Leadership and Management: Accelerating Workforce Transformation Through Technology and the Human Edge

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, AI and automation will increase employment growth with the addition of 78 million new jobs projected by 2030. Among the fastest-growing? Big data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and machine learning specialists, and software and applications developers.

While the influence of AI on the job market is already measurable, the pace of this workforce transformation is predicted to accelerate, with half of today’s work activities potentially being automated between 2030 and 2060, according to McKinsey and Company. The global management consulting firm also reports that AI’s influence on productivity and innovation will supercharge the global economy, contributing up to an estimated $13 trillion by 2030.

As these exciting, but sometimes unnerving advances continue to unfold, they will forever change the way we manage and lead people and organizations. To be successful in navigating this new landscape—taking advantage of rapid progress while ensuring a level of stability and integrity—leaders and managers must be well-equipped. They will need to be open and willing to build the new skill sets that will address the changes ahead, while fostering a human-centered culture and cohesive work environment that inspires teamwork, collaboration, innovation, and personal and professional growth.

The differentiators for success among business leaders are shifting, said Professor Ying Hong, PhD, area chair of Leading People and Organizations at the Gabelli School. “For many decades, the predictor of an effective leader was intelligence, the IQ,” she explained. “But because AI can now supplement human intelligence, helping to quickly analyze vast amounts of data, summarize trends, and give a systematic vision of the big picture, these differentiators have changed. The most successful leaders, now and in the future, must also possess EQ (Emotional Quotient or Emotional Intelligence). This is the ability to connect with others, have empathy and self-awareness, and help people to work effectively as a team toward a common goal.”

These attributes align with the concept of humanistic management, a people-centered approach to leadership that prioritizes human dignity over economic gain. While not new—humanistic management is a leadership approach that has been around for more than a century—it is more necessary now than ever, asserted Michael Pirson, PhD, a professor, and the James A.F. Stoner Endowed Chair in Global Sustainability at the Gabelli School.

“How do you organize to tap into the full potential of everyone? Humanistic management is addressing that by providing access points to the full humanity and creating an awareness and a functional engagement strategy with what we call dignity, the inherent intrinsic value of human beings,” he explained. “It works, because when people feel more valued, seen, and heard, they want to provide more energy to the tasks at hand. The result is that they produce superior outcomes.”

Unlike the authoritarian management style of the past, managers today are no longer bosses who supervise and direct, but rather coaches and mentors who focus on developing talent, empowering employees, building cultures of trust, and fostering productive teams. They adapt, learn, and lead with agility, effect high-level organizational strategy, and drive change. All of this must be taken into consideration as we watch a technology-driven workforce evolve before our eyes.

Initially fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a seismic shift in the traditional work model, from the brick-and-mortar workplace to hybrid and fully remote alternatives. Today, Upwork, the world’s largest human and AI-powered freelance marketplace, estimates that more than one fifth of the American workforce—north of 32.6 million people—work remotely. What’s more, 83% of workers around the world prefer hybrid arrangements. The benefits are clear: flexible work alternatives enhance productivity and performance and promote employee wellbeing by offering greater work-life balance. However, they still must be monitored and periodically refined to ensure success.

“With remote and hybrid work models, leaders and managers need to work harder to create a cohesive culture,” Hong indicated. “They need to encourage a culture of self-initiative and proactiveness.”

Organizations are also moving toward project-based management and agile methodologies—practices that aim to enhance flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction, and that enable businesses across industries to maximize resources, quickly navigate changes and challenges, and remain focused on achieving timely outcomes.

In addition, the technologies that support team collaboration among increasingly decentralized workforces are ever advancing. Online platforms like Zoom and Google Meet make it possible to work with colleagues anywhere around the globe. Real-time transcription and language translation capabilities, smart assistants, AR and VR collaboration tools, and immersive 3D meeting environments are rapidly advancing today’s workforce, empowering greater flexible, efficiency, and productivity.

Employers and employees across every industry are now having to navigate the new world of work and prioritize the integration of AI and digital technologies to maximize performance and profits.

Daniel Brennan ’15, ’17 MS, a product specialist at the global private equity firm Carlyle AlpInvest, said AI is a valuable tool that plays an integral role in his day-to-day work. The firm has several proprietary databases that filter through underlying portfolio company data, which is helpful to investment team members in analyzing businesses and conducting industry and market research.

“On the investment side, our team uses AI and digital tools every day,” Brennan explained. “These tools help the team execute tasks more efficiently and improve productivity on company research and underwriting exercises.” He added that on the capital-raising side of the business, similar tools are being used to sift through investor profiles and support investor due diligence processes. “We also use an AI tool to prep for meetings with potential clients where we’re able to type in questions like, ‘What should I know? What are they interested in? Who are they connected to at the organization?’ AI is everywhere and it’s not going away. It’s just going to continue to become increasingly more relevant and beneficial for various aspects of our business in daily work.”

Human capital, the economic value of a worker’s skills, experience, education, and health, which drive productivity and profitability, was one of the first business areas to integrate AI, noted Julita Haber, PhD, an associate clinical professor at the Gabelli School. “AI has been used in candidate screening, resume parsing, automated interview scheduling, and actually doing some of the interviews with chatbots,” she says. However, while many companies welcome the use of AI for such functions, others are more cautious and limit AI use out of concern about biases. “They’re still a lot more hands-on in terms of the talent acquisition processes,” Haber asserted.

AI is also being leveraged in performance evaluation, with managers tapping AI simulation tools to prepare for those sometimes-difficult conversations. “It’s in person and still there’s a human touch, but AI is helping managers to prepare for and refine the process,” she added.

Training is yet another area of human capital that is being reshaped by AI. It can help to predict employee skills and gaps, while also creating personalized learning pathways and methods of delivery, such as coaching with chatbots, and much more, Haber explained. “Within human capital departments, training is among the functions I see being most deeply reshaped by AI.”

At the end of the day, in the areas of leadership and management, while AI and digital technologies are being increasingly woven into the fabric of global businesses, people remain critical to success—particularly in an environment where change is now constant.

In Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 7 in 10 business leaders reported that their primary competitive strategy over the next three years is to be fast and nimble—to quickly adapt to and capitalize on changing business, customer, and market needs. However, that same report asserts, “Competitive advantage is now primarily less driven by technology differentiation and more by cultivating the human edge.”

As business operations become more reliant on technology and AI, those who lead and manage people must reaffirm that it is the power of human emotional intelligence, creativity, ethics and moral judgement, and adaptability that truly differentiate a company or organization in the competitive marketplace. Machines and humans must co-exist, but professionals at all levels—with the support of their managers—must be provided with opportunities to reinvent themselves in real time. Only when we encourage them to continuously learn, adapt, and grow can we help them to maintain their competitive human edge and leverage it to innovate for future success.