The transition to an AI-driven enterprise is often framed as a technological evolution, but at its core, it is a profoundly human one. As a people leader, I know it’s not enough to simply roll out AI agents. We need to fundamentally rethink the nature of work and intentionally design how humans and digital workers collaborate side-by-side.
This starts with the org chart.
AI agents aren’t exactly employees but they’re not just tools either. They are a new identity type that challenges current ways of working, ranging from how we define roles to how we collaborate and keep systems and data secure. The question is no longer if AI will change our organizations, but how we strategically integrate digital workers to build a more secure, efficient, and collaborative enterprise.
Okta has provided a blueprint for securing the agentic enterprise. I’d like to expand on that from an HR perspective to show business leaders how classifying AI agents as a new identity type and capturing them on the org chart can help bolster collaboration, transformation, and security.
Introducing a new identity type, the digital worker
There is a very real and understandable anxiety in the workforce right now—people naturally fear that AI is coming for their jobs. Business leaders must guide their teams through both psychological and cultural shifts to help employees see AI as an enabler, rather than a threat.
HR has a fundamental mandate to help employees navigate these changes. Culture is built in micro-moments, and the language we use matters because it shapes behavior. When we call AI a “tool,” we miss its potential. But if we treat it exactly like a human, it creates understandable anxiety. By introducing the idea of a “digital worker,” we’re giving this new identity type a clear place on the team.
We are building a collaborative future where digital workers resolve the manual, repetitive friction so our people can deliver the more complex, strategic work that makes their contributions uniquely human. In this way I think AI is going to redesign, not take, jobs.
Why it’s worth naming your digital workers
Until now, we’ve largely experimented with AI for basic productivity gains—like summarizing emails or generating slide decks. The real transformation happens when we move beyond using AI as a standalone tool and start relying on it to execute actual parts of a role.
To do this, we must decompose existing roles into specific tasks. When you decompose a role down to the task level, you can push manual or routine processes off to digital workers. Consequently, the human skills that are prioritized include things like complex decision-making, strategic judgment, and vigilant oversight.
As agents take on more day-to-day tasks, it can be a really useful framing exercise to give them a name. Let's say you name an AI agent “Hank.” Once Hank is on the team, you can ask: What is Hank accountable for? Where does the handoff to the human employee happen? It sounds simple, but giving digital workers a clear identity helps drive accountability and more vigilant oversight.
Maintaining visibility across all workers—including the digital ones
AI is also changing cross-functional work by allowing us to create workflows across functions. For example, most organizations have some form of R&D or tech product. They have a go-to-market organization. They have a finance department and legal team. Today, workflows often take place within those functions with a human managing the hand-offs between functions.
Soon AI agents will be managing workflows that span functions and teams. Take, for instance, the act of paying an employee. That runs across finance, payroll, the compensation team, the HR team, and the employee’s manager. There's a whole series of interactions that currently occur in silos, but with AI agents, you can break down those silos and automate more of that workflow. But the complexity of those handoffs—and not being able to follow them—introduces security risks.
This is why mapping digital workers onto the org chart isn't just an HR exercise; it’s how we secure the enterprise. Leaders must be able to answer: Where are my agents? What can they connect to? What can they do?
By approaching digital workers with the same rigor and visibility as our human teams, we can both secure the enterprise and help unlock new innovation and opportunities for our employees.
Confronting AI anxiety with opportunity
AI anxiety isn’t going away anytime soon. AI may be the technology, but the transition is largely about psychology. It is a fraught time, and it’s okay to acknowledge that anxiety.
The role of a leader isn't just change management through this shift; it's helping people understand why they are uniquely valued. By consciously redesigning roles to use AI for repetitive tasks, leaders can unlock more meaningful, complex work for their teams.
The success of this transition also requires leaders to prioritize visibility. Visibility into how AI agents and humans work together, visibility into expectations for each, and visibility into what agents exist so you can secure them.
Learn more about managing AI agents in the workplace from our global study of executives and knowledge workers.
