For over a decade, workforce development strategy has revolved around upskilling. Nearly every industry preached upskilling to stay relevant — teaching employees to interface with increasingly sophisticated SaaS software, master digital tools and adapt to the newest technologies. But what if this well-intentioned strategy is no longer enough in our rapidly evolving business world?
Generative and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) has fundamentally changed the game. We’re no longer focused solely on enhancing human capabilities but building digital counterparts. The capabilities of agentic AI — autonomous programs capable of increasingly complex tasks and even independently setting their own objectives — are expansive. Rather than thinking of software as a tool we use, we need to think of it more like a workforce we can manage. It’s a new kind of worker and it is becoming mainstream, with implications stretching across every industry and job function. The challenge for leaders now isn’t just equipping individuals with the means to upskill, but it’s rethinking the very structure of their workforce.
We need to consider the real-life, near-term future of this transition — how do you “hire” an AI agent, let alone onboard it or evaluate its performance? How do we optimize teams where AI agents work alongside people to allow for business objectives like enhanced customer experience and creative design thinking? How do you maintain the trust and engagement of the human workforce?
Conventional approaches to upskilling won’t be able to keep pace with the speed and nature of this shift. In this new paradigm, organizations need to carefully consider strategic planning for workflows that make sense to AI agents and data automation that doesn’t break trust or sacrifice compliance.
But there’s an element of excitement about this transition. Technology startups, backed by an entrepreneurial spirit that approaches challenges with a fresh perspective, are not just early adopters, they are change agents. They take bold risks to clear paths for entire industries. They build with a mindset that rules don’t apply. In a rapidly changing world, that mindset becomes an advantage you can deploy in your business.
At JumpStart, we work with early-stage startups and innovative businesses that are already prototyping this future. They’re not only building AI agents but designing operational systems in which these agents are embedded — and they’re doing it faster and more cost effective than traditional businesses may have thought.
For business leaders, this brings a litany of other questions to consider: will it be a better option for companies to acquire startups simply to gain this mindset and skills, or become customers of them? Can you instead partner with startups that are fluent in this new language? How will you approach talent pipelines in this context — not just for people, but for intelligent systems?
The future of work is no longer theoretical; it’s not a trend and it’s being built in real time. And while the impact is not yet clear, we know it will be substantial. Organizations that embrace this shift with clarity, courage and strategic experimentation will emerge as leaders in this new era of operational excellence.
This should be a wake-up call for established companies: if you’re not developing the ability to adopt, integrate and manage AI as part of your workforce, you may be falling behind. Unsure of how to prepare your organization for what is next? Exposure is often the antidote to uncertainty. ●
Julie Jacono, MBA, is CEO of JumpStart and JumpStart Ventures
