Building a Superhuman Company in the Age of Human-Agent Workforces

Welcome to the Vantage Influencers Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and effective recognition platform for employee engagement. For decades, we've built companies around one assumption, that work is done by people, but that assumption is now changing, and changing very fast. AI agents are no longer just tools we use, they are becoming teammates we work alongside. And that raises a big question for every leader and HR professional: how do you build an organization where humans and agents don't just coexist, but actually make each other better? So today we are exploring what it takes to build a superhuman company in the age of human-agent workforces. And to help us with that, we have with us Tami Rosen. Hi Tami, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you on the show. Before we begin today's conversation on the topic, would you kindly walk us through your corporate journey so far?

Tami Rosen: Absolutely, and thank you for having me today. Obviously, a topic as near and dear to my heart, superhuman companies and building those that can stand the test of time. So by way of background, I've spent most of my career across the people space, across finance and tech and SaaS and consumer internet, self-driving, and also fintech. Currently, I sit on three boards: a for-profit board, Pagaya Technology, where I was also an executive; a beauty company; and a foundation board, the Elie Wiesel Foundation Board. I advise many companies across finance and tech, and have been an executive across companies like Goldman Sachs, Apple, Atlassian, Luminar, and most recently, Pagaya Technologies.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful. Tami, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. Once again, welcome to the show.

Tami Rosen: Thank you.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Tami, so with your permission, we'd like to delve into today's topic, today's discussion.

Tami Rosen: Sounds great. Let's do it.

Sanjeevani Saikia: So, the phrase superhuman company, it kind of really caught my attention when we first discussed it, because it sounds like something more ambitious rather than just adopting AI. We've been hearing "adopting AI" much more frequently, but "superhuman company" is something rare, we haven't heard it very much. And I suspect there's a real distinction there that a lot of leaders are missing. So when you hear the phrase superhuman company, what does it really mean, and why is it different from simply becoming an AI-powered company?

Tami Rosen: Well, I love this question, and the reason I love it is because "superhuman companies" is sort of a play on words. It's not "super-human" like a superhero, it's "super" and "human" as separate words, companies, with the emphasis on human. And I'm in the process right now of writing a book about this very topic, because I think superhuman companies are companies that stand the test of time, that understand that people strategy is their business strategy, and that it doesn't matter whether it's a war, a market dislocation, a product launch, or something that goes wrong, or even, for example, COVID, and now an AI revolution. All of these things are things that happen to every single company. And companies that are superhuman companies are ones that really understand that people is driving their business strategy. What differentiates them is that they realize they have to be prepared no matter what, and that includes having a very strong culture, creating the right decision-making framework, having the right skills to do the right thing, having the right organizational structure, and then creating the HR processes that will modify, support, and amplify those things you care about in how you're going to drive your business forward. It's not just about simply being an AI-powered company. And I think it's easy to mix those words together and say you become superhuman, almost like a superhero, because you have AI amplifying humans. That's just one of many things a superhuman company would do.

Sanjeevani Saikia: So, as I've already mentioned, we get to hear this phrase "AI-powered company" a lot. Do you think it's being overused? And the reason I'm asking is because I think people are forgetting to get the distinction right, simply calling themselves AI-powered by deploying one very simple feature. People are kind of really confusing it. What do you have to say about that?

Tami Rosen: I totally agree, I think it's becoming a buzzword. A lot of companies are using it, whether they're a scaling company or a startup, as a way of getting funding or a way of differentiating themselves. But let's be clear, AI is just another tool that can enhance the way we work, and we have to really start thinking about how we work, not what tool we're using to work. We had a very similar situation during COVID, where people, unfortunately, could not convene because of sickness, so we ended up having to change where we work. But the companies that really succeeded through that time, and post that time, are those that changed how they worked: the norms, the culture, the way in which they do business. They didn't just put everything on Zoom. And I think that's a similar analogy to how we should be thinking about AI. AI is a tool that's going to enhance humans and help them be better, and do the things that maybe we shouldn't have been doing, or that we've been sort of mired in doing in the past, enabling us to be more creative and more successful. It's not supposed to, in my view, take over human capabilities.

Sanjeevani Saikia: For the longest time, we've thought of AI as some sort of software or a tool, something you deploy and manage. But I think it's now quite evident that it has started acting more like teammates than tools, and that changes the equation entirely, especially for AI. And I think that's the key for the people function. So as agents become teammates rather than just tools, what role should HR and leaders play in shaping the relationship between humans and agents?

