“AI is here. We need to reinvent ourselves.” - Josh Newman, Global Head of People Strategy & Experience, WPP

What does it really mean to redesign work for the age of AI?

That question took center stage during a recent webinar featuring Siobhan Savage (CEO & Founder of Reejig), Josh Bersin (CEO & Co-Founder of The Josh Bersin Company) and Josh Newman (Global Head of People Strategy & Experience @ WPP).

Together, they unpacked a bold new approach to workforce transformation—one that goes far beyond headcount or HR systems, and instead tackles the very DNA of work.

For WPP, one of the world’s largest marketing services organizations, this wasn’t just a theoretical exercise. It was a pressing challenge driven by a very real boardroom question:

“The board is asking what the future shape of our organization is going to be—because AI is coming,” said Newman. 

In that moment, the need for Work Reinvention became clear. 

The Wake Up Call: When Job Titles Are No Longer Enough

With over 50,000 unique job titles and a highly decentralized structure, WPP had a workforce filled with talent—but lacked visibility into the actual work being done.

Job titles alone weren’t enough to answer critical questions:

• What are our people really doing?
• Where is work being duplicated?
• Which tasks could AI assist, augment, or automate?

“Most organizations lack an understanding of the actual work that’s happening,”
— Siobhan Savage, Reejig

To reinvent work in an AI world, WPP knew it needed to go deeper.
So it set out to deconstruct work itself—not just at the job level, but at the level of tasks and skills.

The Breakthrough: Deconstructing Work to Rebuild Better

This journey began with a massive simplification: reducing 55,000 job titles to a more usable 600 role archetypes. But that was just the start.

Together with Reejig, WPP then broke down those roles to map:

• 750 distinct tasks
• 18,000+ skills
• Across 84,000 employees
  
  

This level of detail allowed them to uncover where time and talent were being underutilized—and where AI could unlock 20–25% capacity in key roles.

“You can’t plan your workforce if you don’t understand what people actually do,”
— Josh Bersin

This wasn’t just about job design. It was infrastructure for reinvention—turning static job architectures into living systems of work.

Human + Digital Workers: A New Workforce Ecosystem

With this intelligence in hand, WPP could now redesign work dynamically—creating a powerful ecosystem where human and digital workers augment each other.

This meant identifying:

• Tasks ripe for automation
• Repetitive work that could be reallocated
• Areas where AI could assist and amplify—not replace

Reejig’s Work Intelligence platform combined WPP’s internal data with their AI toolkit, WPP Open, to uncover real, actionable transformation opportunities.

“This isn’t a tech project. It’s the foundation of business transformation,”
— Josh Bersin

A More Human Employee Experience

Importantly, this wasn’t about cost-cutting or reducing headcount.
It was about freeing people up to do more of the work they love—and less of what they don’t.

“This isn’t about cost-cutting,” said Newman. “It’s about freeing people up to do more of what they came here to do.”

In this new model, work is redesigned to be:

• More fulfilling
• Less fragmented
• Better aligned with purpose

“Come work for us. You’ll do more of the work you signed up for—and less of the other stuff.”
— Josh Newman

That’s not just a productivity play—it’s a talent magnet.

The Blueprint: A Living, Evolving System

WPP didn’t just build new job descriptions.
They built a living system—one that evolves as AI matures, business needs shift, and new skills emerge.

With Reejig, they’re now:

• Embedding task intelligence into real-time workforce planning
• Validating AI-task fit across business areas
• Scaling reinvention with data that’s always current

“Reejig’s Work Ontology is a living model of work,” said Savage.
“It’s dynamic, real-time, and gives leaders the ability to act—not just analyze.”

Don't Wait for a Burning Platform

WPP’s journey shows that you don’t need to wait for disruption to strike.
You can lead transformation proactively—by making work itself more visible, flexible, and future-ready.

As Bersin put it:

“AI doesn’t replace jobs—it reshapes them. That’s why this work is so critical.”

Reinventing work is the new competitive advantage.

Want to See How it Works?

Book a strategy session with a Reejig Work Strategist to explore how to:

• Deconstruct work into tasks and skills
• Spot duplication, opportunity, and AI fit
• Build a living workforce ecosystem for the future