have conversations with leaders about the importance of role of the culture plays right when you’re trying to get the impact from agentic AI as well. I feel like healthy cultures where you’re allowed to take risks, there’s more psychological safety, the more you’ll benefit from that experimentation, because this is not always a top down strategy, right? Often it’s individuals that are exploring tools and seeing how they can continue to do things better in their world. So, you know, culture will obviously play a pretty critical role in this as well.
Anthony Abbatiello 14:30
I think I couldn’t agree more. I think the culture piece of this, we often talk about an AI positive culture, where, how do we promote as leaders, the importance of AI and, you know, really positioning that more so that the worker understands how this is going to create more opportunity for us. And, you know, I think the reality is we are still in the early days, and we see where it is heading. It’s not just about another tech trend. It is about, you know, the shift in how work happens, and you know the organizations that are starting now are going to be the ones who will lead tomorrow. What’s interesting is we do a study every year of CEOs, and this year, 45% of CEOs said their businesses are not economically viable in the next 10 years, and they see two main factors of that. One is, you know, competition, so, you know, being taken over by competitors, you know, and or mergers. And the second is technology, but not evolving their business model with the pace of technological change. So, you know, I think there’s a lot of potential for agentic AI and how work gets done. But as with any type of digital transformation, we all know, heck is just one small piece of the puzzle. And in this case, I really believe that, you know, because of the ability for us to put agents into the workflow, it does not take a lot of time. You know, Eightfold knows this better than most, and so we are getting those capabilities faster. And what, you know, what it comes down to, at the end of the day, is the people, and the shift this, that shift for people, is one of the biggest opportunities we’ve seen for the HR function in decades, certainly in my career.
Rimple Patel 16:23
Because you mentioned, it’s not just a tech because you’re having to redefine the roles, the responsibilities, and really the very nature of work. And HR is absolutely at the center of it. You mentioned, this is, this is the moment, and they do have a very unique seat at the table to guide the transformation, because they know how it will land with the workforce, because you can’t do this without thinking about the human and and that’s where I feel like HR has such a big role to play.
Anthony Abbatiello 16:56
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d argue the biggest barrier to adopt, adopting agentic AI isn’t the tech. It’s the mindset, right? It’s the culture, it’s the readiness of the worker. You know, workforce engagement, employee experience. And, you know, I thought here, I can just show a quick view of when we look at this, you know, we really see this as a different, you know, point of view, and it really brings, you know, the view of the model. Sorry, of course, I’m getting it right at that moment, talking and sharing at the same time. But you know, this is how, how you really think about it. When I tell clients this, they oftentimes are so focused on the work right? Where is the Work Opportunity and the business capability? And really the biggest part here is the workforce and the worker. You know, we’re talking about, how do we change when we have humans and agents integrated? What are the performance incentives like? How do I create a new incentive and manage performance for someone who is working with AI or working with agents that have higher quality and higher product productivity rates, what’s the workforce plan look like? Because what could be agentic, and what could be on balance sheet or off balance sheet workers, what’s the workforce design and then that for that individual worker? You know, we really talk about an agentic change that activates, right? So many of our workers, individual contributors, are millennials, Gen Z’s coming into the workforce. They’re digital first. They’re digital natives. Many are setting the expectation that if we are not an AI first organization, we’re not really interested. So we don’t have that talent magnet capability. So having that positive culture around AI and determining what that AI agent collaboration really is that, to me, that workforce and the worker piece is where a lot of the work is, is for most organizations today.
Rimple Patel 18:56
Yeah, and I absolutely love that framing. I have seen it before and used it in my contracts, too, Anthony, but yes, this isn’t just about supporting the change. You know, I think HR is leading it, and the implications are obviously really far reaching. One of my clients said, If AI is going to change how we work, then HR has to change how we lead. And that’s really the opportunity in front of us as we think about this.
Anthony Abbatiello 19:24
Yeah, I completely agree. You know, I would like to kind of pivot, Rimple, and kind of talk about this more in practice. So you know where we’re starting to see this a little bit more. You work closely with CHROs and HR teams. What are you seeing from a Eightfold perspective, but just in what HR is challenged with as some of the most impactful ways agentic AI shows up in the people function?
