Most organizations are not short on AI tools. What they are short on is a clear method for thinking about what work should look like once those tools are in place — which tasks belong to people, which belong to AI, and how roles need to be redesigned so that both can contribute effectively.

This session, the second in the three-part AI Collaboratory series, takes that problem seriously. It is designed for HR leaders who are past the question of whether AI will change work and are now grappling with how to redesign it intentionally — before the decisions get made by default.

Rather than cataloguing which jobs are at risk, we examine what it actually takes to analyze work at the task level and restructure roles around AI-enabled workflows.

What the session covers

AI changes work before it changes jobs. Understanding that distinction — and knowing how to act on it — is what separates organizations that are managing workforce transformation from those that are reacting to it.

Across the session, we examine:

• How to deconstruct roles into tasks and decision rights, and use that analysis to determine where AI adds genuine value versus where human judgment remains central
• What organizations actively redesigning roles are learning — about where AI agents and people work well together, where the hand-offs are harder than expected, and what they would do differently
• How work configurations and role boundaries are shifting as AI takes on more of the structured, repeatable elements of knowledge work — and what that means for how HR defines and evaluates roles going forward
• How HR leaders can lead these conversations with executive teams, rather than inheriting the decisions after they have been made

How the session is structured

The session is virtual and runs two hours. It combines a practitioner keynote, a fireside chat with a workforce transformation leader, a hands-on role deconstruction exercise, and structured small-group work. Participants will leave with a working method for analyzing and redesigning roles in their own organizations and a set of questions to bring to their leadership teams.

Small-group discussions are facilitated by members of the HRSF AI Collaboratory Task Force. The breakout work is designed to be applied, not hypothetical: participants work through a role deconstruction using their own organizational context, comparing approaches with peers facing similar challenges.