Module 1. Foundations for CHROs and CIOs

Key takeaway
Building an AI-powered workforce is a leadership and design challenge before it is a technology challenge.

Introduction

This course is designed to help CHROs and CIOs build an AI-powered workforce by redesigning work at the task level, aligning AI investment with workforce readiness and business outcomes.

AI is already reshaping how work is performed and how decisions are made across the enterprise. Yet many organizations are applying AI on top of outdated foundations:

• Static job architectures
• Fragmented workforce data
• Legacy hierarchies designed for stability rather than change

The technology has moved forward. Models of work have not.

This gap creates misalignment between AI investment, workforce readiness, and business outcomes. Closing it requires deliberate leadership decisions about:

• How work is structured
• How people are supported through change
• How technology is integrated at a foundational level

This course addresses those decisions, step by step.

AI changes work at the task level, not the job level

AI operates on tasks. Understanding this is the foundation of every effective AI workforce strategy.

People have skills.
Jobs have tasks.
Tasks require skills.
AI intervenes at the task layer.

This distinction matters because organizations that plan AI around job titles, org charts, or role counts miss where change actually occurs. Without task-level visibility:

• AI is deployed in the wrong places
• Returns remain unclear or overstated
• Employees experience uncertainty about how their work will change

Task-level visibility provides the grounding needed to align AI capability with real work. It is the conceptual foundation for the rest of this course.

Most organizations are structurally unprepared for AI

Enterprises struggle with AI not because of model performance, but because their workforce foundations were not designed for continuous change.

Common blockers include:

• Invisible work: Critical tasks remain undocumented or poorly understood.
• Uncoordinated AI deployment: AI is introduced in pockets without enterprise alignment.
• Workforce uncertainty: Employees lack clarity on how work will change and what is expected of them.
• Siloed data: HR, IT, and business systems do not connect, limiting insight into work, skills, and capacity.
• Disconnected strategies: AI initiatives and talent strategies move on separate tracks.

These are not tooling issues. They are organizational design and leadership challenges that sit at the intersection of HR and technology.

The workforce needs a new operating model, and HR plays a central role

Traditional job-based workforce models cannot keep pace with AI-driven change. HR must now help architect how work evolves.

Job-based models were designed for consistency and control. They struggle when:

• Tasks change faster than roles
• Skills evolve continuously
• Technology reshapes workflows in real time

HR’s role now extends into workforce architecture, including:

• Making work visible at a granular, task-based level
• Understanding which tasks are changing and why
• Supporting people as work is redesigned, not just reclassified
  

Reejig’s Work Ontology™ supports this shift by mapping work across jobs, tasks, and skills. It provides a shared, enterprise view of how work is performed today and how it is likely to evolve.

This enables AI deployment, workforce planning, and reskilling to move together.

Responsible AI transformation depends on leadership choices

AI-driven change succeeds or fails based on how it is led.

Bold leadership questions legacy processes and acts decisively. Responsible leadership ensures transparency, fairness, and sustained workforce support.

Effective AI-powered transformation:

• Removes friction from work to release capacity
• Enables people to focus on higher-value activity
• Accounts for capability, capacity, and growth, not efficiency alone
  
  

Organizations that overlook workforce impact struggle to maintain trust, adoption, and momentum.

AI workforce transformation is a shared business strategy

AI workforce transformation spans technology, operations, and people. No function can succeed in isolation.

• IT and data teams manage platforms, models, and infrastructure
• HR shapes how AI affects work, skills, and employee experience
• Business leaders define value and outcomes

Durable results depend on shared clarity around:

• What work is being done
• Where AI can add value
• How roles and skills will evolve

This alignment is the through-line of every module in this course.

What leaders should take away from Module 1

Before deploying AI, leaders must understand how work actually gets done.

This module establishes three foundations:

1. AI changes work at the task level
2. Most organizations lack visibility into tasks and skills
3. Workforce design is a leadership responsibility, not an afterthought
   
   

The next modules build on these foundations with practical methods and frameworks.

Get the full course materials

This module is part of the Building the AI-Powered Workforce executive course.

👉 Download the Module 1 slide deck and course overview to:

• Understand how the full course fits together
• Align HR, IT, and business leaders around a shared workforce strategy
• Prepare for the next modules on task visibility, AI impact, and workforce redesign

Continue to the next module

Module 2: Making Work Visible. How to Map Tasks, Skills, and AI Impact

In the next module, you will learn:

• How to make work visible at the task level
• How to identify where AI can automate, augment, or support work
• Why task visibility is critical for workforce planning and reskilling
  

👉 Read or watch Module 2 to continue the course