Rimple Patel 19:52
Yeah, and we have some obviously very powerful examples, and I can talk about a few recruiting obviously, that’s where eight fold started, is in the transition space, and that’s where we’re also seeing a lot of companies start genetic AI like you know it we have an Eightfold AI interviewer. So basically you can autonomously surface leading candidates, not just based on static job descriptions, but dynamic skills needs. So our AI Interviewer Can you activate it to basically go screen and interview as many candidates as you want. I think that it really frees up not only the recruiter time, but it also allows for a much better candidate experience, because it allows them to also take calls when they might be their best, and it avoids the whole scheduling back and forth piece. So we’re seeing that as an area, onboarding is another one. So how do you get ramped up quickly? So how can AI actually personalize the journey to get someone ramped up and productive based on their role, connecting them with the right people, etc. So to be able to do that dynamically is another area. We also have a talent management part of our platform, which is really there to guide internal mobility. So what are the potential career paths? I think one of the reasons why I was so drawn to Eightfold is that often we don’t even know what we can possibly do, because we’re so used to thinking about growing, you know, in this, in this very like lateral way and this allows you to understand what are your adjacent skills? What are potential career paths, and how might you acquire those skills to be able to go in different directions that you might not have dreamt about? And then the one that I’m hearing just more and more is this pressure to do, like, just workforce planning in a way that hasn’t really been done. I feel like, you know, every leader is trying to figure out how jobs and roles are changing. What are the skills that they’re going to need in the future? What do they currently have, and how do they bridge that gap when it’s constantly evolving? So workforce planning is another area where I feel like, you know, agentic AI can really help surface, like, where there’s gaps, where there’s need for upskilling, reskilling and so on as well.
Anthony Abbatiello 22:29
And it really, workforce planning is just, it’s such a complex problem for most organizations, I would say, in my almost 30 years, I’ve never really seen a truly intuitive workforce plan that is proactive, not static in time. And I will say for Eightfold when I went, when you first rolled that out, and we were in Santa Clara and having the Eightfold recruiter call me and talk, I was just shocked at how natural, and how, how the experience was even better. And it’s this is, and this is the inception, right? This is only going to continue to get better and be able to take on more complex interactions. So, you know, it really shows the shift from how many organizations have traditionally managed talent in the past, and more reactively and often based on what they think in their own intuition? And I think this now brings a level of intelligence and precision that hasn’t been possible before, which could give us a chance now to come back to you, the audience, on another poll question, and get your input specifically on this as well. So our second question is, where do you see agentic AI driving the greatest strategic impact in your HR organization? And again, Rimple while we wait for the audience to answer, what are for you? What are some of the outcomes that you’re seeing from your clients as well?
Rimple Patel 24:10
Yeah, I mean, I mentioned some of those use cases. Of course, we’re seeing a lot of impact in those areas. So we have a customer mm group that saw a 42% decrease in time to hire, which is incredible, right? Like, often when people feel like there’s a need that they need to go source for, they want it yesterday. So anything you can do to really, you know, get the right person. It’s not just about getting a person. It’s about getting the right person based on their potential hired. So that’s a proof point. We also have a customer buyer who has really focused on reducing their screening time, and they’ve seen a 90% reduction, which is also just incredible to see, because AI is surfacing those that are the best match for the opportunity, right? So really helping streamline that and fast track that, and then just a use case for existing employees with talent management. So one of our customers, Amdocs, a longtime customer, is now sourcing 40% of their roles internally, so really providing those opportunities to folks internally to build long, thriving careers within their organization and and we all know what the cost of attrition is, and this is obviously playing a huge role in reducing that, because people can find other opportunities within the company.
Anthony Abbatiello 25:40
That’s great. And I know now we have our results, so it’s interesting. I mean, I think probably because we have more of an HR professional audience, so streamlining HR operations and reducing manual work completely makes sense. You know, as half of our participants are saying that, and then a bit of a balance across skills based organization and how we attract, develop and deploy talent – 9% enhancing the employee experience and improving retention. It’s often such a driver of these changes, but it just signals to me that maybe we’re still kind of taking that traditional approach of, how does agentic AI automate stuff that we do today versus create that experience we want tomorrow?
Rimple Patel 26:33
Yeah, absolutely, and I think I mean the role of trust and transparency through this is just so critical, right? I mean, even, like we talked about just the career path thing, like just showing the why, like AI being the why is so important. I mean, we see that even with recruiting, like if we provide a match score. In fact, I saw, you know, I was sourcing for an open role on my team, and there was a high match score. And when I looked at the actual resume, I was like, Wow, interesting that it would be high. But when you actually spend the time talking to the person, you realize that, Wow, there’s so many experiences that person has had that directly translate. So you often overlook people too, but providing that clarity on why something is a match, and showing that transparency is so important to build trust as well.
