A human renaissance is shaping the future of work

The research lays out two possible futures: a "great displacement," in which skills become obsolete faster than people can learn new ones, or a “human renaissance,” in which skills growth accelerates and human creativity takes center stage. Undoubtedly, this is the moment to put people at the center and bring them along on the journey to help them build the skills of the future to thrive.

While some roles will go away, the research shows that many more will be evolved or created, and that’s a massive opportunity for business leaders. The rise of agentic AI—AI systems that can act autonomously to achieve goals without constant human guidance—actually unleashes human potential.

Take the example of implementation consultants—one of the roles set to be the most impacted by agentic AI. By 2030, AI agents could save each consultant about 15 hours per week, giving them time for creative thinking, building relationships, and solving complex problems—work only humans can do.

It’s our job as leaders to inspire our people. Rather than fearing the impact of AI, we can empower our employees to do the uniquely human work that matters so much to our organizations.

This fundamental shift means our strategies shouldn’t just plug talent gaps or focus solely on hiring. We must redesign roles and upskill our workforces. Organizations that invest in reskilling employees today will be ready to navigate tomorrow's workforce challenges.

To meet this moment, we need people strategies rooted in purpose, skills, and shared accountability. Our research outlines three clear priorities:

• Reskill and upskill people into evolving roles through personalized, tailored learning pathways.
• Deploy AI agents where they unlock the most value to increase capacity, not cut corners.
• Embed AI governance across the organization because managing AI is now everyone’s job. As employees increasingly work with AI agents, they need the skills to apply AI governance principles to their daily tasks, which will mitigate financial, reputational, and cyber risks.

As leaders, we need to focus on the intersection of AI and talent strategy. To learn more about how we’ve approached this journey at ServiceNow and our advice for actionable steps, download our playbook, "HR’s role in AI transformation: A playbook for HR leaders.”