September 2025 greeted American workers with the announcement of over 30,000 layoffs. The CEO of Salesforce alone cut 4,000 “heads” because they were deemed unnecessary due to AI. Workers are scared, and rightly so. The workplace is undergoing a transformation that makes the industrial revolution look like a gentle breeze compared to today’s hurricane of change.
As leaders, we’re not just managing teams anymore—we’re managing currents of emotions driven by uncertainty, all while architecting entirely new ways of working that our predecessors couldn’t have imagined. Having recently explored this topic in depth in preparation for a podcast I appeared on, I don’t have a bleak outlook for AI and the future of employment.
As an expert in organizational change and leadership who provides guidance on organizational design, I’ve come to believe that understanding tomorrow’s organizational structure isn’t just helpful—it’s essential for any leader (or employee) who wants their organization and career to thrive rather than merely survive.
The New Organizational Architecture
Fully Automated Personnel: The Silent Revolution
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: yes, organizations will have fully automated personnel. My friends in the call center industry are among the first to be hit by this. I did a video a while ago with Fred Stacey, the CEO of Cloud Tech Gurus, a company emerging as the solution infrastructure architects for AI in the call center industry. We both agree the lower levels of the organizational design will be replaced by AI.
The fully automated personnel (FAP) category represents roles that will be completely handled by AI and automation systems. Before anyone starts panicking about robot overlords, let’s be realistic about what this actually means. We’re talking about the repetitive, rule-based tasks that, frankly, most humans find mind-numbing anyway. Think about data entry clerks who spend their days copying information from one system to another, or front-line customer service representatives who follow scripts to answer the same twenty questions over and over.
Utilization of FAP Creates Opportunity
These roles aren’t disappearing to hurt people—they’re evolving because technology can handle them more efficiently, accurately, and consistently than humans ever could. The interesting thing about fully automated personnel is that it’s not creating unemployment; it’s creating opportunity. When a machine can handle the routine stuff, human workers get freed up to do what they’re actually good at: thinking creatively, solving complex problems, and connecting with other people on a meaningful level.
I attended a talk where the CEO of Delphi referred to the advent of AI replacement as an opportunity for employees to “actualize” by ditching the repetitive robotic work and leaning into what they are really good at. Sometimes, we have to be forced to let go of one thing to embrace another. Smart leaders are already preparing for this shift. They’re not waiting for automation to force their hand. They’re proactively identifying which roles can be automated and then investing in retraining their people for higher-value work. It’s not about replacing humans—it’s about elevating them.
Power Users of AI: The New Productivity Champions
The second category, Power Users of AI, represents what might be the most significant workforce transformation we’ll see in the next decade. These are professionals who have learned to work alongside AI tools so effectively that their productivity and output quality have increased exponentially.
I will admit, I am in this category. I jokingly say Claude is my best consultant and ChatGPT-5 is my best social media manager. Why? Because I have undergone training to become a power user of both alongside Grok, Manus, Napkin, Opus—well, the list goes on.
What took me days to do in analysis and presentation building gets me 80% there in minutes. I spend more time in front of my clients in person, only I’m wearing a Plaud note pin now. My billing structures have changed as a result, from hourly grind to outcome-based packages. For today’s businesses that are not in hands-on trades, it’s evolve or die. For employees, they should view upskilling the same way.
Amplification – Not Replacement
Power Users of AI shouldn’t aim to replace their human skills. They should allow AI to amplify them. When upskilling, understand that AI is like having an incredibly capable assistant who never gets tired, never makes calculation errors, and can process vast amounts of information in seconds. But also know that this assistant still needs human direction, creativity, and judgment to be truly effective. I mean, really, the slop you get with bad prompts or no human input is egregious.
The most successful organizations are already investing heavily in training their people to become Power Users of AI. They’re not just buying AI tools and hoping for the best. They’re creating comprehensive training programs, establishing best practices, and building cultures where AI collaboration is celebrated rather than feared.
Paid to be Human: The Irreplaceable Human Touch
Here’s where things get really interesting: the “Paid to be Human” category. These are roles where empathy, high emotional intelligence, and genuine human connection are not just nice-to-haves—they’re the entire point of the job.
Think about a therapist helping someone through a difficult time, a teacher inspiring a struggling student, or a hospice nurse providing comfort to families in their darkest moments. Think about a trusted advisor who can physically or virtually sit by you, walk alongside you, and genuinely care about your outcomes. No amount of artificial intelligence can replicate the healing power of genuine human compassion. These professionals aren’t just performing tasks; they’re providing something that only humans can offer: authentic emotional connection and understanding.