Anthony Abbatiello 27:34
So yes, and you know, we know that adoption follows Trust. Trust follows transparency. So having a clear vision and communicating that first and what the value that that brings ultimately will build trust and then will help with the adoption and utilization of agentic AI, for sure, and I see that. You know, when HR leads this transformation anchored in people, right, powered by AI the results go automating manual work, but there is much more we can get in terms of productivity, performance, experience within the workforce.
Rimple Patel 28:18
Yeah, absolutely so. Anthony just, I guess, a little over a month ago, we were fortunate to have you at Cultivate, and it was a great time. Yeah, it was in Southern California, a beautiful venue, and you presented with Morgan Stanley. And one of the things that really resonated with the audience and myself is just, you know, the PwC agentic value curve and the framework that you’ve put together. So for those that didn’t attend, hopefully you join us next year. But Anthony, if you would be so kind as to kind of share that framework, to just walk us through it.
Anthony Abbatiello 28:59
Yeah, I’d love to and so I’ll show the visual here so you can see, you know what we were talking about. You know, the agentic value curve is a decision making framework we use to help organizations prioritize AI use cases based on their potential business impact. It essentially answers two questions, where should we play it safe and focus on incremental value, and where should we take bold steps that reinvent how work gets done? And I think that’s been the nature of I think with our polling results and the conversations that we’ve had with clients, we start to see that there are efficiency plays, things that we can operate or we can operationalize that are manual. There’s augmentation plays where we can augment AI with humans and then there’s reinvention plays that really reinvent the way work gets done, and that’s where a lot of the autonomous AI comes into play. And each one of these along the curve represents a different level of value creation. And as you look at the curve, what’s very different is that that’s where we used to stop with, you know, technology automation, or, you know, robotic process automation. And what we see is into this value curve, is when we start to reimagine, we get to that reimagining work. We’re talking about autonomous and augmented AI that continues to not just improve on a task, but can change and transform the process and change the way work is getting done. We’re seeing that in contact centers. We’re seeing that with employee service centers. We’re seeing that in learning. You talked about healthcare, finance, supply chain, all of these places where we’re taking complex data scenarios and looking at those to evaluate, you know, the outcomes and the direction of travel. That’s where this is proving to change the future of work for the organization and create new job skill needs for the workforce.
Rimple Patel 31:02
Yeah? And just as you’re as you’re speaking to leaders about this, obviously the efficiency place seems like the first place to start. Could you tell us a little bit more about like, specifics that you’re seeing?
Anthony Abbatiello 31:16
Yeah. I mean, I think they’re the most accessible and low risk use cases, you know, as a disruptor myself, I often tell people like, don’t focus on use cases. Like, they’re not as valuable. They are important. But, you know, if you think about automating routine tasks, resume, screening, interview, scheduling, compliance, work for flows, you can see a clear ROI, you know, reduced time, fewer errors, lower costs. When you talk about MM Group and Bayer, those numbers are really impressive, so you shouldn’t just pass by them, but you shouldn’t stop there, right? It’s doing the same work, just faster, more productive. They’re great entry points for building trust and capability with AI, but they don’t fundamentally change the nature of work to unlock that value within the organization.
Rimple Patel 32:03
And perhaps its people start there because they want to show quick wins to then be able to, like, continue to move further up. So tell us a little bit about the augmentation phase that you’re seeing.
Anthony Abbatiello 32:17
Yeah, this is where it starts to get more powerful. You know, agentic AI is acting more like a digital co-pilot. You’re not just automating tasks. You’re augmenting judgment. You know, recommending candidates like you were saying before, we’re trying to source and make recommendations that we want to do so fast with skills adjacency, those are incredible augmentation opportunities. You know, suggesting a development plan that’s tailored to, you know, individual business priorities guiding that workforce plan with real time talent data, where are the skills, where are the geographies, where are the capabilities to be able to bring that all together in a much more rapid pace? I was saying that many organizations haven’t tackled that proactive insight-generated workforce plan augmented AI. This is about doing better work versus just faster work, and starts to free up human capacity for more strategic, creative and interpersonal efforts.
Rimple Patel 33:16
And then obviously, on the leading, you have the reinvention play is like, also, I’m curious, Anthony, if you think about these in sequence, or do you see people going straight to reinvention and then going downstream? Just curious, how you see the adoption of people along this curve, as well as we talk about reinvention plays.
