AI agents will soon perform CEO-level work, MIT adviser warns
Companies that ignore artificial intelligence will lose ground to competitors who adopt it, according to speakers at EmTech Europe 2026, a technology conference held in Athens on Friday. More significantly, AI agents are expected to handle tasks equivalent to running an entire company within years.
Paul Cheek, senior adviser for entrepreneurship and AI at MIT Sloan, said deep investigative analysis will soon take as little effort as a Google search. AI has already compressed product development cycles - companies now ship updates multiple times daily instead of quarterly or annually.
He pointed to Cursor, a software company that reached $100 million in annual revenue in less than a year with only 20 employees. That efficiency metric - annual revenue per employee - has become a key measure of how well companies use AI.
Cheek said AI will eventually launch and manage companies, with AI agents handling functions that CEOs currently perform.
Industrial workforce gap creates opportunity
Minas Liarokapis, founder and CEO of Acumino, discussed how AI works through robotic systems to interact with the physical world. He projected a global shortage of 30 million industrial workers by 2030, which opens significant opportunities for AI-powered automation.
Liarokapis said Greece could become a hub for this sector due to its skilled workforce. He emphasized that humans will continue to bring value and that his company plans to keep investing in local talent rather than replacing workers entirely.
For HR professionals, this shift raises immediate questions about workforce planning and organizational structure. Understanding AI for Human Resources and how agents might reshape roles at every level - including executive functions - is now essential for strategic talent management. HR leaders should consider exploring resources like the AI Learning Path for CHROs to prepare their organizations for this transition.
Your membership also unlocks:
