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Meeting Details

Thank you to everyone who made our in-person meeting in Arizona on March 30 such a success. We shared insights and issues with members from Perth to Phoenix. While we adhere to Chatham House Rules in these meetings and hold space for each other to share information in a confidential environment, we still want to share some key points from the discussions, and a number of links and documents that were mentioned during the day.

Opening Session

The session began with going around the room to share what is top of mind for our member CHRO’s today. There were lots of specific industry and regional concerns, across the board there were several key themes.

CHROs are navigating an unprecedented convergence of pressures: simultaneous enterprise transformations, a fundamental reset of leadership pipelines, and the rapid integration of AI into work design—all while managing workforce fatigue and retention risk. Underpinning these challenges is a growing recognition that legacy people systems—job architecture, rewards, and operating models—are no longer fit for purpose. The role of the CHRO is increasingly defined by the ability to align these structural foundations with a continuously shifting business and workforce landscape.

Key Themes

1. Transformation Overload

CHROs are not dealing with “A” transformation—they are managing stacked transformations happening concurrently.

  • Business + operating model shifts
  • AI adoption layered on top of traditional transformation
  • M&A, IPO readiness, spin-offs, and restructuring
  • Industry-specific disruptions (rail, healthcare, federal exposure)

CHROs are being asked to orchestrate simultaneous enterprise transformations under resource constraints, not sequential change.

2. Leadership Disruption

Succession, Readiness, and Capacity Gaps. This was the most frequently cited issue.

  • Succession (multiple mentions, including stagnation)
  • CEO transitions and executive turnover
  • Leadership restructuring and span challenges
  • Upskilling leaders for AI and new operating models

Organizations face a leadership reset, where pipelines, succession models, and capability expectations are all being redefined simultaneously.

3. AI as a Workforce and Work Redesign Catalyst

AI shows up repeatedly—but importantly, in different contexts:

  • AI in transformation (multiple mentions)
  • AI infused in the workforce
  • Reverse mentoring for AI skills
  • Tool selection, values, and governance

This is not experimentation anymore, its integration pressure forcing CHROs to rethink roles, skills, and workforce economics at scale.

4. Workforce Resilience

Retention, Burnout, and Employee Experience Under Strain

  • Need to care for our people globally” (repeated)
  • Burnout (“996”), balancing highs and lows
  • Retention during uncertainty and job shifts
  • Employee sentiment vs. transformation pace

CHROs are navigating a resilience paradox—driving continuous change while trying to sustain engagement, well-being, and trust.

5. Structural Foundations

Operating Models, Architecture, and Rewards Misalignment

  • Global job architecture
  • HR process transformation
  • Compensation redesign (multiple mentions) Org agility and operating model shifts

Organizations are being forced to re-architect core people systems (jobs, rewards, structures) to support new ways of working.

The Future-Ready Framework

Kevin shared i4cp’s Future-Ready Framework and how it starts to address the capabilities and outcomes required to ensure your organization is future ready. i4cp’s just-published report, The Future-Ready Organization: Aligning Culture, Skills, and AI is posted in the resources list at the bottom of this page. The report goes into detail defining what it really takes to be future ready.

Redesigning work for the next generation enterprise

Ravin Jesuthasan joined us to share his thinking on job deconstruction and the future of work. One of his key takeaways was to start with the work, achieve the optimal coordination of humans and automation, consider the full array of human work engagements, and then allow talent to “flow to work” vs. being limited to fixed traditional jobs.

