AI isn’t replacing the fundamentals of leadership. It is adding responsibilities leaders have never had before.For several years, nearly every change in work has arrived with claims that leadership must be reinvented. Hybrid work changed leadership. The pandemic changed leadership. New generations changed leadership. Greater attention to wellbeing, inclusion, psychological safety, agility, and coaching changed leadership.

How I&B leaders are redesigning talent systems, governance, and employee networks.To help navigate legal, political, and technological pressures, impact and belonging (I&B) leaders are evolving their strategies while remaining focused on a fundamental objective: creating workplaces that provide employees with opportunities to develop and succeed. 

For chief learning and talent officers, the conversation about AI has moved beyond whether organizations will adopt it. The harder questions are about what comes next: How will work change? Which capabilities will matter most? How should talent systems change when people and AI produce outcomes together? And what role should learning and talent leaders play in shaping that transition? Those questions were prominent in recent discussions among members of i4cp's Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board. They also point to a broader shift in the learning and talent agenda. Leaders are thinking less about learning, performance, succession, and careers as separate processes and more about the organizational capabilities their businesses need, and how the talent system can build them. 

Next Practices Weekly welcomed Amy Cribb, Head of Enterprise Learning and Development, and James Lawrence, Global Director of Talent & Executive Development at BorgWarner, for a discussion on how the global automotive technology company is redefining sustainable performance by treating personal energy as a critical leadership resource. They shared how BorgWarner developed a multi-year energy management initiative that equips leaders with practical strategies to strengthen resilience, improve focus, and sustain performance through organizational change.Hosted by i4cp's Terri Faison and Tom Stone,  the conversation explored BorgWarner's executive energy retreats, science-based learning experiences, and broader employee development programs. The discussion highlighted the importance of executive sponsorship, everyday habits, and organizational permission to prioritize energy renewal.

In a recent presentation with the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, i4cp shared the latest findings from the AI Enabled HR-Operating Model for Future-Ready Organizations report. The study examines how AI is raising business expectations of HR while changing HR work, roles, and operating models. i4cp research found that 83% of respondents say AI is already reshaping what the business expects from HR.Attendees in the APAC region raised questions about AI maturity, data security, implementation, and how the technology is changing HR work.  Their questions also highlighted different stages of AI adoption across the region.

Broad training, role-based learning, experimentation, and the challenge of creating capacity to learn in a strong union culture.Snapshot

This article was authored by Jen Colletta, Managing Editor of HR Executive, and was originally published in HR Executive.As organizations lean into the AI age, HR is rising to the forefront of AI transformation strategies. For instance, companies like Lumen, Moderna and ServiceNow have all given their CHROs leadership responsibility for their organizations' AI transformation.

An HR leader can read an income statement, define EBITDA, and follow an earnings call and still miss the decisions that matter. Understanding business language is necessary, but it is not sufficient. What really matters is whether HR can identify how a specific business creates value, where that value is leaking, which organizational conditions constrain execution, and what changes to work, structure, capabilities, leadership, culture, rewards, or talent would materially improve the odds of achieving the business strategy.The distinction between “talking business” and deeply understanding a particular business is what separates business knowledge from business acumen. Knowledge travels easily across companies; acumen is built in context. Acumen is a tested model of how this enterprise or business unit creates value, competes, operates, and makes trade-offs. For HR, that model turns functional expertise into business judgment and impact.

How well are your maps capturing what employees actually experience? Are you focusing on the touchpoints that matter most? And are your findings leading to meaningful improvements?The Employee Journey Mapping Assessment is an editable Excel workbook that helps you evaluate your organization's journey-mapping practices, recognize strengths, and identify opportunities to improve. Complete the 14-statement assessment in approximately 10 minutes, then use the results to focus on one meaningful improvement.

