AI is driving a workforce transformation

The rapid influx of AI in its various forms is inevitably leading to workforce transformation. What is less clear is exactly how the transformation will play out.

AI is a factor in several recent layoffs at Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft and other companies. However, there's evidence that while AI may affect jobs that require manual or routine labor, it will also spur job growth and productivity gains.

There appears to be little doubt AI will be an integral part of workers' lives going forward. According to research presented at the Gartner IT Symposium in October, a survey of CIOs by Gartner indicates that by 2030, they expect 0% of IT work will be done by humans without AI, 75% will be done by humans augmented with AI and 25% will be done by AI alone.

TechTarget spoke with Graig Paglieri, CEO of Randstad Digital, about the changing nature of the workforce. Randstadt Digital, a division of the Netherlands-based global staffing company Randstad, focuses on providing workers to meet the digital transformation needs of enterprises. The firm operates across four vertical areas -- customer experience, cloud and infrastructure, data and analytics, and product engineering.

Paglieri discusses how the AI transformation is affecting jobs and some of the characteristics of the Gen Z generation that's currently entering the workforce.

Editor's note: The following transcript was edited for length and clarity.

How do you view the current workforce transformation? For example, Gartner research indicates that 0% of work will be done without AI help by 2030, and 25% will be done by AI agents alone.

Graig Paglieri: I agree with those proportions and ratios. We're already seeing it significantly in developer roles. It's not that they're completely going away and being replaced by agents, but instead of a company needing four or five developers, they need one or two. There's definitely that augmented agent support. The shift toward components of tech modernization that can be outsourced to an agent is the roadmap.

Graig Paglieri

There's evidence that many jobs will be lost to AI, but we also hear that AI will create other jobs. What are you seeing?

Paglieri: There's going to be both. There are going to be jobs that are lost, and there will be challenges around upskilling and repurposing some roles. But companies that are ahead of the game are going to transform the way they operate with AI in mind.

For example, internally, our recruiting function has been tech-enabled for many years, but with agentic AI and the move to more platform capabilities, the recruiter role will shift. We're not going to need recruiters trying to find people on a job board, source them, match them and see if they're available. All of that can be done through AI technology.

But can [the recruiters] do a better job of advising the talent that's been identified on the right role? Can they manage their onboarding? Can they help redeploy them to their next assignment? Those are a lot of the services and functions that get lost today because so much time is spent on the front end dealing with manual, fragmented and cumbersome processes.

A significant aspect of the transformation involves Gen Z workers entering the workforce. What are some characteristics of how these workers are being integrated into the workforce?

Paglieri: Recent Randstadt Digital research shows a small percentage of them -- under 5% -- plan to spend more than 10 years in their company. This can make it challenging, particularly in professional services where it's a big commitment both for the organization and the employee to become productive. They're not recognizing that this is going to take multiple years in phases to develop the skills and capabilities to advance rather than just moving on to the next thing.

Flexibility ties into that, too. Forty-five percent of the people we polled said flexibility was the most important factor. Compensation's there, but there's this idea that they're not going to be bogged down by geography and working in the office. Having different, flexible hours is way more important than in past generations.

The AI-focused workforce transformation seems to be having a greater effect on entry-level positions. How does the incoming workforce generation deal with that, and how do companies deal with the experience gaps that this will likely produce?

Paglieri: This is where the importance of softer skills might come in -- the ability to differentiate and distinguish yourself. The human aspect of your value is more valuable than someone else, where maybe being more technically proficient in the past isn't quite as critical. But it's also where flexibility comes in as well -- taking internships, recognizing that you're not necessarily going to go right into what you thought was your desired field. Are you being flexible enough in finding ways into the workforce?

But companies also have to continue to change their expectations and how they're bringing in and onboarding talent, and recognize that there's a need to have balance based on this disruption that's with us.

Where is AI affecting the job market now, as some jobs that were hot a few years ago may be going away? What jobs are needed now?

Paglieri: First, the economy and market conditions are adding to the dilemma that we're in, so it's not just AI. That has this compounding effect -- AI is creating some disruption and uncertainty, and the macro environment is as weird and wacky as it's ever been. Where is it going? There's a ton of work that needs to be done -- for digital transformation in particular. We're going to see roles such as project managers and business analysts -- which may have slowed down a little bit now because of that AI uncertainty -- pick back up as these engagements need to move faster. That human-in-the-loop with technology role is still critical. Having a foundation in AI skills and some other technical skills is important.

What's your overall feeling about the job market in the next few years? Optimism or pessimism?

Paglieri: It's definitely optimism. We're in the later stages of the first chapter [of the AI transformation], which starts with a lot of enthusiasm and energy. It also applies to tech services in general. There's been lots of growth, but now there's been a little bit of plateauing. There's still so much digital transformation work that needs to be done that 2026 is going to have a lot more growth opportunity than we've seen in 2025 -- and certainly [more than we] saw in 2024. We're starting to see some early signs of that, and 2027 and 2028 are going to be more productive and positive than 2026. 

Jim O'Donnell is a news director for TechTarget, where he covers IT strategy and enterprise ESG.