You redesigned the operating model. Did you redesign the promise you make to the people inside it?

We see now that AI is part of every leader’s conversation, and a whole lot of them now focus on returns. But we hear more and more that very few are expected to deliver those returns.

Gap seems to be showing now, with 63% of CEOs saying they are radically redesigning their operating model to accelerate returns from AI. Still only 24% of leadership teams agree on who is accountable for AI agents now doing part of the work.

Though the second number looks like a governance issue, it also becomes a talent problem.

With accountability still finding the right hands inside, the story also becomes unclear outside. Now candidates want to know what their role looks like next to an AI agent, who they will answer to, what they will still own in the coming two years, and how their career will grow once their tasks around them are automated.

If the leaders are not clear and cannot answer those questions, then the EVP too cannot answer them for talent asking those questions. But your top talent is absorbing silence and confusion faster than any campaign.

This is the top reason why your CHROs and Marcom leaders need to be in the same room. While the operating model is in transition and rewritten, your employer promise needs to be rewritten along with it in a language your people can trust.

So a question that is running in my mind to ask leaders redesigning work this year is, when your top talent is working with your AI agents, will the actual work happening match your people’s experience?