Salesforce’s latest research, which surveyed 200 global human resource executives, reveals that digital labor isn’t just a trend — it’s a business strategy revolution. With AI agent adoption expected to jump 383% over the next two years, leading to a productivity gain of 41.7%, HR leaders in India are reimagining the way organisations structure and skill their workforce. The findings reveal that CHROs in India expect to redeploy nearly a quarter (24.7%) of their workforce as their organisations implement and embrace digital labor.
The study also highlighted a growing focus on AI reskilling programs. 88% of Indian HR chiefs are or are planning to reskill their workers to be more competitive in a market shaped by AI agents. Most of these leaders (81%) also agree that soft skills like relationship building and collaboration will be even more critical as humans work alongside agents.
Why it matters: 85% of Indian HR leaders agree the workforce will be made up of humans and agents in the next five years. And yet, 88% say their organisations have yet to implement agentic AI and 63% say employees don’t yet understand how digital labor will impact their work. As agentic AI reshapes the workplace — and the skills workers need to succeed — understanding how HR leaders are ensuring organisational resilience is critically important.
Comments on the news:
“We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation of work with digital labor that is unlocking new levels of productivity, autonomy, and agency at a speed never before thought possible,” said Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer at Salesforce. “Every industry must redesign jobs, reskill, and redeploy talent — and every employee will need to learn new human, agent, and business skills to thrive in the digital labor revolution.”
Key insights from the research include:
- HR leaders in India believe digital labor is the future, and its integration is critical to their role
- 85% believe that within five years, most workforces will have humans and AI agents/digital labor working together.
- 92% of CHROs say that integrating digital labor alongside their existing workforce will be a critical part of their job.
- CHROs project a 383% growth in agent adoption within their organisations by 2027 (from 12% adoption today to 58% two years from now).
- Once agentic AI is fully implemented, CHROs expect an average employee productivity gain of 41.7% and a 26.2% reduction in labor costs.
- CHROs in India plan to reskill and redeploy their employees to work alongside agents
- 83% of CHROs believe AI agents/digital labor will transform their organisational structure.
- 93% of CHROs believe AI agents/digital labor will empower them to reassign employees to new, more relevant roles.
○ They anticipate redeploying nearly a quarter (24.7%) of the workforce to new roles or teams.
- 88% of CHROs believe redeployment is the more cost-effective approach compared to hiring outside the business for new roles.
- 88% of CHROs are either already reskilling (15%) or plan to reskill (73%) employees for roles with better future opportunities.
- With 88% of businesses yet to embrace agentic AI, CHROs in India direct near-term efforts toward AI implementation, including IT and research and development
- CHROs anticipate research and development (R&D) (59%), IT (51%), and sales teams (34%) will grow as their business begins to adopt AI agents.
- CHROs plan to reassign employees to governance, compliance, and ethics roles (60%), like defining standards and monitoring AI inputs, and technical roles (60%), like data scientists or technical architects, in the near term.
- CHROs believe AI literacy is the number one skill workers need as businesses move into the agentic economy.
- As businesses implement digital labor strategies, CHROs in India believe soft skills and relationship-building roles will become more valuable
- 81% of CHROs say AI agents/digital labor will increase the need for soft skills at their organisation.
- CHROs also plan to reassign employees to relationship-building roles (54%), like partnerships and account management, and say collaboration and adaptability skills will be valuable in the agentic economy.
- Despite the urgency of digital labor, many Indian HR chiefs are still in early planning phases in preparing their workforce.
○ Just 12% of Indian CHROs say their organisation has fully implemented agentic AI.
○ 63% of Indian HR chiefs say their employees remain unaware of how AI agents will impact their work
