AI Is Changing Your Workforce Whether You're Ready or Not

AI isn't coming for your workforce. It's already here. And most organizations are focused on what AI can do — not on what it means for the people inside their organization.

In this episode, Kimone Napier cuts through the noise and gets practical. She breaks down what AI is actually changing in the workplace (and what it isn't), how to think about workforce planning in an AI environment, which roles are most at risk, and the skills that are going to matter more — not less — in the years ahead.

You'll leave with three concrete steps you can take this week to start thinking about your workforce proactively — before circumstance forces your hand.

If you lead a team, a department, or an organization, this is the conversation you need to be having right now.

Take the free Pulse Check at hirebreakthrough.com/pulse-check to see where your organization stands.

Transcript

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00:01
Kimone Napier
AI is not coming. It's here. And most of the conversation happening in the business world right now is focused on what AI can do. You know, the tools, the possibilities, the capabilities. But what's getting far less attention is what AI actually means for the people inside your organization. Things like how it changes their roles, how it changes what you as a leader needs from them, and how it changes what you owe them as a leader. That's the conversation we're having today, and I promise you, it's not the conversation you've been hearing everywhere else. Welcome back to the Higher Breakthrough podcast. I'm your host, Kimon Napier, founder of Higher Breakthrough. And if you're just finding this show, welcome. 

 01:00
Kimone Napier
Last week was our season premiere, so we talked about, you know, what's changing this season in terms of who I'm talking to, what's coming over next in the next few weeks. So go back and listen to that when you get a chance, if you haven't yet. It really is going to set context for everything we're doing this year. Today's topic is one I've been getting a lot of questions about. And this is from, like, leaders in all types of areas, from founders to startup owners, executives, government agency leaders, you name it. And everybody really wants to know, what does AI actually mean for my workforce? Not the headlines, the shiny object stuff, not the predictions, really, the practical reality of what they should be doing right now. So I want to be honest with you up front. 

 01:53
Kimone Napier
I am not going to tell you AI is going to destroy your organization if you don't act immediately. And I'm certainly not going to tell you it's overhyped and you can ignore it. The truth is somewhere more nuanced than either of those takes. And nuance is what's actually useful. So I want to get into this. I want to start by sort of grounding us in reality, because there's a lot of noise right now when it comes to AI, and most of it is not designed to help you think clearly. It's really just designed to get your attention. Here is what I know from working inside organizations. AI is not going to eliminate your workforce overnight. That is not what's happening, and that is not what the evidence supports. What is happening is more specific. 

 02:46
Kimone Napier
It's like, it's a gradual thing, and it's very important for you to understand. AI is changing job descriptions, it is changing what skills are valuable, and it is changing how work gets done inside organizations. So these are things like how the information is going to get processed, how decisions are getting supported, how routine communications get handled, you know, how content gets produce, all of that good stuff. Here's a distinction that I really want you to hold on to, honestly, because it matters. AI is not replacing jobs, it's replacing tasks. I'm going to say it again. AI is not replacing jobs, it's replacing tasks. And that honestly, is fundamentally a different problem with a different solution. When tasks get automated, the job doesn't automatically disappear. What it means is that the job changes. So the scope is going to shift. 

 03:49
Kimone Napier
And then the question becomes, what does this role look like when the repetitive parts are handled by a tool? This is like an honest question. And just take it a step further. Do the people currently in that role have the skills and the capacity to do what's left? This is a workforce development question. This is a people strategy question. And it's one that most organizations haven't started answering yet. And it's really not because they don't care. It's because the day to day demands of running an organization make it easy to put this kind of thinking on the back burner. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to make the case today that this is the thinking you can't afford to postpone. Now, what isn't AI changing? Another valid question, at least not in any immediate dramatic way. 

 04:48
Kimone Napier
So it's not changing the need for human judgment, the need for human relationships, and honestly, the need for genuine leadership. It's not changing the ability to read a room or to build trust with a client, with a team or a community. AI is not going to replace making a sound call when the data just doesn't give you a clear answer. And to hold a hard conversation, you know, with a staff member, it might be able to guide you in some of the things you can say, but it's not going to guide you on actually holding that space for that person and having that conversation. It's not going to inspire someone who is burned out and ready to quit. Those are really deep human capabilities. 

 05:42
Kimone Napier
And sometimes when I hear people talking about AI is going to replace everyone, people are not thinking about all of these things that I'm just mentioning. And in people intensive work, right? This is most of what organizations that I work with are doing. The capabilities are going to remain the core of what makes leadership effective for a long time. AI can support that work, but it cannot do that work. So this is the first point that I want to make. The next thing is that I see this mistake over and over again. The mistake I see leaders making honestly more consistently right now is just waiting to see how things will shake out and waiting for more clarity before making any moves. Now I genuinely understand that impulse. The landscape of this with AI is very uncertain. The tools are constantly evolving. 