Tami Rosen: And I'm glad you said HR and leaders, because I think it is a partnership here. Yes, HR is sort of responsible for designing how humans work together, but now we have to design how humans and AI agents work together, and that's not just a technology decision or a people decision, it's both, it's a leadership decision. HR can help define what work belongs to humans and what belongs to agents, alongside leaders, and then how trust is built, how decisions are made, how skills evolve. Ultimately, this is what we need to ensure: how AI expands human potential instead of just diminishing it. Companies that will win won't just have the smartest AI, they will have the best-designed human-agent operations, the best operating model, where they're working in tandem to deliver the best results.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Now, Tami, here's something I keep thinking about lately. Eventually, every company will have access to more or less the same AI tools, which, to be honest, is a great thing. It gives a level playing field when everyone has access to all the tools possible and everyone has the same technology. But technology alone can't be the advantage for any organization. So if technology becomes table stakes, what will actually differentiate the companies that win? Some may perform better, some may be average, but I think it's eventually going to bear more or less the same results. So what's the differentiating factor here?

Tami Rosen: Yeah, this is exactly the right question to be asking. The differentiator is going to be humans and people. A lot of companies right now believe AI will be a differentiator, but like you said, the table stakes will be the same, everyone will have the same tools and be able to create the same tools. So how do you make a company unique? How do you find your competitive advantage? It's going to go back to, as it always has, the people you hire, who actually know how to deploy and manage and leverage it for the best of that company, and to make them the most competitive in the marketplace. And honestly, service companies in general used to always realize that people were the most important asset they had, and that made sense, because without people, they had no real service, and if they didn't have the best people, they didn't have the best service. Then you go into a product-level company, and you could say, well, if we're building great products, people will come. I like to call that the "Goodwill Hunting" way of thinking about it. But in general, product companies used to think that as long as you build great products, you don't need as good people. But that's actually also a myth, you need great people to build great products. And here we are in an AI world, and the only thing that's going to differentiate company to company is the people you have who know how to leverage, deploy, and amplify what makes sense. So I think it's really important for us to be using AI as a tool for replacing low-level work, and letting the creativity of those humans become the new value creator.

Sanjeevani Saikia: I think our listeners might have the same question I do. Many founders, many organizations, are now finding it very comfortable to replace people with AI. We've been talking through this, and we'll be talking about it again in the podcast, but here I just want to pause and ask you, why is it so comfortable to replace humans? I understand AI is making things more efficient, you needed a hundred people to do a job before, now fifty is just good enough. But why is it so comfortable to replace those remaining fifty?

Tami Rosen: Well, it's always easy to think about what the lowest-hanging fruit is, and when you think about budgets, people are the largest cost in a budget, so it's easy to say technology replaces humans because it's cheaper. Now, we all know that's not true anymore. The first thing I want leaders to start asking is not what jobs AI can replace, but what capabilities AI can unlock, and that's a fundamentally different mindset. When companies view AI only through the lens of efficiency, people naturally become anxious, and you're going to start to see people not wanting to show their creativity and solve the problems that are really most important for the company. What we need to think about is how AI will amplify human potential, not diminish it. There's an interesting new trend that's happened for leaders. Early last year, everything was about, well, if you let go of a number of people, your stock price goes up, companies get more money from investors, people see that as you deploying AI in the right way. Now you're seeing people rehiring those people back, and you're starting to see people ask the question, wait, is that the right solution? Because actually the compute power is greater in cost than the humans were. One of the best examples today is what happened at Ikea. Ikea basically had eighty-five hundred people replaced by an AI technology tool, and then they didn't let go of those people, they deployed them into different areas and different roles, and as a result, built another multibillion-dollar business. That's a great case study that I think a lot of companies are going to have to look at. You've also seen companies like OpenAI, and other senior leaders, coming out saying, wait, we need to double down on people right now, not less. So I do think the easiest thing is that people see this as an efficiency game. It's not an efficiency game, it's about how you get to be competitive, and how you amplify your uniqueness by having the right people with the right technology and AI integrated, in order to make your people and your company successful.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful, very well said, and thank you for sharing that case study, I wasn't aware of it. I think it really highlights the crux of what I was asking, and what's the need of the hour to be talked about. So, yes, thank you so much for highlighting that. Now, for many employees, the rise of AI agents doesn't feel very exciting, it feels kind of more threatening, if I may say so, and no transformation succeeds if people feel they're being written out of the story. So how can HR leaders ensure that human-agent workforces increase human potential, as we've already discussed, instead of making people feel replaced or less valued? I know the previous question touched on this, but is there anything to add?

