The Rapidly Shifting World of Enterprise Capability Building (formerly known as Talent and Development)

The title suggests the transformation of Talent and Learning from a “development function” into an enterprise capability-building function for the AI economy.

In other words, the future of our profession is not primarily about better training. It is about helping organizations redesign how work gets done, what capabilities humans need, and how leaders manage increasingly AI-augmented organizations.

My background positions me unusually well for that shift.  Here’s why:

AI will fundamentally change the work—not just the skills—of employees

The first wave of Generative AI was largely about tools: Copilot, ChatGPT, automation, productivity, and experimentation.  I help to lead this work in  highly regulated fields, so “getting it right” was a solid requirement.

The next decade will be about work redesign.

Organizations are now confronting questions such as:

• Which tasks should humans continue to perform?
• Which tasks should be automated?
• Which should be performed collaboratively by humans and AI?
• What decisions should never be delegated entirely to AI?
• How should jobs be redesigned when AI eliminates 20–40% of certain tasks but not the entire job?
• How do you develop employees when AI is doing some of the work through which employees traditionally gained experience?

Recent evidence suggests enterprise AI adoption is spreading across functions and seniority levels, while organizations are still learning how to integrate it into actual workflows rather than simply deploying the technology.

That distinction is enormously important.

Most corporate learning organizations are still built around the old model:

Identify a skill gap → build a program → deliver learning → measure participation.

That model will increasingly be insufficient.

The emerging model will be:

Redesign work → identify future capabilities → redesign jobs and careers → build leadership capability → create learning in the flow of work → continuously measure adaptation.

That is a much more strategic mandate—and it aligns closely with my combination of executive development, organizational effectiveness, talent strategy, and AI enablement.