 06:39
Kimone Napier
We have, you know, laws it going into effect, laws that are already in effect. It's really hard to plan for something that's still changing shape. But here's what I've really learned from working with organizations just through periods of significant change. The leaders who wait for certainty before they act are almost always the one playing catch up later. Like, I can guarantee that nine times out of 10, the leaders who start asking the right questions early, even if they don't have all the information or perfect information, those are the ones who usually end up ahead. So here's a framework. These are three questions. If you walk away from today's episode with nothing else, walk away with these three questions. Okay, so the first question is which tasks inside my organization are repetitive, rule based and high volume? And I want to clarify not roles, tasks. 

 07:44
Kimone Napier
I want you to go one level deeper than the organizational chart or the org chart. Sit down with your team leads, or you could even do this by yourself for a role you know well and just list out the top eight to 10 things people in that role spend their time doing and then look at that list honestly and ask yourself which of these could a well designed AI tool handle in the next two to three years. Now you're not trying to eliminate the roles, you're trying to understand where the change is coming. So you're not surprised by it. That's key. The second question is, if those tasks shift, what do I want my people doing instead? And this is where the strategic opportunity comes in. Because the best outcome here isn't a smaller head count, it's redirected human capacity, right? 

 08:40
Kimone Napier
Being able to move faster with ease, being able. If you're looking down the line, you're like, I want to be able to scale, right? You have to think in a way like, okay, how can I make get the best time out of the people that I do have? And a lot of times it's implementing these tools to make things more efficient and easier so they can spend time doing things that a AI tool cannot do. This is moving people from low value, repetitive work towards, you know, higher judgment, higher impact work. The organizations that figure this out are going to be significantly more effective and not just more efficient, more effective. The third question, what skills does my team need to develop right now? So they can work alongside AI tools, you know, rather than being displaced by them. 

 09:38
Kimone Napier
Now this question is definitely a L and D question, a learning and development question. It is also one of the most neglected areas in most of the organizations that I work with. And it's not because the leaders don't value development. It's because they never have enough time to think through it and they really have enough budget. Now I'm going to push back on this gently because at the same time, the organizations that invest in their people's development right now, even modestly, are going to have a meaningful advantage in three to five years. We know this. The research shows us the ones that don't are going to be spending a lot more money later on trying to replace skills that they could have built. This is what I really want you to think about as you listen to the rest of this episode. 

 10:33
Kimone Napier
Not just what AI can do, but what your plan is for the people when it does. That's the gap I see more. Most often, you know, the technology conversation happens, but the people conversation doesn't happen. So instead of redirecting the capacity towards higher value work like managing relationships or program support or, you know, strategic thinking and coordination, the time just kind of, it just kinds of dissolves. People were busy, but they weren't more effective. And so the organization had invested in a tool without investing in a plan for the people. And I see this a lot now when these organizations are implementing basic AI, you know, tools, maybe even AI reporting tools, the task went from taking maybe half a week to taking a few hours. And of course in your mind you're thinking like, oh my gosh, this is a win. 

 11:35
Kimone Napier
And it definitely sounds like a win. But it, and it was, but on the other side of that, nobody thought of, thought necessarily through this, right? Nobody thought through what those staff members would do with the time that they got back. And this is why you find a lot of organizations, they're eliminating roles and then finding like, oh my gosh, I actually need help with this. You need people behind the tools. You need people to do things and form relationships that an AI tool just cannot do for you. An organization that I worked with, you know, they had an administrative team that spent a large portion of their week generating reports. So they're doing stuff like pulling data, their format and they're, you know, they're distributing it. All the reports they're coming with there, they has a million versions. 

 12:32
Kimone Napier
So it's, it was very time consuming work, but it was also very repetitive and it was work that nobody honestly enjoyed or meaningful. Let me just give you a real example of what I mean. And of course without naming names, but it's a pattern that I've seen play out more than once. So specifically because generalities are not useful when you're trying to make real decisions, I want to start there. The roles most affected in the near term are those where their primary function is processing information or generating some type of standard document, general communication or just doing like, you know, repetitive data work. First level administrative roles, customer service functions, entry level content production. I think you understand what I'm saying here, but I want to be careful because I'm not saying that these jobs are going to go away tomorrow. 

 13:41
Kimone Napier
I'm saying the scope of the jobs are changing. And if you're leading an organization that relies heavily on those functions, you need to be thinking about what the transition looks like and how you support the people who are in those roles. Here's something that doesn't get talked about enough. Especially in the AI conversation. The people most affected by automation are often the people who are already in the most economy, excuse me, economically vulnerable positions, entry level employees, administrative staff, support roles. And how organizations handle those transitions says a lot about their values and it says a lot about their leadership. So this isn't just a business strategy conversation, it's really a people first conversation. And I want you to be able to hold both of those things at once. 

