Preparing for a future with AI agents

- We've discovered the transformative power of AI agents in different business functions. Now we're equipped to look for and seize opportunities to incorporate them in our business for enhanced efficiency and innovation. We'll delegate more and more tasks through AI agents to help us organize our work, but we should keep the most impactful factor in business in mind: people. To get the best results, we need to do proper change management in our organizations because AI agents will change the way our teams are used to working. Communicate openly and clearly with teams throughout this process. What are we planning on doing? Why are we doing it? How will it help you in your work? And how can everybody become part of it? To get started exploring and adopting AI agents, look at the following six steps. Find business value. Look for opportunities in one business function. Where do teams spend time on several manual steps that cannot be described in code? Explore agents in one business function. This gives way to a soft introduction of the AI agents. It gives an opportunity to learn about its potential and triage any gaps. It also reduces the risk in case the agent is not working as intended. Enable and educate your teams. Show your team how AI agents can help with their work, and don't be afraid to mention the agent's limitations as well. This will help manage expectations with teams. Start in a controlled environment. Because AI agents are so new, consider starting in a smaller pilot group. If anything needs further improvement, this opportunity to resolve it with limited impact on the business. That's why a contingency plan should be in place to prepare the team to perform the task manually if needed. Monitor feedback and iterate. For example, set up weekly review meetings with the pilot team. This allows us to gather feedback quickly and adapt our approach. Expand on additional tasks and business functions. Once your AI agent is operational, consider adding additional agents or capabilities. It's also a good time to explore the benefits for other business functions. These steps allow us to quickly validate, test, and incorporate feedback. We will improve our approach with every new agent in business function we onboard. Over time, AI agents will become even more capable. They will coordinate tasks with one another to handle even more complex ones. Imagine the sales rep using an AI agent. The sales agent collaborates with a procurement and a supply chain agent. They will determine the optimal pricing and delivery terms for an incoming sales proposal. The procurement agent will gather information about available finished goods and raw materials. The supply chain agent calculates manufacturing and shipping times and returns the information to the procurement agent. The sales agent can simulate different scenarios. If the customer accepts delivery two weeks later, sales can give higher discounts. In the meantime, teams can produce the material and make requested items. Look at the opportunity that's right in front of us. With ease, we can better tailor the product to the customer's needs, sell faster, optimize production, and increase customer satisfaction. We are really just scratching the surface here, but this is huge. You've taken the first steps in familiarizing yourselves with the potential of AI agents and how to use them in your business.