Next Practices Weekly welcomed Boston College Professor Juliet B. Schor, bestselling author of Four Days a Week, for a research-backed conversation on how shorter workweeks could transform productivity, employee well-being, and the future of work. Drawing on international four-day workweek trials, Schor explored why a 32-hour workweek, without reduced pay, can be a viable alternative to traditional work models, challenging long-held assumptions about the relationship between time worked and business performance.Cohosted by i4cp's Lorrie Lykins and Tom Stone, the discussion examined the organizational changes required to make reduced working hours successful, from redesigning workflows and maintaining customer coverage to addressing burnout and measuring business outcomes. The conversation also considered how evolving technologies, including AI, could create opportunities to rethink how work gets done.

Girish Ganesan is EVP and Chief People Officer at S&P Global, heading up all aspects of HR among other duties. Ganesan is often asked about the future of work, but when he talks about it, he doesn’t start with HR…he starts with the business. And that business, a 40,000‑person organization which operates across 46 countries, is being reshaped by AI from both the outside‑in and the inside‑out.“We sit at the intersection of data, technology, markets, and deep human expertise,” he recently told i4cp’s Future of Work Board. “AI is not just at the edge of our business. It is changing what our customers expect from us, and it’s changing how we produce what they consume.”

Many HR strategies are rich with initiatives but thin on strategic clarity. They describe programs, priorities, and aspirations, yet fail to answer a question investors increasingly expect executive teams to address: How does your people strategy contribute to sustainable shareholder returns?A useful starting point comes from David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad,[i] who argue that an effective strategy requires three elements: a clear objective, a defined scope, and a distinctive advantage.They caution that organizations often confuse mission statements, values, and strategic objectives, making execution difficult because employees lack a clear basis for making consistent decisions and aligning their actions with the firm's strategic direction.

Dell turns crisis preparedness from a plan on paper into an enterprise capabilityAt Dell Technologies, preparing for disruption isn't an annual compliance exercise. The company tests its communications tools, response plans and preparedness resources through quarterly and annual exercises.

i4cp defines employee experience (EX) as the sum of how employees experience work, culture, and opportunity across their journey within an organization, shaped by leadership, work design, technology, and growth. Delivering this holistic experience requires both accountability and collaboration.By definition, employee experience is integrated and ongoing, cutting across the organization. To ensure the overall experience is positive, organizations are increasingly assigning accountability for EX to a specific team or function. In i4cp’s 2026 study, 57% of respondents said their organizations had done so, compared with 49% in 2020.

Many organizations still approach employee journey mapping as a workshop exercise: documenting experiences across recruiting, onboarding, development, and exit to identify pain points and opportunities. But this exercise isn’t enough to create real valueThe most effective organizations are making a different shift. Rather than treating journey maps as HR artifacts, they are turning them into guides to enhance understanding, manage, and continuously improve employee experience.

Most organizations listen to employees. The bigger challenge is turning what they hear into coordinated action across the functions that shape the employee experience.i4cp research finds a significant difference in how organizations approach that work. Among organizations reporting good or excellent employee experience, 63% use cross-functional collaboration to intentionally design EX, compared with 28% of organizations reporting average or below-average EX.

Those who described EX in their organizations as good or excellent were consistently more likely to report using intentional, structured approaches to designing EX than those reporting average or below average EX in their organizations.Most organizations routinely survey employees but few have mastered translating those insights into intentional experience—acting systematically on what is learned.

Industry: Pediatric healthcare Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Website: Cincinnatichildrens.org Employees: 19,500During the COVID-19 pandemic, senior leaders at Cincinnati Children’s needed timely, accurate insight into openings and hiring activity to make critical workforce decisions. At the time, Talent Acquisition (TA) had limited capacity, tools and reporting capabilities to quickly provide that level of visibility. Data required significant manual effort to gather and validate, while recruiters were also managing substantial administrative and sourcing responsibilities. That experience became a catalyst for TA’s transformation journey, creating a clear need to strengthen data and reporting capabilities, streamline processes, and better position recruiters to focus on higher-value, strategic work.

