How do we plan for the Human and the AI Workforce?

AI innovation is accelerating the path of how employees and the new AI workforce work together. Just last week, Open AI launched GPT 4.5, the largest model to date, Amazon launched a new Alexa assistant, Mistral launched a LLM for Arab-speaking countries, and Salesforce will be using Google’s Gemini models to build and deploy AI agents to enable customer experience.

We are entering an era where human intelligence is AMPLIFIED and knowledge is DEMOCRATIZED to assist employees to solve complex problems and provide hyper-personalized experiences.  Technology innovation is also democratizing employee experience and that’s where AI agents capabilities come to play, where action-driven agents are not only executing tasks but can reason, perform workflows, understand context, generate creative solutions, learn from their mistakes, and collaborate with employees working side by side.

Let me give you an example. Succession planning is a strategic, complex and time-consuming process. However, it could be very subjective as well. With AI agents, managers capabilities are augmented:

→ AI agent to analyze sales, employee performance, succession and learning data

→ AI agent to assess candidates who are most likely to succeed based on historical data and patterns

→ AI agent to provide a short list of successors for each role

→ Manager to review talent pipeline created by the AI agent

→ AI agent will prepare talking points for talent review conversations

However, organizations are facing some challenges:

• Limited AI vision, capabilities and rigid roadmaps
• Multiple silo data repositories that do not talk to each other
• Applications and platforms with overlapping capabilities
• Talent data is scattered across different platforms
• Lack of talent and skills to move from pilot to large-scale implementations

The new Human and AI workforce collaboration requires companies to REINVENT how organizations operate and how employees work with intelligent systems to:

• Create consumer-grade experiences
• Provide assistance and recommendations
• Personalized content and unlock accessibility
• Provide real-time analytics
• Augment human intelligence for decision-making
• Make self-service delivery more intuitive

HR will need to build foundational HR capabilities using the following guidelines:

1️⃣Develop an integrated human and AI workforce vision, strategy and agile roadmap

2️⃣Redefine operating model including structure, governance and processes

3️⃣Develop a future-AI ready cross-functional teams

4️⃣Build data, AI and technology architecture

5️⃣Develop enterprise change strategy that promotes role modelling and new mindsets/behaviors

How to get started?

→ Create a holistic plan: start small and experiment

→ Learn as you go, fail fast and deliver outcomes

→ Lead with a human-centered approach

→ It only works when data is trusted

→ Build partnerships and establish trust

Final Thoughts

2025 is a year of start adopting AI at scale with strong focus on integrating AI into technology platforms as well as business process and workflows. It’s a year of where companies are going to increase investment on AI and that’s where HR come into the picture to bring its expertise on talent, culture and technology adoption.

CEO are looking at CHROS to be in the driver seat and prepare the organization for enterprise change and co-lead this effort working closely with IT, legal, compliance and finance to design and manage the human and the new AI workforce to unlock real business value.

The one pager below provides a high-level view on how to get started.  Please share your thoughts! 

Connect with me to discuss further.