PwC’s global chairman Mohamed Kande delivered a compelling vision for AI in the workplace during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, urging employees to view artificial intelligence as a “digital colleague” rather than a threat. Speaking on Tuesday, Kande emphasized that fear of AI stems from lack of understanding, and that hands-on exposure to the technology is crucial for workplace adoption.
The key to successful AI integration, according to Kande, is treating AI as a collaborative partner. “You don’t fear your colleagues, you partner with them,” he explained, encouraging workers to “partner with the technology” in the same way. This approach represents a fundamental shift in how organizations should think about AI implementation—not as a replacement for human workers, but as an augmentation tool that enhances productivity.
Kande also challenged conventional wisdom about AI deployment, arguing that AI benefits should not be imposed from management in a top-down manner. “There is this fallacy of believing that the benefits of augmentation have to come from management,” he stated. “It has to come from the people.” This bottom-up approach empowers employees to discover and implement AI solutions that directly address their workflow challenges.
PwC’s chairman joins a growing chorus of tech executives championing AI agents and digital labor. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed his vision of building a company with 50,000 employees supported by 100 million AI assistants. Similarly, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has positioned his company as the “largest supplier of digital labor” through its Agentforce product, which enables clients to build custom AI agents. Benioff argues that this shift means “productivity is no longer tied to workforce growth, but to this intelligent technology that can be scaled without limits.”
PwC has already begun implementing these technologies, announcing in October that it started using Salesforce’s Agentforce and is helping clients activate AI agents. However, the adoption of AI comes with significant worker anxiety. A 2024 Boston Consulting Group survey of over 13,000 employees revealed a paradox: while confidence in AI is growing, so is fear of job displacement. Among regular generative AI users, 49% believe their job may disappear within ten years, compared to just 24% of non-users who share this concern.
Key Quotes
People fear what they don’t understand, so exposing them to the technology, putting in their hands makes a big difference.
Mohamed Kande, PwC’s global chairman, explained at Davos why hands-on experience with AI is essential for overcoming workplace resistance and helping employees view the technology as a collaborative tool rather than a threat.
You don’t fear your colleagues, you partner with them. So we are actually asking people to partner with the technology.
Kande used this analogy to reframe how workers should think about AI, positioning it as a “digital colleague” that augments human capabilities rather than replaces them, which represents a key messaging strategy for AI adoption.
There is this fallacy of believing that the benefits of augmentation have to come from management. It has to come from the people.
The PwC chairman challenged traditional top-down implementation approaches, arguing that successful AI integration requires employee-driven adoption where workers themselves discover and implement solutions that enhance their productivity.
Productivity is no longer tied to workforce growth, but to this intelligent technology that can be scaled without limits.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff articulated the fundamental economic shift that AI agents represent, suggesting that companies can dramatically increase output without proportionally expanding their human workforce—a vision that simultaneously excites business leaders and concerns workers.
Our Take
The “digital colleague” framing represents sophisticated change management messaging, but it may not adequately address the legitimate concerns workers have about AI displacement. The BCG data is particularly revealing: those who actually use AI are twice as likely to fear job loss, suggesting that exposure creates understanding of AI’s capabilities—and its potential to replace human roles. Kande’s bottom-up approach is promising, as it could lead to more thoughtful, human-centered AI implementations. However, the tension between executives like Benioff celebrating “productivity without workforce growth” and reassurances that AI is just a “colleague” creates a credibility gap. The reality is that AI will likely eliminate some roles while creating others, and honest conversations about reskilling, transition support, and which jobs are truly at risk would serve workers better than analogies that may ring hollow as automation accelerates.
Why This Matters
This story highlights a critical inflection point in workplace AI adoption as major consulting firms and tech companies push for widespread integration of AI agents and digital colleagues. The emphasis on viewing AI as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement represents an important messaging shift designed to overcome worker resistance and anxiety.
The tension between AI adoption and job security concerns is becoming increasingly urgent. The BCG survey data reveals that familiarity with AI actually increases—rather than decreases—fears about job displacement, suggesting that simply exposing workers to the technology may not be enough to alleviate concerns. This creates a significant challenge for organizations trying to implement AI at scale.
The bottom-up approach advocated by Kande could reshape how enterprises deploy AI, moving away from executive-mandated implementations toward employee-driven innovation. This democratization of AI tools may lead to more practical, effective applications but also requires significant investment in training and change management. As companies like PwC, Salesforce, and Nvidia race to establish AI agents as the new normal, how organizations address worker concerns about displacement will likely determine the success or failure of this technological transformation.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-workplace-digital-colleague-employees-pwc-head-davos-2025-1