How To Lead When Your Team Is Half Human, Half AI

Welcome to AI at work. 

The tipping point for AI has arrived, with a Slack survey finding that daily AI use has more than doubled in just six months. This is a fundamental shift in how we think about productivity and what we can accomplish in a day.

The results speak for themselves. People who use AI agents are 72% more likely to feel highly productive, and they’re spending nearly 40% less of their week on tedious administrative work. This is driving a massive economic shift, with PwC forecasting that AI will inject $15.7 trillion into the global economy by 2030.

So, we have a huge opportunity in front of us, but also a pretty urgent question: How do we actually make this work for us? It’s one thing to have a promising new tool, but it's another to build it into an enterprisewide system that’s powerful, secure, and transformative. That’s where the real work begins, and it’s what we’ve focused on with this month’s content. 

We’ll dive into practical applications of AI, from the C-suite to your next conference call. We’ll explore how senior executives use AI to shape strategy and make high-stakes decisions, how Salesforce is preparing its workforce for AI agents, how humans and agents can best work together, and much more. 

— Lisa Lee, Contributing Editor, Salesforce 

The rise of digital workers: Rethinking leadership for an AI world

AI agent adoption is set to surge more than 300% over the next two years, transforming the makeup of teams across every industry. Managers won't just be leading people, they’ll be guiding a blended workforce of humans and AI agents. That means new skills, new responsibilities, new KPIs, and a new definition of high performance. What does it take to manage this hybrid workforce effectively? From collaboration strategies to oversight tactics, here’s what you need to know to lead in the agentic AI era.

5 things I learned after introducing AI agents to my team

A Salesforce customer success executive writes about his experience introducing AI agents at work. From managing anxiety over job loss to building trust and onboarding the agent, here’s what worked. Key takeaways: Start small, think big, and stay human. 

How daily AI use unlocks exponential gains

AI power users — those who use it every day — are seeing the biggest benefits, with 64% more likely to say they’re productive. They’re also less burned out and more satisfied overall. And the more they use AI, the more they trust it, which leads to even greater cumulative effects. Who’s leading this shift, and what can your company do to increase adoption? Lucas Puente, head of research at Slack, explains how AI is fueling a “virtuous cycle” of productivity and trust. 

4 ways to build an AI usage policy that protects and empowers your org

Your employees are already using AI, whether you’ve sanctioned it or not. This creates a risky gap between corporate ambition and day-to-day reality. The data is clear: When companies provide clear AI guidelines and training, employees are up to 19 times more likely to report productivity gains. Without a policy, you’re missing a major competitive advantage. This four-step guide offers a doable framework to close that gap, helping you build a policy that encourages innovation while safeguarding your business.

This newsletter was curated by Lisa DiCarlo Lee, Contributing Editor at Salesforce.