The recently released ninth annual global research study on artificial intelligence and business strategy, conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), centers on how organizations are adapting, or struggling to adapt, to the rise of agentic AI.
Drawing on a survey of 2,102 executives across 116 countries and 21 industries, the research captures an inflection point where adoption of agentic AI has accelerated beyond previous AI categories.
Yet, most organizations have not aligned strategy, governance, and organizational design to fully support these systems.
The study explores the management dilemmas that arise when AI systems no longer behave like simple tools.
Why It Matters: Agentic AI is spreading faster than enterprises can adapt because it merges humanlike flexibility with machine-like scalability. However, it is creating operational tensions that existing processes can’t resolve. Organizations that embrace this duality will unlock competitive advantages in innovation, adaptability, and workforce design.
- Integrating Faster Than Leadership Can Accommodate: Survey data shows that 35% of organizations already use agentic AI, with another 44% planning to deploy it soon. This adoption is happening without foundational planning for how such systems should be governed or embedded into existing operations. Many companies are finding themselves working alongside agentic AI systems without clear rules for decision rights or team design, causing a growing disconnect between deployment and preparedness.
- Four Operational Tensions Existing Management Models Don’t Resolve: Leaders must now navigate practical dilemmas that come from trying to manage AI systems that act like coworkers while still being owned like tools. These include balancing the need for predictable outputs with the need for flexible behavior, deciding when to prioritize short-term efficiencies or invest in longer-term capability building, determining how to supervise systems that make decisions independently, and choosing whether to insert AI into existing processes or rebuild operations around new capabilities.
- High-Use Companies Expect Major Changes To Workforce Management: Among organizations already using agentic AI extensively, 66% expect major changes to their operating model and 45% foresee a reduction in layers of middle management. These companies are not only redesigning workflows, but also reconsidering who they hire and how roles are defined. Generalists who can coordinate across human and AI contributors are increasingly in demand, while some traditional career pathways built around routine analysis are being reconsidered.
- Agentic AI Systems Are Being Treated More Like Contributors: Companies such as Capital One and SAP are investing in AI platforms that allow for continual learning and reconfiguration. These systems are deployed to resemble employee development through continual training and fine-tuning. This has led some organizations to create internal structures that mimic human resources functions, but for nonhuman agents.
- Perceptions of Workplace AI Are Generally Positive: In organizations with the highest level of agentic AI use, 95% of respondents say the technology has improved job satisfaction. Employees are optimistic that AI will take over tedious parts of their roles, and there is far more hope than anxiety about the technology’s impact. However, concerns remain around transparency and authenticity, particularly when it comes to disclosing AI’s role in decision-making or communication. Some respondents report that while they use AI to complete work, they do not always reveal this to others, raising new questions about accountability and trust.
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