Companies Need a New Playbook to Unlock the Value of AI Agents

A new report from The Conference Board outlines a five-stage framework for businesses to effectively deploy AI agents, emphasizing the need for a strategic redesign of work processes to achieve measurable gains.

As AI agents move beyond experimentation, companies must not only decide where to deploy them but also how work itself should change. The report highlights that capturing value from AI requires more than merely purchasing tools or launching pilot projects. Business leaders must focus on the desired outcomes and how to integrate AI into workflows.

Key Insights from the Report

The report presents a five-stage framework for organizations to follow:

1. Start with the desired business outcome.
   • Identify the outcome the organization wants to improve first, then determine where AI agents can add value.
   • Avoid deploying agents simply because the technology is available.
2. Redesign and allocate work before deploying agents.
   • Break workflows down task by task to determine what AI should handle and what people should handle.
   • Consider quality, judgment, accountability, and customer value.
   • People should remain accountable for results, even when agents perform work autonomously.
3. Build the infrastructure, governance, and budget agents require.
   • Account for data, permissions, controls, and human supervision.
   • Understand that the full cost of operating an agent extends beyond just vendor fees.
4. Measure what people and agents produce together.
   • Track improvements in quality, speed, cost, and other business outcomes.
   • Differentiate among cash savings, avoided future costs, and higher-value work.
5. Decide where the gains go.
   • Clearly communicate how verified gains will affect jobs and staffing.

Protecting Early-Career Talent Pipelines

The report warns that as AI takes over routine work, organizations risk eliminating tasks through which employees traditionally build judgment and experience. Leaders are encouraged to replace this learning through mentoring, rotations, and progressively more complex work.

The Role of HR and IT

Collaboration between HR and IT is crucial. While IT may own the technology, HR should help shape roles, skills, staffing, and training wherever AI alters work processes. According to Diana Scott, US Human Capital Center Leader at The Conference Board, “Agentic AI is not simply an IT initiative, nor is it solely an HR initiative. Business leaders need to own the outcome, technology needs to provide secure and dependable tools, finance needs to test the economic case, and HR needs to ensure roles, skills, staffing, and employee experience evolve along with the technology.”

This research was produced in collaboration with SkillsRight, a nonprofit organization that helps employers translate skills-first commitments into scalable systems and practices.