Business leaders redesign core operations and prepare employees for AI-driven workflows

Companies across finance, insurance and technology are moving quickly to redesign everyday work around artificial intelligence, with executives from Elevance Health, MetLife and Capital One saying AI-driven workflows are increasingly being used to improve speed, efficiency and decision-making. In a separate panel, leaders from Panasonic, New York Life, Kyndryl and Citizens focused on the workforce side of the shift, arguing that the biggest challenge is not just deploying AI, but preparing employees to work alongside it.

The discussions took place at Bloomberg’s “Building an AI Future-Ready Business” event, where business and technology leaders described AI less as a standalone tool than as a way to reorganize core operations. Ratnakar Lavu of Elevance Health, Nick Nadgauda of MetLife and Sharmila Ravi of Capital One spoke about optimizing business outcomes through “intelligent workflows,” a term that refers to using AI to automate routine steps, route work more efficiently and help employees focus on higher-value tasks. The companies did not disclose every specific internal use case in the summaries, but the message was consistent: AI is becoming embedded in the flow of work rather than added on as a separate system.

That approach reflects a broader corporate trend. As businesses face pressure to do more with fewer resources, many are using generative AI and related automation tools to speed up tasks that once required large teams of people. In the examples discussed elsewhere at the event, executives said AI is already handling repetitive reporting, infrastructure support and other labor-intensive functions. The shift matters because it can reduce costs and improve response times, but it also raises questions about how work will be structured, supervised and measured as machines take on more of the routine load.

The workforce panel underscored that point. Liz Almeida of Panasonic, Kathleen Navarro of New York Life, Jamie Rutledge of Kyndryl and Michael Ruttledge of Citizens discussed strategies for upskilling employees so they can make effective use of what they called agentic AI, or AI systems that can take on more independent tasks. Their focus was on training, change management and making sure workers understand how to collaborate with AI rather than fear it. That is especially important in large organizations where adoption can vary widely between departments and between newer and more experienced employees.

Together, the two sessions showed how companies are approaching AI from both sides of the equation: redesigning workflows and retraining staff. For industries such as health insurance, financial services and technology services, the stakes are high because these firms rely on large volumes of data, regulated processes and customer-facing decision-making. If AI tools are integrated well, companies say they can improve consistency and productivity; if they are deployed poorly, they can create confusion, errors or resistance among employees.

The event added to a growing corporate debate over what an “AI-ready” business looks like in practice. For now, the clearest takeaway is that major employers are no longer treating AI as an experiment at the margins. They are trying to build it into the center of operations while investing in people who can oversee, guide and adapt to it.