The Human+Machine era will reward orchestrators, not integrators

Most enterprises are sleepwalking into the Human+Machine era. Their operating models can’t keep up, and modernization alone won’t save them. Advances in AI, robotics, internet of things (IoT), and edge computing technologies, along with human capabilities, are propelling enterprises into the Human+Machine era faster than expected, driving real-time convergence between technology and human capability and delivering intelligence, agility, and resilience at scale.

This convergence is transforming the “adaptive enterprise” from concept to reality in organizations where people, data, physical assets, and digital intelligence coordinate into a system that responds dynamically to business needs.

For most enterprises, this shift to the Services-as-Software paradigm remains more aspiration than reality. Progress requires moving beyond an integration mindset toward a model of value orchestration by modernizing and combining disparate systems. Enterprises only realize true business outcomes when processes and data are at the center of the operating model fabric, guiding the design of technology portfolios, talent strategies, and sourcing relationships around them.

This research, based on a survey conducted by HFS and Hitachi with 505 enterprise leaders across financial services, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, energy, and consumer goods, explores what it will take for organizations to evolve into adaptive enterprises and the scale of the current readiness gap.

Key findings: