The Josh Bersin Company

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

In this podcast I talk with Josh Secrest, VP of Marketing at Paradox (Workday) about how we segment the “frontline” into useful worker categories. As you will hear, the complex issues of hiring, training, managing, leading, and building operational excellence vary widely from role to role.

Many companies think “Frontline” is a category. As you’ll discover, this is not really true. Our new research shows that there are more than 800 “Frontline” worker job titles and they are not only industry-specific but also vary by skill type, skills depth, front or back office, licensing, and professional credential. And these dimensions play a major role in all HR, pay, reward, training, scheduling, and retention strategies.

This episode sets the stage for our follow-on podcasts where we detail the Five Types of Frontline Work, a body of research you’ll find even more useful in leading this important part of our companies. Remember, Frontline work makes up over 70% of all US (80% global) workers, and commands more than 3 $Trillion of pay and rewards investment.

Additional Information

Powering the Frontline Workforce: How Frontline-First Companies Thrive (research)

Josh Bersin Company Highlights Cost of Neglecting Frontline Workers (research)

An Exploration into the Frontline Workforce with Josh Bersin (video)

Tailor your HR and Management Programs for Frontline Work with Galileo, the Expert AI Agent for HR

Chapters

(00:00:02) - Frontline Conversation
(00:07:40) - The Importance of Qualifications in Your Sales Pitch
(00:09:12) - Employment Segmentation
(00:10:24) - Training costs of the logistics industry
(00:14:01) - How to Find and Retain Talent in Healthcare
(00:14:41) - One Restaurant Group's Shift From Part-Time Work to Full Time
(00:17:13) - Discussing Full-Time vs Part-Time Jobs
(00:18:14) - Josh Ferson
(00:19:51) - The Future of Segmentation in Business

As AI expands its role all over our companies, a big question comes up: What will AI Agents do to HR and all our human capital practices?

One could imagine the HR department “going away” or being replaced by agents, and managers interacting with this AI Agent Cloud for hiring, pay, promotion, hourly scheduling, and training. Is that where we’re really going?

This week we’re starting to introduce our HR 2030 Vision, which brings together the world of Systemic HR (HR as an integrated operation, not only COEs) and our AI Superagent/Agent architecture. Vendors are slowly moving in this direction and we see HR leaders and operating groups also moving this way at various rates of speed.

Many tech companies are moving in this direction quickly (Microsoft, Roblox, Google, others) while most other industries are still struggling to integrate systems and start their Agent journeys. This new vision, as bold as it seems, is very likely to come true in the next four years and it transforms HR into the business enablement function it always aspires to be.

We see HR 2030 as a collective program of innovation, learning, and technology exploration. If you’d like to join us in this effort please reach out, and use Galileo to ask your questions and help build your roadmap. Every HR leader and HR team in the world is pondering this future, and we are here to guide you down this amazing path ahead.

Topics:

HR2030, Agentic HR, Agentic AI, Future of Work, Digital Twin, HR Transformation, HR jobs and roles, HR operation, HR leadership

Additional Background

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) - HR 2030: The AI revolution
(00:06:13) - Human Capital Management: Rules and Cultural Rubrics
(00:17:59) - WSJD. HR 2030: The challenge