The conversation about the future of work has become inseparable from artificial intelligence. But according to author and leadership expert Simon Sinek and BambooHR CEO Brad Rencher, organizations risk focusing on the wrong things.
Speaking at SHRM26 in Orlando, the two said the future will not be determined by AI itself, but by the choices leaders make about how technology and people work together. For HR leaders, the challenge is not simply adopting new tools but redesigning work while preserving trust, culture, and human connection, they said.
“The conversation about work right now is a conversation about AI,” Rencher said. “AI in hiring. AI in productivity. AI and skills. AI and performance. Whether someone you know will be replaced by AI.”
Yet, the debate has become dominated by extremes, he said.
“Depending on what article you read, AI will either save humanity or replace your finance department next week,” Rencher said. “Some headlines make it sound like we will all be reporting to a chatbot by the end of the year. That is the future we are being sold. But even the people building this technology seem less certain than a year ago.”
The predictions are anything but consistent, Rencher added. Some experts will say they’re certain many jobs will disappear overnight, while others are confident that everyone will simply adapt. “This is the wrong conversation,” because it focuses on whether to adopt AI, but the transformation has already begun, Rencher said.
“Work has started to change,” Rencher said. “Seventy-three percent of companies are using AI in some form. Fifty-eight percent have not provided real guidance around it.”
Adoption remains uneven, in part because of that lack of governance. Some employees rely on AI daily, while others avoid it altogether. Some workers experiment quietly, uncertain whether their use will violate company policies, Rencher said.
“One team is moving fast, and another team is still debating whether AI can be used for meeting notes,” he said. “People are moving in the same direction, but in different positions. And when work changes without structure and clarity, you don’t get transformation, you get fragmentation.”
The burden frequently falls on HR leaders, who are expected to accelerate business performance while simultaneously managing skills, culture, risk, and employee concerns.
Adoption Is Not the Problem
Despite the rapid deployment of AI tools, many organizations remain dissatisfied with the results.
“We have more tools and data than ever before,” Rencher said. “But about half of companies say that AI has not delivered tangible value yet. More than half of workers say that AI has disrupted their day-to-day work.”
Organizations often interpret that challenge as an adoption problem. Rencher said he believes that diagnosis misses the larger issue.
“We will tell people to use the tools more, run more pilots, use more prompts,” he said. “That may help. But the deeper issue is that we changed the inputs without redesigning the work. We layered new tools onto old systems. The tech is new, the work system is old, and the people are stuck in the middle.”
Jobs themselves, he argued, are changing beneath the surface. “We tend to talk about jobs as fixed things,” Rencher said. “But a job is not one thing. It is a bundle of tasks, relationships, and responsibilities that have been packaged together with a title. AI doesn’t show up at the title level. It shows up inside the work.”
As those tasks evolve, leaders cannot continue managing roles the same way. “Something fundamental has changed inside the work, and we are still managing it the same way,” Rencher said. “Gains will not come from adoption alone — they will come from redesign.”
Humanity Remains the Competitive Advantage
For Sinek, the current moment echoes previous technological revolutions.
“The message that I have been spreading for all of these years is a reminder about humanity,” he said. “It happens every single time. Technologists forget about the people because they become enamored with the technology.”
The uncertainty surrounding AI has fueled anxiety across workplaces, but Sinek cautioned that organizations should not lose sight of basic human needs.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t understand humans, you don’t understand business,” he said.
He pointed to broader social trends as evidence that people are increasingly seeking connection.
“People are moving away from their computers and phones and are yearning for real-life experiences,” Sinek said. “Travel is exploding. People want human interactions.”
That means organizations should strengthen human capabilities alongside technological ones.
“We have to get better at the human skills at work,” he said. “We have to learn to have difficult conversations.”
Rethinking the Narrative Around AI
Sinek criticized narratives suggesting AI will imminently replace large portions of the workforce.
“The narrative being set — that CEOs are laying off thousands of people because AI can do their job — is absolute nonsense,” he said. “AI is not in a position to replace thousands of people in your company.”
Such messaging, he warned, breeds fear and resistance. “Some leaders are creating a narrative that is creating anxiety and making AI very unpopular among the workforce,” Sinek said. “It is short-term thinking.”
Instead, leaders should prioritize transparency and employee involvement. “Be transparent. Give people context,” he said. “Let the people who will be using the technology advise on the best way to use it.”
Sinek also cautioned leaders against false optimism. “Toxic positivity is a real thing. Don’t do that,” he said. “People can tell when they are being lied to.” Employees, he added, are looking for reassurance rather than certainty. “They want to feel safe, cared for, and known for who they are as a human being.”
Ultimately, Sinek said, technology transformations are nothing new. What separates successful organizations is their commitment to developing human capabilities.
“Strategic changes that will affect the workplace are not new,” he said. “The companies that invest in teaching their people human skills will outperform the competition every time.”
For HR leaders navigating AI’s rapid evolution, the most important lesson may be that the future of work will be shaped not by technology alone, but by how intentionally organizations design work around people.
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