The Real AI Risk is Corporate Inertia: The Adecco Group

AI is moving from a productivity tool to a structural force reshaping how work itself is organised.

The Adecco Group has published a new whitepaper, developed in partnership with Altermind, arguing that the real risk facing the global economy isn't job losses from AI, but companies failing to redesign work fast enough to capture the value AI can create.

Titled 'On the Threshold: AI, the Future of Work and the Rise of Hybrid Labor Markets', the report introduces what Adecco believes will define how organisations operate for the next decade: hybrid workforce orchestration.

A new management discipline takes shape

Hybrid workforce orchestration is the practice of redesigning work so that people, AI agents, automation and physical AI each contribute where they create the most value.

According to the whitepaper, OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) employment rates remain close to historic highs.

In fact, between 2022 and 2025, 1.9 million new AI-related jobs were created globally. 

AI, the report argues, is transforming tasks far faster than it is eliminating roles, though the pace of change varies significantly by sector, occupation and how prepared individual businesses are.

The opportunity, Adecco says, lies in helping companies close the adoption gap. Just 18% of US businesses and 20% of European businesses have integrated AI at scale into core operational processes, leaving substantial room for further workforce transformation.

"The evidence is clear: AI is fundamentally changing what work will look like in the future and creating an opportunity to redesign how organisations create value," says Denis Machuel, CEO of The Adecco Group.

Redesigning work, not just adopting tools

Denis also argues that the next phase of AI adoption won't be won by the businesses with the best models or the most advanced automation, but by those that rethink how work itself is structured.

"The next phase of AI will be won by redesigning work, understanding what people should do, what AI agents can do, how skills are evolving and what skills will be needed in the future and how value is created and measured," he notes. 

"That is the role of hybrid workforce orchestration and this is exactly our mission.

"Technology creates capability. People turn it into value. Hybrid workforce orchestration makes it scalable. We are ready to lead the human side of the AI transformation."

Adecco is already putting that thinking into practice internally: the company has a multi-year agreement with Salesforce for unlimited access to Agentforce 360, part of its target for agentic AI to power over 50% of its revenues by the end of 2026.

Four scenarios, one shared imperative

The whitepaper sets out four scenarios for how AI could reshape labour markets, ranging from a 'Flourishing Economy,' where AI drives productivity, job creation and continuous reskilling, to a 'Capital Rules' scenario in which faster automation displaces routine work before new roles emerge to rebuild demand.

Andreas Schaffer, Managing Partner and Head of DACH at Altermind – Adecco's research partner on the whitepaper – says the companies that ultimately capture the greatest value from AI won't be the ones with the best technology, but those that most effectively redesign workflows, operating models and workforce systems around it.

"Organisations that move early and lead sustained hybrid workforce transformation are building a lasting advantage: the ability to continuously adapt as AI evolves," Andreas explains.

Coordination becomes the competitive edge

Across all four scenarios modelled in the whitepaper, the common thread is the same: organisations that succeed will be those that treat the coordination of human and machine capability as a core management discipline, not a side effect of digital transformation.

For HR and business leaders, the message from Adecco is direct. The technology to transform work already exists.

What's missing, in most organisations, is a coordinated approach to putting it to work. The businesses that build one first stand to gain a durable advantage over those still experimenting in isolation.