Are you an executive looking to harness the future workforce and leapfrog where you are?

Now is the time to look into it. - But don’t forget to do it together with HR.

One theme that is clear from the discussions Patrick Halford and I have with clients now is that 2025 is perfect timing to think through how to harness AI and slingshot your business or functional area ahead of the competition. In fact we are addressing two very interesting cases now.

It can be easy to just consider some obvious areas where AI may be applied, and also just try and discover what others are using it for. However, some are bold enough to look at it from a more holistic perspective. 

At the same time, they might still be unsure if certain things are set up the right way or how to move forward with them. For example, hybrid remote/onsite working arrangements might have started with some basic rules, but they’re not sure if the existing setup is fully working for them.

Now they realise that AI agentic systems will also develop into a critical part of the workforce going forward. So a hybrid workforce will also mean a human & AI agents workforce. Now how will you make sure that you at all times get that to work in a way that is best for everyone? How does this potentially impact the current hybrid remote/onsite setup of the company?

One of our recommendations is to not only “involve” HR in this work. Rather, you should fully work together on this. The workload on Executives nowadays is already very high, and succeeding with your future hybrid workforce taking into account both versions of hybrid (remote/on-site & Human/AI agents) adds even more to it. 

We in Fjord Qudra are working with a couple of clients on this. They see the tremendous potential for them that is opening up when there is a strong partnership between Executives and HR. I should note that you need to take into consideration that also HR needs the opportunity to update their capabilities to truly support this, but this has become apparent to everyone within our clients, and they all see the benefits of this.

Also take into consideration that you may not see it critical to necessarily have all of your AI agents in-house. They may perform trivial, generic tasks that could just as efficiently be handled externally (provided it can be set up in a secure and robust manner).  Therefore you should consider the dimension of in-house versus externally provided too when looking at your future workforce. 

Working together we take all three dimensions into account when looking at current positions, agree which vectors to realise and how strong momentum to give it. It gives everyone a clear overview of how to proceed. The experience we have so far is that working together with HR on this strengthens the Executive’s odds considerably in leapfrogging their business area/operations the next two years. 

So, remember to work together, show each other mutual respect, acknowledge each other’s needs to address gaps in capability and skills - and have the right approach!