Next Practices Weekly welcomed Laura Hamill, PhD, organizational psychologist and leader of Microsoft's AI@Work Thought Leadership research, for an insightful conversation on what Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index reveals about the evolving relationship between AI, employees, and organizational performance. Drawing on Microsoft's latest research, Hamill explored employee mindsets, leadership behaviors, and cultural dynamics influencing AI adoption, along with emerging questions shaping the next wave of AI-enabled work.i4cp's Kevin Oakes and Tom Stone guided the discussion, examining how organizations can move beyond AI experimentation to meaningful workforce transformation. The conversation highlighted the disconnect between ambitious AI strategies and organizational readiness, emphasizing the importance of leadership engagement, employee trust, and building cultures that support new ways of working.

For many organizations, discussions about artificial intelligence still occur after strategic decisions have already been made. Investment levels are approved, growth assumptions are set, and operating plans are underway before leaders fully understand how AI will affect workforce requirements, productivity expectations, or execution capacity. That sequencing creates risk. 

Most succession conversations eventually arrive at the same question:Who is ready?

The employee journey doesn’t begin or end at the company’s walls. Drawing on her work at Intel, Meta and Microsoft, Alexis Fink explains why labor markets, candidate experiences and alumni outcomes belong in the same picture as onboarding and career development. She explores where AI and other technology can help organizations respond to moments across that broader journey.  In this video: 

Many promotion decisions focus on the employee. TransUnion starts with the role. In this clip, a member of TransUnion's global talent team explains how the organization evaluates promotions through business need, role scope, individual readiness, and cross-functional calibration before any transactions are entered into Workday. The goal is to ensure promotions support organizational health, build trust, and prepare employees for long-term success.In this video, start with business need. Learn why promotions are evaluated based on changes in role scope, organizational requirements, and business impact rather than tenure or retention concerns. Assess readiness before advancement. Explore how demonstrated performance, capabilities, and leadership readiness help determine whether employees are prepared for their next role. Use calibration to improve consistency. Discover how HR, compensation, business leaders, and executives work together to align promotion decisions across a global organization.

A practical model for governing AI-enabled employee support through independent quality assurance and accountable human oversightSnapshot

As organizations move beyond AI experimentation, some are beginning to treat AI agents as part of the workforce. Drawing on findings from i4cp's research, Katheryn explores how future-ready organizations are operationalizing AI, scaling beyond individual use cases, and incorporating digital employees into their operating models. She also explains why HR's involvement in enterprise AI decisions may be critical to building an AI-ready workforce.In this video, see how leading organizations are using digital employees. Learn how some organizations are placing AI agents on organizational charts, assigning them work, and managing them with human oversight. Understand what separates AI leaders from experimenters. Explore how organizations move from individual GPT use cases to scaled AI implementation that creates broader business impact. Explore HR's role in AI readiness. Discover why organizations that involve HR in enterprise AI implementation may be better positioned to develop workforce readiness, training, and adoption.

Many organizations focus on AI tools. Zillow focused on documentation. In this clip, a Zillow leader explains how building a culture of writing, documenting processes, and capturing organizational knowledge unexpectedly created the foundation for AI readiness. As AI adoption accelerated, that investment in context and knowledge sharing made it easier for employees to learn, onboard, and work in new ways.In this video, build the foundation before implementing AI. Learn why documenting processes, workflows, and institutional knowledge can make organizations more prepared for AI adoption. Create context at scale. Explore how written documentation helps employees access information, onboard more effectively, and leverage AI systems with greater confidence. Support new ways of working. Discover how distributed work environments and strong knowledge-sharing practices can help employees adapt more quickly to AI-enabled work.

As inflation, labor shortages, and talent competition increase pressure on organizations, compensation often becomes the first lever leaders pull. Drawing on research from i4cp and Fortune, Kevin Martin explains why high-performance organizations take a broader approach, focusing on culture, flexibility, purpose, inclusion, and development as key elements of their employee value proposition.In this video, look beyond compensation. Learn why leading organizations are strengthening culture, flexibility, development opportunities, and purpose to attract and retain talent. Build a stronger employee value proposition.

