Harvard Business Review LogoA new generation of tools can connect functions and reduce the friction that slows companies down. by Kris Johnson Ferreira and Jordan TongRodrigo ValenzuelaWhile many companies now use AI to improve individual tasks, most still struggle to apply it to the cross-functional work that makes or breaks enterprise performance. Drawing on field research atImagine a new tariff is announced on imported goods that are crucial to a company’s business and will take effect in 60 days. The CEO of the company recommends “pulling forward” inventory—buying it sooner than originally intended and importing it before the tariff hits—to protect margins and market share. The logic is clear. Yet weeks later the move hasn’t been carried out as the CEO wanted. After rounds of revisions and compromises among different functions—including procurement, logistics, finance, legal, marketing, sales, and merchandising—the company implements a patchwork of suboptimal actions that fail to secure a large portion of the crucial goods before the tariff goes into effect.
How AI Agents Orchestrate Work Across Silos
While many companies now use AI to improve individual tasks, most still struggle to apply it to the cross-functional work that makes or breaks enterprise performance. Drawing on field research at companies including Walmart, Amazon, Ericsson, Ramp, and Medtronic, the authors argue that the next frontier is agentic AI orchestration: systems that connect task-based AI tools and organizational workflows and solicit and integrate critical information that only humans have. In these systems, AI performs analyses, routes information, and surfaces trade-offs, while humans contribute context and tacit knowledge, set guardrails, and make the final calls. Organizations that redesign decisions around orchestrated human-AI collaboration can respond faster, leverage knowledge more effectively, and execute higher-quality enterprise decisions with greater speed and consistency.
AI agents orchestrate workflows across silos; a CEO's tariff directive devolved into compromises across procurement, finance, legal, and sales. Tech leaders should invest in AI orchestration to enforce cross-functional alignment and prevent friction-driven failures.
