AI and the future of work

The workplace is being reshaped by rising employee expectations, persistent hiring challenges and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. Companies large and small are being forced to reconsider how they approach flexibility, workplace culture, employee retention and talent development, all while preparing workers for jobs that could look dramatically different within the next five years. For business leaders, the challenge is no longer simply keeping up with change but building a workforce and workplace capable of adapting to what comes next.

That was the focus of Episode 12 of Let’s Talk HR, which brought together Herb Dew, chairman of the board of Human Technologies, Inc. (HTI), and Mike Mansuetti, former president of Bosch North America, for a wide-ranging discussion about employee expectations, artificial intelligence, hiring and retention. Mansuetti spent 36 years with Bosch, including 12 years leading the organization.

The discussion offered perspectives from opposite ends of the business spectrum. HTI works extensively with small and midsize companies, including serving as an outsourced HR department in some cases, while Mansuetti brought experience leading within a major global organization.

Employee Expectations Continue to Shift

One of the biggest questions facing employers is whether today’s employees expect too much workplace flexibility.

Both Dew and Mansuetti acknowledged that expectations have increased but emphasized that the bigger challenge for leaders is managing those expectations.

Mansuetti said leaders need to understand what employees expect and be willing to have conversations about what an organization can realistically provide. Dew added that employers and employees are still working through changing expectations, including generational differences, and companies need to listen while establishing what flexibility they can offer.

Remote work is one example.

Dew said he believes fully remote work has peaked and employers will continue refining hybrid models. At the same time, he noted that the movement isn’t coming exclusively from management. Some remote employees are also looking for greater workplace socialization and stronger relationships with colleagues.

Mansuetti agreed that companies are pulling back from fully remote arrangements, with workplace culture playing an important role in that shift.

AI May Change Jobs More Than Eliminate Them

Artificial intelligence generated some of the episode’s strongest predictions.

Both leaders said employee fears about AI are, at least to some degree, overblown.

Mansuetti pointed to his experience with Bosch’s digital transformation and early adoption of AI. As employees gain firsthand experience with technology, he said, they can begin to see its ability to eliminate routine work and free people to focus on activities they find more valuable.

That could apply across HR, engineering, accounting, finance and sales, with AI agents increasingly handling mundane and repetitive tasks while employees spend more time learning new skills and performing higher-value work.

But that doesn’t mean jobs will remain unchanged.

Both Dew and Mansuetti said AI competency is becoming an increasingly important workplace skill. Dew said HTI is already requiring employees to adopt AI for certain processes and predicted more organizations will move from simply making AI tools available to actively requiring their use.

Their longer-term prediction could have significant implications for workforce development.

Dew suggested that a job that might currently consist of 70% transactional work and 30% personal interaction could eventually shift to approximately 20% administrative or transactional work and 80% interpersonal and strategic activity.

Rather than widespread job elimination, he envisions AI removing administrative tasks and allowing employees to become more involved in decision-making and human interaction.

That shift, however, creates another challenge: employers will need to prepare people for jobs that may require a very different mix of skills than they do today.

Hiring Is Hard. Retention Matters More.

Dew and Mansuetti also agreed that hiring has become increasingly difficult and is likely to remain challenging.

Part of the problem is that the skills employers need is changing faster than they did in the past, with AI contributing to the evolution of job requirements.

That makes retention increasingly important.

Mansuetti argued that retaining employees should be one of a leader’s primary responsibilities, particularly when companies compare the cost of recruiting and hiring replacements with the cost of investing in existing employees.

The conversation also emphasized the influence managers have on retention. Leaders cannot simply accept turnover as something outside their control; problems involving managers and workplace culture require leadership attention.

Big Companies Have Resources. Small Companies Have Proximity.

When it comes to recruiting, the advantages of company size aren’t as straightforward as they might appear.

Dew noted that larger organizations typically have deeper resources to fund development opportunities, apprenticeship programs and employee relocation. Small companies, however, can offer employees something large corporations sometimes struggle to replicate proximity to decision-making.

Employees at smaller organizations can often gain exposure to senior leadership and see more directly how business decisions are made.

Mansuetti agreed that large organizations have more resources but said that doesn’t automatically translate into a recruiting advantage. Smaller employers can compete through flexibility and broader exposure to the business and, in some situations, can out-recruit larger companies.

Don’t Overlook the Middle Manager

One group carrying much of the responsibility for navigating these changes is middle management.

Mansuetti described middle management as potentially the toughest job in a large company. Middle managers must balance business expectations, workplace culture and employee experience while also ensuring that information travels between frontline employees and senior leadership.

Dew agreed and pointed to the need for stronger management development. He said much of HTI’s training and development work focuses on first line and middle managers, helping them retain employees, communicate upward, take responsibility and drive accountability.

Adaptability Could Be the Defining Workplace Skill

Asked to look five years into the future, the leaders returned to one theme: adaptability.

Employee and customer expectations will continue to rise, technology will continue evolving and businesses will face changing compliance and regulatory demands. Mansuetti said organizations that cannot continuously evolve will have a difficult time keeping pace.

For employers, the challenge isn’t simply adopting the next technology or responding to the next workforce trend. It’s preparing people for jobs that may look substantially different from the ones they perform today.

AI may handle more of the transactional work. Employees may spend more time making decisions, solving problems, working with customers and building relationships. And leaders will increasingly be responsible for helping their people make that transition.

The companies that succeed may ultimately be ones that can adapt fastest while keeping people at the center of the workplace.