But it’s not just the obvious caring professions. High-touch customer service roles, executive coaching, complex sales relationships, and leadership positions all require distinctly human capabilities. People want to feel understood, valued, and connected, especially when they’re making important decisions or dealing with sensitive situations.
Organizations that recognize this are creating premium service tiers built entirely around human connection. SaaS companies offer premium customer success packages with white-glove service. They’re investing in training their people not just in technical skills, but in emotional intelligence, active listening, and empathy. They understand that in a world increasingly dominated by automation, genuine human interaction becomes more valuable, not less. We are entering an era where EQ will be potentially more valuable than IQ as a skill set. To me, that’s an exciting prospect.
Power User and Human: The Sweet Spot
The fourth category might be the most exciting of all: the combination of Power User and Human capabilities. This is what I consider the sweet spot for the future of work. These are professionals who can leverage AI to dramatically enhance their productivity while simultaneously bringing irreplaceable human judgment, creativity, and emotional intelligence to their roles.
Consider a doctor who uses AI to analyze medical images with superhuman accuracy, but then sits down with patients to explain the results with compassion and help them understand their treatment options. Or think about an architect who employs AI to generate and test thousands of design variations, but then works closely with clients to ensure the final design reflects their dreams and values.
These professionals represent the best of both worlds: the efficiency and capability of AI combined with the wisdom, creativity, and emotional intelligence that only humans possess. They’re not competing with AI; they’re dancing with it. That’s really where I see myself fitting in. I am me, optimized.
This is the hope I see in all of this rapid change. It’s the “critical opportunity” similar to those I teach people to map in my popular workbook. The key to success in this category is developing what I call “AI bi-lingual fluency”—being equally comfortable communicating with AI systems and with humans. It requires technical competence, emotional intelligence, and the wisdom to know when to rely on AI capabilities and when to trust human instincts.
AI Integrator or Developer: The Architects of Tomorrow
Finally, we have the AI Integrator or Developer category. These are the professionals who build, maintain, and optimize the AI systems that everyone else depends on. But don’t mistake them for just technical specialists—they’re the architects of how AI and humans will work together in the future.
Think about Stanford’s Human Centered Design (HCD) concepts here. AI will be developed with user needs in mind, and integrators will expertly build those creations into company systems and processes to maximize human and non-human productivity.
AI Integrators understand both the technical capabilities of AI systems and the human contexts in which they’ll be used. They can design AI solutions that enhance human capabilities rather than replacing them. They think about ethical implications, user experience, and long-term organizational impact.
AI is bringing about new disciplines within older roles, like Corporate Ethics and Compliance. These are burgeoning disciplines that will need new specialists to back up the work of the architects and integrators. These roles require a unique combination of technical expertise, business acumen, and human psychology. They need to understand not just how to build AI systems, but how to build systems that humans will actually want to work with and that will make organizations more effective, ethical, and humane.
Leadership Challenges in the New Landscape
Leading in this new organizational reality requires a fundamental shift in how we think about management and leadership. Traditional command-and-control approaches simply won’t work when your team includes AI systems. Power Users can accomplish in hours what used to take weeks and human-focused roles will require unprecedented levels of emotional intelligence.
The most successful leaders are becoming what I call “integration leaders”—professionals who can orchestrate the complex interplay between different types of workers and AI systems. They understand that managing a Power User of AI requires different approaches than managing someone who’s Paid to be Human. They can help their teams understand not just what to do, but how to work effectively with AI while maintaining their humanity.
These leaders are becoming masters of change management and busting through resistance to change. The pace of technological evolution means that the skills their teams need are constantly evolving. They’re creating learning organizations where continuous adaptation isn’t just encouraged—it’s built into the culture.
Preparing for Tomorrow, Today
Mass layoffs have a lot of people feeling all the emotions right now. CEOs are excited because cost-saving, effectiveness-enhancing changes are being done and validated. Employees are a mix of scared, curious, and excited depending on where they sit in the strata of what will change.
The fact is, the organizations and employees that will thrive in this new reality are those that start preparing now. They’re not waiting for the future to arrive; they’re actively shaping it. They’re investing in training, experimenting with new organizational structures, and building cultures that embrace both technological advancement and human excellence.
C-level executives are thinking carefully about which roles should be automated, which should remain distinctly human, and which should blend AI capabilities with human judgment. They understand that the goal isn’t to replace humans with machines, but to create systems where both humans and AI can contribute their unique strengths.
Most importantly, they’re recognizing that this transformation isn’t just about technology—it’s about people. Success in the future of work will depend not just on having the right AI tools, but on having humans who are trained, supported, and empowered to work effectively utilizing those tools.
The future of work is here. The question isn’t whether we’re ready for it, but whether we’re ready to lead it. And whether employees are willing to evolve into it.