Anthony Abbatiello 33:36
You know, we get to reinvention plays, I think, I think there’s two factors that play here: what’s the appetite of the organization for reinvention, and two, what’s the willingness of the culture to accept that, right? So I could want a lot of disruption and innovation, but my, you know, conservative culture may not support that. You know, this is the way we’ve always done it around here. Or I do, you know, work with a lot of financial services, health care, you know, highly regulated organizations, is that risk and compliance culture first? So, you know, we’re dealing with HIPAA, or we’re dealing with, you know, data privacy, you know, in the EU and the US, right? So, you know, we tend to try to solve for that first. And I think when you do that together, when you bring the idea about reinvention and disruption with responsible AI, you can marry the two around managing risk, but also reinventing the business. So you know, this is now in reinvention plays, where agentic AI starts to reshape how work happens. So not just the workflows, but reimagining there. So this could be redesigning a job role entirely based on an AI capability. We see that a lot when we’re doing job architecture work, collapsing a multi step workflow into a continuous AI driven process. The consumer version of this is people have used the plan for my vacation, AI capability. So it isn’t just to book the flight, but now it’s saying, Oh, I’m booking the flight, and here’s where you’re going. Do you need this? There’s, oh, here is a list of things that you can do in the timeframe while you’re there, right? And planning now, tourist sites or things that you want to do. All of that can start with just plan my vacation, or plan my my travel, and can expand so that can happen now in think about the onboarding process, or think about a life, you know, life events, you know employee lifecycle management, and then you know, there’s an opportunity to create entirely new form of value, like the talent marketplace, like that dynamically matches people to projects and opportunity in real time. And this is something you know, we at PwC, we’ve done internally for our 75,000 professionals, to be able to to look at and proactively match, and say, you might be a match for this project, or there’s this opportunity or a new job, that talent marketplace opens up this new capability for the way talent can move and mobility within the organization. I think all of that is backed by supportive leadership, right? And an adaptive culture supports that. And if you do that, that’s where this part of the curve delivers the highest value, but it also requires the highest level of change, readiness, trust and executive alignment.
Rimple Patel 36:30
Yeah, and you mentioned some of those use cases. Understanding the context is so critical, right to making sure that this is done the right way. A really helpful way of thinking about this, I’m sure resonates with a lot of CHROs, but they’re also looking at dozens of AI use cases and trying to figure out really where to start. So how should you guide organizations to kind of start applying concepts from this framework?
Anthony Abbatiello 37:00
Personally, I think it starts with clarity on your business priorities. Are you trying to reduce time to higher levels, increase internal mobility, and improve workforce agility? I think once you do that, you can map potential UK use cases across the curve. Some will be quick wins that you know are going to bring that manual or that automation of manual activity. Others require investment and transformation. The key is to balance the portfolio. And my biggest piece of advice to HR leaders is don’t just go after the use case. Look at the Broad workforce balance sheet. Look at all the areas in which you’re looking to and you’re looking to impact. There are opportunities when you combine agentic AI with evaluations around your operating model or around your cost basis of what you spending on benefits and rewards, and you could create a value opportunity that could turn itself into free cash flow for investment, so I could reduce my cost to serve, and I could have cash for investment into, you know, more broader technology, more workforce capabilities. So, you know, I think that’s where those reinvention plays will then support that long term value, ultimately. And don’t forget, you know, the people side, we’re not just automating and implementing new technology, you know, we’re helping leaders, managers and employees build new muscle for working alongside agentic systems, which is new for everybody.
Rimple Patel 38:36
Yeah, that’s such a valuable way of thinking about this, because it’s not just the tech strategy, it’s the work strategy and understanding, you know, the employees that you have. So as organizations move up this agentic value curve from efficiency to reinvention, as you, as you mentioned, you know, they’re obviously hit by bigger questions, like, are we set up to take full advantage of this transformation skills? Do we have the right skills, the right mindset and the right structure to be able to take advantage of this? And that’s where, you know, skills based AI enabled organizations really come in.
Anthony Abbatiello 39:19
Yeah, and that’s the real inflection point, Rimple, moving from isolated use cases to more sustained transformation requires more than just the technology. This is where we start talking about becoming a skills based organization and that is AI enabled. That’s what unlocks enterprise level agility in this model.
