Should workers prepare to become AI agent bosses?

""From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup," Jared Spartaro, CMO of AI at Work for Microsoft, wrote in a accompanying the report."

""We are already seeing the early stages of this in areas such as coding assistants, workflow automation, and customer support. The technology is advancing quickly, but the real challenge is less about capability and more about readiness. Most organizations have not yet built the skills, governance structures, or cultural mindset needed to treat AI agents as members of the workforce.""

Microsoft expects 1.3 billion AI agents to be operational by 2028 and leading tech voices predict each worker may oversee personal AI workers. Autonomous AI agents became a major focus throughout 2025, driving sector shifts. Salesforce replaced around 4,000 customer service roles with AI agents monitored by human omnichannel supervisors. Microsoft predicts the rise of 'frontier firms' where human workers build, delegate to and manage AI agents, and urges workers to think like CEOs of agent-powered startups. Security experts note the early stages across coding assistants, workflow automation and customer support, and warn that capability outpaces organizational readiness in skills, governance and culture.

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