How Robyn Tombacher is bringing employees into AI work redesign

Meet Robyn Tombacher, EVP, Global Business Transformation & IMO Operations at Warner Bros. Discovery

Robyn’s career has moved from digital production through operations and into the people function, before returning to business transformation.

She understands change from the perspective of both the person designing it and the person expected to make it work, and sees employee participation as part of designing better work.

Buying AI technology is one decision. Changing how people work with it requires many more: which tasks should change, what people will become responsible for and how they will learn to work differently.

For Robyn, connecting those decisions is central to the job. Her approach brings employees into work redesign itself, and connects changes in workflows to the skills, expectations and support people need.

Bring employees into the design

Across mergers, integrations and technology deployments, Robyn has learned that strategy depends on people helping to put it into practice. The people whose work will change bring knowledge of requirements, exceptions and everyday realities a central team can miss.

For global changes, she brings different voices into a task force. Participants can then explain to colleagues how their needs were considered, which builds trust in the result.