Non-technical, frontline workers utilising AI to solve problems
Frontline employees are driving the adoption of agentic AI in workplaces, according to a new report, which assessed the impact of the technology in organisations.
Moveworks polled 200 IT executives at US companies with over $1 billion in revenue to find that agentic AI adoption is seeing a bottom-up transformation in workplaces.
"AI is no longer something forced upon employees, it is something being built and steered by them," the report read.
Non-technical, frontline employees are driving agentic AI initiatives at billion-dollar firms, according to 91% of the respondents.
Another 78% of IT executives said they've seen agentic AI initiatives led by non-leaders or support staff to solve specific problems, with 37% noting that this has happened multiple times.
"By giving employees the tools to contribute, experiment, and innovate ways to improve what they know best – the work they do every day – agentic AI is transforming not only how work gets done but also who gets to lead that transformation," the report read.
Agentic AI's impact
Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that is able to independently complete complex, multi-step tasks, much different from generative AI that creates content and analytics AI that provides insights.
The technology's impact is widespread, according to the Moveworks report.
More than three in four (78%) of IT leaders said they have been completely or largely transformed by the implementation of AI agents within their organisation.
Among them, the majority (45%) said large aspects of their organisation have been transformed, while a third said it has "completely transformed" their organisational operations.
But the majority of IT leaders (73%) believe that their organisation is underestimating the cultural and structural changes that AI agents will bring.
"The introduction of AI agents will fundamentally change how work is organised," one IT leader said in the report. "Instead of manual execution, employees will focus on supervising systems and applying judgement in complex scenarios."
Eighty-nine per cent of IT leaders believe their employees are open to having AI agents incorporated into their workplace processes.
However, just 65% believe that employees prefer tools that integrate into, rather than reimagine, their current processes, despite previous findings that agentic AI transformation begins with them.
"Viewing agentic AI as just another IT project misses the seismic shift happening across the enterprise. It's not just a technological transformation happening, but a cultural one," said Bhavin Shah, CEO and Co-founder of Moveworks, in a statement.
"The future of work won't be created by those who bring in the most tools or apps. It will be built by those who eliminate friction and empower employees to work efficiently and easily."
Transforming frontline momentum
Some measures that employers can take to transform the frontline momentum into lasting transformation include identifying early adopters to share success stories and build credibility.
Use campaigns to sustain visibility and energy, and craft tailored messages for different personas and departments amid agentic AI adoption, according to the report.
The report further called for the establishment of an AI implementation committee, and the introduction of governance guardrails as AI moves into more complex workflows.
"To turn frontline momentum into lasting enterprise transformation, leaders need to enable, inspire, and guide their teams with intention," the report read.
