Business leaders face a new kind of pressure to deliver on the promise of AI. After the excitement of 2022 and 2023 sparked numerous generative AI projects, as few as 5% have succeeded.
Despite this, investors and shareholders haven’t stopped asking for AI. And many deployments of customer service support and HR bots have delivered great results. But now, there’s appetite for deployments that don’t just save money, but make money. Revenue generation is firmly on the agenda.
Agentic AI – and specifically, the rise of the agentic enterprise – holds the answer. A whole new model for business, built on a limitless hybrid workforce where autonomous agents and humans work together to drive success.
But the agentic enterprise requires a cultural, as well as a technical, leap. Boards will have to adopt a whole new approach to leadership – which will involve focused upskilling and thought.
That’s all while working out how to implement agentic AI in a way that really elevates the business and delivers crucial ROI. And that’s not a simple task.
So how can leaders unlock true business value from agentic AI?
How can we deliver AI ROI?
Think of your future business, then AI
Business leaders have a once in a lifetime opportunity to set the future of their organisation in the right direction. With agentic AI, we’ll have agents and humans working together to collaborate, unlock great potential, and drive new revenue. In fact, one quarter of CEOs say agentic AI will allow for whole new operating models.
But getting there requires a whole new form of planning. If you don’t consider how AI will revolutionise your business, you’re effectively anchoring yourself to historical business constraints – from human capital through to your traditional business model.
We need to lift our heads above the parapet. It’s time to ask: what is our operating model of the future? What will our customers really want in three years, and what can we give them that no one else can?
From there, explore ways to reimagine your business processes: opportunities to refocus humans on high value tasks, and have others executed by agents.
Then create a vision that’s compelling enough to bring your people with you – and drive strategic alignment across every part of your business.
Learn agentic AI skills with pilots – starting now
Agentic AI will change everything, and having the skills and knowledge to work alongside the technology will be crucial. It’s time for executives to lean in, with a hands-on mentality, and engage directly with the tools. Think big, even if you start small – but whatever you do, start.
- Test and play
Allocate dedicated time to experiment with internal agentic applications. If your company is developing a new service agent for support, insist on using it, challenging it, and giving feedback. You don’t need to code, but you must understand its capabilities and limitations.
- Insist on demos and proofs of concept (POCs)
When your teams present investment plans, demand live demonstrations of the agent’s behavior and the business process it transforms. Ask: ‘Show me the process before the agent and after the agent.’ Be accountable for the technology and the impact it can have.
- Adopt the ‘one hour rule’
Encourage yourself and your senior team to spend at least one dedicated hour per week reading industry research, engaging with a relevant podcast, or reviewing a case study focused specifically on agentic workflows and governance. Leaders must set standards for ongoing education across your business. Everyone will need to keep learning, so it’s important to embrace that mentality from the C-suite down.
Start showing the ROI of AI with specific productivity gains
It’s time to be more robust about demonstrating the ROI of AI deployments. Focus on specific productivity gains instead of vague promises, by tying agentic AI to individual, quantifiable process improvements within your business.
Well-proven use cases include:
- Automation of repetitive tasks: Highlight how agents can autonomously handle routine, time-consuming tasks, such as initial ticket triage, basic data entry and lead qualification. Calculate the time saved per employee and the total full time equivalent (FTE) capacity freed up.
- Augmentation of expertise: Show how agents empower human employees (like a sales rep getting real-time, context-aware next best action coaching from an AI agent). This focuses on quality improvement and speed of execution, leading to higher win rates or faster resolution times.
- Rapid innovation cycles: Demonstrate the ability of agentic AI to quickly prototype solutions, analyse vast datasets for new opportunities, or personalise offerings at scale – tasks that would be too slow or expensive for human teams alone.
Rethink your role as a leader
The role of the leader will change as we realise the value of agentic AI. Over time, we’ll see agents taking an active role in setting business direction – by responding in real time to changes in market conditions and customer needs. Strategies will be set by the week, or even the day, rather than the year.
Leaders will need to adjust to this new dynamic – and making decisions based on input from agents, as well as gut feeling. The human side of leadership will be all the more important. Leaders will need to be especially adept at setting the culture and ambitions, rather than just the operational.
Defining future success with AI
Success will look different in the future – for organisations and for leaders themselves. And how we use agentic AI, both individually and at a company level, will be crucial.
Now is the time for leaders to adjust. Upskill yourself, rethink your role and visualise your organisation’s future. Then you’ll be better placed to make the AI investments that deliver true ROI.
Want to learn more about which leadership skills are needed to deliver with AI?
Watch our latest Agents of Change video, as Paul joins Professor Ashley Braganza of Brunel University.
