---
id: "contrarian-activity-kpis"
type: "contrarian-insight"
source_timestamps: ["§ What Makes an Effective Agent Manager"]
tags: ["performance-management", "metrics"]
related: ["claim-obsolete-kpis", "action-update-kpis", "concept-hybrid-workforce"]
challenges: "The traditional management practice of measuring employee productivity through individual activity-based KPIs."
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-sig-58-agent-managers"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/to-thrive-in-the-ai-era-companies-need-agent-managers"
sourceTitle: "To Thrive in the AI Era, Companies Need Agent Managers"
---
# Activity-based KPIs for humans are obsolete

## Contrarian Insight — Activity-based KPIs for humans are obsolete

**Challenges:** the traditional practice of measuring productivity via individual activity-based KPIs (calls made, tickets closed per hour).

The authors argue these are obsolete in a [[concept-hybrid-workforce]]. Performance should instead be measured by **how well a human orchestrates their AI agent to achieve outcomes** — shifting focus from individual human output to **total human-agent system efficiency**. See [[claim-obsolete-kpis]] and [[action-update-kpis]].

**Counter-perspective (enrichment):** No external source calls activity KPIs fully 'obsolete.' Activity metrics remain valuable for **regulatory reporting (e.g., fair-lending/fair-treatment), coaching, QA, resource planning, and misuse/anomaly detection**. Balanced view: **outcome metrics should dominate performance *decisions*, but activity metrics get repurposed** (supervision quality, escalation rates) rather than discarded.