🧪 ​Moderna Aligns People and Tech: ​​"Flow of Work" at the Executive Level

As organizations debate who should lead AI transformation, HR, IT, or a new function altogether, Moderna has taken decisive action. The biotech giant has ​merged its HR and tech teams under one role: Chief People and Digital Technology Officer​, now held by ​Tracey Franklin​, formerly CHRO. This structural shift isn’t about cost-cutting; it’s about redesigning how work gets done in an AI-augmented organization.

Powered by a deep partnership with OpenAI, Moderna has deployed over 3,000 internal GPTs across functions, using AI to handle everything from clinical trial optimization to HR inquiries. Tracey notes she’s shifted from “workforce planning to work planning,” focusing on which tasks are best done by humans vs. machines. This reflects a growing trend toward dynamic, ​capability-based org design with flow of work​, not static departments.

Leaders like Included's ​Laura Close​ and Deloitte’s ​Kyle Forrest​ see this as a blueprint for AI-readiness, where HR drives strategy and IT delivers the tools. Still, some experts caution that merging functions isn’t enough without elevating HR’s strategic authority. As ​Anthony Onesto​ puts it, AI won’t transform your organization unless you rethink how work flows across culture, systems, and people.

Moderna may not have all the answers, but it’s moving, while others are still debating.

FROM OUR EXPERTS 🎙️

I keep a close eye on what our Future Work Experts are thinking, saying, and questioning. I break down the key conversations and brainstorm practical steps we can take to move forward.

This week:

GENERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

​Scale Smart: Talent, Tech, and Trust​

• ​Sophie Wade​ challenges leaders to avoid the trap of scaling through AI at the cost of alienating human talent, especially Gen Z. With 86% of executives planning to replace entry-level roles with AI, and 1 in 6 already doing so, the talent pipeline is thinning just as businesses need future-ready workers. Meanwhile, 41% of younger employees admit to undermining AI strategies, often due to fear of becoming obsolete, what Sophie calls modern FOBO (Fear of Becoming Obsolete).
• Her solution: build a blended workforce of employees, freelancers, and AI agents, while reinforcing Generational Intelligence by setting clear boundaries and boosting trust. Gen Z, shaped by remote starts and blurred lines between work and life, needs active support to avoid burnout and feel valued.

⚒️ Prompt: This week, ask one Gen Z teammate: “What’s one AI tool that actually helps you—and one that just stresses you out?” Then share your own. Bonus points if you admit to using ChatGPT to rewrite emails.

BREAKING SILOS

​Workplace Insights Beyond Your Bubble​

• ​Phil Kirschner​ urges leaders to step outside their functional silos to truly understand today’s workplace challenges. At UNLEASH America, his first major HR conference, Phil contrasted the “mascots and games” culture of HR events with the polished restraint of real estate and tech conferences. This cultural clash revealed a deeper organizational problem: while HR owns people data, and RE owns space data, the two rarely align—preventing integrated metrics like cost-per-visit or cohesive workplace design.
• He highlights ServiceNow’s sensor-driven conference setup as a model for the future office: part workplace, part event, fully responsive to behavior and intent.
• Phil’s big takeaway: the most powerful insights emerge in "collision zones"—where HR, IT, and RE converge, not operate in parallel. And most importantly, the barriers to transformation are not technical—they’re behavioral and structural.

⚒️ Prompt: Look up your next conference today, and choose one outside your function. Block time now to attend one session, meet one expert, and ask one question you wouldn’t ask in your own field.

HUMAN-AI PARTNERSHIP

​AI: Your New Thought Partner​

• ​Anthony Onesto​ champions AI not just as a tool—but as a powerful cognitive collaborator for HR leaders. With GPT-4 boosting task performance by 40% and AI projected to unlock up to $15.7 trillion in global productivity by 2030, the opportunity is clear: AI can enhance ideation, analysis, and decision-making across the board.
• Anthony breaks it down into four core roles—brainstormer, analyst, challenger, and problem-solver—each designed to amplify, not replace, human judgment. The shift is toward augmentation, where AI handles heavy processing so leaders can focus on strategy, ethics, and creativity. As AI enters the boardroom, the real edge comes from those who master the human-AI thought partnership.

⚒️ Prompt: Open ChatGPT and ask: “What’s a blind spot in this week’s leadership decision I might be missing?” Bonus: Let it play devil’s advocate—without hurting your feelings.

DISTRIBUTED INNOVATION

​Airbnb Scales Innovation Without RTO​

• ​Brian Elliott​ spotlights how Airbnb proves innovation doesn't require a return-to-office mandate. Under its Live and Work Anywhere (LAWA) framework, Airbnb launched major updates, including 535 product improvements in 3 years, and expanded into 650 cities with Experiences and 260 with Services, all without compromising flexibility. Instead of defaulting to rigid RTO policies, the company built structure around business rhythms, introducing monthly In Person Weeks and sprint-based gatherings tied to product launch cycles.
• With a “movement, not a mandate” philosophy, Airbnb prioritized experience quality, cross-functional coordination, and a sense of FOMO over top-down office rules. The result is a distributed workforce that still feels connected, energized, and high-performing, proving that flexibility works when grounded in purpose.

