The old tenets of work are changing and the catalyst is AI. Roles are becoming more fluid; decisions are happening faster; and value is increasingly created through dynamic, human-machine collaboration.
These shifts in the nature of work are no longer incremental, they’re structural, and they touch every level of an organization, which is why CEOs are realizing that they need to lead from the top to rethink work: 72% of CEOs, twice as many as in 2025, recognize that they need to be the main decision-maker on AI in their organization, according to our recent study. And with boards asking where and when AI-driven value will materialize, it's no wonder that 50% of CEOs globally believe their job stability depends on getting AI right.
What makes this moment truly different is that we’ve reached a convergence point. While AI capabilities are advancing rapidly, most organizations are not designed to absorb them. Years of accumulated complexity—in legacy processes, systems, roles, and decision rights—have created something l like to call ‘org. debt’, in the same way we think of tech debt—and it’s very difficult to cut through it and create new ways of working. It also means that new sources of value are getting stuck in these legacy systems.
I do a lot of work with software developers on adopting and driving value with AI tools, and in one of my first engagements I saw value getting stuck. It was clear to me I could help these clients enhance personal productivity. Unlike at the team or company level, where one person might be working faster than their colleagues, it's actually quite easy with AI tools to create personal productivity. But change has to be brought about at a system level to unlock value, often cutting across functions, and sometimes even across different responsibilities within the same leader’s scope.
Too many leaders see AI as a technology transformation rather than a work and people transformation. They’re thinking about today’s work, and today’s processes—simply overlaying technology on top of them. The critical mindset shift is this: We must rethink why we do this work in the first place. What value does it create? Who should do this work? How must we redesign the work to unlock enterprise value, not just individual productivity?
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Leaders will also need to rethink how their organization and employees build and develop new skills as work evolves. As tasks turn over and shift toward higher-value activities, roles will increasingly require stronger judgment, the ability to interpret and challenge model outputs, and the capacity to orchestrate work across systems rather than execute step by step. This includes the creativity and curiosity to continuously learn and disrupt ourselves. This is less about introducing entirely new skill categories outright, and more about raising the baseline across the organization. The challenge for leaders is not just training individuals, but creating the right learning culture and conditions—through enablement, reinforcement, and redesigned workflows—for these capabilities to be built and applied consistently at scale.
This kind of transformation must be driven by the CEO because these shifts cut directly across existing structures, incentives, and power dynamics. They challenge roles, organizational boundaries, and professional identity. In many cases, the people closest to the work itself, and most impacted by how it will change, are also the ones being asked to help redesign it. When self-preservation, organizational debt, and competing priorities are in play, that tension makes this kind of reinvention almost impossible to manage from the middle of the organization or without a significant leader-driven culture shift.
But there is another dimension to this responsibility. Reinventing work is not just about redesigning systems, it is about taking care of the workforce through the transition. As tasks turn over and roles evolve, organizations must deliberately invest in upskilling, reskilling, and redeployment. That requires clarity about what work will change, support for employees navigating that change, and executive-level commitment to making workforce evolution a CEO priority, not a side initiative.
Innovation in the middle is critical, but leadership, alignment, and workforce stewardship must come from the top.
Our own research reinforces this point: In moments of deep uncertainty, what organizations need most from their leaders is clarity and courage. Clarity about direction and priorities, and courage to challenge long-standing assumptions, power structures, and ways of working, even when the path forward isn’t fully mapped.
AI is not just a test of technology. It’s a test of leadership.
And the CEOs who treat it as a catalyst to reinvent work, not just deploy tools, have the opportunity to fundamentally reset how their organizations create value—with confidence, focus, and intent.
