HRMARS - The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents’ autonomous systems capable of perceiving, reasoning and acting with minimal human intervention marks a significant shift in the organization of work and productivity. Unlike conventional automation, AI agents demonstrate adaptive and goal-oriented capabilities that enable them to support complex workflows, enhance decision-making processes and facilitate human-AI collaboration across organizational settings. Prior studies suggest that AI-enabled and agentic systems have the potential to improve work productivity, operational efficiency and innovation capacity; however, recent literature also indicates that productivity measurement remains inconsistent across sectors, particularly when technical performance metrics are not integrated with human-centred, organizational, safety and economic indicators. This concept paper examines the technological foundations of AI agents, their organizational deployment pathways and the conceptual pathways through which AI agents may influence operational efficiency, innovation and human–AI collaboration. It also discusses the socio-economic and ethical implications of integrating autonomous systems into the workforce, with particular attention to human roles, accountability, transparency, reskilling needs and long-term organizational sustainability. By synthesizing current literature, the paper contributes a conceptual understanding of how AI agents may reshape work systems while highlighting the need for responsible governance and balanced evaluation frameworks.
Maharudin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.