The rise of the digital workforce
“Stop hiring humans.”
That was the headline greeting commuters at Old Street Station in London a couple of weeks ago, part of a viral campaign by San Francisco based Artisan at the start of London Tech Week. People were outraged, and the company quickly laughed it off as a stunt.
But here’s the thing. They might be right.
I spent a bit of time recently at Agentforce World Tour, one of the major Salesforce conferences. Salesforce have invested a fortune in their Agentforce platform, which they dub the “digital workforce”. Agents will do your marketing for you. Your outreach. Even your recruiting. I watched one case study in which an AI agent was embedded into a company’s careers page, guiding candidates to the relevant positions and supporting them through the application process. So far, so normal. When a cadndidate hit the “apply” button, however, they received a phone call from an AI recruiter, asking some basic screening questions before scheduling an initial video call with its human counterpart. It was easy to tell there was something synthetic about this recruiter, and it self-identified as AI, but the gap between organic and synthetic is closing.
As we head into the second half of 2025, we’re not on the cusp anymore. The Rubicon has been crossed. Stealthily, subtly, and quite irreversibly, the digital workforce has arrived. If you’re not ready, you might already be too late. And that unsettled feeling at the base of your brain? You should listen to it…
Those of you actively using AI are likely seeing that your level of adoption has increased rapidly. In two and a half years, ChatGPT has attracted 800 million users. That’s 10% of the world. And it’s growing exponentially. But while many are still in the “edit my LinkedIn posts” phase, some are going further, building AI SDRs and replacing entire functions. I have a board of custom GPTs that I consult regularly, including a CFO, Chair, COO and Chief Marketing Officer. In fact, creating that latter meant that instead of hiring an expensive, experienced Marketing Director, I was able to recruit someone new to the role and teach them to deliver, with my “Marketing Guru” GPT as my guide.
This is an important point to consider. Businesses around the world are struggling to survive, and will grasp at any advantage they can find. Saving money through judicious use of AI tools is an obvious path to take. It doesn’t matter whether we like it or are comfortable with it. The window for AI adoption being optional for businesses is closing rapidly, and we’re hurtling towards a new reality. It’s time to adjust.
There are four clear outcomes of this shift (and many more that are yet to be determined). Firstly, I struggle to conceive of a future in which companies aren’t smaller. OpenAI itself has less than 100 employees, and is valued at $324 billion at time of writing. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated in a recent email to his staff, later published publicly, that the company will reduce the size of its workforce as a result of AI productivity gains. Every entrepreneur and business owner I know is considering technology before committing to new hires.
The second outcome may balance the impact of the first, because it’s now easier than ever to start a company, which should mean more of them exist. This could offset some the job losses caused by business shrinkage, but scaling is likely to become more difficult as markets get more congested. Capability won’t be the differentiator, but brand, human connection and uniqueness, which are much harder to replicate.
There’s no question that whatever career you thought you were going to have, your path now looks markedly different. Individually, we’ll all have to reskill. In fact, if you haven’t started already, it’s time to get to work. Companies, too, must focus on developing their people. All the tools in the world will be of little benefit if you don’t know how to use them, or what to use them for.
Finally, businesses must adapt. Those of you who are running companies, divisions or teams can’t afford to wait for permission. Companies that don’t embed AI into their operations will simply not survive - they’ll be undercut, outsmarted and out-executed into insignificance. This change will be more challenging for large organisations, but not impossible. Certainly, though, any startup founded from today onwards needs to be AI-first in its infrastructure. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself cast as the business equivalent of the Polish cavalry charging toward German tanks, or newspapers clinging desperately to outdated business models as the internet drowned them all.
There are, of course, many moral and philosophical debates to engage in about the rise of the digital workforce. I prefer to be practical. Is it fair? Maybe not. Is it dangerous? Probably, yes. But is it happening? Without question. Trying to resist is like using sandbags to hold back a tsunami. Admirable, perhaps, but ultimately futile. We absolutely need to discuss regulation, responsibility and implications. But individually, and as business leaders, we must lean in. Fair doesn’t matter when you’re trying to put food on the table. Instead, deepen your expertise, search for ways to create unique, significant value for others and educate yourself. It’s your only hope.
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