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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Professionals are urged to move into AI roles, but which ones?
- Four emerging roles will lead the agentic AI revolution.
- Managing agents requires both business and technical acumen.
Study after study urges everyone to get on board the artificial intelligence and agentic AI train, with promises of substantially higher income and greater job security. This push to move into AI-enabled roles leaves technology and business professionals with a burning question: What, exactly, are the roles for which they need to prepare? Who will lead the agentic revolution?
For professionals with technology acumen, at least four emerging job roles are emerging, especially with the rise of agentic AI. I recently explored these opportunities with Andie Dovgan, chief growth officer at Creatio, who identified the emerging roles he sees: AI leaders, agent operators, AI no-code creators, and workflow architects.
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“AI is not simply being added as another layer of automation,” Dovgan explained. “It requires building new workflow architecture. It is reshaping how work itself is designed, executed, and governed.”
At the same time, he added, “these roles will not appear overnight. They will evolve from existing business, operations, and technology roles.” Skills sought require “a deliberate blend of business expertise, AI literacy, and no-code configuration.”
The common thread is ownership
Such new roles include the following four:
- AI leaders: AI leaders are responsible “for turning AI from a technical capability into business value, ensuring it is used responsibly and strategically,” said Dovgan. “This role doesn’t have a defined path and is attracting change agents focused on innovations. They oversee the application of AI in an organization, the definition and execution of a strategy to deploy agentic use cases. They combine human and digital talent.”
- Agent operators: These individuals are essentially the “human supervisors” of agentic workflows. “They monitor execution, intervene when needed, and ensure accuracy, compliance, and business continuity,” Dovgan explained. “These roles typically emerge from the business and operations side, with a deep understanding of the workflows being automated and the outcomes those workflows must deliver.”
- AI no-code creators: These professionals design, test, and deploy AI agents using no-code tools. “These roles evolve from business analysts, process owners, automation leads, and digital transformation teams who already understand how work should flow across the organization,” said Dovgan. “With no-code AI platforms, they move beyond documenting requirements to actively shaping agent goals, constraints, and behaviors.”
- Workflow analysts: These individuals take a holistic view of how humans and agents work together to accomplish tasks. “At the core is a deep understanding of the business function and workflows,” he continued. “Strong business analysis is essential to redesign work for an agentic model, not simply replicate manual or rule-based processes. Agents operate within real operational constraints, and without domain expertise, they will optimize the wrong outcomes.”
The common thread across all these roles, Dovgan added, is ownership — “ownership of outcomes, accountability for agent behavior, and continuous optimization as business conditions change.”
Early on, external help may be required to get started with agentic AI as internal teams develop their expertise and experience. “The shift elevates internal IT and operations teams,” Dovgan predicted. “They will need to learn new skills and apply different approaches towards agentic automation as previous playbooks won’t work.”
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In terms of outside expertise, at this stage in the market, “the ecosystem will be hybrid and fluid, not dominated by a single player type,” Dovgan predicted. “AI vendors will increasingly apply the forward-deployed engineering approach, working hands-on with customers to design, tune, and operationalize agents. In parallel, global consulting firms will make significant investments in agentic practices. With deep expertise in enterprise processes, governance, and compliance. Specialized boutique firms will emerge, bringing deep AI expertise focused on specific domains, industries, or use cases.”
Source: www.zdnet.com
