AI agent deployments will increase by 327% over the next two years. According to the latest Salesforce Global Research, the top HR Director (CHROS) plans to expand digital labor over the next two years and increase productivity for AI agents.
By 2030, 80% of Chros believe that most companies are working together with human and AI agents. Nearly nine out of the 10 Chros will focus on integrating AI agents into the workforce. By 2027, Chros expects a 327% growth in agent AI adoption. This ranges from 15% in 2025 to 64% in 2027. Chros expects an average employee productivity cut by 30% and 19% in labor costs using agents.
Also, according to a study by ZDNet-Aberdeen, only 8% of Americans pay extra for AI.
While productivity gains are immediate, the overall potential for efficiency and effectiveness based on AI agents deployment requires additional analysis. The adoption of AI agents restructures organizational structures. Over three-quarters of CHROS (77%) believe that AI agents will transform organizational structures. The integration of AI agents is expected to create great opportunities for human talent. Most Chros (89%) believe that AI and digital labor will enable employees to move into new, more impactful positions.
The urgency towards digital labor recruitment is driven by outsourcing work to AI agents. In fact, many business leaders are looking for AI to improve and upgrade human talent to reach their full potential.
Cognitive Downloads and Cognitive Upgrades
The concepts of “cognitive download” and “cognitive upgrade” related to artificial intelligence (AI) and the increased roles in both support, prediction, and generation AI – chatbots and copilots – and the work environment for autonomous AI agents are key distinctions that shape the adoption of digital labor and the ongoing development of human employees.
Cognitive downloads occur when you offload mental tasks to an AI system. This may seem to rely on AI to recall simple calculations and information. It also reduces active cognitive involvement and may interfere with personal skill development in those fields over time.
For example, constant reliance on GPS navigation can weaken the innate sense and ability to navigate independently. Compared to a few years ago, how many names do you remember now? Do you know the phone numbers of your family and friends just in case you place your phone incorrectly? An excess of cognitive downloading can lead to a decline in critical thinking ability.
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Cognitive upgrades, on the other hand, involve strategically using AI to enhance and enhance unique cognitive abilities. In this paradigm, AI can act as a valuable partner, helping you think more effectively, accelerate your learning process and tackle more complex problems than you can manage independently.
Consider AI tools that can process huge data sets and provide insightful data visualizations, or tools that can drive brainstorming sessions by providing diverse perspectives and connections. These applications of AI will release limited mental abilities and allow you to focus on high-level cognitive functions such as creativity, strategic planning, and subtle decision-making.
In the realm of assistive technologies such as generator AI, the main objective is usually cognitive upgrades. Here, AI is specifically designed to help individuals overcome certain cognitive or physical limitations and enhance their existing abilities. Examples include sophisticated AI-powered prosthetics that allow users to learn how they move and adapt, or AI-driven memory AIs that can help individuals recall and assist individuals with organizations.
Even in the context of fully autonomous systems in which AI takes over the performance of specific tasks without direct human intervention, the underlying goal is often to release valuable talent and intellectual capital for more strategic and innovative efforts and effectively express cognitive upgrades at a broader organizational or social level.
The boundary between cognitive downloads and upgrades is not necessarily sharp, and a single AI tool can lead to either outcome, depending on how you use it and how you think about it. For example, if someone relies on it without trying to learn another language, then a language translation app can lead to cognitive downloads. However, when used as a tool to aid language learning and communication, it can be a cognitive upgrade.
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At Salesforce, the company actively researches and implements AI for its employees and customers with the aim of cognitive upgrades (high value work) and cognitive downloads (low value work). For example, AI-powered sales agents are designed to provide coaching and insights to sales professionals, helping them improve their strategy and expand their transactions more effectively.
Furthermore, there is a company-wide initiative focused on actively reskilling employees in the age of AI, recognizing the importance of adapting to these technological changes. As part of this initiative, Salesforce has set an ambitious goal of providing quarterly AI learning days and ensuring that by 2025 80% of the entire workforce acquires basic AI skills.
