Why CHROs must own AI Work Design

AI is changing work across the business. But who owns how that work changes and what it means for people?

Through my work with pioneering leaders and our conversations on The Work Blueprint, our podcast about redesigning work in the AI era, I keep hearing the same challenge: technology is moving quickly, while responsibility for redesigning work falls between HR, IT and the business.

I created the AI Work Design Blueprint to help leaders close that gap, bringing those lessons together into 13 responsibilities no one owns right now.

I believe those responsibilities belong with the CHRO. Here’s why, what taking them on requires, and what we can learn from leaders already doing it.

Why the CHRO should own AI Work Design

AI Work Design means deciding how work should be done across people and agents, then preparing the workforce for those changes.

It starts with understanding the work. What needs to get done? Which tasks require human expertise? Where could an agent help? How would that change someone’s responsibilities?

Buying technology does not answer those questions. Someone needs to connect what the technology can do with what the business needs and what employees will need to work differently.

That is where the CHRO comes in.

When tasks change, decisions about jobs, skills, performance and development follow. If an agent takes on part of someone’s work, what should they focus on instead? What will their manager expect? Will they need training, different responsibilities or a path into another role?

These are decisions HR already helps the business make. AI makes it more important to consider them together, before changes reach employees.

The CHRO should lead this work with IT and business leaders:

• IT brings technical expertise and responsibility for systems.
• Business leaders know the outcomes their teams must deliver.
• Employees understand the details of how work happens.
• HR can connect those perspectives to a workforce plan.

But being positioned to lead does not mean having all the expertise already. Taking ownership requires dedicated people, resources and new capability within the team.

What taking ownership requires

In the AI Work Design Blueprint, I’ve grouped the 13 responsibilities into four connected areas.

1. See the work. Understand the tasks and workflows across the business, the skills people and agents bring, and the costs involved. Job titles alone cannot show you where work could improve. You need a picture that the people doing the work recognize and trust.
2. Design and build the work. Set a workforce strategy, then redesign workflows with IT and the business. Decide where people should lead, where agents can contribute and how they will work together. Keep your understanding of tasks, roles and workflows current as they change.
3. Bring your people with you. Explain new expectations, support adoption and provide development paths for people whose work is changing. Training is one part of this. Employees also need to understand what they should do differently and have support while they learn.
4. Measure and steer. Track what improved, how much time became available and what people did with it. Give executives a clear view of the effects on work and the workforce so they can make informed decisions about what comes next.

These responsibilities depend on one another. A redesigned workflow needs an adoption plan. Time saved needs a decision about how to use it. Changes to tasks need to inform workforce planning.

They also require ongoing ownership. As work changes, the organization needs people who can reassess it, make decisions and help employees adapt.

What we can learn from leaders already doing this

The leaders I work with are showing what different parts of this responsibility look like in practice.

What I’ve appreciated about working with Abby Rich (Director, Enterprise & Workforce Design, Organization Transformation) at Medtronic is where she takes the conversation once we can see the work. Reejig helps her team understand the tasks within roles and where AI could contribute. But then comes the question that matters for HR: what should people be doing, and which skills should we help them develop? That’s where this understanding becomes useful.

With Santosh Singh (Senior Vice President, Corporate Functions: HR, Legal and Corporate Communications) at DENSO, our work at Reejig has helped establish a work data foundation the business can trust. DENSO is using that understanding to look at where AI could contribute and what that means for people’s skills, career paths and workforce planning. Leaders and practitioners have been involved in validating the detail. The work we mapped aligned 90% with what employees actually did, giving them confidence in the information guiding those decisions.

I saw that connection between work and people firsthand in a workshop with Sarah Bernstein (Vice President, Organizational Transformation and Capability Development) at Lumen. We had business teams and agent builders together, using the task and subtask detail we’d developed through Reejig to work through how workflows could change. What could an agent take on? Where did a person need to lead? Sarah was already thinking about what employees would need to learn. Upskilling was core to this work.

Robyn Tombacher (EVP, Global Business Transformation & IMO Operations) at Warner Bros. Discovery called the visibility Reejig provides “the holy grail.” She wants to see how AI is changing the work and whether those changes are delivering the improvements the business expected. That’s been an important focus in our work together. With that visibility, she can make informed decisions about what to keep, adjust or stop, rather than assuming the investment will pay off.

Working with leaders like these has helped me see what AI Work Design takes in practice, and what areas are still lacking a clear owner.

No one has all the answers, but together we have lessons.

All our lessons learned are here in the AI Work Design Blueprint.