|---Module:text|Size:Small---|The exponential development of artificial intelligence (AI) will have profound consequences for the world of work as we know it. Many tasks will be carried out by AI agents. This reality forces us to rethink work models, processes, critical skills, leadership and culture. The changes will be deep, significant, and far-reaching.
This awareness is the first step towards preparing for a promising, sustainable future, full of opportunities, attractive and human centred. Ethics, empathy, creativity, emotions, and purpose remain firmly in the human domain. We will be called upon to decide how to use the time freed up by AI and how to harness its potential.
As managers, we will lead people and AI agents. As colleagues, we will collaborate with people and AI agents. This collaboration will necessarily be virtual, asynchronous, and global. The concept of hybrid will no longer apply to where we work, but to teams, processes, and work ecosystems, shared between people and AI.
With this awareness, the development of human skills becomes imperative, including creativity and critical thinking, ethics, curiosity and continuous learning, adaptability, empathy, and emotional management. It is essential to invest in the ability to lead, build relationships, trust, collaborate, and create and share purpose within these new hybrid ecosystems.
We are facing an entirely new paradigm, uncertain, constantly evolving, and full of risks and opportunities.
As leaders and HR managers, it is our responsibility to ensure the upskilling and awareness of our people, so that they learn to use AI to enhance the purpose of their roles, deliver greater value to all stakeholders, and improve decision quality by making them better informed and faster. We must help them overcome the fear of delegating routine tasks, calculations, and correlations to AI. The focus must be on ensuring that AI is well-trained, understands ethical boundaries, and makes decisions and acts in favour of humanity.
We must be realistic. The evolution of AI will transform certain roles, and some will no longer make sense as they exist today. This means that those who perform them will need to develop or strengthen new skills to remain relevant in these new work ecosystems. Companies have an active role to play in this upskill, but the primary agent of this evolution is each and every one of us. That is why it is essential to talk openly about what is happening in a clear, objective, and transparent way. To inform, raise awareness, anticipate, and prepare.
It is also our role to anticipate higher levels of anxiety and stress, driven by the uncertainty and ambiguity inherent to any period of transition, compounded by the usual demands of projects, delivery, and productivity. Health and well-being protection solutions will become even more relevant.
We are facing a clear and unavoidable paradox. On the one hand, we must actively and intentionally embrace and integrate AI into our daily lives. On the other hand, we must strengthen our distinctive human capabilities and strengths, as creators of purpose and hope for a promising future, in a more human world.
This Article was published in Human Resources in January 2026.
