This is the published version of Forbes' Future of Work newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief human resources officers and other talent managers on disruptive technologies, managing the workforce and trends in the remote work debate. Clickast week brought reminder after reminder about the gender pay gap, as International Women’s Day and Equal Pay Day came and went. compared to 4.6% of men. Meanwhile, 33.2% of women fall into the lowest employee group compared to just 23.
But my experience on the ground was that, at least on stage, there was a surprising amount of optimism, particularly about AI and its potential to transform how we work. At the beginning of awith IBM chief human resources officer Nickle LaMoreaux, Handshake CEO Garrett Lord and SHRM CHRO Jim Link, I asked for a show of hands from the audience. Almost everyone suggested they already regularly use AI in their jobs.
One key theme that emerged: How critical the role of the CHRO will be as AI transforms the way we work. HR leaders will need to help not only with training people on the new tools, but also help organizations determine what to do with the time people save. The only answer isn’t to cut costs. Rather, there’s a big potential opportunity for talent leaders to help extract more creative, high-level work that can lead to desired growth.
To paraphrase what LaMoreaux told the audience of our panel, the potential for AI is to help people do more of that kind of work, increasing the size of the “pie” of work to be done, rather than simply replacing what people are already doing. LinkedIn’sechoed similar thoughts in a conversation with me on the sidelines and on a separate panel, where he called for AI’s potential to fundamentally shift the tasks people spend time on.
If that all sounds a bit nebulous to you—and far-fetched—you aren’t alone. It still feels like AI is very much at the stage where many people are talking about it in fuzzy, even speculative terms, and its true impact is yet to be seen. But at SXSW, at least, there was plenty of enthusiasm for AI to be an “accelerant” for work, asDo you use TikTok to promote your employer to Gen Z workers? Pay attention to the bill that passed the U.S.