Feature
Forget the headlines. Titles like "Shopify CEO Says No New Hires Without Proof AI Can't Do the Job," and "AI Agents: How One Bot Replaced 700 Employees" may compete for your attention, but few hiring managers are writing job descriptions for digital employees.
Other, more realistic and urgent things concern them at the moment. Volatility inside and outside of the workplace abounds. Threats of a recession loom. College seniors struggle to land entry-level jobs. Retiring baby boomers are not being replaced, leaving a backlog of work and fewer hands to do it. Tech companies are shedding workers. More than 121,361 federal government professionals flooded the job market in a few short months. They're not being replaced thus far and AI isn't doing the work they left behind.
Add in hiring managers who need help. They own approved job reqs and have identified candidates they want to hire, but can't get offers authorized. Workforce planning pros charged with making sure their organization has enough workers (or AI agents?), with the right skills, in the right jobs, at the right time to meet corporate goals are under pressure.
"AI can't solve most problems, yet," Shekar Nalle Pilli Venkateswara, global practice leader for work analysis and design at Willis Towers Watson told Reworked. "It can't replace workers yet either," he added.
Workforce Planning Through Uncertainty
That leaves workforce planners with a lot of data and unpredictability to juggle, over the short- and longer-term. Venkateswara said that workforce planners generally focus on three time periods: operational (0 to 6 months), tactical (6 months to 1 year) and strategic (1 to 3 years), all of which need to be addressed.
With so much uncertainty what can workplace planners do? While a certain amount of "watch and wait" is happening, said Venkateswara, there are also questions to ask and data to crunch as that pertains to scenario planning. Questions like: How many workers and what skills do we need in the best-case and worst-case scenarios? Should we re-evaluate our mix of full-time, part-time, contract and gig workers? Should we outsource work? There may also be a need to analyze productivity data, workload distribution and organizational design to shift employees from lower-priority work to tasks that address more urgent needs.
Managers may not be immune to change in the near future either. "Companies might flatten their structures as they ask questions like 'what does it mean to be a manager? What kind of skills does a player/coach bring to the table versus a people manager and leader,'" said Venkateswara.
Identify Your Skills Gaps
"Employers should look at their employees from a skills perspective," Cole Napper, VP of research and innovation at Lightcast, told Reworked. While we've heard similar statements over the past few years, they've mostly been in the context of skills-based hiring, where workers are evaluated by their skills rather than degrees.
Workforce planners look at workforce skills a bit differently. They might ask questions like: Does our company have the skills needed to deliver the business results we seek?
"Most companies don't know what skills they have," said Napper. Now is prime time to find out, and quickly.
Location, Location, Location
New government regulations make it favorable for companies who do business in the U.S. to employ Americans residing in the U.S. Workforce planners are using and delivering information and suggestions on where that work should be done. Data-driven workforce strategizing is in order.
Once they've determined the required skill sets, workplace planners can partner with organizations like Lightcast to provide data analytics around various locations. "We have the data (employees, pay rate, taxes, etc.) down to the zip code," said Napper, adding that locations aren't picked arbitrarily but according to where the specialized workers live (A 60-mile radius is the maximum recommended commute). Other factors include local wage standards, competition for workers, cost of doing business and more.
This information provides workforce planners and leadership the information they need to make informed choices and to determine what kind of reskilling and upskilling may be needed to attract workers and make them productive sooner rather than later.
If AI is ready for work in the enterprise, the doors are wide open, said the experts we spoke to.
Mining the Internet of Work
The saying "Every company is a data company" takes on additional meaning when generative AI makes it possible to gather and draw insights from work-related data available on the internet, such as job postings, online professional profiles and resumes, employee sentiment reviews, government data and layoff notices to inform workforce composition and trends.
"Workforce analysts and planners can leverage that information to classify job activities and determine which can be enhanced by AI," Revelio Labs economist Anna Airoldi told Reworked.
Analysis of such information can also help workforce planners discover emerging in-demand skill sets, benchmark roles and organizational structures, and spot opportunities. Airoldi added that workforce data could also be used to assess employee sentiment and retention risk.
Still Thinking About AI Replacements? Start Small, Despite the Hype
All of this said, is AI filling in for workers in a tight economy a good idea?
The answer is no, not yet, so holding off is probably a good thing. After all, if you consider AI’s current shortcomings — it lacks emotional intelligence, contextual understanding, ethical reasoning — workers might have to clean up as much as they're helped by it. For now, start small, regardless of the big promises.
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Editor's Note: Read more tips for navigating today's business environment:
- CEOS: Fight, Flight or Freeze Is Not a Strategy — The perfect storm is here, and executives can’t let their anxiety get the best of them.
- How to Build a Thriving Workforce in 2025 — A motivated, productive and engaged workforce can be yours if you focus on these six areas.
- Companies Say Generative AI Won't Come for Jobs. Employees Aren't So Sure — Company leaders and GenAI vendors insist AI is not replacing jobs, but it is having an impact on the workforce. Here's how.
