Companies around the world are preparing to hire not only people but also artificial intelligence systems, according to a new report by Korn Ferry, which predicts that organizations will significantly improve their performance.
Consultancy’s TA Trends 2026 Report It was found that 52 percent of Talent Leaders plan to launch independent Age Ei in the next year. These digital protocols will work independently by performing tasks defined by their identity, access permissions.
“This is not the future,” said Bryan Ackermann, head of AI strategy for AI transformation and transformation. “HR vendors are already creating employee records for AII Agents. Microsoft is issuing them security IDs. The infrastructure for human-ai teams is being built right now.”
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Korn Ferry said Shift marks a new era in hiring and management, where human resources departments are expected to find, board, and track both people and independent programs.
“Hiring is not just for the faint of heart,” the report said. “Leaders must learn to coordinate tasks between humans and machines, to eliminate AI decisions, and how to deal with conflicts within integrated teams.”
Jeanne MacDonald, CEO of Korn Ferry Provery’s recruitment process, said that while AI will transform jobs, it cannot replace human judgment.
“We need to embrace AI but not lose sight of the big picture. Talent acquisition is about people, and human intelligence will always be what differentiates it,” he said.
By 2036, Forn Ferry predicts, independent agents will outnumber human workers 1,000 to 1
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As companies work faster, Korn Boats warns lower-level roles and back-office stuff with AI could drain leadership pipelines and weaken future management.
The report noted that the entry-level workers being replaced today are often the same workers who will become managers and supervisors in the future.
“Savings look good in your 2026 budget,” the report says, “But what happens in 2029 when your most knowledgeable employee is a bot?”
David Ellis, Senior Vice President of Temple Transformation in Korn Ferry, said cutting young people could leave firms without the skills needed to adapt to new technologies.
“It would be a mistake to stop hiring new people,” he said. “These are the fastest ways of very new technology. If you don’t have these people, but your competitors do, then your competitors will be faster and faster.”
Korn Ferry has empowered companies to redefine, not eliminate, low-level roles by allowing AI to handle mundane work so that humans can focus on design, problem-solving, and relationship management. It also advised the organizations to coordinate the succession planning with AI readiness, a step taken by only 22 percent of the surveyed companies.
Over the next decade, Korn Ferry expects the talent pool to evolve from filling jobs to focus on hybrid ecosystems of employees, contractors, and AI systems. The challenge, he said, will be to ensure that organizations keep up with innovation and that humanity in the workplace is then distributed through machines.
