Strategic Intelligence: The Future of Work

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are the central disruptive technologies that will transform work and workplaces, with this disruption already underway. However, technologies like autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the Industrial Internet also have important roles to play. Today’s tech giants are generally best positioned to thrive in the future of work because they span multiple disruptive technologies while benefiting from significant scale. The future of work will entail profound economic change, but also poses significant social and ethical challenges.

Key Highlights

• AI remains the hottest enterprise tech trend. After early experimentation with generative AI, enterprises have shifted focus to agentic AI as they seek meaningful returns on investments. Agentic AI systems can act autonomously, making decisions and taking actions with limited or no human supervision. Adoption is at a tipping point, accelerating across all major sectors as enterprises move from proof of concept to commercial deployment. Large language models (LLMs) are unprofitable today, but our modelling suggests they can be profitable by 2030 (in terms of return on investment), with agentic AI as the catalyst.
• Rapid advances in AI have fueled fears of mass job losses. Technological advances throughout history have triggered panic over permanent mass unemployment, yet have proved to be net job creators over time. However, this time might be different, because AI can automate complex cognitive work typically performed by white-collar employees. A 2025 World Economic Forum report found 40% of employers expect to reduce workforces where AI can automate tasks. The impact of AI on employment is not predestined, but the assumption is that it will ultimately create more jobs than it destroys, although what these jobs will be is not yet fully understood.

Report Scope

• This report provides an overview of the future of work, one of the most important themes impacting the world in which we live.
• It includes a comprehensive thematic framework for looking at the future of work. This framework comprises five categories: automation, interpretation, connectivity, visualization, and collaboration.

Reasons to Buy

• The future of work will reshape both factories and offices, encouraging greater collaboration between humans and technology and empowering workers with new digital skills. In the background, technology is bringing about profound political, economic, and social change, especially visible in changing demographics and the issues it raises, the debate around greater automation, and how themes like artificial intelligence (AI) could change the way we work. This report helps you make sense of this vitally important theme, by providing you with a clear thematic framework.
• In addition, we identify those companies that are developing and adopting the most advanced technologies across the future of work framework. These companies are the most likely to emerge as winners in this theme.