Illustration by Alex Robbins
Think about stepping onto a steamship alongside the Hudson River in 1900, setting off on a transatlantic journey that can take a full week. You flip to a fellow passenger and say, “In only a few many years, this identical journey will take seven hours—and we’ll do it within the sky.” You’d possible be met with well mannered disbelief, perhaps even a chuckle. The thought would sound extra like fantasy than foresight. And but, that’s precisely what occurred. What as soon as appeared inconceivable shortly grew to become the brand new regular.
And that’s about to occur with AI and enterprise, however with as soon as unimaginable progress compressed into a number of years as an alternative of many years. Many organizations are within the preliminary section of AI transformation, with people tapping AI as an assistant. Some have already reached the second section, forming groups of people and brokers working collectively towards widespread targets.
However section three, the Frontier Agency, the place people empower AI to turn into the operational engine of enterprise—and brokers turn into the first producers of labor—is more durable to check. It’s “imagining the inconceivable” territory. And the primary barrier to getting there’s not the bounds of expertise; it’s the problem of imagining a completely new approach to work and construction organizations, then determining methods to execute that transformation.
The three phases of AI transformation
As we mentioned final month within the 2025 Work Development Index Annual Report, we see organizations transferring by means of three phases on their approach to turning into fully new companies, powered by intelligence on demand. Data employees will now not deal with all data work, with brokers executing increasingly of it. Human roles will refocus round imaginative and prescient, technique, relationship constructing, and managing brokers.
At Microsoft, we’re not simply speaking about this transformation—we’re residing it. Our gross sales group is actively navigating all three phases without delay. By testing and scaling new instruments like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gross sales Chat, and our autonomous Gross sales Agent, we’re studying what works, the place the friction factors are, and methods to evolve each our expertise and our methods of working. These inside experiences are serving to us refine the trail ahead—not only for ourselves, however for each group on this journey.
“The core of what makes a great vendor hasn’t modified,” says Pam Maynard, our Chief AI Transformation Officer for Microsoft Industrial. “They deeply perceive the shopper’s context, priorities, and ache factors, after which map our options to these wants.” More and more, that can come from hybrid groups of people + brokers.
Section 1: Human with assistant
Each worker makes use of AI as a private assistant to work higher and sooner—writing, analyzing knowledge, producing code. That is about productiveness on a private degree relatively than workforce or organizational. At scale, the affect means organizations working in the identical means, utilizing the identical processes however extra effectively. In section one, people nonetheless drive the work.
For our gross sales group, this step has centered on high-volume duties: the executive work that sellers typically repeat dozens of occasions a day, like updating CRM data or taking assembly notes. “Copilot tackles the executive trivia so sellers can spend extra time connecting with clients,” Maynard says.
The outcomes? One gross sales workforce of practically 700 individuals has already reported 9.4% greater income per individual and 20% extra offers closed in comparison with their friends with decrease Copilot usage1—concrete good points that present how AI is driving actual enterprise outcomes.
Section 2: Human-agent groups
Brokers be part of the workforce as digital colleagues, taking over particular duties at human course—triaging assist tickets, dealing with mission administration, facilitating conferences, contributing to brainstorming classes. Brokers enhance effectivity and productiveness on the workforce degree, increase workers with new abilities, and free them as much as tackle new, extra useful duties.
At Microsoft, this shift is embodied in Gross sales Chat, an extension of Copilot that brings wealthy CRM and gross sales context immediately into the vendor’s workflow. As an alternative of toggling between dozens of instruments to organize for a buyer assembly, sellers can now get immediate entry to detailed account and alternative info, together with licensing particulars, renewal timelines, and key decision-makers. It additionally surfaces high-level account summaries and income breakdowns, provides real-time teaching, and supplies predictive insights to forecast deal outcomes and recommend subsequent steps. “Earlier than Gross sales Chat, sellers needed to swivel between 20 totally different instruments simply to get the total image,” Maynard says. “Now they’ll merely ask, ‘What do I must know earlier than my assembly with this buyer?’ and get every little thing in a single place. It factors them straight to the highest-value motion they’ll take.”
