How AI Agents Orchestrate Work Across Silos - Harvard Business Review

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...

Imagine 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.