Why Are AI Agents Quietly Becoming Your Most Important New Colleagues?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AI agents are moving from experimental pilots to a durable shift in how work gets done. Leading firms such as McKinsey, PwC, Deloitte, and Bain & Company describe a new “agentic enterprise” where digital colleagues handle multi-step tasks, escalate edge cases, and plug into existing systems with clear accountability. The competitive window is open but narrowing as architectures, governance models, and KPI scorecards solidify. At the same time, Forrester and Gartner warn that a sizable share of agentic projects will fail without disciplined portfolio selection and security guardrails. This briefing synthesizes that intelligence into a practical view on where to start, how to de-risk, and what to fund over the next planning cycle.