Other key points included:

  • Shift from jobs to work design: Organizations must move away from static job architectures toward task- and skills-based “work without jobs,” enabling talent to flow dynamically to work.
  • AI as a catalyst for transformation (not just efficiency): While ~80% of jobs will be impacted, the real value comes from redesigning work for human–AI collaboration, unlocking productivity and new growth—not simply automating tasks.
  • Work redesign is the primary value lever: Organizations that rethink work (tasks, workflows, talent models) can significantly reduce costs, release capacity, and improve productivity—far more than layering AI onto legacy processes.
  • Skills-based, fluid workforce models are critical: Skills—not jobs—become the currency, requiring continuous reskilling, internal talent marketplaces, and more flexible deployment across projects, gigs, and AI-enabled roles.
  • HR must reinvent its operating model: Traditional HR risks irrelevance; the function must evolve into an embedded, AI-enabled “operating system” focused on workforce architecture, analytics, and business outcomes.
  • Culture, leadership, and trust determine success: Adoption of AI and new work models depends on addressing employee concerns, enabling co-creation, and equipping leaders to continuously redesign work and manage human–machine teams.

Ravin also shared several documents with the group, all of which are in the list of resources below. This includes his deck from the meeting, his pre-read on what he heard at Davos, his pre-read on AI productivity, and a follow-up document on Driving Exponential Performance.

There were also two key data points that board members were looking for sources on. First was the data point that said only 10% of execs using AI despite mandates for use. This was from two panels Ravin moderated in Davos – one made up of CEOs and the other made up of CHROs. The second on how few AI projects are showing financial impact can be found here: The GenAI Divide-State of AI in Business 2025

Unlocking the power of the CHRO/board relationship

This session shared learnings and feedback from the Board call in February with members of Extraordinary Women on Boards discussing how corporate boards and CHROs can work together to ensure ongoing success. You can view the recap of that board call here: Corporate Board & CHRO Alignment

Learnings from the accelerated adoption of AI

Angela Beatty, former CHRO at Accenture, shared lessons learned from her time leading HR in an accelerated AI adoption period.

Key takeaways

  • Clear business goals were essential.
  • Trained 600,000 employees largely virtually on AI.
  • Focused on Board and Top 50 leaders and their own hands-on learning. What’s different about AI versus other tech changes is that they really need to get their hands on AI to understand it and help understand how work would evolve.
  • Key was having a skills architecture and using AI to infer skills – and having employees verify them. This fed personalized development.

You can read more about the Accenture story of how they upskilled their entire workforce AI in the i4cp case study, referenced in the Resource list at the end of this page.

A Conversation on Transformation with Ana White

Last but certainly not least, we closed the day with a conversation with Ana White of Lumen. She discussed the transformations she has led at Microsoft, F5, and Lumen, and what did these three transformations have in common, along with key lessons learned. She also spoke about enabling Lumen’s successful transformation from a Telco to a Tech-co, and how they moved from a “play not to lose” to a “play to win” culture.

During the session, Brian Baker also offered to share Teneo’s geopolitical viewpoint on the conflict with Iran, which is in the list of resources below.

Resource List (*Located in Downloads at the top of the page)

CEO mental models about how AI will impact work appear all over the map (e.g., from ‘it’s going to eliminate (or change) every job!’ to ‘it’s going to reduce our cost model by “x”%’.   What are CHROs doing to re-frame that model and align leadership (and the workforce) around a compelling future?

Big Questions We Addressed –

  • How can HR provide insights about the implications of AI on work and the workforce to the CEO and Board, and teach them a framework for decisions vs. just echoing what they are hearing from others?
  • How to redesign work (the responsibilities, jobs, and tasks that are performed) to incorporate AI?
  • How to ensure your organization has the skills it needs for the next 1-3 years?
  • How to ensure the HR function’s (and operating model’s) adaptability and readiness for the AI-enabled future of work? 

Special Guests –

  • Ravin Jesuthasan – Shared takeaways from Davos, detailed insights into how organizations have successfully evolved toward "work without jobs”, and what he anticipates as what’s next for work and the workforce.
  • Angela Beatty (former CHRO at Accenture) and Ana White (CHRO at Lumen) – Both shared practical advice and lessons learned from leading their respective organization’s evolution to AI-enabled work and work models, including any changes they made to the HR operating model (e.g., the work HR does, the roles in HR, or its structure) to ensure the organization would be ‘future-ready’.