Sales AI agents exist, which will autonomously nurture inbound tourism and lead to the construction of pipelines. These sales agents offload early funnel activities such as outreach, answering product questions, and scheduling meetings. And there are AI agents who provide dedicated coaches to all salespeople and provide dedicated coaches to practice, challenge and negotiate the pitch before actual customer meetings. AI agents will provide role-plays tailored to each transaction and then provide personalized, objective feedback to help reps close with confidence.
Salesforce uses in-house AI career coaches to mature employees. Salesforce has launched AI tools to expand its employees and help them migrate internally. Salesforce piloted the carrier Connect Service in 2024, with 28% of users applying for jobs on the platform. The company is investing in career AI coaches in preparation for major workforce changes due to AI. Career Connect is an example of how AI agents are used to upgrade talent and guide employees to more meaningful and relevant jobs.
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The use of AI in business becomes an auxiliary and autonomous hybrid. Humans and AI agents (digital labor) work together to co-create value at the speed they need. Companies can design and utilize AI in ways that promote cognitive upgrades, allowing humans to achieve more and develop more capabilities. Low-value work should benefit from cognitive downloads and be performed autonomously through digital labor (AI agents). High-value tasks must be subject to cognitive upgrades and ensure that our workforce is working on meaningful projects that will bring true value to our stakeholders.
Ultimately, our collective goal is to considerately harness the power of artificial intelligence in a way that actively promotes cognitive upgrades for high value, non-repetitive, creative work, to help individuals develop their capabilities and realize collective potential, rather than increasing their capabilities, expanding their knowledge and not relying on technology.
Cognitive upgrades for both ability and personality
Trust is ability and character. Ability is ability and reliability. The characters are honesty and mercy. Using AI for both Assistive (upgrade) and autonomous (download) requires covering both abilities and characters. AI should help you to acquire and maintain trust with all stakeholders. AI upgrades should also focus on value upgrades. Value requires exercise and practice. The more you use them, the stronger they become. Values are like muscles, not pillars.
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Business values similar to cognitive abilities require continuous movement and development. Often depicted as a foundation pillar that gives organization stability, this ratiophor inaccurately portrays its active function. Unlike immutable architectural elements, organizational values thrive through consistent practice and behave like muscles that become weaker when used without them.
This “muscle metaphor” emphasizes that daily decisions and actions are exercises that build value strength and resilience, and embedding them in the fabric of the organization. A positive value remains an abstract concept and loses influence over time.
Your thoughts will become your words.
Your words become your actions.
Your actions become your habits.
Your habits become your value.
Your values will become your destiny.
—Mahatma gandhi pic.twitter.com/u05izfb0ev– September 1, 2024
As Gandhi pointed out, values are the pinnacle of a progressive cycle that starts with thought and evolves through words, actions and habits. This emphasizes that value is not merely a declaration, but a product of sustainable practice.
Two important approaches are required to effectively integrate values. First, organizations need to actively exercise value in all their daily operations, including customer interaction, stakeholder communication, teamwork, and product development. Whether trust, innovation, or community impact is prioritized, these values must be evident in order to remain important in everyday activities.
Second, targeted training initiatives should focus on reinforcing specific values. These programs need to embody the very values they are aiming to cultivate. For example, innovation training must be innovative, and trust building programs must be inherently reliable.
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It’s where AI can help you develop, upgrade and enhance your business core values. Furthermore, organizational policies and systems need to strengthen value-driven actions. For businesses that value trust, this can involve empowering employees’ decisions rather than imposing strict control, thereby encouraging positive trust practices across the organization.
By understanding values as dynamic muscles rather than static pillars, organizations can cultivate a vibrant culture in which values actually shape actions and outcomes. This shift in perspective unlocks the possibilities of extraordinary performance and lasting success, as consistently exercised and strengthened values drive organizational progress and evolution.
Smart companies leverage AI technology to exercise and upgrade both the capabilities and character of their stakeholders. Value creates a value. Value must be upgraded and exercised for businesses to achieve sustainable growth and positive impact.
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