NEW DELHI, June 29 — What happens when the machines you build start managing themselves? That question is driving a profound shift in how technology companies think about talent, according to a new global report from KPMG. The firm surveyed 2,500 tech executives across 27 countries and found that 92 per cent believe managing artificial intelligence agents will become an important skill within the next five years.
It is a striking figure that points to a workforce in the middle of a quiet revolution. The report details how agentic AI — systems that can act autonomously rather than just respond to commands — is forcing organisations to rethink everything.
Already, 88 per cent of companies are investing in building these systems into their operations. Here is the mechanism behind the numbers: as digital assistants take on more work, teams themselves are being reshaped. KPMG projects that by 2027, digital assistants will make up 36 per cent of core technology teams, up from 28 per cent in 2025.
That is a significant jump in just two years. Zack Kass, global AI advisor and former head of go-to-market at OpenAI, offered a blunt assessment of what this means.
“The future will not be defined by what machines can do,” he said. “It will be defined by what we want machines to do.” Kass recommends moving toward smaller teams and flatter structures to improve human-AI collaboration. “Play smaller, and you can be more forward-looking,” he said.
The report argues that the real value from agentic AI comes when organisations shift focus beyond individual productivity to something broader. Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and chief executive of Uniphore, framed the stakes in competitive terms. “Companies that learn to use AI and AI agents and all these architectures effectively are likely to leave their peer groups behind,” he said.
“Right now that is coming down to the leadership of companies and departments and teams.” To manage this integration, 90 per cent of technology executives plan to expand and strengthen their teams. What researchers found, intriguingly, is that the shift is not really about the technology itself.
It is about the human structures around it. The science behind agentic AI may be complex, but the workforce challenge is straightforward: how do you organise people to work alongside systems that can act on their own? The answer, according to the executives surveyed, involves betting big on new skills and new team configurations.
The next two years will show whether that bet pays off.
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