Why are Businesses Prioritising Agility in the AI Age?

According to research from Deloitte, seven out of 10 business leaders say their competitive strategy over the next three years is to adapt quickly and remain nimble amid rapid AI investments across industries. 

The findings were published in Deloitte’s annual Global Human Capital Trends Report, which surveyed more than 9,000 business and human resources leaders across 89 countries and a range of industries. 

Leaders surveyed reported that the two most important drivers of success in today's business landscape are accelerating the rate at which their people can perform and increasing their businesses’ ability to adapt to changing market needs. 

The research suggests that, in order to build that culture, that businesses need to invest in workforce redesigns to encourage human-AI collaboration and build learning and development opportunities that improve AI literacy. 

A human-centric approach to AI

Research from Deloitte finds that the majority of businesses take a ‘tech-focused approach’ when it comes to AI integration – but these businesses are 1.6x more likely to not see returns on their AI investments. 

Instead, Deloitte recommends that businesses prioritise building up their human capabilities alongside their technological ones by taking a human centric approach. 

To achieve this, the research suggests that HR leaders will need to rethink their businesses’ approach to culture to create an environment where people and AI agents can work side by side. 

Those that redesign employee workflows and roles to support this relationship are more likely to deliver meaningful work with the technology and see higher investment returns, says Deloitte. 

Accenture has done just that, announcing in 2025 it was bringing its strategy, constant, technology and other teams into one integrated business unit called ‘Reinvention Services’. 

According to the company, this function has been designed to create solutions faster and embed AI more easily into the company’s delivery.

Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, said of the change: “Today, our clients need more value faster, and Accenture is their reinvention partner of choice.

“These changes to our growth model will allow us to deliver that value and continue to scale our business by being an even stronger engine of reinvention that more rapidly delivers the power of Gen AI. 

“We are writing the playbook for how to be the most AI-enabled, client-focused professional services company in the world and a great place to work for our people—our reinventors.”

Encouraging a culture of continuous learning

Part of AI integration centres on what Deloitte refers to as ‘softwiring’, which includes ensuring that leadership and company culture give employees the trust and confidence to experiment and learn with AI. 

If systems are built to encourage continuous learning, says Deloitte, employees are more likely to feel empowered by disruption, rather than shy away from it. 

This is particularly important as the skills gap rises, with research from the Josh Bersin company finding that 74% of organisations say they are not keeping up with their businesses’ need for new skills. 

To challenge this, the research recommends that organisations need to fundamentally reinvent the way they approach learning and development opportunities in their organisation, with Josh Bersin, CEO of the Josh Bersin company, saying: “Our skills challenge at work is not one of ‘learning’ or 'training’. 

“Rather it’s a problem of dynamically sharing information, enabling people to explore, question, and apply new ideas. The traditional pedagogical paradigm of “training” is holding us back.”