Section 3: Human-led, agent-operated
People outline technique and assign targets to brokers. These brokers work largely with different brokers to carry out advanced operations, escalating points to people for steerage when obligatory. Brokers will design workflows and even consider each other. People will monitor their progress by means of dashboards that summarize agentic actions, intervening just for important choices. We’ll see the emergence of a brand new profession alternative for people within the AI age: agent supervisor, charged with constructing, delegating to, and supervising digital colleagues.
Progress by means of these phases gained’t essentially be linear—many firms will discover themselves in a couple of on the identical time—and there shall be a “jagged frontier” of AI transformation as you roll out section three approaches throughout initiatives and groups. That’s a part of progress, in any case—individuals crossed the Atlantic by way of steamship properly past the daybreak of the aviation age.
The section 3 frontier
Letting go of a extra hands-on human position in day-to-day operations will really feel daunting—particularly in these early days. And being the primary mover will at all times really feel dangerous, however granting machines such unprecedented autonomy requires a brand new degree of belief in our instruments, and an understanding of what they’ll and can’t do properly.
However with somewhat creativeness you possibly can transfer ahead boldly and with manageable threat by taking a step-by-step method: experimenting on low-stakes initiatives, verifying that they’re working properly, documenting your learnings, after which scaling them.
For instance, many firms rent gross sales improvement representatives to do the required however repetitive work of prospecting potential clients. An agent can tackle that entry-level job in a territory the place you weren’t planning to rent a human anyway. It’s the distinction between hiring a digital employee—and discovering worth in an in any other case uncovered market—or no employee in any respect.
Our gross sales workforce makes use of our new Gross sales Agent to deal with precisely that kind of labor. It could actually analysis leads, arrange conferences, and e mail clients. A human vendor takes over when it’s time to shut the deal, similar to they’d with any early-in-career gross sales improvement rep. (Ultimately, the agent will be capable to shut the deal itself.)
We’ve began in our small-to-medium enterprise section, the place the dimensions of alternative far exceeds what human sellers can cowl. “There may be completely zero probability we might successfully cowl that chance with people,” Maynard says. “It’s not about changing sellers—it’s about unlocking worth that was beforehand out of attain.” Many of those clients are already utilizing Microsoft merchandise however haven’t had a direct relationship with a vendor. Gross sales Agent adjustments that, proactively figuring out wants, providing tailor-made options, and enhancing the shopper expertise in a means that’s each scalable and cost-effective. In simply the previous three months, the agent has reached out to 36,000 prospects to generate gross sales leads, changing 10.4% into gross sales alternatives.2
Section three remains to be early days for us. Even so, the shift is already giving rise to a brand new idea: the AI territory. “In a conventional territory, you assign a vendor. In an AI territory, you assign an agent that may function independently and ship worth,” Maynard says. “It’s a brand new enterprise mannequin for scale.”
A brand new perspective on AI and belief
It’s properly established that we readily settle for the dangers that include human errors whereas holding machines to a a lot greater customary (self-driving automobiles, for instance). Within the context of enterprise, we fear AI may say or do the flawed factor, although we tolerate these identical flaws in individuals each day. This uneven threat tolerance deserves examination, particularly since AI methods can already do way more than we allow them to.
Take into account how OpenAI o3’s potential to cause has introduced breathtaking progress on key intelligence benchmarks. With AI creating so quickly, is it extra of a threat to take a leap or to maintain ready? Keep in mind: firms have numerous methods in place to mitigate threat attributable to people, they usually can and can develop them for AI as properly.
What’s extra, no firm is touring the trail to turning into a Frontier Agency for its personal sake. Section three–type transformation gained’t simply affect organizational buildings; it’ll additionally drive development. As you progress by means of this journey, the price of human labor will lower whereas digital labor prices rise, albeit marginally. Over time, new income streams will emerge, resulting in an total enhance in revenue margins.
Section three means transferring from directing individuals to designing methods. Management, in the meantime, shifts past managing individuals to orchestrating efficiency. To get began, take a look at a brand new method: select one course of in an space of low threat and robust potential, and check out making it agent-led.
Worrying concerning the unknown is comprehensible. However the true threat right here is inaction. The groundbreaking Frontier Companies that can reimagine data work and dominate their industries within the coming decade are already pulling forward.
