What Services Leaders Must Prioritize in the Next Era of AI-Led Services Delivery

Services organizations are entering a phase where workforce strategy and delivery strategy can no longer be separated. AI is accelerating demand for faster decisions, tighter margin control, and greater forecasting accuracy. Yet many organizations still coordinate delivery through disconnected systems, spreadsheet-driven planning, and limited visibility.

A new Gartner® report on the impact of AI on the workforce highlights this emerging gap—and why addressing it has become an organizational priority. In our view, services leaders who modernize operations before AI-driven shifts deepen these gaps will gain a structural advantage in delivery efficiency, workforce agility, and customer value.

Here’s what stands out most from the report, and why these signals matter for the future of AI-led services delivery.

1. Shift From Role-Based Planning to Skills-Based Delivery

AI is accelerating the pace at which workforce skills lose relevance. Gartner states that by 2030, “the half-life of technical skills will shorten to two to five years,” presenting a direct challenge for services organizations that rely on role-based delivery models. 

Utilization models, margin forecasts, and project timelines are all built on assumptions about skill stability. When the durability of key skills drops this sharply, traditional methods of planning capacity, defining roles, and structuring delivery teams can’t keep pace. The report warns that as AI automates routine tasks and reshapes job composition, organizations will see “the erosion of legacy competencies” and an increased dependence on AI-augmented work. 

This creates a mismatch between the skills teams plan for and the skills that are actually available. For services leaders, the requirement is clear: operating models must move from role-based to skills-based delivery. As employee competencies evolve, planning and delivery must evolve to accommodate real-time capabilities, rather than relying on static job titles, so that delivery teams can stay aligned with evolving demand. 

2. Strengthen Governance and Visibility as AI Autonomy Increases

As AI begins to play a larger role in execution, organizations must ensure decisions made by agents remain transparent, verifiable, and aligned to business intent. Gartner highlights that AI agents will increasingly “initiate, negotiate, and complete tasks with and without human triggers or inputs.” 

These shifts will require “rigorous trust models” and stronger auditability as systems begin to rely on agent-supplied actions, decisions, and data exchanges. When parts of the delivery process can be triggered or influenced by AI, leaders must be able to see where autonomous actions occur, understand how they affect project timelines or capacity, and intervene when human judgment is required.

AI can accelerate delivery, but only if the organization builds governance structures that preserve oversight, protect margins, and sustain customer trust as autonomy grows.

3. Protect Workforce Trust as AI Redefines How Teams Work

AI is becoming a visible presence inside organizations, and that visibility carries weight. Gartner cautions that by 2028, companies that present AI agents alongside humans in team structures will see “15% lower employee engagement compared to those that don’t.” 

The report notes that expectations vary across regions and industries, but the pattern is clear: when AI enters the organizational picture without context, people draw their own conclusions about what it signals. In services environments, where delivery quality depends on alignment, judgment, and close collaboration, those assumptions can influence how reliably teams participate in the delivery process.

As AI becomes a more active contributor to execution, people will want to understand how decisions are made, what remains in human hands, and where their expertise still anchors customer outcomes. The companies that maintain high trust will be those that treat communication as part of the operating model, making it clear how AI supports the work, rather than overshadows the people doing it.

4. Streamline Workforce Planning Across HR, IT, and Delivery Teams

Delivery relies on a precise mix of judgment, communication, and contextual problem-solving—capabilities AI does not fully replace. When organizations remove roles before redefining the work itself, service quality declines, customer outcomes suffer, and the talent they need becomes more difficult and expensive to recover.

Gartner warns that by 2029, “30% of employees who were terminated and replaced by AI will be rehired—often at a higher cost—due to ineffective workforce transition strategies.” These costly reversals arise when different parts of the business act on incomplete pictures of how work is changing. IT may accelerate AI deployment, HR may reduce headcount based on automation expectations, and delivery teams may still rely on human expertise that was never fully mapped or redistributed.

Streamlining workforce planning requires a shared, data-driven view of capacity needs across HR, IT, and delivery leaders. These three functions need to plan from the same framework, one that reflects how work is changing, which capabilities must be preserved, and where new capacity will be needed. 

What Gartner’s Findings Mean for Your Services Organization

AI will reshape how services organizations plan, staff, and deliver work, but the greatest advantage will go to leaders who build operating models with clarity and coordination at the core. Gartner’s latest insights emphasize the need for unified decision-making and real-time visibility—capabilities that allow services teams to stay aligned even as work evolves. Preparing these structures today positions organizations to scale confidently in an AI-led future.

To explore the full research behind these priorities, download Gartner’s Predicts 2026: AI’s Impact on the Future of Workforce.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner, Predicts 2026: AI’s Impact on the Future of Workforce, Arun Chandrasekaran, Helen Poitevin, Tori Paulman, Brent Stewart, Shawn Murphy, Afraz Jaffri, 14 November 2025

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.