By Victor Assad

The business environment and workforce are undergoing significant transformation as organizations brace for change and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI will also create new technical fields and eliminate many administrative roles. Changing workforce demographics and labor shortages in Western democracies and mature Asian economies will also impact the need for AI. Finally, a top-down approach to leadership will need to change to a more transparent, collaborative, and learning culture for organizations to get the full benefit of AI. I will cover this transition below.

In the latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year, with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The McKinsey Global Survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by generative or gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy. (Gen AI is used to create music, art and write documents.)

Gen AI is most often used by organizations in sales and marketing and product and service development. The McKinsey Global Survey for the first time, explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents reports seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than five percent) in supply chain and inventory management.

Integrating AI into your business is essential not only for growth but survival. According to the World Economic Forum Jobs Report 2025, “Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition – individually and in combination – are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labor market by 2030.

According to the World Economic Forum Jobs Report 2025 “Broadening digital access is expected to be the most transformative trend – both across technology-related trends and overall – with 60 percent of employers expecting it to transform their business by 2030.

“Advancements in technologies, particularly AI and information processing (86 percent); robotics and automation (58 percent); and energy generation, storage and distribution (41 percent), are also expected to be transformative. These trends are expected to have a divergent effect on jobs, driving both the fastest-growing and fastest-declining roles, and fueling demand for technology-related skills, including AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy, which are anticipated to be the top three fastest-growing skills.”

AI transformation will dramatically change jobs

AI transformation will change jobs according to the World Economic Forum:

  1. Technology-related roles are the fastest-growing jobs in percentage terms, including Big Data Specialists, Fintech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists, and Software and Application Developers. Green and energy transition roles, including Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialists, Environmental Engineers, and Renewable Energy Engineers, also feature within the top fastest-growing roles.
  2. Frontline job roles are predicted to see the largest growth in absolute terms of volume and include Farmworkers, Delivery Drivers, Construction Workers, Salespersons, and Food Processing Workers. Healthcare economy jobs, such as Nursing Professionals, Social Work and Counselling Professionals, and Personal Care Aides are also expected to grow significantly over the next five years, alongside Education roles such as Tertiary and Secondary Education Teachers.
  3. Clerical and Secretarial Workers – including Cashiers and Ticket Clerks, and Administrative Assistants and Executive Secretaries – are expected to see the largest decline in absolute numbers. Similarly, businesses expect the fastest-declining roles to include Postal Service Clerks, Bank Tellers, and Data Entry Clerks.

The World Economic Forum Job Report 2025 predicts that on average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39 percent) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period. However, this measure of “skill instability” has slowed compared to previous editions of the report, from 44 percent in 2023 and a high point of 57 percent in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. This finding could potentially be due to an increasing share of workers (50 percent) having completed training, reskilling or upskilling measures, compared to 41 percent in the report’s 2023 edition. Analytical thinking remains the most sought-after core skill among employers, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential in 2025. This is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence.

Two-fifths (39 percent) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period.

Changing workforce demographics will have a huge impact over the next five years

As Baby Boomers and Gen X continue to retire and population growth continues to shrink in the Western economies and Asian economies such as China, Japan, and South Korea, workforce shortages will continue, adding to the need to transition the workforce to digital skills.

Given these evolving skill demands, according to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report, the scale of workforce upskilling and reskilling are expected to remain significant. If the world’s workforce was made up of 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030. Of these, employers foresee that 29 could be upskilled in their current roles and 19 could be upskilled and redeployed elsewhere within their organization. However, 11 would be unlikely to receive the reskilling or upskilling needed, leaving their employment prospects increasingly at risk. Skill gaps are categorically considered the biggest barrier to business transformation by Future of Jobs Survey respondents, with 63 percent of employers identifying them as a major barrier over the 2025- 2030 period. Accordingly, 85 percent of employers surveyed plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce, with 70 percent of employers expecting to hire staff with new skills, 40 percent planning to reduce staff as their skills become less relevant, and 50 percent planning to transition staff from declining to growing roles.

Skill gaps are categorically considered the biggest barrier to business transformation

Human-centric AI design is essential

According to the World Economic Forum, a human-centric approach to leadership is needed to actively manage the transition to AI and ensure its benefits are broadly shared. This means rethinking how it is designed. It means employees being trained and organizations structured and governed to prioritize human well-being over short-term profits.

As reported by the Society of Human Resources, recent research from Upwork highlights a concerning disconnect:

While 96% of C-suite leaders believe AI will enhance productivity, 77% of employees say that AI has actually increased their workloads. I think of this as “fake productivity,” where AI makes employees busier and causes them to feel more overworked, yet fails to deliver real gains or innovation.

Kelly Monahan, managing director of the Upwork Research Institute, pointed to the root of the problem. “The real challenge isn’t AI technology—it’s outdated organizational frameworks,” she said. “To bridge the glaring disconnect between executive expectations and employee experiences, we need a fundamental paradigm shift in how organizations approach AI, and how they organize talent and work. Leaders must move away from top-down mandates and cultivate a more collaborative, supportive environment that empowers employees to fully harness AI’s potential. Aligning technological adoption with organizational systems and workforce development is not just important—it’s critical.”

The real challenge isn’t AI technology—it’s outdated organizational frameworks.

Organizations must involve employees in these changes to assuage their fears of being laid off and to effectively implement AI. As pointed out above, organizations need to abandon top-down leadership approaches and cultures and transition to transparent, collaborative and learning organization cultures.

At InnovationOne, LLC, we learned that executives can cultivate a mission-driven organization with an innovation culture. Based on our research these organizations have executives that enthusiastically discuss the mission of the organization and its strategies and invite employees to get involved in product and service development and AI implementation goals and goals.

Rather than leaving employees in the dark about AI implementation to fret about undesirable changes, obsolete skills and layoffs, they involve employees in how best to implement AI, the new skill sets required, and how it should change the technology-employee interface.

These organizations are known for their collaboration, transparency, and learning cultures. They have leaders who build trust with their employees and encourage robust debates on technology, goals, and the best way forward to achieve robust results. These organizations are performance-based and excel at improving productivity, innovation, and financial results while being talent magnets and benefiting from lower turnover.

After some stumbles off the blocks, organizations will need to use human-centric approaches to implement AI to be competitive over the next five years. Innovation cultures create a transparent and collaborative environment to quickly make these transitions and be successful.

About InnovationOne®, LLC.

InnovationOne®, LLC helps organizations worldwide build a culture of innovation and make it sustainable. InnovationOne® uses a scientifically developed assessment to measure, benchmark, and improve your company’s culture and capability to innovate and enjoy better outcomes and financial results. Companies scoring in the top quartile of our InnovationOne Culture Index© reported higher financial performance than bottom quartile performers by 22 percent. Our latest research shows that R&D Labs can improve their performance by 20 to 30 percent with higher innovation culture scores. Measure and ignite your culture of innovation.