With agentic AI poised to redefine work patterns, a strategic CIO/HR partnership is essential for upskilling, plus defining new roles and human-agent interactions.
AI, and in particular agentic AI, present an opportunity to rethink the nature of work, reshaping teams and blurring the line between technology and talent leadership. In this new world of human-to-agent interaction, CIOs should partner with chief HR officers (CHROs) to jointly shape enterprise talent strategies and keep the hybrid workforce in step with current and future needs.
AI’s fast-paced evolution can make it difficult to stay abreast of changing skills requirements. According to PwC’s May 2025 Pulse Survey, 40% of tech leaders rank the pace of technology innovation as a top-three barrier to delivering on their tech strategies. Talent and skills shortages are a major hurdle, cited by 38% of respondents. Adapting employee skills to new roles is particularly problematic for realizing value from AI agents, according to 29% of respondents to PwC’s AI Agent survey.
Previous waves of technological change (cloud modernization, for example) required CIOs to cultivate new IT architecture and technical skills. But the AI era is far more complex. CIOs are facing a soup-to-nuts recasting of both technical and soft skills in addition to traditional roles and new human-to-agent interactions. This creates a paradigm shift that requires close alignment with HR.
The scope of what’s required isn’t lost on IT leadership: confidence in their ability to build a talent pipeline for future skills.
This resource gap threatens the ability to scale AI and the potential for measurable business value. “This isn’t just about IT talent — this is end-to-end talent transformation,” notes Dan Priest, PwC’s chief AI officer.
Retooling the talent pipeline
Working together, IT and HR leaders can address talent pipeline deficiencies, define evolving AI skills needs, and reorient departments to take advantage of this new hybrid workforce. Their shared agenda should encompass:
Redefining workplace structure. CIOs and CHROs should work together to reimage teams that support the optimal mix of human talent and agents while defining tasks and processes that should be automated and those requiring human-in-the-loop intervention. The collaboration should also yield a new talent architecture that includes revised hiring, performance management, and compensation strategies.
“It’s not just the organizations who are implementing Al that are new to it – many of the vendors providing the technology are also new to this world,” says Rani Radhakrishnan, Principal, Al and Analytics Managed Services Leader, PwC US. “So, there’s a lot of change management and process standardization required. Many organizations will also need to solve for a large backlog of technical debt. That’s difficult to do on your own.”
Review your organizational model. Corporate structure is also on the table. Most companies are currently oriented around a standards culture, which encourages people to follow agreed upon business practices and workflows. The accelerated pace of AI technology requires an organizational model designed to move at the speed of innovation. “Most companies are still struggling to get value from this technology by cultivating the right talent and focusing on the right engineering problems to do big things,” notes Priest. “There needs to be a shift from standards culture to innovation culture, and most companies aren’t built to take on any of that.”
Upskilling the workforce. Creating an AI-ready workforce involves more than teaching employees new AI prompting or vibe coding skills. People at every level should embrace a learning and reskilling mentality, reinforced through IT, HR, and executive leadership.
PwC recommends executive leadership commit between 10 to 20 hours to hands-on work with AI, including building agents and leveraging large language models (LLMs) for standard business use. Those in more technical roles should devote between 20 to 50 hours to hands-on orientation. “You have to make sure everyone knows what AI is at a baseline level, and those driving the change have to be proficient at a technical level,” says Cenk Ozdemir, CIO Advisory Lead and Global Tech Growth Leader for PwC Advisory.
Cultivate technical and soft skills. While new technical skills are essential, soft skills help drive AI change management and adoption. Business orientation gives employees a keen understanding of how the business operates and helps identify where AI can drive better outcomes. In addition, there are new AI-related opportunities that require non-technical skills in areas like critical thinking and compliance — for example, AI orchestrator.
“The talent model will have a seismic shift, and we’ll see more roles doing different things in different ways,” says Danielle Phaneuf, partner, PwC Corporate Technology Strategy. “AI isn’t a replacement for human talent; it’s a force multiplier for how organizations work.”
Encourage experimentation and continuous learning. AI is constantly evolving, which means continuous learning and upskilling is key. Along with the standard training courseware, organizations should get creative with upskilling, instituting experiences that gamify the process and promote a culture of innovation. One large commercial real estate company is using prompt-a-thons and prompt marketplaces to democratize use of generative AI. “It’s helping drive engagement — more than 70% of employees are now using AI assistants,” said the technology and innovation leader.
The bottom line
With so much riding on AI transformation, companies should be strategic about empowering new work patterns. The CIO/CHRO partnership will be an essential force for reshaping the workforce to thrive in the new era.
To learn more, visit AI agents for IT: PwC
