While the agent has definitely marked a turning point in human-computer interaction, going from the use of tools to collaboration, the next step is to integrate these agents and derive from value. At VentureBeat’s Transform 2025, Matthew Kropp, general manager and main partner of BCG, offered a match plan for the evolution of workflow, the adoption of employees and organizational change.
“Companies that are at the top of this curve – what we call future built, those that are most mature – see substantial results: 1.5 times more income growth, 1.8 times the higher shareholders’ value,” Kropp said. “There is value here, but we are early.”
Deploy, reshape, invent
To take advantage of and create value with AI and agents, a company must determine where to focus, using a deployment, reshaping, inventing framework. The AI is already deployed in each company and will have agents in the coming years. But if you give an employee a chatbot, you have not changed the way the work is finished. You must rethink the work and reshape functions, departments and workflows by identifying where human work can be automated.
“We advise companies at the moment to focus on your three or four big rocks. If you have a large customer support organization, you must apply AI in customer support. It has a huge impact. If you have a large engineering organization, you need to use tools like Windsurfs to reshape the way you perform engineering, software development. ”
The invention is still at the very beginning, but companies should think about how to use the AI capacity to be creative, reason and plan. Look at services and products, and how you interact with customers: Can you reinvent this using these capacities? »»
For example, the Makeup Company L’Oreal launched a virtual beauty advisor to evolve this exclusive service beyond their retail locations, by reinventing the way they plan to interact with their large-scale customers.
Think beyond basic use cases
It is also essential to think about how AI changes your business. There has been a lot of concentration in the past two years on cost reduction by replacing workers, but it is not a large -scale reflection. AI amplifies the employees you have currently, considerably increasing their productivity.
“This is what we see in the development of software,” he said. “I do not think we will see companies dismissing their software developers. We will see a massive explosion in the quantity of capacity and features that software companies build. ”
In a BCG study carried out with Harvard, Wharton and put, they asked 750 knowledge workers to write a commercial and marketing plan, with and without generative. Participants using GPT4 carried out 25% faster, carried out 15% of additional tasks and the quality of their production was better. And when we give them an LLM, the lower artists of the basic line have just as efficient.
“This has raised everyone’s performance, which is very powerful, because in most organizations, new carpenters are less effective than more experienced people,” he said. “He has the capacity to increase the skill time.”
The AI can also go beyond the human scale, even open new applications that were not possible before. For example, in the medical space, the results for patients are considerably improved with the preoperative and postoperative monitoring of a nurse, but the implementation of this has been prohibitive – until the advent of AI nurses who can assume this task for a large population of patients.
Overcome the biggest obstacle: adoption
Although these tools are fantastic, people do not use them. BCG followed the adoption of Github Copilot and productivity measures for an organization with around 10,000 software engineers. The highest 5% doubled productivity in four months, while 60% have shown no improvement, because they simply did not adopt the tool.
Why don’t humans adopt? There are three reasons. The first is the ignorance of the capacities. The second, the habit inertia. The third is the threat of identity, and it is the most difficult to overcome. The developers ask: “If this AI can write code for me, then who am I? What is my value?”
“This will be the real work of the next three to five years,” said Kropp. “It is bringing people to use the agents.”
Strategies overcome reluctance
There are a few precious ways to overcome these challenges. Naturally, getting the right tool is the first step, and integrating it into the way people work by forming them explicitly. It is also essential to measure and celebrate adoption for employees who actively use the tools so that everyone begins to see that they have to get on this train.
Another important step is to accelerate rarity – this means removing resources so that employees must do more with less. At the same time, it is essential to rethink the work processes hand in hand with employees who are on the front line. Do not just identify the laborious processes where manual work can be automated – identify the documents where humans bring value.
“We minimize the work and maximize joy,” Kropp said. “We end up with a much more effective process, a much more effective business, a much more productive workforce and jobs in which people like to be.”
