“AI agents do the majority of the work,” says Diasio. “We look at a group of steps, figure out what type of agent can perform them, and then the agents talk to each other and it has nothing to do with the process that was built before. It’s not about identifying and optimizing existing steps. It’s about reinventing an entirely new process that takes maybe 56 steps up to 14 and 45 hours down to 45 minutes.”
In product innovation, for example, the process begins by gathering consumer information, discovering unmet needs, and then creating a new product suited to that space. Usually, the back and forth and testing involved in this workflow can take 18 months to create a new product. However, using AI, the EY.ai Value Blueprints process starts with the same first step, but then creates a range of different options, tests them virtually with personas, gets feedback, and produces a product in a matter of weeks. Through this process, a company not only accelerates product innovation, but can also dedicate its human talent to creating new opportunities.
“A consumer products company we work with found new ways to do licensing deals that reshaped its revenue for growth in ways that weren’t humanly possible before,” says Diasio. “Another customer is now expanding into more geographies. It’s opening up the bandwidth.”
Creating new jobs for the future
Reinventing work means reinventing jobs, in a good way.
The traditional approach to AI integration has not brought benefits because it does not save much time. When companies simply use AI to automate existing tasks and then take the time to verify that automation, it doesn’t save hours or generate new benefits or breakthroughs. But when the entire workflow is reinvented and optimized for AI agents, the humans overseeing the work end up having more time to think creatively about innovation.
“We found that 83% of workers were excited about agentic AI improving their jobs,” Diasio says. “When we redesign the process, we establish that people are specifically positioned to do the parts of the job that are most creative and valuable. Instead of asking someone to do something new on top of their old job, we simply reinvent their job, which also helps perfect it for the future.”