My TL;DR on How WPP is Building the AI-Powered Workforce

Last week, I sat down with Josh and Josh — that’s Josh Newman from WPP and Josh Bersin (yes, that Josh Bersin) — for a live broadcast on how WPP is building their AI-powered workforce.

It was a fantastic conversation that you can fully listen to and get the insights on here. 

But here’s the TL;DR from my end:

We're not adapting. We're reinventing.

Let me be blunt: We are in the middle of a once-in-a-generation change to work. You’re not going to live through this twice in your career. So stop treating it like it’s just another transformation program.

Job architecture is completely broken.

The systems we've built around jobs and job holders are completely useless in an AI-powered world.

They weren't designed for this pace of change. They weren't built to integrate digital agents. And they definitely weren’t designed to keep your people with you as work changes under their feet.

Most companies don’t know what work is actually happening.

Seriously — you have no idea.
We’ve seen this over and over: companies trying to automate, augment, or redesign work... without actually knowing what that work is.

Job descriptions are not work. They’re marketing fluff. If you don’t know the task, subtask, and skill profile of a role, you’re flying blind and that’s irresponsible.

This isn’t about cost-cutting. It’s about not falling behind.

Yes, companies are chasing efficiency.
Yes, budgets are getting reallocated.

But if your CEO hasn’t started talking about AI + workforce design, you should be worried.
This isn’t about hype. It’s survival.

Super workers are coming. Are you ready?

We’re moving from human-only roles to hybrid human-agent teams.
If you’re still thinking in old-school job titles, you’re going to miss the opportunity and screw your people in the process.

It’s our job to make the invisible visible — map the real work, the real skills, and the real opportunities for people to grow. Or get left behind.

Let me leave you with this:

You don’t get to wait for someone else to figure this out. You’re in the seat. Do the work. Reinvent. Don’t leave people behind.

Time to lead. Boldly.

Siobhan 💜