 14:47
Kimone Napier
Now, the skills that are going to matter more, not less, I want to just go over those skills because I get asked this question all the time. First thing, critical thinking. This is the ability for you to evaluate information, question assumptions, really make sound judgments. And you need to be able to do it, especially when the information is incomplete or ambiguous. Another one is communication, like clear, thoughtful human communication. Right? Think about that. AI can't read body language. It's not here in person. So having that human communication is important. And this is with your team, it could be with stakeholders, community. Because the AI tool can generate the words, but it cannot build the relationships. The next one is adaptability and that's the willingness and the capacity to learn, trying something new, to be able to shift. 

 15:50
Kimone Napier
And I think this is going to be one of the most valuable traits in any workforce over the decade, honestly. And I would think the last one I would say is definitely organizational judgment. That's the ability to look at a complex system and understand how those pieces connect and really make the decisions that account for that complexity. So, you know, that's a really deeply human skill. And it's also one of the hardest to develop quickly. So like I said, people first, your people matter. And for those of you who are in, you know, the non profit world or government world, your community facing or relationship driven type of roles, have a strong stay in power. And the place that I would encourage you to look carefully at is your operational and your administrative infrastructure. 

 16:52
Kimone Napier
A lot of times in these type of environments, those things take a back burner because you're constantly putting out fires. This is where the most significant shifts are likely to show up first. So this week I want to leave you with three concrete things that you can do. And this is things that you can do this week, not someday, this week. All right, this week. One, conduct a task audit for yourself. And this is going to be for your most AI adjacent roles. And it doesn't need to be formal. You know, just sit down or even sit down by yourself or with a team lead and list out what people in that role actually do day to day. 

 17:37
Kimone Napier
Then you can have an honest conversation about which of those tasks are candidates needed for at this moment or even in the next two to three years. You don't need a consultant for this. You just need to start the conversation and document what you find. Number two is talk to your team. But you gotta frame this, right? It shouldn't be like AI might replace some of you, right? That should not be the conversation because that's not useful and it's not accurate. Instead, what the conversation should be is things are changing in how work gets done and I want to make sure we're thinking about this together. Involve your team. Ask them where they see friction in their work. Ask them what tasks feel like a waste of their skills. Ask them where they think there's opportunity, right? 

 18:33
Kimone Napier
So your frontline staff often have the clearest view of inefficiency and they're going to have ideas that you might haven't even thought of yourself. And then number three is revisit your L and D investment, your learning and development investment. If you have some budget for it, look at how it's being used and whether it's being used strategically. And if you don't have a budget, this is a good time to build, even a small one. It doesn't have to be large, but it needs to be intentional. So you don't need all the answers today, but you do need to start asking the right questions and you do need to start now, not after the change is already on top of you and you're burnt out or overwhelmed with conflicting priorities. All right, I want to keep going here. 

 19:30
Kimone Napier
The next thing I want to just mention is that I want you to hold the role in your mind. Because when you go to higherbreakthrough.com forward/pulse-check after this episode, I want you to be thinking about this role. The pulse check is going to help you see where your people systems are strong and where they have gaps. And AI readiness is really a big part of that picture. Which are your roles has the highest concentration of repetitive and rule based tasks. If you had to pick one and just one, where would AI make the biggest difference in the next two to three years? I want to give you a moment to think about your own organization right now. So let's do a quick pause as you're thinking. 

 20:31
Kimone Napier
If you're at this point in the episode, you probably know me, but if you don't, I'm Kimon Napier and I run High Breakthrough, which is a strategic HR and organizational consulting firm. So we work with all types of people. Founders, non profits, work with the government and growing organizations to build people systems that hold up when things change. So right now, things are changing very fast, very rapidly. And if you're trying to figure out where your organization stands on workforce planning, or you just maybe want a clearer picture of your people systems before something breaks, what I want you to do is go to higherbreakthrough.com forward/pulse-check and I want you to take the free pulse check. This is just going to take a few minutes and it's going to give you a real starting point. So once again, that is higher. 

 21:23
Kimone Napier
H I r e breakthrough.com forward/pulse-check. So the organizations that come out ahead on the AI question are really the ones that are building a plan right now. This is before their roles get redefined by circumstance. This is before they lose people they could have retained and before they're trying to, you know, rush to catch up. This doesn't need to be complicated. It just starts with an honest look at your workforce, your task, and your people strategy. It starts with the three questions that I gave you earlier on. Which tasks are more likely to change? What do you want your people to do instead, and what skills do they need to get there? 

 22:10
Kimone Napier
If you want to start with a clear picture of where your organization stands right now across all of your people systems, not just AI readiness, I encourage you to take the pulse check because it's a great first step. And honestly, if you're ready to do this work in a more structured and supported way, what I want you to do is go to higherbreakthrough.com forward/start and book a call with the team. This is exactly the kind of strategic work that we do together now. Next week we're going to be talking about retention and specifically why your best people leave and why the answer to this is almost never what leaders assume it is. 

 22:53
Kimone Napier
It's one of the most consistent patterns that I honestly see across every type of organization that I've ever worked with, and I think it's going to reframe how you think about your team. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. Until then. I'll see you next week.