Deloitte: Why Business Agility is Central to AI Adoption

AI is reshaping how organisations compete, and business leaders are responding by placing agility at the heart of their strategies.

In fact, according to Deloitte's annual Global Human Capital Trends Report, seven in 10 executives say their competitive approach over the next three years centres on adapting quickly and staying nimble as AI investments accelerate across sectors.

The report, which surveyed more than 9,000 business and human resources (HR) leaders across 89 countries and multiple industries, reveals that leaders view two factors as most critical to success: accelerating the rate at which their workforce can perform and increasing their organisation's capacity to adapt to shifting market demands.

As AI technologies evolve at pace, the research suggests that cultivating this agility requires workforce redesigns that support human-AI collaboration alongside learning and development initiatives that enhance AI literacy across the organisation.

Human capabilities must match technological investment

Despite AI's transformative potential, Deloitte's research uncovers a concerning pattern. The majority of businesses adopt what the report characterises as a 'tech-focused approach' to AI integration, yet these organisations are 1.6 times more likely to fail to see returns on their AI investments compared to those taking alternative strategies.

The research advocates for a human-centric approach instead, where businesses prioritise developing human capabilities alongside technological ones. This means HR leaders must fundamentally rethink organisational culture to create environments where people and AI agents can work side by side effectively.

According to Deloitte, organisations that redesign employee workflows and roles to support this relationship could deliver more meaningful work with the technology and potentially see higher investment returns.

Accenture has demonstrated this approach in practice, announcing in 2025 that it was bringing its strategy, consulting, technology and other teams into one integrated business unit called "Reinvention Services". The company says this function has been designed to create solutions faster and embed AI more easily into its delivery model.

Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, said at the time: "Today, our clients need more value faster and Accenture is their reinvention partner of choice. These changes to our growth model will allow us to deliver that value and continue to scale our business by being an even stronger engine of reinvention that more rapidly delivers the power of Gen AI.

"We are writing the playbook for how to be the most AI-enabled, client-focused professional services company in the world and a great place to work for our people – our reinventors."

Building trust through experimentation

Beyond structural changes, successful AI integration depends on what Deloitte terms 'softwiring'. This encompasses ensuring that leadership and company culture provide employees with the trust and confidence to experiment and learn with AI technologies.

When systems are built to encourage continuous learning, the research suggests, employees could feel empowered by disruption rather than threatened by it.

This cultural shift becomes increasingly urgent as the skills gap widens. Research from the Josh Bersin Company finds that 74% of organisations say they are not keeping pace with their businesses' need for new skills in the AI era.

Rethinking learning and development

To address this challenge, Deloitte's research recommends that organisations fundamentally reinvent their approach to L&D opportunities. The traditional model of structured training programmes may no longer suffice in an environment where AI capabilities evolve rapidly and new applications emerge constantly.

Josh Bersin, CEO of the Josh Bersin Company, says: "Our skills challenge at work is not one of 'learning' or 'training'. Rather it's a problem of dynamically sharing information, enabling people to explore, question, and apply new ideas. The traditional pedagogical paradigm of "training" is holding us back."

As AI continues to reshape business operations and competitive dynamics, the research suggests that organisations focusing solely on technological implementation without corresponding investments in workforce agility, culture and continuous learning could struggle to realise the full value of their AI initiatives.

The path forward appears to require a balanced approach where human adaptability and technological capability advance together.