HR's New Mandate: Redesign Work for the AI Era

**Karen Stokes-Lockhart** (0:06)
AI is everywhere, but what does it mean for your business? Gartner is the world authority on AI. With more than 200,000 client conversations and more than 6,000 written insights on AI in 2025 alone, leaders across the C-suite, just like you, are partnering with Gartner to turn AI ambition into impact. Go to gartner.com/ai to learn more. Welcome to Gartner ThinkCast. I'm Karen Stokes-Lockhart. Today, we're diving into another pressing question for the AI era. What does all this new technology really mean for work? Although AI is everywhere, most initiatives aren't moving the needle on growth or cost. That's why HR leaders have a new mandate. Stop focusing only on the workforce and start redesigning the work itself. In a preview of their opening keynote from Gartner HR Symposium, Xpo, Gartner experts Harsh Kundulli and Katie Sutherland reveal how HR can lead the way in three big shifts in work. Augment to make existing work better, re-engineer to redesign workflows and functions, and invent to create new AI-based ways of working. Now, here's Harsh and Katie.

**Harsh Kundulli** (1:29)
Welcome to HR Symposium, Xpo.

**Katie Sutherland** (1:31)
And welcome to a new era of work. We're in the AI era, and I think it's safe to say we're all feeling it. AI is all over the news and probably also all over your calendars. And one of the biggest questions everyone's trying to answer is what it all means for the workforce. Is the workforce going away? Will the next generation of workers have the right skills? How do we get the workforce ready?
But we need to take a step back. Do we even know what work we're preparing the workforce to do? Before we can answer any questions about the workforce, we need to answer questions about the work because work is changing.

**Harsh Kundulli** (2:24)
And work is changing because our CEOs have pretty big ambitions. Even with all the uncertainty and disruption around us, CEOs are still chasing growth as their number one priority. And in this AI era, they want to achieve that growth at the lowest possible cost. In response, CFOs have set exacting standards.
In 2026, they'll be aiming for increased revenue and a higher volume of products and services, all without increasing headcount at all.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:05)
Wait, wait, okay.

**Katie Sutherland** (3:09)
Looking at these expectations, it sounds like we agree, it kind of feels impossible. But organizations have high hopes for AI to fill the gap.
About 9 in 10 organizations have rolled out some form of AI, and over 80% of CEOs increased their AI investment in the third quarter of this year. But it's not working.

**Harsh Kundulli** (3:35)
Check this out. Gartner data shows that only 1 in 3 AI initiatives boost productivity, 1 in 5 delivers measurable ROI, and just 1 in 50 achieves disruptive value. Bottom line, AI has yet to significantly impact business outcomes that matter, like revenue growth and cost optimization. Now, what does all of this mean for the HR leaders in this room? More pressure.
Pressure to cut costs, to scramble for scarce growth talent, and all the while figure out how to get value from this very promising, but unproven technology. It's a lot. I see you. Trust me, sometimes I too think this would be a really good time to retire.

**Katie Sutherland** (4:38)
But the optimists in the room, like me, see this moment as a huge opportunity. You have the opportunity to work alongside your C-suite to completely redesign how work gets done. And they need your expertise to do it. Because here's the thing, Gartner data shows that organizations are twice as likely to exceed revenue goals if they redesign work rather than just introduce AI.

**Harsh Kundulli** (5:09)
But so far, business and IT leaders have not been very successful at changing work. Their attempts have been opportunistic, isolated and led more by hype than reality. They just haven't added up to the outcomes we are looking for. Do you know what they desperately need to succeed?
HR's help, your help to reshape work. And for the longest time, HR has been focused on the workforce. When there's a strategy change, we ready the workforce. We hire new people, we train leaders, we change our culture. Remember, when COVID hit, we were there for our people. The workforce is our sweet spot. Nobody does it better. But now, that is not enough. In the AI era, HR has a new mandate.

**Katie Sutherland** (6:07)
And the new mandate requires a shift in focus. To build an organization fit for the AI era, we need to shift our focus from the workforce to the work. We need to help our organizations decide what work needs to get done, how it gets done, and where.