How businesses aid and augment workers with new tech

AI is augmenting rather than replacing human workers, with new research showing both the need for human skills alongside AI adoption and the emergence of collaborative relationships between workers and technology. Workday’s experience exemplifies this trend, where AI tools have significantly increased productivity without leading to workforce reductions, highlighting a growing recognition that human capabilities like emotional intelligence, teamwork, and critical thinking remain essential in an AI-enhanced workplace.

The big picture: While AI accelerates and enhances routine tasks, research indicates humans maintain crucial advantages in essential people-oriented and conceptual skills that technology cannot replicate.

• Nearly 60% of Workday‘s 20,000 employees regularly use AI in their daily work, with three-quarters reporting increased productivity.
• A recent research study titled “Worker and Workplace Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coexistence” demonstrates that collaborative relationships between humans and AI are both realistic and already happening in workplaces.

What they’re saying: Technology leaders see AI as complementary to human workers rather than as a replacement.

• “Increasingly, I lean on it as a tool to help get stuff done, and I find that I can get a lot more done than I could before,” said Jim Stratton, chief technology officer at Workday.
• “Artificial intelligence does not just help workers, artificial intelligence needs workers to function,” noted Nazrul Islam, co-author of the research on AI-worker coexistence.

Skills transformation: The AI evolution is pushing workers to develop stronger interpersonal and conceptual abilities alongside technical competencies.

• Human skills involving emotional intelligence, coordination, and teamwork remain areas where AI cannot outperform people.
• Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, observed that “even engineers are having to think differently about their own mix of skills,” with the combination of technical and non-technical capabilities becoming a key differentiator.

Why this matters: As organizations increasingly integrate AI into workflows, the value of distinctly human capabilities is being redefined and elevated rather than diminished.

• Companies that understand the complementary relationship between AI and human workers are better positioned to capitalize on technological advances without sacrificing workforce morale or capabilities.
• Workers who develop a balanced skill set that combines technical knowledge with human-centered abilities will likely find themselves more adaptable to workplace changes driven by AI.