Organizations are investing heavily in AI, but many leaders are discovering that the biggest questions aren't about technology.
They're about work.
Which tasks should be redesigned? How do you build adoption at scale? Where should newly created capacity go? And how do you measure value beyond productivity alone?
In this webcast, leaders from WTW, Vantive and Concentrix explore how organizations are moving beyond AI experimentation and making practical decisions about workforce transformation, operating models and business value.
Why watch?
Most AI conversations focus on technology. This discussion explores something more difficult: what happens when AI changes how work gets done.
Across industries, organizations are wrestling with the same challenges. Employees are adopting AI at different speeds, new ways of working are emerging and leaders are being asked to balance innovation with governance while identifying where AI can create sustainable business value.
The panel brings those questions to life through real-world perspectives on adoption, governance, work redesign and value creation. Although the participating organizations are at different stages of their AI journeys, a common message emerges: leaders do not need perfect certainty before they act. They need to make deliberate choices, learn from the results and keep moving.
"You don't need every answer before you begin. You just need to start and start making those decisions. Learn from it and keep moving." – Suzanne McAndrew, Global Head of Employee Experience Business, WTW.
Key insights from the discussion
AI is creating hundreds of innovation moments, not one transformation program
John Rothera used the analogy of the discovery of fire to explain why AI transformation feels different from previous change efforts. He described how some people immediately embrace the opportunity, "lighting up the BBQ" and showing it off to neighbors, while others are anxious, struggling to get started and worried about burning the village down. The analogy concluded in the observation that organizations are no longer dealing with one central source of innovation, but "hundreds of campfires across the village."
"If we look at it as a technology rollout, we're going to end up with tools. We've got to understand how work is changing." – John Rothera, Managing Director, Employee Experience at WTW.
His point was that AI innovation is happening close to the work itself, often in ways that leaders cannot fully control from the center. The leadership challenge is to understand what is changing, enable useful experimentation and govern the risks without extinguishing momentum.
AI is changing how organizations think about work
Kristy Banas explained that WTW is not moving through a tidy set of AI maturity stages. Different parts of the organization are at different stages.
"We're simultaneously implementing, transforming and reinventing." – Kristy Banas, Chief Human Resources Officer, WTW.
That work goes well beyond adding AI to an existing process. WTW is looking at where work should change, where people bring the most value and what to do with the capacity AI creates.
"We're being really intentional and deliberate about where freed capacity actually goes."
Depending on the role, that capacity might support growth, learning, greater throughput or cost savings. The important point is that it should be a choice, not an accidental outcome of automation.
Adoption accelerates when people experience value for themselves
At Vantive, adoption did not take off because employees were told to use AI. It grew when people tried it for themselves and saw that it could save time, improve a first draft or help them reach a better answer.
"The adoption and the drive that we've had at Vantive with our AI usage has come from people having their own kind of moment where they've seen how AI can make things move faster." – Danielle Dietrich, Vice President of HR and Talent, Vantive.
Vantive created space for employees to experiment and share what they were learning. Those firsthand experiences helped build interest and confidence in a way that training alone could not.
The question isn't whether to start, but where
There is no fixed start or endpoint for AI workforce transformation. AI will keep changing, and so will the work around it. There is unlikely to be a moment when every question has been answered, and the path forward is obvious.
"The question is not when, but where to start, what work and which roles right now." – Amy Sung, WTW.
Her advice was practical: begin with the organization's priorities, focus on the areas where change could have the greatest impact and treat redesign as ongoing work rather than a project with a fixed end date.
Value extends beyond efficiency
Marce Brown shared how automation has taken repetitive administrative work away from HR teams at Concentrix, giving employees more time for the work that calls for judgment, empathy and problem-solving.
"It allowed them to really spend their time doing things that make them feel really good about their people solutions work. I'm using empathy. I'm making decisions."– Marce Brown, Executive Vice President, Global People Solutions, Concentrix.
Cost and efficiency still matter, but those measures do not tell the whole story.
"We're measuring value differently than just headcount reduction".
Better service, fewer errors and a stronger employee experience are also part of the return.
Who should watch
This webcast is designed for leaders responsible for:
- Workforce transformation
- HR and people strategy
- Talent and skills planning
- Operating model design
- Digital transformation
- AI governance and adoption
- Business and functional leadership
Explore the session
AI workforce transformation creates connected decisions about people, work and value. Explore the session to hear how leaders are bringing people along, deciding where work should change and measuring the value that follows.