Rimple Patel 39:40
Yeah, and it’s not like we’ve talked a lot about static versus dynamic. It’s not just roles and job descriptions anymore. You know, work needs to be thought of almost as modular and then what are the skills that people need, and how do you match them in a more dynamic way? Obviously, the traditional ways we’ve thought about talent. We talked about working 20 years ago when we started, it was a very traditional way of thinking about talent models and what worked or today, because, like you mentioned, they were built for predictability, and today’s world is really anything but predictable,
Anthony Abbatiello 40:22
Exactly, you know. And when we talk about a skills based organization, we don’t just mean tagging people with a list of skills. We mean redesigning how work is done, from hiring and development to mobility and planning and based on capabilities, not titles. So for us. And I just want to, I’ll flash it back up. You know, we use that future of work framework that I was sharing before to really help organizations think through the agentic transformation. And it’s simple, but it’s powerful to ground the change. So the work is about what needs to get done and how it’s changing. I do want to say, while that’s not maybe simple, it’s the easier part of the transformation: the workforce is about the composition of the people and the systems, human or AI needed to do it, and then the worker focuses on the individual experience. What is the lived experience that I have every day, and the capabilities and development paths that I’ll need in order to do that. I think, you know this lens, and you know this framework, helps organizations orchestrate transformation across all levels, not just about the task, but redesigning how value gets created. So you know, in the end, agentic AI will supercharge that model, but only if the organization is ready for it. AI can recommend the right person for the right role at the right time, but if your structure, your culture and your data isn’t ready, it can’t act and it can’t learn. So that’s why the importance of having that executive level support that positive AI culture helps with the receptability of the organization, and also the power of unlocking that value.
Rimple Patel 42:17
Yeah, because we’ve talked about the building of new muscles, right? It’s about making the skills visible. It’s breaking work into projects and tasks and capabilities. And then how do you help individuals also navigate their own careers with AI as a guide, and also giving leaders the tools to allocate talent dynamically. So definitely a muscle, a mindset shift and a real operating model shift as well.
Anthony Abbatiello 42:46
So yeah, and it changes the role of HR as well, where HR isn’t just supporting functions anymore. They’re orchestrating capability. And back to my “the CHRO is the hero.” This is the opportunity for the the CHRO to lead the enterprise transformation around agentic AI, but it is a big opportunity for HR to do so, and it’s a big lift, because once you decide to move up that agentic value curve, the system structure, people all need to evolve with the organization.
Rimple Patel 43:20
I mean, we’ve, we’ve kind of touched on change management. Of course, that’s mission critical, right? We’ve talked a lot about the opportunity of using AI and agentic AI, but none of this is easy. Like, how do you guide customers to really think about the change management aspect of all of this?
Anthony Abbatiello 43:43
Yeah, I mean, you know, it is, you know, the change-readiness, the activation and the adoption, you know, is, is needed and probably the hardest piece, and that’s exactly what we heard in our recent AI agent survey. One of the most striking findings was this, like people are the problem and the solution, right? So it might sound harsh, but culturally resistant and fragmented data, you know, fear of AI, these are the real blockers, right? The tech is not the blocker. And by the way, you and I have been telling clients this for, you know, 2030, years. It’s nothing new. But what’s, you know, always interesting to me is that it’s still always there. So while technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, we’re also realizing that humans, culture, the organization, have to evolve and be prepared and ready for it as well.
Rimple Patel 44:42
And as you think about that, what role do you feel like leaders play in really addressing that challenge?
Anthony Abbatiello 44:51
Yeah, I mean, our survey found that 80% of organizations aren’t using AI agents at all, so you know, and the number one reason is a lack of clear use cases or business value. That’s not a technology failure. That’s a vision failure, right? So we said it’s applicable to all. You can’t expect adoption if people don’t see the why? Back to the transparency point. So that’s why most successful CHROs and CIOs and CEOs start small, but start smart, right? They choose use cases and capabilities that are both meaningful and measurable. So you know, reducing time to fill like you talked about in your example, improving retention and high risk roles, accelerating reskilling for key initiatives, and they make sure those use cases are tied to real outcomes the business cares about, absolutely.
