How to Help Your Team Adapt as AI Reshapes Their Roles

As AI starts taking on more work inside our companies, I've noticed that the biggest questions quickly become less about the technology and more about people.

And that makes sense. If someone can now finish what used to take half a day in an hour, that’s great. But then what? What should they be doing with the time they’ve gained? Does the Seat need to take on more? Is there valuable work we’ve wanted them to spend more time on but couldn’t before?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Seats and how they change as companies grow. Roles naturally evolve as the business around them develops, and AI is accelerating that evolution. It’s giving us another reason to look closely at whether the work we’ve asked people to do in the past is still the work we need them to do going forward.

That can create some pretty exciting opportunities for our people. They may be able to spend more time doing the work they truly enjoy, whether that's talking with customers, becoming a better coach, taking on more challenges, or building competencies that will allow them to contribute in new ways.

That kind of development doesn’t happen on its own. With AI playing a bigger role in our companies, people need clarity about how their Seat is evolving and where they can contribute more than they could before. That's part of our jobs as leaders: to help our people understand how their work is changing, give them opportunities to develop their skills, and show them how they fit into the company we’re building.

Throughout this AI Leadership series, we’ve explored how to bring AI into your company in ways that make your organization stronger. In this final article, I want to focus on your responsibility to your team members as a leader.

As Seats evolve, we need to think carefully about how we support our people through that transition. That means making sure the capacity AI creates not only leads to better work, but also gives our people more time to use the judgment, creativity, and experience that only they can bring.

Shape Seats on Higher-Value Work

When AI gives someone capacity back, we have to evaluate what that Seat should become. A task may now take a fraction of the time it used to, but that doesn’t automatically tell us how the role should develop. We still have to decide what the company needs from the Seat, how the Seat should evolve, and whether that creates new opportunities for the person in it.

In some cases, the answer is already sitting in front of us. A manager who spends less time preparing reports may finally have more time to coach. Someone in Customer Success may be able to spend more time understanding what customers need instead of gathering information before a call. An engineer who spends less time on routine coding or documentation may have more capacity to think through architecture, improve the product, or work through harder technical problems.

That’s where the opportunity AI brings gets really interesting. AI can create capacity for more of the work that has always been important but was harder to prioritize when people were buried in repetitive tasks.

As a Seat develops, look at the person sitting in it too. Two people with the same title may have very different strengths, experiences, and ways they create value. If AI gives them more capacity, we shouldn’t assume that capacity should be used the same way.

One person may be especially good at developing others or building relationships, while another may have a strong ability to work through complex problems. Understanding those strengths can help you decide where someone should spend more of their time as parts of their existing work get done faster.

The Seat still needs to serve what the company needs, but there may be more than one way for a person to grow into it. When we understand both the work and the person doing it, we have a better chance of putting people in Seats where they can contribute more and continue developing.

AI is a tool, not a destination. The real value will come from using AI to enhance human creativity and innovation.

Ginni Rometty

Former CEO of IBM

Be Transparent About What’s Changing

As your team sees AI become more integrated into the company, they’re going to have questions: What does this mean for my Seat? What am I going to be expected to do differently? What should I be learning now?

We won't have perfect answers to all of those questions right now, but we can still share what we do know. If a Seat is starting to require more judgment, more customer interaction, or deeper expertise, be open about that. If you want someone to become more comfortable using AI as part of their role, make that clear too. The sooner people understand how their Seat is evolving, the sooner they can start preparing for what the company will need from them next.

Be careful not to promise anyone that their role won’t change. Even if you don’t see it yet, AI is developing too quickly, and the way we use it inside our companies will keep developing too. What we can do is explain how we’re thinking about the changes we’re seeing and what we think their Seat may require as it develops. That gives someone something they can prepare for without promising a future we aren't sure of yet.

These discussions also shouldn’t wait until a role has already changed significantly. Leaders should be talking with their people along the way about what they’re seeing, what may be different six months from now, and where they think someone has an opportunity to keep growing.

Help People Build Competencies 

Once we have a better sense of how a Seat is developing, we can’t assume the person sitting in it will automatically know how to grow with it.

Someone who’s been great at producing an output may now be asked to spend more time reviewing it, making decisions from it, or determining whether it meets the standard. A manager who gains time through AI may be expected to do more coaching, but coaching is a competency in its own right. More capacity doesn’t automatically mean someone is fully ready for a different kind of contribution.

This is where we need to get specific about development. If a Seat now requires stronger judgment, deeper expertise, or a greater ability to solve complex problems, the person should understand what that means for them. Then we can give them opportunities to build those competencies through training, new responsibilities, feedback, and experience.

We also need to give people space to learn. When the requirements of a Seat change, someone may not be fully competent in every new responsibility right away. What I’d want to see is whether they’re leaning into the opportunity, learning from feedback, and getting better over time.

Development also has to be something the person wants. Someone may be perfectly capable of learning a new part of the role and still decide that isn’t the kind of work they want to do. Another person may be highly committed but need more time or support to develop a new skill they need for their role. If we’re clear about what the Seat now requires and give people the support and opportunity to grow into it, they'll be better prepared as their role in the company evolves.

Keep Checking the Fit as Seats Change

As someone takes on different work, we need to make sure we still have the right person in the right Seat. A role can become more strategic, more technical, more customer-facing, or more demanding in ways that weren’t true a year ago. Someone may grow right along with it, or they may realize the work is moving in a direction that doesn’t play to their strengths or interests.

That’s why we shouldn’t treat role review as a one-time decision after we bring AI in. We need to continue checking whether the role still make sense for the person sitting in the Seat and whether the person is still energized by what the Seat is becoming.

Sometimes the answer will be yes, and that person may end up contributing in ways you couldn’t have asked of them before. Other times, you may find that another Seat would be a stronger fit. And there will be cases where someone simply can’t grow in the direction the company now needs and you have to part ways.

Those are hard decisions, but avoiding them doesn’t serve the person or the business. We should give people a fair opportunity to develop while still being honest about what the Seat requires and whether the fit is still there.

Look at One Seat at a Time

You don’t need to redesign every role in the company at once. Start with the Seats where AI is already changing how the work gets done, then look closely at what that means for the person sitting there by asking:

• What responsibilities of this Seat are taking less time because of AI?

• Where could this person create more value with that capacity?

• What competencies does the Seat require now that it didn’t before?

• What strengths does this person bring that should shape how the Seat develops?

• What does this person need from their leader to help them succeed?

You may find that the Seat only needs a few adjustments. In other cases, you may realize the role is becoming something very different from what it was before. Either way, you’ll have a clearer place to start than trying to predict how AI will affect every Seat across the company.

Then keep checking back. As AI becomes more capable, some parts of the role may keep changing while others become more important. The Seat should develop with the work, and the person sitting in it should understand what that means for them.

Build a Company That's Deeply Human

The more I think about AI, the more I come back to the same idea: The technology may be moving fast, but building a great company is still deeply human.

It's up to us to help our people understand what's changing and where they can keep growing. Some Seats will change more than others. The important thing is that we stay close enough to understand what the company needs and who the person in each Seat is capable of becoming.

AI can create capacity and give our teams capabilities we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. What excites me most is the possibility of building Seats around more of the work that depends on human judgment, creativity, relationships, and experience. That’s the stuff that makes us human, and there’s something powerful about using better technology to create opportunities for people to bring more of that into their work.

But leaders aren't the only ones responsible for shaping that future. In the final article of this series, I'll explore how employees can take charge of their careers and prepare themselves as AI changes the nature of work.

The future of work is still ours to shape, and I think that's a pretty extraordinary responsibility.