Global professional services firm Genpact has made a strategic leadership appointment that signals its intensified focus on artificial intelligence. The company has named Jinsook Han as its Chief Strategy, Corporate Development, and Global Agentic AI Officer, creating a specialized role that underscores AI agents as a key competitive advantage.
Rethinking Human Involvement in AI Systems
In her new role, Han immediately challenged conventional wisdom around AI implementation. She expressed strong criticism for the commonly used executive phrase "human in the loop," arguing that the term is limiting and fails to address complex strategic questions necessary for effective agentic AI integration.
"It makes it sound like, oh, you enter any human in any part of the loop, and it's going to work out," Han told Fortune. "Whereas, do you really need a human in this loop? When the human actually goes in to look at it, what is the human doing? Is the human reshaping, creating, proctoring? What type of a human do you need? How's the human from yesterday to today different?"
Her criticism centers on the lack of specificity the term provides regarding the necessity and type of human involvement in AI systems.
Agentic AI: The Pokémon Card Approach
Instead of the vague "human in the loop" concept, Han prefers to describe agent deployment using an innovative metaphor inspired by her son's Pokémon cards. She envisions managing a fleet where each AI agent has distinct strengths and weaknesses that must be carefully matched to specific tasks and scenarios.
"The reason why I use this in a metaphor is because you gotta know what the battle count of each agent is. And it's not static," she explained, emphasizing the dynamic nature of AI agent capabilities.
Han believes agentic AI represents a true breakthrough that offers significantly greater value compared to previous AI iterations. "From our client service and capabilities perspective, the previous sort of permutations of AI were very limiting," she noted. "Yes, there was analytics, digital transformation, AI, and ML. But it was not until GenAI started coming up and now, agentic AI—now it's truly a gift for an industry like ours."
Building AI Leadership Across the Organization
While chief AI officers are becoming increasingly common, Genpact's specialized "Agentic AI Officer" role highlights how the company is using AI agents to enhance its services and capabilities in a distinctive way. Han, who joined Genpact in 2024, sees her role as spanning both broad and focused responsibilities.
She collaborates with leaders across the organization on agentic AI initiatives while overseeing the development of the company's agentic AI services. One of her key partners is chief technology and innovation officer Sanjeev Vohra, who sets the company's architectural direction. Han describes herself as "his peer and customer" in this relationship.
Together, they co-chair the Genpact Architectural Review Board, where they categorize the company's agentic AI solutions and ensure they follow internal standards from design through execution.
Han also works closely with Vidya Rao, Genpact's chief information and transformation officer. Their collaboration includes applying agentic AI within Genpact itself, positioning the company as "client zero" to test and demonstrate its AI capabilities before offering them to external clients.
"So basically, I work with everyone in the organization to make sure it's both horizontal and vertical," Han explained. "And if people say, 'Jinsook, does this work with strategy. Is it okay?' Let me actually take off my agentic AI hat and put on the strategy hat, and I can give you the same answer coming from the same person."
This integrated approach to leadership reflects Genpact's comprehensive strategy for leveraging agentic AI as a transformative technology that can deliver substantial value to both the company and its global client base.