Nick 45:45
Well, thanks, guys. This has been amazing. We have literally dozens of questions from the audience, a few dozen questions, lots of really interesting stuff. So I’m going to jump right into those just before I do just one more plug right in the chat. Take a look out. We have a VIP link in the chat that will enable you to get free access to tomorrow’s virtual conference on navigating the new landscape of Employee Benefit solutions. So click on that and join us tomorrow. Lots of different questions here. You know, I’m gonna start with a basic one. I know you did cover this at the beginning, but I think it’s a good one to come back to at the end of the 45 minutes, which is just like in a word or two or like, is there one concept that you would get across to answer the question of the most important difference between agentic AI and generative AI. What should people know when they see that word agentic?
Anthony Abbatiello 46:31
So agentic, so generative AI is, you know, continuing to learn and adapt, and that’s you know. Think about your ChatGPTs, agentic AI is where, you know, where autonomous use of the learning the task and the improvement of the business capability comes in. So it’s not just providing you the answer, it’s actually thinking learning and mimicking human behavior. That’s great.
Rimple Patel 46:58
No, I would say, Yeah, nothing to add. Great.
Nick 47:05
What are some examples of agentic AI helping people hire faster?
Rimple Patel 47:12
So I mentioned the AI interviewer, right? That eight full launch. So we launched it at our customer event not long ago. So this is really the ability for essentially an AI interviewer to call candidates, to screen them, and then showcase to a recruiter who the top matches are based on the job description or key things that they were looking for for that role. So this is where, you know, independently, you have, you have someone making the call, asking questions, and you know, depending on the response is also adjusting, right? So it’s absolutely dynamic. In that sense, I think what’s really interesting here, and what I often talk about, is people think it’s that you know that it’s more for hard skills, so you can ask deep questions about their coding experience, etc. But I do think it’s interesting, because we’re starting to see that it’s really great for soft skills too, because often we as humans can’t always take pressure tests. It’s almost uncomfortable to take a pressure test. And whereas an AI interviewer would be able to do that, right? So, that’s one great and easy example for people to grasp.
Nick 48:31
A good compliment to that question, what are some of the strategic decisions can CHROs make better strategic decisions with agentic AI?
Rimple Patel 48:44
So I would say, I think we’re also starting, I mean, the tech is changing so much, we’re going to be starting to explore it with, like the workforce planning et cetera that I mentioned. So this is almost like going back to Anthony’s value curve, like a clear efficiency play, and being able to, you know, save time quickly, and also gather a lot of feedback very quickly, but in terms of, you know where to start, like, I’ll just talk about the AI interview, for example, often people are starting to experiment that with, you know, entry level jobs, you know, jobs that have very clear like role expectations, so and then moving upstream right as they feel more and more comfortable, and also as as they find candidates are more and more comfortable. And the great thing is, we’re starting to see a lot of feedback across the board that candidates are sharing that Wow. I didn’t expect this experience to go this way. So I think part of this is experimentation, and then also for us to build on use cases that are moving more upstream.
Nick 49:54
As Anthony mentioned, how about things like pattern recognition? I know people talk a lot about AI as being good at that. Can AI help detect things like burnout or disengagement or sentiment of applicants or current employees. What are some ways that you can use agentic AI to detect patterns and learn about things that are happening in your organization?
Anthony Abbatiello 50:14
That’s the use case that people are using today, right? So that is a you know, one where, you know, pattern recognition is really important for understanding and proactively looking at sentiment. We saw that a lot in the you know, people analytics days. Now, when you add AI components that even if it’s just, you know, generative AI, you’re able to actually look at multiple data sources together and determine where they’re seeing different patterns in ways that we haven’t before. So we might be able to, you know, triangulate, you know, type of work with number of hours worked with PTO learning events, and, you know, metadata within the within, the sphere of influence, we could look at that on a daily, hourly, every minute basis, and see where things are changing, and identify pockets where they could be overworked. There could be retention issues. There may be some cultures that are being formed in different parts of your organization, and what that’s resulting in.
Nick 51:20
Interesting, you know, one of the things that’s actually been mentioned in a few questions, I know we had a poll question we were thinking about, which has been touched on. So I’m gonna, I’m just gonna go ahead and go to that. You know, one of the questions that people have asked is, How people, others in the organization, are implementing this stuff. So for example, are there other functions, like if it is operations? Are they using agentic AI in their operations? So that’s a good question. So we’re going to turn this Q and A backwards one more time and ask the audience for their thoughts on this. So take a look at that on the screen. I’d love to see the results there, and while everybody’s voting, I’ll ask a separate question Kathy or Katie, excuse me. Ask me for more specific examples, like, what does it look like when agentic AI is integrated into functions like drafting or producing materials? Are your communication specialists freer to move on to other upskilling? She articulates that one of the fears that people have is that their tasks are able to be done by AI, that all they can see is reduced workforces. That’s an interesting question, but asking for some specific examples.
