Series: 50 Most Pressing Questions Facing Managers in 2026.
SUMMARY
The future of teams is part human, part agent. Your people want direct line of sight to your priorities, goals and metrics—and so do your agents. A great team isn’t a team centered on AI; it’s a team centered on its people, with agents contributing to the work people own. Agents execute tasks. Humans own outcomes. Here are three ways to ratchet up productivity when you’re managing both.
WHY: It’s a Small Matter of People
One of the great experiences of my professional life was serving as the host of the leadership meetings for John Chambers when he was CEO of Cisco and the company was in its heyday.
None of those memories are more important than hearing Rick Justice, who was the global sales leader at Cisco when I worked there, take the stage and share with the management team his secret to success: what he called “a small matter of people.”
Rick was trying to remind us that greatness comes from people, not the products Cisco made.
I think today in the age of AI, Rick’s message couldn’t be more important. A great team isn’t a team centered on AI; it’s a team centered on its people. The future of teams is part human, part agent. Agents contribute to outcomes, but people are responsible for outcomes. AI is part of the answer, but the people on the team are the key to a high performing team.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
Your team—humans and agents—delivers more output with the same resources through better prioritization and workflows. Humans spend time on higher-level work because agents handle volume tasks. When agents execute well, your people have capacity for strategy, relationships, and judgment calls that only humans can make. When everything feels urgent, nothing is — great managers constantly clarify the top priorities so people and agents align to what moves the needle.