The Josh Bersin Company

This week I recap a busy week including corporate AI stories, Workday’s AI reinvention, more on tech Layoffs, and fears of AI-driven surveillance. The important story is that Enterprise AI is much more complex than most imagine yet the AI vendors like Anthropic and OpenAI make it sound deceptively simple.

In reality, as I explain, we are one year into the total reinvention of all business functions, with HR top on the list. And as I explain, the vision of enterprise success is now clear, but the vendor market is incredibly insecure. I think you’ll find Workday’s story compelling, but it’s not the only option out there.

On the news side, we saw the “pre-layoffs” of 10% of all Meta employees, elimination of family benefits at Deloitte and Zoom, and some amazingly creepy surveillance at Meta’s AI group. I review all this and try to give you some context.

As you listen I encourage you to read our 2026 Enterprise AI Imperatives and the preview of HR 2030, our in-depth look at where AI in HR is going. An in-depth review of Workday’s new AI strategy is coming this next week.

Additional Resources

Meta Employees React to Massive Layoffs to Come

Deloitte and Zoom Take the Lead in Slashing the Most Coveted Benefits

The week that Meta employees became training data

Why AI Is A Massive Job-Creation Technology, Despite What You Think

Workday and Sana Unveil A Bold New Strategy For AI

In this episode, Kathi Enderes sits down with Rob McAuslan, Vice President for Artificial Intelligence at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), one of the world’s largest and most innovative online universities with more than 200,000 students.

Before leading SNHU’s AI strategy, Rob taught, worked, and volunteered across Africa, the Mediterranean, and East Asia, working with populations ranging from K-12 students to refugees to graduate scholars. That lived experience shapes everything about how SNHU thinks about AI: not as a tool for automation, but as a means of expanding access, amplifying human potential, and meeting learners exactly where they are.

SNHU is no ordinary university. As one of the largest and most innovative higher education institutions in the United States, it has built its reputation on making education accessible to learners who the traditional system has often left behind: working adults, career changers, veterans, and underserved communities. Rob’s role as VP for AI sits squarely at the intersection of that mission and the most consequential technological shift of our time.

Rob and Kathi discuss what it really means to deploy AI with humans at the center, and what that demands of institutions, leaders, and learners alike. The conversation moves through the practical and the philosophical: How do you design AI experiences that honor the dignity and complexity of every individual? What does skills-based, AI-enabled learning look like for someone who has never had access to it before? And what can higher education teach the corporate world about building AI that actually serves people rather than simply processing them?

If you’re a CHRO, CIO, learning leader, or business executive wondering how to move beyond pilots and hype, this conversation will show you what responsible, scalable AI adoption really looks like—and how to get started in your own organization.

Related resources

Podcast: The Rise Of The Supermanager – JOSH BERSIN

Research: AI Pacesetters: Six Secrets Of The Superworker Company – JOSH BERSIN

New Certificate Course in Galileo Learn: AI in L&D

Get Galileo: The AI Superagent for You

Chapters

(00:00:03) - What Works in the Future of Work
(00:00:40) - How Southern New Hampshire University Is Taking a Human Approach to AI
(00:02:58) - How to Apply AI at Southern New Hampshire University
(00:07:49) - Southern New Hampshire University's 4-Stage AI Adoption Model
(00:14:16) - One of the issues around AI governance
(00:19:13) - Employee Experience and AI in the People Team
(00:21:43) - WSJD Live: The AI Policy
(00:23:32) - In the Elevator With Provost Rob Ferguson
(00:24:06) - What Works In Education? With Rob McAuslan

This week, as Ronan Farrow’s expose on Sam Altman was published, I want to sensitize you to the fact that AI companies are run by humans. And this means that what we buy and how it works is very dependent on leadership, culture, values, ethics, and the personal motivations of these young, ambitious executives.

Obviously this is nothing new, but in this case OpenAI and Anthropic are by far the fastest growing businesses ever created on planet earth. So their ability to steer, direct, and prioritize their investments makes a huge difference in how they meet the needs we have in our companies.

I have learned over the years that great, long-lasting tech companies are among the most tumultuous businesses to lead. Not only are the personal economic payoffs huge (I live in a community with lots of Anthropic millionaires) but they are brutally competitive and the cost of a missed opportunity can sometimes be fatal.

In this case, I admire all the people in this space but as the AI vendors play larger roles in our lives and careers, we have to think much harder about their leadership and culture. As you’ll hear, many others (analysts, stock market, politicians) are also working on this, and I think we’re likely to see some of the most interesting business “drama” play out in the coming years.

As a consumer and buyer of AI, I encourage you to investigate the leadership, culture, and motivations of the vendors you do business with – it really matters.

Additional Information

New Yorker Expose on Sam Altman

Interview with Ronan Farrow, author

Irresistible: The Leadership Culture that Works

The Value of Values When Organizations Lose Trust

Get Galileo: All Our Research and Leadership Academy In AI

 

Chapters

(00:00:00) - The Human Side of Building AI
(00:02:40) - Microsoft and the Human Side of AI
(00:10:59) - The culture of startups
(00:17:57) - NVIDIA and the future of tech

The Microsoft Copilot is even more expansive than you think. In this podcast (and detailed article on Substack) you see how Microsoft’s new Copilot “surface” (ie. product strategy) is likely to give them the lead in revenue and market share for Enterprise AI.

There are many players to consider here: Anthropic, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, and vendors like ServiceNow, Okta, and big platforms like Workday (Sana), SAP (Joule), Salesforce, and others.

Despite all their various strengths and revenue streams, Microsoft has a huge advantage. And as you’ll hear, the corporate AI market is moving from “models” to “applications” (Surfaces) with an enterprise focus on Agent build, Agent deployment, Agent security, and Agent management. Microsoft is building to this direction and the recent leadership reorganization is fueling this momentum.

Read this in-depth analysis of Microsoft vs. Anthropic vs. OpenAI revenue and enterprise AI strategy.

Additional Information

How Microsoft Could Take The Lead In Enterprise AI (substack)

The Context Layer (Semantic Layer) In Enterprise AI And Where Business Rules Go (podcast)

Why AI Is A Massive Job-Creation Technology, Despite What You Think

The Age of the Superworker (and Supermanager)

Get Galileo: The AI Superagent for HR

 

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Why Microsoft Is the Leader in AI
(00:02:41) - The Future of AI: No One Model
(00:09:52) - Microsoft's Work IQ and the Context Layer
(00:21:01) - SANA vs. Microsoft: How Microsoft Will Win

One of the new enterprise AI challenges we face is this: where do we put all the business rules, security rules, policies, and company specific practices we’ve built into our legacy systems for the last 30 years? If we want to embark on Agentic HR (or any other domain), do we rebuild all these rules in the Agents?

Well the big idea going forward is the development of a “context layer” or “semantic layer” which stores all the company structure, rules, and policies in a single place. Today ServiceNow introduced its “Context Engine” which plans to do this, and last week Gloat did the same.

In this podcast I explain what this is and the implications of various AI architecture options, and compare the idea of building this in ServiceNow or Gloat or using AI Agent tools from Workday, Oracle, SAP, or other incumbent vendors.

Additional Information

Agentic HR: Where Enterprise AI Is Going – Imperatives 

Why AI Is A Massive Job-Creation Technology, Despite What You Think

The Age of the Superworker (and Supermanager)

Get Galileo: The AI Superagent for HR

 

Chapters

(00:00:00) - What is the Business Rule
(00:07:41) - ServiceNow, Business Rules Integration