McKinsey&CompanyPeople&OrganizationalPerformancePracticeThefuture of workis agenticThe diaital workforce is happening. Here's what it maylook like when humans are working side by side with Aagents-and how to prepare now for this surprisinglynear-term eventuality.June2025
Think about your org chart.Nowim agine it features both your curentcolleagues-humans Iyou're lke most of us-andAlagents.That'snot science fiction;it'shappening-andityhappeningrelatively quicky,acordingtoMckKinsey SeniorPartnerJorgeAmar.In this episode of McKinsey Talks Taent.Jorae ioins McKinsey talent leaders Brooke Wedle and BryaniHanco a Goa Edioia ietorLudia Rabily t l bou what theseNlagensare, owethey'rebeingused, andhow leaderscanpreparenow forthe workforceof the not-to-distanfuture.The folowing transcript has been edited for clarity and lengthFrom generative to agentic AlLuciaRahilly:Jorae. welcome toMcKinsevTalksTalentJorge Amar:Thank you verymuch.Excited to be here.Lucia Rabily:.Jorge,there was a greatlitlepieceinThe WallStreet.Journalcalled"Everyone'stalking about Al agents.Barely anyone knows what they are"What exacly do we mean whenwetalkaboutagenticAl?Jorge Amar:!Il stsat wherel think most peoplestilare, which is generative Al. Gen Alismostya reactivetype ofAlfocusedon generating creativecontent,tigeredbyaprompt oranwe start to come to a very different realityis we're taldina about Al that is not only generating content.Itisexecutingmandate.onaparticularinstruction.AnAlacent isoerceivina realitv based orendecides.applies iudament, and executes something.And that executionthenreinforcesitsleamnina.It learnsifwhattheagentdid was aoodor badandthenfeedsthat back inSo we're getting into the next step:Al deciding what to do on its own. We start to getinto thiscompleteAlworkforce.YourAlagents could now be the evalution and the creation ofadigitaLucaRatbily.OK, o.ge ou e etring sLlt stak throughsome se ases thtmigh helpbring this to life a bit. What does agentic Allook like now in the wild'?Jorge Amar.Its silthe Wid. Wd West outthre.Baut lty,Rightnow,many companies arestarting to experiment. Typicaly the environments in which they are deploying agents are ver deterministic, with a dlear proces sto follow. Think f I help desks,or software development,ocustomer service tickets:any environment where a customer asks for something and there's aprocesafterward.The agentpicksitup-decides whatistheright process.theight content article to be retrieved, the right information to be gathered-and then triggers
Your Al agents could now be theevolution and the creation of a digitalreplica of the entire workforce of anorganization.-Jorge AmarBryan Hancock:In HR, we're seeing agentic A in talent acquisition Agents dean records. They try to understand, "Of the vast universe of potential candidates, how do we clean thedatla andundersandwho theright andidaermight ber? Thenaseparte agentgos throuylhand scoresthose candidatesand doesthe ranking and the sourcingprocess.A separat...