⚒️ Prompt: Ask your team this week: “If we met in person just once a month, what would make it truly worth it?” Then design around that, not your lease.

🔥 QUICK HITS:

• [MIDDLE MANAGEMENT] ​The Middle Can Rise Again // By Henrik Jarleskog​: The traditional middle manager role is collapsing, replaced by bots that can handle status updates, scheduling, and reporting. But there’s a path forward. The new "middle leader" is no longer a messenger but a multiplier: building AI-augmented teams, collapsing decision cycles, and designing workflows that actually work. As Henrik puts it, “the middle should never be a bottleneck, it should be the engine room of modern work.” In a world of sovereign AI stacks and hybrid teams, middle leaders must shift from coordination to acceleration.
  ⚒️ Prompt: Pick one meeting or task where you mostly coordinate. Can it be automated, streamlined, or skipped? Replace it with one action that multiplies team value—coaching, clarifying, or accelerating a decision.
• [IMPACT] ​Power That Empowers Others // By Dave Ulrich​​​: Dave Ulrich reframes impact not as personal influence or status, but as the ability to create sustainable stakeholder value. Drawing from decades of research and practice, he outlines four types of impact—solipsism, status, system, and stakeholder value, urging leaders to operate in the fourth quadrant by empowering others, evolving ideas, and building institutional practices. His 7 coaching actions offer a roadmap: from knowing whom you serve, to building unity, to codifying practices that outlast individuals. Dave emphasizes that true impact comes from using power not to control, but to enable progress across people and systems. The goal isn't visibility, it’s value that endures beyond you.
  ‍⚒️ Prompt: Pull up your last big win and ask: “Did this empower someone else, or just reflect me?”. Now choose one current initiative and shift the spotlight.
• [AI RESOURCE ECONOMICS] ​Why AI Won’t Take Your Job​​ // By Dror Poleg: ​Dror Poleg introduces Poleg’s Paradox: the more powerful AI becomes, the less likely it is to replace human labor for low-value tasks. As superhuman software demands immense energy and compute, its usage will shift toward high-stakes domains like missile defense, cyberwarfare, and real-time resource allocation. AI’s growing strategic value means trivial business tasks—email sorting, basic analysis—become too expensive to justify, making human labor essential once again. This reflects a historic pattern: the most productive agents (once humans, now AIs) always allocate resources to highest-leverage work. In the future of constrained energy and extreme intelligence, humans won’t be replaced—they’ll be re-deployed.
  ‍⚒️ Prompt: Ask your team: “What are we asking AI to do… that we should really be doing ourselves?”
• [JOB DESCRIPTION] ​From Boring to Conversational Hiring // By Lars Schmidt​: Lars Schmidt challenges the recruiting status quo by turning static job descriptions into conversational, AI-powered audio overviews. At Fruitist, his team used Google’s NotebookLM to transform their Senior Commercial Analyst posting into a dynamic two-voice dialogue, resulting in higher candidate engagement and better cultural resonance. Traditional job posts often fail to reflect real role dynamics, but with tools like Audio Overview, companies can infuse storytelling and context directly into job ads. This isn't just a gimmick, it’s a scalable way to humanize hiring, strengthen employer brand, and appeal to more diverse talent. Lars sees this as the first step toward interactive, chatbot-enhanced job descriptions that help redefine how organizations communicate with future employees.
  ‍⚒️ Prompt: Turn your latest job post into a 1-minute audio pitch using AI. If it wouldn’t hook you, it won’t hook talent.

FUTURE WORK ROUNDUP 📰

I track what’s worth your attention—bringing you the news and updates that matter most to how we work, lead, and grow.

This week:

SCALABLE UPSKILLING

​Why Upskilling Can’t Wait​

Amid accelerating AI adoption, 20% of U.S. workers have already used generative AI on the job, and occupational switching is rising. According to McKinsey’s 2024 American Opportunity Survey, 44% of workers are open to switching occupations, with 17% having done so since 2020.

Yet 45% cite a lack of skills, experience, or credentials as the top barrier—making upskilling the leading obstacle to occupational change. Interest is highest among younger (63% aged 18–24), lower-income, immigrant, and underrepresented groups like Black workers (54%). However, time and cost remain the biggest barriers, especially for older, higher-income respondents. Mental health and transportation also factor in, especially among Gen Z and lower-income cohorts. Workers seek upskilling through private companies (35%), educational institutions (41%), and NGOs (23%), with online platforms like Coursera and YouTube preferred differently by age.

Employers can play a pivotal role by offering flexible, affordable, on-the-job upskilling that aligns with changing AI-era demands.

⚒️ Prompt: Offer paid time during work hours—like 1–2 hours weekly—for employees to take upskilling courses. Prioritize certifications and AI tool training aligned with evolving job needs.

TIME WELL SPENT

​JAM: Measure What Really Matters​

MIT researchers introduced the Life Matrix, a tool that helps people evaluate how they spend time based on the subjective value of time, measured through JAM: Joy, Achievement, and Meaningfulness.

