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AI moves from assistant to co-worker in latest shift
The rise of ‘frontier firms’ is gaining traction in sectors ranging from finance and software development to customer service, manufacturing and healthcare, as organisations deploy AI across internal systems and customer-facing products.
As artificial intelligence (AI) shifts from a productivity tool into a co-worker capable of handling complex workflows, a new class of companies, built around deep integration of the technology into everyday operations, is emerging globally.
Technology firms and analysts are calling them ‘frontier firms’; businesses that are redesigning their operating models around AI agents, automation, and machine intelligence, rather than merely layering chatbots onto existing processes.
An AI agent is a software programme that acts autonomously to achieve specific goals by perceiving its environment, reasoning, planning and using integrated tools.
Unlike regular chatbots like ChatGPT, agents can execute tasks like booking flights or managing emails with minimal human supervision.
The rise of ‘frontier firms’ is gaining traction in sectors ranging from finance and software development to customer service, manufacturing and healthcare, as organisations deploy AI across internal systems and customer-facing products.
A recent report by US tech giant Microsoft found that companies worldwide are increasingly using AI not only for repetitive administrative tasks but also for higher-value cognitive work such as analysis, problem-solving, and strategic decision-making.
Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index Report, which analysed trillions of anonymised Microsoft 365 productivity signals and surveyed 20,000 workers, showed that 49 per cent of AI interactions now support complex cognitive work, including evaluating information, generating insights, and creative thinking.
“Employees at every level now have a partner that helps them analyse, synthesise, and deepen their own expertise, while also building expertise in other areas. AI is not just helping us do things faster. It’s expanding who can do high-value work,” Microsoft said.
Another report by the American firm behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI, found that frontier firms – defined as organisations in the top 5 percent of AI usage intensity – now use 3.5 times more AI ‘intelligence’ per worker than typical firms, up from two times a year ago.
The findings suggest AI adoption is moving beyond experimental chatbots and research using established tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, into core business infrastructure.
The shift is especially significant for emerging digital economies such as Kenya, where businesses are increasingly embedding AI into agriculture, climate technology, financial services, and healthcare.
Kenyan firms are already using AI tools for crop monitoring, weather prediction, fraud detection, credit scoring and virtual healthcare support, while software developers are integrating AI assistants into coding, customer support and payment systems.
Instead of using AI merely for quick tasks such as rewriting emails or summarising meetings, ‘frontier firms’ are deploying AI agents capable of handling delegated, multi-step assignments.
In the travel insurance industry, for example, an AI claims assistant built using OpenAI tools now guides customers through filing claims, answers policy questions, and directly creates claims inside company systems. The OpenAI analysis shows that AI use is broadest in writing and communication, but is increasingly becoming specialised by department.
Software development and data science teams are using AI heavily for coding tasks, while finance departments are deploying it for calculations, modelling and analysis. IT and security teams are using AI for procedural guidance and systems management.
Microsoft found that 66 percent of AI users say the technology allows them to spend more time on high-value work, while 58 percent reported producing work they could not have achieved a year ago. Among advanced users, which Microsoft terms ‘frontier professionals,’ the figure rises to 80 percent.
“The number of active agents in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem has grown 15x year over year, rising to 18x in large enterprises,” said the report.
Manufacturing, software and technology, banking and retail are currently leading adoption.
OpenAI says the most advanced firms are building what it terms ‘owned intelligence’; institutional knowledge and AI-enabled operational systems that are unique to the organisation and difficult for competitors to replicate.
The emergence of frontier firms is shifting employees toward oversight, judgment and quality control roles, where workers increasingly act as reviewers and decision-makers rather than purely content generators.
Quality assurance and critical thinking were identified as the most important human skills in AI-enabled workplaces, with 50 percent of respondents citing the need to verify AI-generated outputs and 46 percent pointing to analytical judgment.
Analysts say the next phase of competition may depend less on whether firms adopt AI and more on how deeply they embed it into their operations.
