By Guest commentary Monday, January 26th, 2026

By Vlad Vaiman

Artificial intelligence may be the most significant workforce revolution since the advent of electricity. But whereas earlier automation displaced human muscle with machines, today’s digital transformation involves learning to work alongside intelligent systems. 

AI agents that can do more and more sophisticated cognitive tasks, robots that can navigate physical spaces with more and more dexterity, and human workers whose skills, judgment and creativity bring them all together.

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute takes a broad look at that future. It envisions that work will not be a choice between people and machines, but rather a three-way partnership among people, AI-powered agents, and robots. 

In that world, the issue is no longer if jobs will change, but how quickly organizations can keep pace with new demands for skills and new models for workflows. For California employers and those nationwide, the stakes are high — and unexpectedly positive.

AI is often presented as being in direct competition with human labor, with each gain to the former seen as a loss for the latter. In practice, though, this dynamic is much more complex. 

Take the example of health care: far from diminishing the need for radiologists, AI has helped make them more accurate and efficient. Specialists are able to spend less time on the most routine tasks of interpretation, instead focusing on more complex issues as well as interacting more directly with patients and making treatment decisions. 

At the Mayo Clinic, for example, and in many other organizations, the use of AI has been accompanied by a dramatic growth in the radiology workforce. The Clinic, for one, has more than doubled its radiology staff while also implementing hundreds of AI systems.

Similar dynamics are playing out in nearly every industry.

The biggest takeaway from the report is this: over 70% of human skills remain relevant in the work we can’t automate and the work we can. For the most part, they’re not going away — they’re just being deployed in new ways. There’s less time spent preparing documents and doing routine analysis, and more time spent interpreting output, framing strategic questions, and steering machine colleagues. 

In short, soft skills such as critical thinking, judgment, creativity, and interpersonal communication will be more, not less, important in a world where decisions and actions are increasingly automated. These innately human skills are the connective tissue that allow agents and robots to work effectively and safely. 

For instance, in the solar industry, drones inspect the solar field, AI agents optimize power output, robots clean solar panels and fix minor malfunctions, and the technician monitors everything, validating diagnostic recommendations and training robots, intervening when necessary, making sure everything is safe and operating as it should. 

The technician is not a field worker but a supervisor and coordinator of a collaborative distributed system with embedded intelligence. 

In a retail setting, humanoid robots may deliver heavy materials, mobile manipulators may work side by side with employees to replenish shelves, and AI-powered tools may assist in inventory control and provide customer recommendations and support. 

The store manager no longer needs to fix things but can instead focus on relationships and high-level operational management. 

These scenarios are examples of a workplace in which hybrid teams of people and machines work together, with the human in the loop serving as supervisors and collaborators.

It seems that the biggest bottleneck in capturing the potential economic gains of artificial intelligence, however, is not the technology, but rather the ability of leaders to redesign workflows, reimagine jobs, and adapt culture. 

McKinsey estimates that if businesses redesign workflows more holistically instead of automating tasks in isolation, it could unlock $2.9 trillion in economic value across the United States by 2030, which is definitely not insignificant.

To reap that value, companies must act decisively in the following areas: 

RE-ARCHITECT WORK AND ROLES

Companies will need to move beyond rigid job descriptions to fluid role architectures. These should transparently map who (a human or an AI agent or a robot) is doing what. Many existing roles will likely be reimagined as human–machine hybrids, requiring people to orchestrate, supervise and collaborate with algorithmic and robotic agents.

HIRE FOR AI READINESS

While a number of technical skills will be in high demand, hiring criteria should also include adaptability and digital and AI fluency, as well as the ability and willingness to work with intelligent tools. These will all be key dimensions of high-potential profiles in the future.

FOCUS ON CONTINUOUS SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Training and development will need to be continuous, personalized, and made up of many microlearning moments, many of which will be delivered by AI-powered systems, to help employees move into and excel in higher-value hybrid roles. Upskilling and reskilling will need to be at the center of a future-focused skills strategy.

REINVENT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Metrics that focus on activities will need to be redefined to measure outcomes and, more specifically, an employee’s ability to work with AI in a responsible way (to supervise and intervene with automated decisions, manage exceptions and pursue non-algorithmic innovation, for example). The definition of human value will need to be clear.

PRIORITIZE RETENTION

Current employees whose jobs are most at risk will need to see a pathway to a hybrid role and will need a clear, transparent and supported mobility option. Learning and development tools to support this will be part of the package.

PUT IN PLACE AI GOVERNANCE FOR HR SYSTEMS

Intelligent HR systems must have guardrails that prevent or mitigate algorithmic bias, ensure explainability, and protect data privacy and security. Organizational leadership must set high standards for the governance of AI decisions that impact employees.

FINAL THOUGHTS

California is a global epicenter of AI development and use. Organizations of all kinds in the region – from healthcare systems to manufacturers to logistics companies and tech startups – are piloting human–agent–robot workflows today. Fast followers who learn, adapt and deploy the most relevant workflows will outpace their peers in productivity, talent attraction, and operational resilience. 

The winners in the future of work won’t be the organizations that automate the fastest. Instead, they’ll be the organizations that reinvent themselves to bring out the best in people and machines. AI isn’t a tool; it’s rather a catalyst to fundamentally reimagine how work gets done and how talent grows.

Organizations that take advantage of this partnership will lead the next American innovation revolution. Those who resist will be left behind, not by the technology itself, but by those who learned to work with it.

• Vlad Vaiman is a professor at California Lutheran University’s School of Management.