Many organizations manage promotions inside their HR systems. Henry Tasted of Cincinnati Children's explains why the most important work happens before a promotion ever reaches Workday. He shares how HR Business Consultants partner with leaders to establish business need, leverage workforce data, align promotional decisions with organizational goals, and build trust in the promotion process. In this video, start with business need, not individual performance.Learn how Cincinnati Children's evaluates promotions based on organizational requirements, strategic priorities, and future business needs rather than employee performance alone. Use workforce data to make better talent decisions. Discover how promotion data, engagement surveys, succession insights, development plans, and workforce analytics help identify risks, opportunities, and talent gaps. Build trust through a structured process. Explore how HR Business Consultants partner with leaders to create transparency, consistency, and equity in promotion decisions while supporting long-term talent development.

Creating a more inclusive hiring process often starts with examining the process itself. In this clip, a leader from McCann explains how the organization assessed sourcing practices, reviewed hiring decisions, and identified opportunities to reduce bias throughout the recruiting journey. Rather than relying on one-time interventions, the approach focuses on understanding how decisions are made, expanding talent sources, and helping recruiters and hiring managers adopt more inclusive practices.In this video, look at every touchpoint in the talent journey. Learn how analyzing sourcing practices and hiring outcomes can reveal opportunities to improve representation throughout the recruiting process. Create interventions where bias can occur. Explore how McCann reviewed recruiting practices and introduced targeted changes to help recruiters and hiring managers make more inclusive decisions. Support change through coaching and education. Discover why providing new resources, practical guidance, and ongoing follow-up can be more effective than simply asking people to change their behavior.

Major organizational changes can become defining moments for employees. In this clip, a leader from Prime Therapeutics explains how communication, strategic planning, and change management work together to help employees navigate uncertainty and stay connected during periods of change. From CEO communications to town halls and leadership updates, consistent communication plays a critical role in bringing people along throughout the journey.In this video, build communication into the change process. Learn why regular communication cadences, including CEO messages, employee forums, and town halls, help keep employees informed and connected during major change. Connect change efforts to strategy. Discover how strategic planning and goal-setting can provide the foundation for clear, consistent organizational communication. Help employees navigate change more effectively. Explore how thoughtful change management can turn significant organizational transitions into opportunities for engagement rather than sources of uncertainty.

Drawing on more than a decade of research on CEO succession, Anthony Nyberg, professor at the University of South Carolina and co-founder of the Center for Executive Succession, explains why boards often underestimate the time required for effective succession planning. He explores how executive development, candidate evaluation, and succession decisions each require time, and why CHROs can help boards build stronger leadership pipelines by planning further ahead.Note: This video is an excerpt from Anthony Nyberg's i4cp conference presentation, CEO Succession: The Board's Greatest Risk, the CHRO's Greatest Opportunity. Watch the full recording for additional insights on board dynamics, emergency succession planning, CEO transitions, and the CHRO's role in building a strong succession process.

Enterprise investment in artificial intelligence continues to rise, yet many organizations still struggle to move beyond pilots or demonstrate value at scale. That tension framed a recent working session of i4cp’s Future of Work Board, a peer community of leaders responsible for transformation, HR, talent, and learning at some of the world’s largest enterprises. The members’ conclusion was blunt: The bottleneck is rarely the technology. It is the way work is organized around it.The stakes are visible in the numbers. As of early 2026, 88% of organizations reported regular AI use in at least one business function, yet fewer than a third had scaled it beyond pilots. For the HR function specifically, adoption lagged even further. Only 30% of participants reported operationalizing AI across a few processes, 9% across many HR processes, and just 1% reported that AI is core to how their HR function operates. Tokenomics, the economics of what enterprises actually get back for the tokens that power generative AI, has become a topic no company can afford to ignore.