7 in 10 leaders think agentic AI will drive financial success, but only 40% think it should make financial decisions, finds Workday

Fewer than 1% of organizations have no plans to use agentic AI, according to new data from Workday.

Workday surveyed 2,950 leaders across the world and found that just 27% think agentic AI is overhyped and 88% believe that AI will ease their workload and boost productivity.

Three in four were comfortable teaming up with AI agents, with 82% seeing the benefits around innovation, and 63% are more interested in working for company that invest in AI agents.

71% of leaders believe that AI agents will drive financial success, and 56% expect a return on investment from agentic AI in six months.

While there is a lot of optimism around AI agents at work, there are some concerns expressed in Workday’s research.

There is concern that AI is destroying critical thinking skills (48%), eroding meaningful human interactions (36%), and 48% are worried that AI will increase pressure for them to work faster.

There are also challenges around ethics and governance (44%), security and privacy (39%) and fear of AI misuse (30%).

These worries are creating barriers to AI adoption within enterprises, and stopping organizations reaping the full rewards of the technology – how can HR leaders drive more adoption?

Clear boundaries are needed to drive agentic AI adoption

Workday’s data found that while 75% of leaders are comfortable with agentic AI as a team mate, only a third are comfortable being managed by one.

They clearly want boundaries around the use of AI agents at work.

Just a quarter of respondents are happy with AI agents operating in the background without human knowledge, and only four in ten are comfortable with financial decisions in AI.

Ultimately, “the report shows that employees are more trusting of AI when their company sets rules for its use,” Workday’s VP of AI Kathy Pham tells UNLEASH.

“By creating these guardrails, leaders build a safe environment that empowers employees to use the tools effectively without fear,” Pham adds.

She continues: “Trust in AI increases with greater use, which is why leaders must focus on helping employees learn how to effectively leverage these tools.”

There’s also a need for organizations, and specifically HR leaders, to provide training so employees have the right skills and knowledge to navigate agentic AI.

For Pham, HR leaders also need to “redefine management roles by using AI to make managers better, not replace them”.

“The report suggests that AI can handle repetitive, data-heavy tasks, like gathering information for performance reviews.

“This frees up managers to focus on what only humans can do: meaningful coaching and building personal connections with their team.

HR leaders should train managers to leverage these AI tools to handle the administrative burdens of their job, allowing them to spend more time on meaningful, human-centered work.”