To lead in the AI era, we must empower people leaders to reinvest the time saved by technology back into human connection and community.
Chris Ernst
Chief Learning Officer
Workday
In the field of organizational behavior, we often search for the "force multiplier"—the element that makes the entire system more effective than the sum of its parts. At Workday, we know exactly who that is: the people leader.
I often describe people leaders as the linchpin of the organization. They sit at the high-stakes intersection where strategy, execution, and culture collide. Consider the lifecycle of a corporate strategy. It doesn’t actually manifest when the CEO announces it on a global broadcast. It becomes real when a manager sits down with their team to translate those high-level goals into Tuesday morning priorities.
People leaders are the primary carriers of culture. When a new hire joins us, their understanding of how we do things isn't shaped by an employee handbook; it’s shaped by their manager. It’s bred through one-on-ones, feedback loops, and the behaviors that are celebrated in team meetings.
People leaders are the primary carriers of culture.
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My journey to Workday began as a courtship that culminated in an invitation from Greg Pryor, a former colleague, and our Chief People Officer, Ashley Goldsmith, to observe our People Leadership Summit. While I had yet to join Workday, it was immediately clear to me that culture wasn’t a line item in an annual report; what I saw was values in action through genuine executive engagement and a deep commitment to human growth.
That experience tipped the scales for me, proving that a company investing so heavily in its people is built to last. For the past seven years, I’ve had the privilege of hosting that very Summit, which we just held last week at Workday’s HQ in Pleasanton. It’s without a doubt my favorite Workday event: PLS serves as a constant reminder that when we lead with values, we don't just build a workforce—we build a community.
When we lead with values, we don't just build a workforce—we build a community.
However, let’s be real about the current landscape. Today’s leaders are under unprecedented pressure. They are being stretched vertically—meeting the demands of executive strategy—and horizontally—coordinating across increasingly complex, matrixed environments. According to recent industry data, manager burnout is rising at a rate that outpaces individual contributors. If we expect them to be the heroes of their teams, we have a fundamental responsibility to surround them with the community and tools they need to thrive.
As we navigate the era of AI, the role of the people leader is entering a new dimension. I’ve said many times that AI is as much a human transformation as it is a technological one.
The organizations that will lead the next decade are those that view AI not as a replacement for human talent, but as a partner. This requires a shift in mindset for leaders. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and wait for engineers to figure it out. We must be in the sandbox—experimenting, learning the limitations of these tools, and modeling that curiosity for our teams.
From a strategic perspective, AI offers us a gift that is increasingly rare in the modern workplace: Time. A staggering 85% of employees save between 1 and 7 hours per week on their tasks by using AI. Time is our only finite resource. We can clear the cognitive clutter that plagues our teams when we leverage AI to automate repetitive, low-value tasks. But as leaders, what we do with that newly found capacity is a litmus test for our leadership philosophy. There are two very different paths we can take:
1. Using AI simply to push people harder and squeeze more work out of every hour. While this might look good on a spreadsheet next quarter, it burns people out and destroys trust over time.
2. Reinvesting saved time to bring our teams closer together, listen to our customers, and dream up new ideas. This path is about using technology to build a healthier, more creative workplace—not just making the old, tired routines run faster.
Many organizations have fallen down here. Training gaps persist: While 66% of leaders cite skills training as a top priority, only 37% of the heaviest AI users—the employees most vulnerable to “rework” from fixing AI’s mistakes—actually have access to it, revealing a clear disconnect between leadership intent and employee experience.
At Workday, we are firmly committed to reinvesting in people. We believe AI should be used to amplify human potential, not just optimize it.
We live in a digital-first world, yet our biological and psychological need for human connection has never been higher. The paradox of the AI era is that while we can consume more information than ever, the moments that actually define our careers remain resolutely human.
Think about the most pivotal moment in your professional life. Was it a chatbot that gave you the courage to take a promotion? Was it a PDF that mentored you through a crisis? Or was it a conversation over coffee with a leader who saw a spark in you that you hadn't yet recognized in yourself?
In the moments that matter, human relationships are the only currency that counts. This is why I view connection not as a soft skill, but as a cause we must pursue with intentionality.
AI can be a phenomenal rehearsal space. It can help us refine our arguments, practice difficult conversations, and synthesize complex data. But the goal of that preparation is to show up better for the human moment. It allows us to enter that mentoring lunch or that feedback session more informed, more reflective, and more present.
In the moments that matter, human relationships are the only currency that counts.
Our humanity is not a liability in the age of machines; it is our greatest strategic asset.
As I look toward the future of the People Leadership Summit and our work at Workday, the mission remains clear: to harness technology to handle the transactional so that our leaders can focus on the transformational.
When we support our people leaders, when we reinvest the time AI gives us back into our teams, and when we treat connection as a primary outcome, we don't just build better companies. We build a better world of work.
Report
In the past decade HR has undergone a major evoluton from a supportive role to a strategic one. However, as this report finds, HR teams are more conservative on AI than finance and IT. That makes the potential competitive advantage even greater—learn more below.