By 2028, 15% of all work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, according to Gartner. The implications are massive, but so are the misconceptions.
While this statistic may sound alarming at first glance, especially to teams already stretched thin, the reality is far more empowering.
When people hear the term “agentic AI,” their minds often jump to worst-case scenarios: AI replacing jobs, disrupting livelihoods, or rendering human input obsolete.
Let’s be clear—that is not the vision we’re advancing.
With AgentForce, the agentic AI layer that powers the Propel One solution, we’re introducing a fundamentally different model—one where AI operates in tandem with humans, augmenting your team’s capabilities while ensuring you remain firmly in control.
As Propel CEO Ross Meyercord explains:
“When Propel One works alongside your users—it’s not about replacing people. It’s about making your existing people more productive. How do we take the more repetitive tasks off their plate so they can focus on higher-value activities?”
This is the future of human-in-the-loop systems: humans guide, validate, and collaborate with AI, not the other way around.
Below, we outline five strategic steps to help product companies embrace this shift and build a responsible, high-impact human-AI partnership from the start.
1. Establish Your AI Operating Model for Future Optimization
Before deploying agentic AI, organizations must define how and where it can drive the most immediate value. Start with repetitive, rule-based, or documentation-heavy workflows, especially in Product Engineering, Marketing, Sales, or Service.
Two examples of what Propel One can do right now:
Product Engineering Agent
Propel One’s AI agent streamlines product engineering work through intelligent automation. It can:
- Summarize item records, specifications, and revisions
- Automatically generate training quizzes from compliance documents, SOPs, user guides, and more
- Create multiple items in bulk, accelerating data entry without sacrificing accuracy
These capabilities help reduce manual effort, improve traceability, and support faster decision-making. View the AgentExchange listing here.
Product Information Agent
Propel One enables marketing, sales, and service teams to:
- Generate detailed product descriptions based on categories, attributes, and specifications
- Quickly search lengthy documents while in the field or on a call
- Instantly identify selling and cross-selling opportunities associated with a product
This shortens response times, improves accuracy, and leads to a more confident customer experience. View the AgentExchange listing here.
“We have customers whose technicians spend 30 minutes just trying to understand the job before heading out to service an asset,” says Kacey Heller, Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce.
“That’s wasted time—and it contributes directly to the seven hours a week we’re trying to reclaim with AgentForce.”
2. Define Roles and Responsibilities
AI can act, but it cannot take responsibility. Humans must remain accountable for what the business does.
Think of your AI agent as a new intern: smart, efficient, and capable, but still learning. It needs oversight, guidance, and direction.
That means defining:
- What tasks the AI is allowed to perform
- What requires human review or final approval
- How performance is measured and maintained over time
This isn’t about relinquishing control—it’s about reallocating attention to higher-value work.
3. Develop a Human-Centric Governance Framework
Deploying agentic AI isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. It requires continuous governance to ensure performance, safety, and trust.
Propel One’s AgentForce includes embedded guardrails such as:
- Dynamic grounding: Keeps LLMs tethered to real-time, factual product data
- Data masking: Protects sensitive or personal information by anonymizing it
- Toxicity detection: Filters out harmful or inappropriate language
- Zero retention: Prompts and responses are never stored—preserving privacy
- AI auditing: Validates accuracy, compliance, and bias mitigation across systems
“Agentic AI goes beyond generative AI,” says Heller. “It acts on the data, the tasks, the context your team is already dealing with—writing emails, sending SMS messages, summarizing jobs, understanding what needs to be done.”
The Agent Owner, the Human Supervisor for AI Agents
To ensure agentic AI operates safely, effectively, and in alignment with business goals, each AI agent should have a clearly designated Agent Owner—a human leader responsible for both the governance and performance of the agent across its lifecycle.
Governance Responsibilities
- Owns the AI’s outputs and outcomes
- Aligns AI work to business goals
- Maintains accountability for success metrics
- Champions responsible use and ethical boundaries
- Oversees rollout strategy and risk management
Performance Responsibilities
- Ensures quality, relevance, and tone of AI responses
- Keeps content and data current
- Coordinates handovers between agents and humans
- Gathers feedback from users and stakeholders
- Drives continuous improvement and cross-agent synergy
4. Skill Up Your Team for AI Readiness
Even the best AI fails without a prepared workforce. Building a high-performing human-AI partnership means equipping your people with the mindset and skills to succeed alongside intelligent agents.
Four proven strategies for AI readiness:
- Cultivate a culture of experimentation
Let teams try, test, and refine how they use AI. Learning by doing builds confidence. - Invest in upskilling & training
Provide education not just on tools, but on the strategic role of AI in the business. - Recognize and reward early adopters
Incentivize teams that explore and champion new AI workflows. - Bring in experts for strategic guidance
Partner with consultants or internal champions who can lead implementation and change management.
“If you’re not using AI in your day-to-day right now, you’re falling behind,” Heller says.
“I’m in marketing—I love to write—but if I’m not running everything I write through generative AI, then I’m slow and not producing my best work.”
5. Scale and Adapt for Long-Term Success
Once AI pilots prove their value, the next challenge is scaling and sustainability.
To expand AI across teams and use cases:
- Document your best practices and governance policies
- Build feedback loops into every agent deployment
- Regularly assess ROI, accuracy, and team satisfaction
- Iterate and adapt your AI operating model as new tools and use cases emerge
The future isn’t about AI doing all the work—it’s about building an intelligent, resilient, human-centered organization that moves faster, smarter, and with greater agility.
The Future: AI That Works With You—Not Instead of You
We’re not heading into a future where humans are obsolete. We’re stepping into a future where humans are augmented, not replaced—where their creativity, judgment, and empathy are amplified by intelligent systems like Propel One.
Agentic AI is not about removing the human from the loop—it’s about giving the human better tools, clearer insights, and more time to focus on what matters most.
The companies that win in this next era won’t be the ones that automate everything—they’ll be the ones that integrate AI responsibly to work alongside empowered human teams.
The question isn’t “Will AI take my job?”
It’s “How can I use AI to do my job better—and take my company further?”
Let Propel One show you how.
