PEOPLE-FIRST LEADERSHIP AND THE FUTURE OF WORK THIS WEEK
AI - the reality check for people leaders
5 June 2025: 5-minute read. Subscribe.
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Question: Is AI a tool or a new layer of organisational infrastructure?
I’ve been using generative AI daily since December 2022. In the beginning it felt like magic. Smart, helpful, fast. It saved time and unlocked creativity. But lately I’ve noticed something: the magic is wearing thin. Outputs are becoming less reliable, more error-prone. Familiar phrases I once used now scream “written by AI”. Google’s own AI has started quoting research that doesn’t exist. And the root cause is becoming hard to ignore. AI is learning from AI.
As a journalist I start with good content. Original, verified and built on human insight. I use AI to sharpen it, to shorten, reshape, reformat. To turn a written piece into slides or a podcast into a thread. But increasingly, I’m cautious. Because when AI starts recycling its own outputs what you get isn’t acceleration, it’s dilution. We risk replacing ideas with imitations, accuracy with approximation.
That might sound abstract but it matters. Because when we lose the human source material, we lose depth, judgement and originality. And that’s a risk for HR and business leaders who are being sold a vision of seamless AI integration without understanding what’s under the hood.
The rise of generative AI is often framed as a technical deployment. But for HR and business leaders it's something more fundamental: a shift in how organisations think, operate and relate to their people. AI is about the decisions we make now that will shape the soul of our workplaces.
At The People Space we’ve always been optimistic about technology’s potential to enhance the human experience at work. We believe in a future where people and machines collaborate, not compete, to create fairer, more fulfilling working lives. But that future doesn’t arrive by default. It must be led.
AI can’t just sit with IT teams. CEO and CHROs must be engaged because AI rewires the organisational infrastructure, from trust and transparency to productivity and performance. Despite what some say it’s not simply a tool to streamline workflows but rather a new operating layer that forces us to rearticulate purpose, responsibility and value.
We are reaching a critical moment. The hype curve is peaking. For those of us who lived through the dot-com era it’s beginning to look all too familiar. Just as then we risk mistaking rapid adoption for meaningful integration. Leaders should be asking, what does this technology serve? Does it advance our mission? Does it strengthen the employee experience? Are we building a culture where AI augments rather than alienates?
That means resisting vendor lock-in and quick wins. It means integrating HR, legal, compliance and ethics from day one. And it means equipping people rather than replacing them. Generative AI predicts but it does not understand. It produces output, not insight. It offers power but not always wisdom.
We’re already seeing leading organisations rewire their structures in response. At Moderna the CHRO is now also the chief digital officer, tasked with redesigning work from the ground up. The company’s question isn’t ‘how do we implement AI?’ it’s ‘what work is best done by people and what can be automated?’ Roles are being created, eliminated and reimagined as a result. It’s a strategic shift in how value gets created and HR is at the centre of it. (And FYI That’s the kind of thinking every HR leader needs to start doing but knowing where to begin can be paralysing. That’s why we’ve created a new series of Essential Guides To… details at the bottom of this email).
This is a test of leadership. Those who succeed will be the ones who anchor AI in a clearly defined organisational purpose, who communicate with clarity, act with courage and keep people at the centre.
👉 Check out my story AI in the workplace: A reality check for HR to see more on this, and our promise to you at The People Space. 6-minute read
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AI just got real: Why the Workday case matters for every HR leader
A federal judge last month cleared the way for a class action lawsuit against HR tech giant Workday over alleged age discrimination in its AI-driven hiring tools – and it should be a wake-up call for anyone using algorithmic systems in recruitment.
The case, Mobley v Workday, centres on Derek Mobley, a Black man over 40 with mental health conditions, who applied for over 100 jobs through Workday-powered systems and claims he was rejected every time. The court found there’s enough in the allegations to allow the case to proceed as a nationwide class action under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
What’s important here is not whether the bias was intentional. The judge pointed to disparate impact – a legal concept that holds organisations accountable for discriminatory outcomes, regardless of intent. This could open the floodgates for similar claims, especially as federal enforcement shrinks and private litigation steps up.
This is a critical moment. Tools that promise speed and efficiency can also entrench bias if they’re not rigorously tested, transparently built and properly governed. It’s not enough to rely on vendor assurances. You need evidence of fairness, oversight by humans and robust audit trails. Workday argued it wasn’t the employer, just the tech provider. The court didn’t bite.
As AI becomes embedded in more people processes the Mobley case underlines your responsibility to ensure outcomes are equitable – even when the algorithms are under the hood.
