CEO strategies for leading in the age of agentic AI

McKinsey & Company (Aug 2025) "The change agent: Goals, decisions, and implications for CEOs in the agentic age" defines AI agents as gen-AI-built software that can plan, act, remember and learn to achieve outcomes autonomously, and warns the current "trough of disillusionment" with gen AI ROI is itself the opportunity to leap ahead. McKinsey lays out six fundamental shifts: reimagine work as AI-first; rethink leadership roles; redesign roles and profiles; build a culture of continuous reinvention; reshape structure to centre on value creation; transform people management and processes. The piece names enabling shifts — test-time compute reasoning, standardised tool-calling, larger memory, multi-agent orchestration. Practical reading for SEA mid-market CEOs facing first-mover-vs-fast-follower choice.