Is Your Organizational Ready for AI Agents?

With a career focused on improving business performance—often in tandem with enterprise solutions from SAP, Workday, Microsoft, Oracle, Epicor, Infor, Salesforce, GitHub, ServiceNow, Google, Meta and more—I’ve seen firsthand that many organizations, consulting firms, and even technology providers are operating with an outdated or non-existant view of the relationship between OCM (Organizational Change Management) and Agentic AI. These organziations continue to treat AI as an add-on rather than a true stakeholder in transformation. Although we may not want to admit it, Agentic AI must now be considered on an equal footing with human stakeholders—it shapes processes, influences decisions, drives outcomes, operates as a team member, or even becomes the team itself. This marks a pivotal shift that leaders must grasp as they plan and undertake transformation and reinvention initiatives.

Agentic AI is not just another tool—it is a resource, a stakeholder, a team member, and a steadily advancing lower-cost solution that will change or replace specific jobs or tasks that people previously performed. Many types of AI agents are no longer limited to performing simple tasks; they now make decisions, facilitate cross-system interactions, collaborate with teams, engage and support both customers and employees, and create massive shifts within enterprise operating and organizational models.  

Sounds quite a bit like a person. If enterprise change was not already challenging enough, agentic AI now requires the same considerations as your existing resources—people doing the work, and your people will now also have to learn to work with and alongside AI agents

Here’s the key insight. Agentic AI requires the same considerations as your existing resources—people doing the work —and if enterprise change was not already challenging enough, your people will now also have to learn to work with and alongside AI agents.

Is This Really happening?

Yes, one only has to follow the money and look at the acquisitions and offerings of almost every major enterprise provider as they work to include new agent functionality.

Look at Workday’s most recent acquisitions and investments. I see and hear the excitement around Sana [1], Flowise [2], Paradox [3], Pipedream [4], and Eversort [5].  Not to mention new Workday Employee Self Service enablement through Microsoft CoPilot [6].  Workday is not alone, and today almost every software provider is acquiring or developing agent capabilities.

Think this is just impacting commercial businesses. No business sector is immune. Meridian Partners [7], a fast-growing public sector-specialized Workday and SAP Partner with whom I am fortunate to work regularly, invests heavily in its dedicated change management group to stay ahead of this shift. With 20+ years serving this market, Meridian knows the public expects and demands the same efficiencies with their hard-earned tax dollars.  To stay ahead of the curve, the Meridian team dedicates a portion of its week to learning, training, and thinking about how it can help public sector clients maximize their enterprise investments. An increasing part of that now includes AI and planning for the impacts of the “organization of the future.”

Why This Matters Now

Most organizations still view AI as an add-on or productivity tool—but agentic AI is fundamentally different. It introduces autonomous, goal-driven agents that operate within enterprise platforms as active participants—essentially, new digital team members. When embedded correctly into core platforms, these agents can transform static workflows into dynamic, self-optimizing ecosystems and reduce friction across nearly every operational domain and customer journey.

1. AI as a Value-Creating Stakeholder

Per a recent Boston Consulting Group article [8], Agentic AI can accelerate many processes by 30–50%. This is not a marginal improvement—it fundamentally reshapes time, cost, and complexity. Having led dozens of enterprise transformations, I have seen firsthand how much slack exists in long outdated workflows that AI supercharged enterprise solutions can now reduce.

2. Enterprise Architecture Must Evolve

These agents require interoperable platforms, event-driven architectures, access to data, speed, redundancy, security, and fast recovery. Legacy platforms or systems weren’t always built or organized, or sold for this. Organizations must rethink and adjust their approach to integration layers and their entire stack, as without an architecture with built-in agility from the day it is implemented, you will be on your way to obsolescence.  A few weeks back, I was literally blown away by a new offering from CodeCargo [9]. CodeCargo is an AI-augmented internal developer portal that orchestrates and scales workflows, governance, automation, and discovery across GitHub-powered engineering organizations — that’s approximately 150 million users. Pretty much everyone who develops software uses GitHub. That is change and impact on a potentially massive scale.

3. Governance and Control Are Business Imperatives

With autonomy comes risk. Governance and controls must be embedded from day one—permissioning, kill switches, audit trails, and human oversight. Without this, agentic AI will remain isolated in experimentation mode, or, worse yet, pose a serious risk. Often, a significant oversight is to remember that agentic AI requires an audit trail and guardrails, just like its human counterpart.