Anthony Abbatiello 52:23
Yeah, you know what we see as far as, yes, while some of that drafting, you know, the first draft creation, still requires human intervention, I see that more of a, you know, an augmented AI capability. And what, what happens is it creates a new skill set for the communication specialist. So prompt engineering is the skill that you have to learn, and you have to actually use generative AI to create the right prompts, and then use the prompts to create the right outcome. So that’s a new skill that we need in many communications organizations, right in marketing and advertising, in HR, you know, in, you know, corporate comms and so all of those, you know, create new opportunities. So it does free them up from the, you know, hands on keyboard drafting, but it does create a new focus for them around engineering the right outcome and being able to focus on translating what the communication need is into what the deliverable, what deliverable you want it to be, which is where we want our communication specialists focused on the most, because the highest value.
Nick 53:33
And it looks like we have some answers to the question as well. Here, interesting Rimple or Anthony, do you want to comment a little bit on this? It looks like there’s a spread, but there’s spread, but there’s a clear winner for that. A lot of people are still in the early stages, yeah.
Rimple Patel 53:47
And you know, I think the other thing we’re also starting to see is the relationship between the CIO and CHRO being so critical, right? Like, often, you can’t solve this problem without the human and the tech and working together in terms of how to solve that problem becomes so key. Yeah, so I’m not surprised by the results that, you know, a small percentage where they’re exploring it in HR, and then more that are just, you know, thinking about it.
Anthony Abbatiello 54:20
So I do think there is probably more experimentation happening that may not be, you know, visible to the worker. When we did our workforce radar study last year, we found, you know, almost 70% of executives said that they are experimenting with AI, but it was, you know, 20% of workers. And so you would expect that to have been, you know, the inverse. So if you know, what we infer from that is, there’s probably, you know, experiments or the things that are happening not visible yet or made available to the worker in those functions yet. So hopefully, you know, our advice has always been, flip it and democratize the capability, versus hold it.
Nick 55:02
One of the themes that I’m seeing a lot, I’ll take one of these questions is asking about how to balance the human element with AI. I think that’s, of course, one of the big questions here. One of the questions is, how do you balance agentic recommendations with human judgment? Another one is, how do you preserve the empathy within your organization when you’re using these tools. I’d love to hear some of those. I know it’s a big question people have.
Anthony Abbatiello 55:27
I think it is a big question. And you know, we are often saying that, you know, the hard skills are becoming easy and the soft skills are becoming harder. And I think that that is a reality. You know, when you look at the top 10 needed skills a year ago, software engineering, programming are still up there, but listening, empathy, and interpersonal communication are still high, and it is important that organizations continue to invest in upskilling around those human skills like I can call myself. But the human skills that are in demand as agentic AI and generative AI are more prolific within organizations.
Rimple Patel 56:19
And I think just honestly, even internally, we have a pretty big initiative just to see, like, how we can leverage this across all the functions. And I think positioning is also really key. So we’re calling it, how do we team with AI? Because, you know, if you have work that’s being done autonomously by an agent, essentially, they’re becoming a team member. So I just even think framing it the right way to drive the adoption is so critical as well.
Nick 56:49
Interesting. We have a question. Probably one more question here. Here’s a good one. I know you’ve touched on this a little bit, but can agentic AI, orchestra, end to end workflows, for example, onboarding, internal hiring, or hiring in general?
Rimple Patel 57:08
I think that’s the promise of it. I think we’re starting to experiment with different parts. So we started with interviewing, we’ll go to scheduling, we’ll go to sourcing. But eventually, could it take over, essentially the whole value stream. So I definitely think that’s the promise of it and where we’re headed as well.
Anthony Abbatiello 57:27
I agree. I agree. It’s, you know, the more you bring agents into the workflow, the more they will start to learn and adapt and naturally move into the next phase and the next stage of that flow.
Nick 57:46
Got it well. Thank you guys. This has been incredibly informative and on topic, so I was excited to watch this whole thing. Thank you so much. Thank you guys for being here. Thanks for the research and the personal insight. And again, I want to thank Eightfold AI for their support and making this possible. And I’d like to thank all of you who are listening and out there virtually in space listening to us today. I really appreciate you being a member of our community and joining today.
