Over the past few months, I’ve sat down with many CEOs across Europe and many more business leaders around the world in my role as Chief Strategy Officer for ManpowerGroup.
Almost every conversation has ended with the same question.
How Do We Prepare for What’s Next?
Leaders know AI is reshaping work. They’re investing in technology, experimenting with new tools, and moving quickly to create incremental value. What they’re trying to understand is what comes after adoption. How will their business change for the long term? Which skills will matter most? How do you prepare your people for a future that is still unfolding?
The honest answer is that none of us has a complete playbook, and we must become comfortable with that. That’s not a sign of failure. It’s the reality of leading through one of the biggest shifts in how work gets done that any of us have experienced. Company strategy and human skills need to move at an even faster pace so we remain the architects of our futures and in many ways the architects of humanity.
The question isn’t whether AI will reshape work. It already is. The real question is how organizations, and the people inside them, navigate what comes next. More importantly, how do we give people confidence when the future is still taking shape?
One thing I believe strongly is this: AI isn’t coming for our jobs. It’s coming to our jobs. And while technology will undoubtedly reshape work, people will ultimately determine what that future looks like. It is up to us as leaders to chart this journey.
Workers Are More Ready Than We Think
One of the biggest surprises in our latest research wasn’t about AI at all. It was about confidence.
When we ask people directly, nearly nine in ten tell us they have the skills they need to do today’s job. Yet almost half worry automation could affect that job within the next two years. At the same time, more than half say they haven’t received recent training or mentoring.
That creates an interesting tension. People aren’t resisting change; they have become used to that. Every day, workers are learning new tools, experimenting with AI, and finding better ways to get work done. What they’re less certain about is where they fit in tomorrow’s world.
And feelings matter. For years, we’ve said that success in the labor market is shaped as much by feelings as fundamentals. People don’t make career decisions based solely on economic data. They make them based on confidence, whether they believe opportunity exists for them and whether they can see a path forward.
Today, confidence may be one of the most important workforce issues of the AI era.
People want more than training. They want to understand how work is changing, how their role may evolve, and where new opportunities are emerging. They want confidence that investing in themselves today will continue to create possibilities tomorrow.
Without that confidence, uncertainty becomes a barrier to progress. And with it, people are far more willing to experiment, learn and embrace change.
The Leadership Opportunity
What none of us knows with certainty is exactly how those changes will unfold, or how quickly. In conversation after conversation, I hear it framed almost the same way: We know jobs will change. We know skill requirements will evolve—fast enough that a data scientist, a role that ranked 152nd in demand two years ago, now ranks 28th. We know entirely new roles will emerge (shout out to the new Forward Design Engineers) while others are redesigned. And still, employers keep telling us the same thing: 73 percent say they can’t find the skilled people they need.
What we’re seeing is that AI is creating demand in places many people aren’t talking about. For every headline about AI writing code, there’s a different story unfolding underneath it. Electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and construction managers are increasingly in demand to build the infrastructure AI depends on. That demand is growing alongside demand for AI specialists.
I’ve found that the best leaders aren’t pretending to have every answer; they are being honest about what they know, transparent about what they don’t and clear about the direction they’re taking while leaving room to adapt as the environment around them changes. They’re helping people understand not just what is changing, but why it matters and where the opportunities lie.
In times like these, trust becomes a competitive advantage. When people trust their leaders, they’re far more willing to embrace change. When they don’t, uncertainty quickly fills the gap.
Human Potential Is Becoming More Valuable, Not Less
One misconception about AI is that as technology becomes more capable, people somehow become less important. I’m convinced the opposite is true. Organizations certainly need people who can work confidently alongside AI and digital tools. But they also need people who exercise judgment, solve complex problems, build relationships, communicate clearly, and earn trust.
One phrase I’ve found myself coming back to is this: As AI becomes more human, we must become both more technical and more human.
Technology gets you to the pilot. People get you to the results. We saw this play out earlier this year in a partnership we launched with IBM, bringing AI-powered workflows into client operations. The technology could stand up a pilot in weeks. What took longer and had the most impact on the success of the deployment was the human work underneath it: training people to trust the system, redesigning roles around it, and making sure it actually got used.
That means investing in digital fluency while strengthening the uniquely human capabilities that technology cannot replicate: curiosity, creativity, empathy, collaboration, and leadership.
What’s Next?
The truth is no one can answer that question completely. But after spending time with leaders and employees around the world, I’m more optimistic than ever. Not because I believe technology will solve every challenge. Because I believe people will.
Those CEOs who asked me how to prepare for what’s next are asking the right question. I still don’t think any of us have a complete answer. The organizations that invest as much in people’s confidence as they do in technology will be the ones that shape what comes next, instead of reacting to it.
The organizations that thrive won’t simply adopt better technology. They’ll create more confident people, more adaptable leaders, and workplaces where innovation and humanity reinforce one another.
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