In a study of 3,000+ professionals, only 30% met their minimums in all three JAM areas weekly, and those who did reported the highest life satisfaction.

People satisfied with life spent 59% of their nonwork time on high-value activities, compared to 42% for the least satisfied, creating a daily difference of 3 hours.

Even a 1-hour weekly shift toward higher-value activities improved well-being and perceived work value.

⚒️ Prompt: Encourage your team to use the Life Matrix to identify one high-JAM activity they’ll increase by 1 hour this week, then check in together and normalize conversations about time, values, and energy alignment.

FREELANCE ECONOMY

​Freelancers Are the Strategy​

Tony Case outlines how the freelance workforce is no longer peripheral, it's central to business strategy.

More than 1 in 4 U.S. knowledge workers are freelancers, generating $1.5 trillion in income, with a median income of $85K, surpassing that of full-time staff.

Upwork’s research shows freelancers are not only earning more, but 54% possess advanced AI skills (vs. 38% of FTEs), making them prime drivers of tech transformation.

Experts like Gabby Burlacu and David Rice emphasize that companies integrating freelance talent are seeing faster growth, more resilience, and greater agility, but success hinges on shifting outdated mindsets about control and commitment.

⚒️ Prompt: Take 20 minutes today to list 3 high-skill projects where a freelancer could deliver faster results than your current team bandwidth allows.

AI & LAYOFF

​Microsoft’s AI Trade-Off​

Microsoft is laying off 6,000 workers — 3% of its global workforce — despite strong profits. The reason? AI.

With $80 billion planned for AI investments in 2025, Microsoft is reallocating headcount toward automation and machine-led development. Teams from Xbox to LinkedIn are impacted, especially middle managers.

CEO Satya Nadella says AI now writes 30% of Microsoft’s code, and call center agents are already being replaced by bots.

But the company’s “AI-first” vision is triggering workforce anxiety, brand trust erosion, and potential backlash, as customers and employees alike question whether performance and loyalty still matter.

⚒️ Prompt: Are your AI investments building the future, or burning bridges? Layoffs might fund your tech, but what message are you sending your people?

INNOVATION SERENDIPITY

​Designed for “Accidents”​

Breakthroughs like LASIK eye surgery show that innovation often begins with the unexpected.

Serendipity is not just luck, it’s a three-step process: something surprising happens, someone notices its value, and someone acts on it.

Businesses can unlock innovation by building environments that foster these moments. That means encouraging openness to anomalies, designing for cross-disciplinary collisions (think Pixar or Nvidia HQs), and making small-scale experimentation a cultural norm.

When randomness meets readiness, companies get results.

⚒️ Prompt: When was the last time someone on your team said, “This weird thing happened…” and you actually followed up? Maybe it’s time your next breakthrough starts with “Oops.”

🔥 QUICK READ: ​UNLEASH America 2025: A Transformational Festival for HR’s Future​

Held in Las Vegas, UNLEASH America 2025 brought together global HR leaders, technologists, and changemakers to explore how AI, talent strategy, data, and leadership are reshaping the world of work.

Over three energetic days, a shared sense of urgency and optimism ran through every keynote, panel, and summit.

• AI dominated the conversation. Josh Bersin called it “the only technology I’ve ever seen that completely transforms the way companies operate,” emphasizing HR’s critical role in its adoption.
• MIT professor Max Tegmark echoed that optimism but warned of the risks of uncontrolled AGI, urging flexible, short-term planning.
• Opening the event, Dr. Joy Buolamwini highlighted algorithmic bias and urged leaders to “reduce exclusion overhead” and “keep humans in the loop.”
• Agentic AI, skill-based transformation, and data-driven people strategy were major themes. Atlassian’s Avani Prabhakar, Toshiba’s Jason Desentz, and Aptiv’s Ronda Bazley Moore all emphasized HR–IT collaboration.
• Mercer’s Jason Averbook challenged leaders to “learn a new AI tool every day.”
• A joint UNLEASH–Talent Tech Labs survey showed 73% of HR leaders are still forming AI strategies, and only 1 in 3 currently use AI agents.
• On data, Microsoft’s Karen Kocher, SAP’s Dr. Christian Schmeichel, and NYU’s Anna Tavis agreed: “Without data, there is no AI.” Karen emphasized “work-to-skill” learning and agent-enabled teamwork, while Anna called for scalable, personalized learning systems.
• Leadership was a recurring focus. L’Oréal’s Stephanie Kramer advised leaders to “flip the script” on attrition, Google’s Brian Glaser said “leading is not for the faint of heart,” ServiceNow’s Jacqui Canney urged leaders to “bring people along,” and Phillips 66’s Andrez Carberry reminded that “leadership is a responsibility.”
• Other standout voices included Lenovo’s Doug Fisher (on AI governance), Zurich’s Renad Jarzynski (on the power of recognition), and McDonald’s Emilee DeMartino (on over-communicating through transformation).

UNLEASH 2025 wasn’t just another HR event, it was a call to reimagine work for a future that is both AI-powered and deeply human.