Pascal Bornet
Author and keynote speaker on AI, automation and agentic AI
Consulting career
Pascal Bornet spent about 20 years as a senior executive at McKinsey & Company and EY, where, according to his publisher Wiley, he helped hundreds of organisations integrate AI[1]. A 2026 author note in the Journal of AI, Robotics & Workplace Automation gives the same background of more than 20 years at McKinsey and Ernst & Young[2].
He now works as an author and keynote speaker on artificial intelligence, automation and agentic AI[3]. His website lists keynote topics including the future of work, intelligent automation, skills of the future and people and technology[3]. The same author note says he lectures at universities and advises companies and startups[2].
Intelligent Automation
Bornet's first book, Intelligent Automation: Welcome to the World of Hyperautomation, was written with Ian Barkin and Jochen Wirtz of the National University of Singapore and published by World Scientific[4]. Its subtitle presents it as a guide to using AI to boost business and make the world more human[4].
His website states that he advocates for making the world more human with AI, a theme that runs through his later books[3].
Irreplaceable
Wiley published Bornet's Irreplaceable: The Art of Standing Out in the Age of Artificial Intelligence in September 2024[1]. The book introduces a framework that Bornet calls the Three Competencies of the Future, aimed at strengthening human qualities as AI and automation change work[1].
Wiley's description lists the book's practical aims, including avoiding what Bornet calls AI Obesity, using AI to advance a career without losing a job to automation, and developing Humics, his term for human abilities that AI cannot replicate[1]. Wiley also states that his research on the human-AI frontier led to the IRREPLACEABLE framework[1].
Agentic AI books and articles
In 2025 Bornet and Jochen Wirtz published Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life with World Scientific[5]. The book's opening chapter, Are We Missing the Point with Generative AI?, is credited to Bornet, Wirtz, Thomas H. Davenport, David De Cremer, Brian Evergreen, Phil Fersht, Rakesh Gohel and Shail Khiyara[5]. Working papers from the Bank of Canada and the Bank for International Settlements on AI agents for cash management in payment systems cite the book[5].
In 2026 the Journal of AI, Robotics & Workplace Automation published an excerpt from the book by Wirtz and Bornet, The Birth of Agentic AI: A Convergence of Powers[6]. The excerpt traces how large language models and automation technologies, from robotic process automation to intelligent automation, converged to make agentic AI possible[6].
A second article by Wirtz and Bornet in the same journal, published in September 2026, argues that AI agents are turning the traditional organisational chart into an hourglass, with agents handling execution at the base and a top layer of humans exercising judgment[2]. It warns that automating entry-level analytical work threatens the pipeline through which junior employees build expertise, and proposes reverse apprenticeship and AI-simulated practice as remedies[2].
World Scientific published The Human-Agent Orchestrator: Leading & Scaling AI-Driven Organizations in August 2026, with Bornet, Wirtz, Marshall Goldsmith and Cassie Kozyrkov listed as authors[7].
Audience and writing
His website says LinkedIn named him a Global Top Voice in Tech in 2019[3]. The site lists Forbes, VentureBeat, McKinsey Quarterly and The Times among the publications he has written for[3]. Wiley describes him as having more than 1 million LinkedIn followers[1].
Known for
- Intelligent Automation (World Scientific)
- Irreplaceable (Wiley, 2024)
- Agentic Artificial Intelligence (World Scientific, 2025)
- Writing on agentic AI and organisational design
Sources
- Wiley: Irreplaceable, September 2024 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Journal of AI, Robotics & Workplace Automation (Henry Stewart): The organisational chart that no longer fits, September 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Pascal Bornet's website — checked 6 Nov 2026
- RePEc/IDEAS record: Intelligent Automation, World Scientific — checked 6 Nov 2026
- RePEc/IDEAS record: Agentic Artificial Intelligence, World Scientific, 2025 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Journal of AI, Robotics & Workplace Automation (Henry Stewart): The Birth of Agentic AI, 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- World Scientific: The Human-Agent Orchestrator, August 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026