Tami Rosen: Absolutely. It's not surprising at all that at some commencement speeches, when the word AI was mentioned, people booed, because it's been pitched as something that's taking away your jobs and your future. We have to change that narrative and reduce that fear, and people need to be AI literate. They can no longer not understand the technology around them in order to be successful. You can't just keep working the way we always have and look backwards, you have to look forward, and I think that's key to a lot of this. People really aren't thinking about this as an opportunity for learning and growth. One of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes is that the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself, it's acting with yesterday's logic. What that really means to me is that people are looking at the past to define the future, and that's not how to think about this turbulent moment. You have to figure out how to reinvent, rethink, and reimagine. As employees, you have to think about how you learn and use this as a learning environment for yourself, and as employers, how you give your employees the opportunity to fail safely, so they can make mistakes and keep learning, and that will help you as a company get better and better. So a lot fundamentally has to change to reduce this fear, which doesn't always enable the best outcomes. Sometimes fear is a motivator, but in this case, I don't think it's a motivator for good. We have to look at how we create environments where people can experiment, so they can learn and companies can learn at the same time. Nobody's got this right yet, nobody has shown that the ROI on using AI as a replacement for humans, or even alongside humans, is really at the point of adding the value we expect. So it's anyone's game to create that outcome, and my expectation is that the companies and employees that really embrace it will be the most successful, and those that don't will not.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Exactly. Shifting gears, I think it's important to ask you about the impact this will have on culture. We can't not talk about culture at this point, since it's a big change that employees, and employers, will be going through. So according to you, Tami, what kind of culture, skills, and leadership will be needed for humans and agents to work together effectively?

Tami Rosen: First of all, I want to understand what the impact on culture is actually going to look like. I don't know if it's an impact on culture per se. Going back to where we started, with superhuman companies, one of the core components of a superhuman company is that it relies on a very strong and intentional culture. So I think those companies that have cultures which are strong, intentional, and really working towards their business outcomes will be successful, and you have to double down on culture, on the norms, the values, the behaviors you want people to operate with, and how they're going to interact with technology, as you call them, teammates, in order to be successful. So I don't think we want to overestimate the importance of technical skills and underestimate the importance of human skills. We need to encourage people to see culture as part of the glue that helps humans and agents work well together, and what the rules of the road will be. That's what culture is, so culture matters more today than ever, and it's going to be a differentiator for companies that succeed and stand the test of time. Leadership also has to understand how to evolve. The best leaders won't have all the answers, their job will be to ask better questions, create clarity from uncertainty, and help teams navigate through this. They need to coach, connect, and develop people. And I actually think, in the age of AI, learning is no longer a competitive advantage, it's a price of admission, and the most valuable employees won't be the ones who know the most, they'll be the ones who learn the fastest. That's going to be core to what culture is. So I think every superhuman company in this age is going to have learning agility as a key component of culture.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Tami, we're almost arriving at the end of today's episode, but before we wrap up, for all the HR folks and leaders listening in who want to prepare their organizations for the human-agent workforce, what advice would you give them?

Tami Rosen: My advice is really simple: don't wait for the future to arrive, start designing it today. Too many organizations are treating AI as just another technology rollout, when it's really fundamentally changing the nature of what we are as human beings. The employees who help us collaborate and network, and who are creative around this and see how it can amplify humans as a great partnership, will be the ones who are more successful. So don't ask where we can automate, ask what more value we can create. Don't ask how many people we need, ask what our people will be capable of when every employee has AI as a tool to help them do better. Build AI literacy across your organization, create opportunities for experimentation and the ability to fail fast and learn, and help leaders learn how to lead teams that include both humans and agents. Let's not lose sight of what makes our organizations unique, and that's our people. Technology alone won't increase that, you have to invest in your culture, you have to invest in building trust. And I think the most important thing is that people strategy is your business strategy. If you see that, you're going to be a superhuman company. AI may become a competitive necessity, but humanity will remain the competitive advantage.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful, people's strategy is going to be the business strategy, that was beautifully put, Tami. Thank you so much for joining us today, it was a pleasure to have you on the show, and all the best for all your future endeavors. Good luck.

Tami Rosen: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, this was a great conversation.

Thanks for listening to the Vantage Influencers Podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and our Vantage Circle YouTube channel for the latest episodes.