Today’s CEOs are the final generation of executives leading exclusively human workforces. Going forward, we’ll need to learn how to manage human workers and digital labor to work together to deliver efficiency and productivity. Integrating AI agents into daily operations will become a leadership skill that separates companies that thrive from those that fall behind.

The ascent of the Chinese startup DeepSeek—which unseated ChatGPT as No. 1 on the app store at its launch—underscores this shift. Many assume that winning the AI race depends on having the biggest models or the most computing power. DeepSeek suggests otherwise. We’re moving toward a world where AI is everywhere and part of everyday life. The models themselves are becoming commodities. The true value of AI is in the data.

This is happening already. At the consulting giant Accenture, our Agentforce digital labor platform is extending the reach of the firm’s 52,000 sales people around the world. For example, a coaching agent empowers sellers by autonomously facilitating role-plays, tailored to each deal, providing personalized feedback afterward. This helps their salespeople improve their pitches, leading to higher win rates. These agents let Accenture’s human sellers spend more time building relationships with clients and solving their problems. Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest, is using Agentforce to field passenger queries 24/7 about flight status, gate directions and airport services. That frees up Heathrow staff to address travelers’ more complex problems.

Our own support platform at Salesforce, serving hundreds of thousands of customers, now includes AI agents working with our 9,000 customer service representatives. In just three months, AI agents resolved 84% of incoming customer queries on their own, with only 2% of requests requiring escalation to humans. This allows us to redeploy as many as 2,000 support roles elsewhere in the company. As measured by a recent Morgan Stanley research report, our customers are already seeing 20% to 50% cost reductions in customer support, driven by savings in head count, office space and overhead.

Unlike stand-alone tools, Agentforce unifies all the relevant data and metadata while integrating into existing workflows. This, along with the ability for humans to build task-specific agents using natural language instructions, ensures that agents adapt to each company’s unique challenges.

The macro effect of all this is already visible. Despite shrinking labor pools, productivity—the engine of economic expansion—has grown at or above 2% for five consecutive quarters according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, exceeding recent historical trends. If AI agents continue to accelerate decision-making, reduce operational friction and free up human workers for higher-value tasks, we’re on the verge of what the Journal has called a productivity miracle. Optimistic forecasts predict 2.5% to 3% growth. The efficiencies AI agents deliver will become all the more critical to companies and the macro economy in an era of tariffs.

This extends well beyond companies like mine. AI agents allow small businesses and even sole proprietorships to scale where they couldn’t before. With digital labor, small businesses can compete at much lower cost. A small financial advisory firm, for example, might once have needed staff for sales and customer service. Now, AI agents can take on outreach, respond to inquiries and automate back-office processes.

Precina Health, a diabetes-care company, is a prime example. In the U.S. alone, more than $400 million—one in every four healthcare dollars—is spent on diabetes treatment annually. Precina analyzes patient data to create personalized diabetes-management plans, improving care and reducing costs so the company can help more patients.

AI agents can do tasks at an unprecedented scale and speed—reaching long-underserved parts of the world. Education agents can create bespoke learning plans for students. Urban planning agents can analyze traffic, energy and housing data to design smarter cities. Health agents can track disease outbreaks, optimize vaccine distribution and connect patients with care.

When catastrophe strikes, as with the recent Los Angeles fires, communities often are inundated with donated clothes, blankets and supplies. Sadly, as much as 70% of these donations end up in landfills. Now, powered by Agentforce, the nonprofit Good360’s Resource-Matching Agent ensures critical resources reach the nonprofits and people that need them most.

While agents offer unmatched opportunities, this transformation will be disruptive. Businesses, through such programs as our free Salesforce Trailhead AI certification, must take the lead in reskilling workers for emerging roles such as AI trainers, agent builders and decision auditors. Trust and safety must be embedded into AI systems, along with strong data protection. Equally important are tools that foster transparency and empower users to make informed choices about what to delegate to AI.

Business is the greatest platform for change. With Agentic AI, we can revolutionize work and create a more prosperous, sustainable world. By focusing on trust, accountability and our common humanity, we can ensure that Agentic AI becomes a force for good.