Digital employees are here: What now?

We are seeing AI’s influence deep within corporate boardrooms, hallways, remote offices and homes of consumers and businesses alike.

Countless articles have been written about concerns for employees being replaced by AI. Most offer a dystopian future of robots and chatbots replacing real humans in business roles, which fuels fears and strengthens the legend of AI, but is it accurate?

The recent EY Agentic AI in the Workplace Survey found 84% of employees are eager to embrace agentic AI in their roles, yet more than half (56%) worry about job security among AI agents. An alarming 51% fear agentic AI may make their jobs obsolete.

But uncertainty often breeds opportunities. The World Economic Forum has consistently emphasized that skills of the future will hinge on creativity, problem-solving and emotional intelligence. How well you survive and thrive in this emerging environment may depend on your adaptability and ability to turn complexity into advantage with well-defined boundaries, governance structures, employee training and more.

The future is our present

What was once the imaginative domain of “The Jetsons” or “Westworld” is becoming reality for many business leaders and team members in 2026 and beyond.

“Rosie the Robot,” androids and “Uniblab” are now considered co-workers through digital integration, and the workforce demands updated skills and experience in AI from seasoned and newly minted employees alike.

According to a 2024 Citi GPS report, analysts expect 1.3 billion intelligent robots in the workforce by 2035 and 4 billion by 2050, blurring the line between digital and physical.

But what will work look like when digital employees, such as AI-powered agents, and physical AI (robots) become active participants in our workforce?

AI is no longer a passive tool; it’s becoming an active participant in the workplace. Are we ready for a work environment infused with AI innovation where human creativity, empathy and trust are the only enduring differentiators?

Future skills and applied creativity

Organizations are implementing physical AI and agents capable of strategic collaboration, executing complex decision-making and even leading aspects of business workflows.

One thing is worthy of emphasis: The rise of digital employees does not diminish the human role; it elevates it. The future will reward those who can:

• Apply creativity: turning AI outputs into real-world value through design, storytelling and experimentation.
• Curate and orchestrate AI: managing agent teams, knowing when to trust their outputs, and when to override.
• Build trust in systems: ensuring transparency, explainability and accountability across human-AI collaboration.
• Practice empathy and leadership: guiding humans through change, ensuring inclusion and shaping culture.

As these technologies continue rapidly scaling, organizations that do more than automate, cultivating environments where humans and digital employees can seamlessly work side-by-side, will set the pace of innovation.

While this inevitable shift is unlocking unprecedented gains in productivity and efficiency, it poses new challenges in oversight, ethics and trust.

Organizations often struggle to keep up with technological changes while remaining true to their core competencies. It helps to have someone, such as a creative technologist, bridge the divide between business as usual and a more challenging, creative future of work.

The role of a creative technologist is critical. Professionals who straddle technology, business and the arts will affirm that AI adoption is human-centric, ethical and generative of new value.

In the age of AI-powered digital automation, human creativity and trust are the only differentiators. Organizations that thrive in this new era will not simply automate – they will cultivate new forms of creativity, trust and collaboration among humans and digital employees alike.

Domhnaill Hernon is global lead for the EY Intelligent Realities Lab. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

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