Transforming your workforce in the Age of AI
A people-centered approach to AI integration within an organization’s workforce ecosystem is paramount to successfully orchestrating meaningful AI transformation and ultimately driving enterprise value.
The emergence of AI agents as a central technology construct for the latest GenAI innovations gives organizations the opportunity to restructure how they go about orchestrating the inevitability of human-AI collaboration.
A key to successful AI transformation is clarifying the specific impacts to your workforce roles, organization structures, and culture, in the context of your AI technology and platform strategy. Each impact requires different interventions for managing and driving change, transitioning the workforce, and defining new organizational structures and operating models to successfully activate the value potential of AI, while fortifying your commitment to the human labor force.
Adoption of AI in the workforce is growing, as 85% of organizations have already started implementing AI into their business operations, with 47% leveraging AI for workforce planning and managementi.
According to the KPMG AI Pulse Survey, AI productivity tools and knowledge assistants are becoming mainstream for over half of knowledge workers. Organizations, therefore, have moved into a more transformative phase. As AI is increasingly incorporated into business operations, how work gets done is fundamentally being reshaped.
Productivity tools are being used daily – up to 58%, which is more than double from last quarterii (22%). Knowledge assistant (RAG models) usage on a weekly basis is now 61% from 48%. GenAI usage embedded into existing workflows is also on the rise, from 24% to 35%iii.
As adoption surges, leaders are growing increasingly confident about AI's role in workplace transformation.
For example, 76% of leaders agree or strongly agree AI will automate specific tasks over the next 12 months, but will not replace roles entirely, while 69% believe AI will help high performers focus on more strategic workiv. Additionally, 57% expect AI will help underperforming employees improve their capabilitiesv.
Despite the increased implementation of agents and assistants, however, organizations face hurdles in preparing their workforce for an AI-powered future. The top anticipated training challenges include the complexity of systems (66%), keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology (56%), and technical skills gaps (51%)vi.
“Agents are increasingly recognized as essential assets that need to be integrated into our workforce ecosystem,” said John Doel, Principal, Human Capital Advisory at KPMG. “As employees acquire new skills to interact with AI and organizations develop capabilities to manage these agents, a future hybrid digital workforce will emerge, unlocking unprecedented value from GenAI.”
Distinct types of agents available to organizations come with different impacts to the human worker, and those impacts represent different opportunities to drive value from those agent investments. As such, different human-centered interventions and experiences must be employed to drive the People agenda.
To successfully navigate AI transformation, organizations must focus on three key areas of human-centric change: role impacts, organization impacts, and culture/leadership impacts.
Role Impacts
AI redefines job roles by introducing new responsibilities, processes, and technologies. This necessitates that employees adapt to these changes, ensuring that they can effectively leverage new tools and methodologies.
As AI takes over repetitive and mundane tasks, workers can focus more on strategic and creative activities, leading to enhanced job satisfaction and productivity. Continuous learning and upskilling, therefore, become critical as job roles evolve. Agents acting as “collaborators” or “co-pilots” are a great example of role-based impacts – workers are still tasked with largely the same job, augmented by AI, though their productivity and performance measures are likely to increase and evolve as more of their work is augmented.
To further maximize the benefits and human-AI collaboration, upskilling employees in areas better suited for humans—like relationship building, emotional intelligence, communications, negotiations, and customer care—becomes vital. Survey results show that 77% of executives believe that AI will necessitate significant investment in upskilling and reskilling programs for their workforcevii.
Organizational Impacts
The integration of AI leads to changes in organizational structures and the nature of talent required. For example, employees must collaborate with new digital labor and agents, adapt to new skills, and work within evolving organizational frameworks. Organizations must implement strategic change management methods to facilitate a smooth transition and align talent with AI-driven objectives, but the organizational structures, talent and skills clarity, and overall jobs must be redefined and clarified.
New organizational capabilities are also required to manage the lifecycle of digital labor investments, much in the same way organizations have highly refined capabilities to manage the human worker lifecycle. Agents acting as “taskers” are likely to replace either large parts of or entire roles within an organization. One example involves call center agents gaining popularity at scale for customer-facing roles.
As “tasker” agents augment large portions of roles, the organizational shape and interaction models themselves must evolve intentionally to both capture the value of the agent investment, and empower the impacted human workers to evolve their roles and how they collaborate accordingly.
A formal and ongoing process of “human-AI organizational design” is a must. Sixty-two percent of organizations are using AI to identify skill gaps and develop targeted upskilling programs to fill those gapsviii.
Culture and Leadership Impacts
Leaders must enhance their company's brand, adopt new policies, and align with organizational values to drive AI transformation. A culture embracing AI and continuous innovation is essential. Leaders play a key role in creating an environment where employees feel supported in adapting to AI changes. Transparency, good communication, and a focus on employee development are crucial. AI is vital for improving the employee experience, as employees expect AI tools to help them perform better. Without these tools, companies may struggle to attract and keep top talent.
As AI keeps evolving, so too must the organization's culture, moving towards continuous improvement, innovation, and change at all levels. According to recent studies, 58% of employees feel positive about AI's role in enhancing their job functions, while 23% are concerned about potential job displacementix. Additionally, 69% of companies plan to integrate AI-powered continuous learning platforms within the next two years to ensure their workforce remains agile and adaptivex.
i KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
ii KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
iii KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
iv KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
v KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
vi KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
vii KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
viii KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
ix KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
x KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q1, April 2025.
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According to senior buyers of consulting services who participated in the Source study, Perceptions of Consulting in the US in 2024, KPMG ranked No. 1 for quality in AI advice and implementation services.
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The journey to empowering the workforce through AI disruption is one of continuous evolution. By adopting a human-centered approach and strategically interlocking organizational and talent transformation, change management, and upskilling initiatives, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI. This transformation will enable them to thrive in a rapidly evolving world, where AI and human collaboration redefine success.
Experience the transformation with KPMG AI Workforce – unlocking new efficiencies, driving sustainable growth, and achieving future-ready enterprises.
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The KPMG Human Capital Advisory team helps organizations implement advanced workforce planning strategies by leveraging our proprietary workforce insights model and AI tools. Teaming up with KPMG helps ensure that organizations can effectively conduct talent opportunity and deployment assessments, securing the right mix of digital and human skills to help meet current strategic needs and realize sustainable growth.