If you’re using or planning to use AI in hiring, now’s the time to review your governance, your vendors and your data for the future of AI in HR will be shaped in courtrooms as much as boardrooms.
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The ILO report every HR leader should read
Here’s what most headlines miss: the real risk of generative AI isn’t just job loss but about job distortion. A new International Labour Organization report cuts through the hype to show where AI is genuinely reshaping work and where we’re being sold automation myths.
The numbers are eye-opening: one in four jobs globally is exposed to GenAI. But don’t be misled. Exposure doesn’t mean elimination. What it does mean is transformation. Roles like clerical support, data entry and customer service top the risk index. Yet, even here, most jobs contain tasks that GenAI still can’t do without human input. The threat is not wholesale replacement but the slow unravelling of roles, tasks chipped away until what’s left no longer resembles meaningful work.
And this isn’t evenly felt. In high-income countries 9.6% of women’s jobs fall into the highest AI exposure category. For men it’s 3.5%. That gendered disparity should be setting off alarm bells. Especially in HR, where we’ve spent years talking about equity and inclusion only to now risk sleepwalking into a new kind of digital inequality.
AI is amplifying risk in jobs already vulnerable. That means HR’s role isn’t to rubber-stamp AI adoption but to interrogate it. Which tasks do we automate? What do we redesign? Where do we reinvest human energy? The answers can’t come from vendors or IT. They have to come from us.
This is the moment for HR to lead by insisting on human-led implementation. One that builds capability, not dependence. One that opens up opportunity, not narrows it. The ILO has done the hard analytical work. Now it’s over to us to ensure this isn’t another missed moment for leadership.
👉 Read the full story What the ILO’s Global Index tells us about GenAI and jobs. 3-minute read
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The answer’s not in the algorithm – it’s in your people
AI might be the buzzword but are we losing sight of what really drives performance?
In our latest Work’s Not Working… Let’s Fix It episode I talk to Lord Mark Price, former Waitrose MD, government minister and author of Happy Economics, who warns that leaders are falling into a familiar trap: betting on technology without investing in the human infrastructure that makes work, work!
“You can stare at spreadsheets all day,” Mark says, "but the answers aren’t in the spreadsheet. They’re in the people.”
He’s not anti-AI. In fact, his platform WorkL uses it. But his message is that technology alone won’t save you. Especially if it's stripping away the very things that make people happy: connection, recognition, purpose.
Mark argues that workplace happiness isn’t a perk, it’s a business metric. And in a world chasing productivity it may be the most underused performance driver we have.
Key points from our conversation:
- Happiness is measurable – and directly linked to commercial outcomes like lower turnover and higher earnings per share.
- The UK ranks bottom of the G20 for both productivity and happiness. That’s no coincidence.
- AI is only as good as the culture it’s dropped into. And too often, it’s replacing managers instead of empowering them.
- Recognition, information and empowerment are more powerful than pizza parties. And they cost almost nothing.
If we’re serious about building better workplaces – and using AI responsibly – we need to start where all good businesses do: with people.
🎙 Listen now: The answer’s not in the spreadsheet — it’s in workplace happiness or on your usual podcast platforms. 45-minute listen
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Ready to do what Moderna’s doing – but not sure where to start?
If you’ve read this far you know that. AI, automation and new expectations are forcing leaders to rethink the architecture of jobs. Moderna is already redesigning teams around what work is best done by people – and what can be done by machines.
But let’s be honest. That sounds great in theory. In practice, where do you begin?
That’s exactly why we’ve created our new Essential Guides To... series.
These are your starting points for action. No fluff, no 100-page slide decks. Just focused, expert-backed resources designed to help you test ideas, engage your teams and lead the change.
💥 First up: The Essential Guide to Reinventing Jobs in the Age of AI
For HR and people leaders ready to move from talk to transformation.
Inside you’ll find:
✔ A 5-part roadmap to redesign work around automation and augmentation
✔ Actionable frameworks to evaluate, automate and reskill
✔ Real-world examples from IBM, Marlin Steel and more
✔ Editable tools you can use immediately with your teams
Award-winning CHRO and former joint CEO of Dorchester Collection Eugenio Pirri says: “WOW, this is impressive! I felt myself learning as I was going through it. Well worth the investment.”
Whether you're running workshops, advising leaders or planning org redesigns, this guide will help you take that crucial first step without needing a six-figure consultant.
👉 Find out more here and get instant access!
Find your reality space!
Siân
Editorial director, The People Space
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