4. Talent and Operating Models Must Shift

This is a big on people get wrong. It’s not just technology—it’s operating structure. Agentic AI requires new roles such as AI product owners, AI auditors, domain-aligned prompt engineers, and value translators who can integrate agents into real-world processes, monitor their performance, and measure ROI.  This is where many current operating models fall short and must quickly adapt.  We are not at the point of set-it-and-forget-it!  You wouldn’t do this with a person, so don’t assume you can do it with an AI agent.

What Leaders Need to Do Next

The article from Boston Consulting Group, the wave of recent acquisitions by enterprise solution providers, and my own experience make it clear that this shift is not theoretical. It requires action to translate insight into organizational advantage or even to stay relevant.

Here’s where to begin.

• Map Your Agentic AI Opportunities: Identify areas where real-time detection and decision-making can drive significant value (e.g., supply chain, finance close, HR service delivery).  Hint: You may need to learn more about your own business processes and the marketplace.

• Assign Ownership: Treat each AI agent like a team member with metrics, SLAs, RACI roles, compliance requirements, and accountable leaders.

• Build for Integration, Not Isolation: Don’t build pilots on the sidelines—embed AI into core platforms and workflows where it can deliver continuous value.  Think scale. 

• Train Humans and Agents to Work Side-by-Side: Develop capabilities, workflows, and trust models that enable AI agents and human employees to collaborate, co-create, and co-execute work.

• Evolve OCM to Include Agentic Stakeholders: Update change models to account for AI as an active participant and stakeholder—not just a tool in the hands of human users.  In my opinion, this could actually be at the top of the list.

Final Thoughts

Agentic AI is creating a new competitive frontier. The organizations that recognize AI as both a stakeholder and a strategic capability—not just a tool—will be the ones that operate faster, smarter, with less stress, and with exponential advantage.

If you’re wrestling with how to turn agentic AI from a buzzword into an operational reality, I’d be happy to connect & share what I’ve learned in the field. If I can’t help, I’ll connect you with a colleague or partner who can. I am always happy to recommend good people doing great work.

I’d love to hear how others are thinking about this shift.

References and Citations

1. Sana Labs. “Our Next Chapter.” Accessed December 13, 2025. https://sanalabs.com/our-next-chapter.

2. Flowise AI. “Flowise.” Accessed December 13, 2025. https://flowiseai.com/.

3. Paradox. “Workday Partner Integration.” Accessed December 13, 2025. https://www.paradox.ai/partners/workday.

4. Pipedream. “Pipedream.” Accessed December 13, 2025. https://pipedream.com/.

5. Evisort. “Evisort.” Accessed December 13, 2025. https://www.evisort.com/.

6. Workday. “Workday and Microsoft to Deliver Unified AI Agent Experience for the Enterprise.” Workday Newsroom, September 16, 2025. Accessed December 13, 2025. https://newsroom.workday.com/2025-09-16-Workday-and-Microsoft-to-Deliver-Unified-AI-Agent-Experience-for-the-Enterprise.

7. Meridian Partners Website. Accessed December 13, 2025. https://www.mp.team.

8. Boston Consulting Group. (2025). How agentic AI is transforming enterprise platforms. Accessed December 13, 2025. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/how-agentic-ai-is-transforming-enterprise-platforms.

9. Code Cargo Website. Accessed December 13, 2025. https://www.codecargo.com.

Images and Media

Cover image, Wix Stock Image Photos, December 18, 2025

AI Tools

Greg Valyou—me, a real person, wrote this article.  In addition to drawing on my experiences, knowledge, and research, I utilized AI tools to augment the process.

1.  Grammarly. https://www.grammarly.com. Accessed December 13, 2025, 2025

   1. Spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and plagiarism checks

2. ChatGPT (5). https://chatgpt.com. Paid Account, Apple Store Application for Mac. Accessed December 13, 2025, 2025

   1. During draft creation, reviewed suggested options for how to adjust some paragraphs for clarity 

Disclaimer, Copyright and Trademark Statement

This article is provided for informational and educational purposes. It makes no warranties as to the claims, accuracy or fitness of information provided, referenced or cited. Use of the information, instructions, and any examples contained in this work is at your own risk. There should be no implied endorsement of this article by any person or organization referenced.

All trademarks, company, product, and services names, images, descriptions, or public website content are property of their respective owner as source referenced. It is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such license and/or right.