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"We moved away from 'skills' to 'tasks' and now we can do real workforce planning. Nobody could relate to a 'skills based' approach—it sounded like HR jargon and not business relevant."

"'Manager' has become a dirty word – but that’s where trust sits for the average employee."

^{Implication for our community: We need to reinvest in the trust relationship between manager and leadership so that the managers can bring along the workforce during this time of transformation.}

“We went from ‘What agent should I be buying?’ last year to ‘How is AI having a real impact on my broader business, and how am I driving transformation of my company?’”

"Employees do not experience HR as a collection of COEs, platforms and transformation projects. They experience moments: joining, learning, performing, moving, leading and leaving. The question is whether anyone owns those moments from end to end.”

"How work gets done in an AI-enabled environment is not sitting in IT or in the business or in HR — the only way forward is with all of these different mindsets coming together to prioritize and get the work done."

"The goal is not to prove that HR alone caused a business result. The goal is to show that the organization understands the people conditions required for the strategy to work, is measuring whether those conditions are improving, and is taking sharper action when they are not."

"AI optimization keeps the old operating model intact. Imagination starts to redesign it."

"We didn't want to make [AI] about cost savings because then we'd lose our workforce and their adoption very quickly. So that never factors into the equation for us. We talk about it in two ways: productivity gain and value creation."

“The scarce leader may not be the person most ready to inherit the current job. It may be the person most able to rethink the job.”

"We moved away from 'skills' to 'tasks' and now we can do real workforce planning. Nobody could relate to a 'skills based' approach—it sounded like HR jargon and not business relevant."

"A lot of people are predicting the CHRO and CIO roles may eventually merge."

_{As AI transforms jobs and skill requirements, members discussed how workforce planning is becoming as much a technology challenge as a talent challenge. The result is a growing need for HR and technology leaders to jointly shape the future of work.}

"The biggest question of our time is how do we figure out workforce planning with the amount of jobs that are changing."

_{Members discussed the growing need for dynamic workforce planning and pushing HR and business leaders to rethink workforce planning together.}

“However many ratings you have... subtract one. It’s that many ways to piss somebody off.”

_{A memorable reminder from one M1 member that performance ratings are as emotional as they are operational.}

"I’ve shrunk my TA team to 1/3 of the size by implementing 5 key AI tools and agents, while simplifying the Recruiter’s life in one dashboard. Don’t worry, since I also oversee talent, I’ve quickly redeployed the TA team elsewhere."

“You can put any hero there. They’re not going to solve the problem if the company doesn’t buy that role, if the company doesn't see that work as valuable.”

“I believe the key to retention is improving mobility rates, which hasn’t been prioritized by senior leadership yet. This should be a high priority by 2026.”​

“Leadership also influences our speed—who holds key positions like GC or CEO affects risk tolerance and culture."​

“How is (AI) being used commercially? You must understand that. How is the business putting AI in your products or services? How does that impact work? How does that impact skills? How do you price it? If you're not in the pricing discussions, you don't know what's happening to profitability and what your labor rates are going to look like.”​

"It's a really laser-focused year on data… it’s those pieces of data that are holding us back from truly understanding where the right skills are and who the right people are to take the organisation forward."

"The apprenticeship model is broken… nobody knows how to teach someone how to use the ChatGPT plugin for Excel right now."

"If we're dialing up technology to 11 with AI, how do we dial up humanity to 11 with AI?"​

“If you're trying to grow, transform or build a resilient workforce, you can't just be relying on static siloed data anymore. What's needed is a deep context, rich task and skills driven view of the entire organization and one that evolves over time. That's your workforce.”

"With all these changes, maintaining a clear north star for HR’s role in the organization should be a constant.”

‍

"We moved away from 'skills' to 'tasks' and now we can do real workforce planning. Nobody could relate to a 'skills based' approach—it sounded like HR jargon and not business relevant."

"'Manager' has become a dirty word – but that’s where trust sits for the average employee."

^{Implication for our community: We need to reinvest in the trust relationship between manager and leadership so that the managers can bring along the workforce during this time of transformation.}

“We went from ‘What agent should I be buying?’ last year to ‘How is AI having a real impact on my broader business, and how am I driving transformation of my company?’”

"Employees do not experience HR as a collection of COEs, platforms and transformation projects. They experience moments: joining, learning, performing, moving, leading and leaving. The question is whether anyone owns those moments from end to end.”

"How work gets done in an AI-enabled environment is not sitting in IT or in the business or in HR — the only way forward is with all of these different mindsets coming together to prioritize and get the work done."

"The goal is not to prove that HR alone caused a business result. The goal is to show that the organization understands the people conditions required for the strategy to work, is measuring whether those conditions are improving, and is taking sharper action when they are not."

"AI optimization keeps the old operating model intact. Imagination starts to redesign it."

"We didn't want to make [AI] about cost savings because then we'd lose our workforce and their adoption very quickly. So that never factors into the equation for us. We talk about it in two ways: productivity gain and value creation."

“The scarce leader may not be the person most ready to inherit the current job. It may be the person most able to rethink the job.”

"We moved away from 'skills' to 'tasks' and now we can do real workforce planning. Nobody could relate to a 'skills based' approach—it sounded like HR jargon and not business relevant."

"A lot of people are predicting the CHRO and CIO roles may eventually merge."

_{As AI transforms jobs and skill requirements, members discussed how workforce planning is becoming as much a technology challenge as a talent challenge. The result is a growing need for HR and technology leaders to jointly shape the future of work.}

"The biggest question of our time is how do we figure out workforce planning with the amount of jobs that are changing."

_{Members discussed the growing need for dynamic workforce planning and pushing HR and business leaders to rethink workforce planning together.}

“However many ratings you have... subtract one. It’s that many ways to piss somebody off.”

_{A memorable reminder from one M1 member that performance ratings are as emotional as they are operational.}

"I’ve shrunk my TA team to 1/3 of the size by implementing 5 key AI tools and agents, while simplifying the Recruiter’s life in one dashboard. Don’t worry, since I also oversee talent, I’ve quickly redeployed the TA team elsewhere."

“You can put any hero there. They’re not going to solve the problem if the company doesn’t buy that role, if the company doesn't see that work as valuable.”

“I believe the key to retention is improving mobility rates, which hasn’t been prioritized by senior leadership yet. This should be a high priority by 2026.”​

“Leadership also influences our speed—who holds key positions like GC or CEO affects risk tolerance and culture."​

“How is (AI) being used commercially? You must understand that. How is the business putting AI in your products or services? How does that impact work? How does that impact skills? How do you price it? If you're not in the pricing discussions, you don't know what's happening to profitability and what your labor rates are going to look like.”​

"It's a really laser-focused year on data… it’s those pieces of data that are holding us back from truly understanding where the right skills are and who the right people are to take the organisation forward."

"The apprenticeship model is broken… nobody knows how to teach someone how to use the ChatGPT plugin for Excel right now."

"If we're dialing up technology to 11 with AI, how do we dial up humanity to 11 with AI?"​

“If you're trying to grow, transform or build a resilient workforce, you can't just be relying on static siloed data anymore. What's needed is a deep context, rich task and skills driven view of the entire organization and one that evolves over time. That's your workforce.”

"With all these changes, maintaining a clear north star for HR’s role in the organization should be a constant.”