Agentic AI: Why Efficiency Alone Is Not Enough
Efficiency Must Become Governance
Welcome to this issue of The Contingent Compass. Each week, I send two essays to help you navigate the complex world of the Contingent Workforce. If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.
You can’t swing a chatbot these days without hitting someone talking about AI. Talent leaders everywhere are being sold the dream: "More efficiency! Less admin! Smarter decisions!"
And while that’s not wrong, it’s also not enough.
Because in the world of contingent labor—where compliance risk hides behind every timesheet and rogue spend lurks in the shadows of decentralized hiring—AI needs to be more than just a shiny productivity toy. It needs to be Agentic.
🤖 What Do We Mean by Agentic AI?
Agentic AI doesn’t just respond. It acts.
A traditional AI model might answer your query or flag an issue.
An Agentic AI:
Flags the issue ✅
Cross-checks it against your governance policy 🕵️♂️
Notifies the right person 📣
Suggests a fix 🛠️
Tracks whether the fix happened 🧾
And crucially—learns from every interaction to prevent future issues faster
This is AI with initiative. AI that’s accountable. AI that acts like the program manager you always wished you had… but doesn’t need PTO.
🔍 Where Agentic AI Really Changes the Game in Contingent Labor
Let’s get into the actual value.
1. Efficiency Without Babysitting
Agentic AI can:
Spot onboarding bottlenecks across your supply base
Recommend ways to reduce time-to-fill by role and vendor
Auto-reconcile rate cards with contracts before Finance catches errors
💡 One global biotech firm flagged $3.4M in overpayments within 90 days—just by letting Agentic AI compare actuals vs. contracts. And the AI got smarter each time it ran the process.
2. Governance That Actually Governs
Most companies think they have governance. In reality, it’s just a dusty PowerPoint buried in SharePoint.
Agentic AI can:
Monitor policy adherence live
Auto-alert on rogue sourcing
Generate vendor scorecards from real delivery data—not subjective reviews
The kicker? It adapts to new rules without needing re-training meetings.
3. Procurement Control Without Pain
Procurement teams use Agentic AI to:
Benchmark rate cards across roles, countries, and suppliers
Auto-trigger workflows for non-compliance
Flag underperforming vendors before the QBR awkwardness begins
📈 According to Gartner, 70% of enterprises will operationalize AI by 2025—but fewer than 20% have applied it to contingent labor. That’s your window of advantage.
🧪 Real-World Agentic AI Use Cases for Governance, Audit & Control
These are already being used in high-performing programs:
🔍 Misclassification Monitoring
Spots contractors behaving like employees (joining team meetings, submitting expenses, etc.)
→ Sends weekly risk alerts with context and suggested actions
📃 Audit-Ready Requisition Intelligence
Flags justifications that don’t meet policy
→ Generates audit trails showing who approved what (and why)
🛠️ Rate Integrity Enforcement
Matches timesheets to rate cards in real time
→ Holds incorrect invoices, notifies vendors, alerts Procurement
📊 Vendor Scorecards, Reimagined
Benchmarks vendors automatically—fill rate, cycle time, attrition
→ Recommends coaching or tier changes with objective data
🧯 Rogue Spend Interception
Cross-references POs and invoices against requisitions
→ Flags unsanctioned suppliers, pauses spend, routes to Procurement
These aren’t theoretical. They’re working right now—for programs that decided not to wait.
🧠 Think Bigger: If You Built It From Scratch Today…
If you were designing your contingent workforce program today, with Agentic AI baked in from day one:
What would you automate?
What would you delegate to machines?
What would stay human?
💥 The companies asking these questions are already pulling away from the pack.
🧰 Not Sure If You’re Ready? Ask Yourself:
“Do we spend more time reporting on problems—or preventing them?”
If it’s the former, you’re not behind on AI. You’re overdue.
🕊️ Will This Replace People?
Nope.
But it will replace:
Manual escalations
Spreadsheet chases
Governance theater
It frees your team to focus on real strategy—while the bots clean up everything else (including that one manager who insists the policy doesn’t apply to his team 🙃).
🚨 One Quick Reality Check
If your AI roadmap lives entirely in IT, you’re not deploying intelligence—you’re outsourcing responsibility.
This isn’t a tech decision. It’s a leadership one.
⏳ The Risk of Waiting
Waiting isn’t neutral—it’s a risk position.
While your competitors embed Agentic AI to control spend, improve compliance, and run tighter programs… you’re still reconciling Q2 numbers with Excel and crossed fingers.
🎯 Final Thought: This Isn’t About AI—It’s About Advantage
Agentic AI isn’t just a tool. It’s a force multiplier. For control. For visibility. For performance.
You don’t need to rip out your tech stack. You need:
A single pain point worth solving
Clear ownership
The guts to lead instead of follow
The future of work won’t be managed—it’ll be orchestrated.
The leaders who embrace Agentic AI now?
They won’t just run better programs.
They’ll redefine what a workforce is. 🚀
If you enjoyed this read, the best compliment I could receive would be if you shared it with one person or restacked it.
If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.