How AI Will Disrupt Traditional Workforce Planning

Speaker A: Work isn't what it used to be. Roles, responsibilities and even the skills we rely on are shifting faster than ever. Technology, especially AI, isn't just changing tasks. It's changing how work itself is designed and how organizations plan for the future. In this new reality, traditional workforce planning can't keep up. Companies need a more dynamic, capability driven approach that solves continuously anticipates skills gaps and adapts to emerging business needs. Today we're exploring exactly how organizations can make that shift. Reena Gupta, uh, founder and CEO of AI powered L& D platform with Dosity Rina, welcome to the AI HI project.

Speaker B: Thank you Alex. So happy to be here today.

Speaker A: We've got a fascinating conversation ahead of us, especially right after this brief message.

Speaker C: Manager effectiveness directly impacts performance, retention and cost.

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Speaker B: SHRM.

Speaker A: Reena, you obviously are very ensconced in the notion of workforce planning and specifically continuous workforce planning. Can you tell us how that differs between or differs really from traditional workforce planning?

Speaker G: Alex?

Speaker B: Um, I think we have to change the thought and some of the terminologies that we use. The word traditional does not exist anymore. Everything is breaking the norms, whether it is our life, whether it is work, uh, because the way we used to do things, that itself is changing. So when things are changing at the foundation level, we have to re coin, um, those words. We used to talk about lifelong learning, we used to talk about traditional learning and all continuous. Now I prefer to say it is an integral part of learning. It is becoming who we are in terms of, if you think about, um, learning, you go to school, you come in, you pass the exams, then you go for work. All, all those things are being challenged. People are even talking about, do we even need to go to college? Do we even need to go to high school? What is the purpose? So there is a basic question that the fundamentals that we have built our life and work is being questioned. So that's where I go back and say that word traditional doesn't make any sense anymore. Of course there are people who are doing as they are doing. But if we are not evolving and we are not adapting ourselves and not even adapting, um, we are not, uh, changing with the time, then we are going to be left behind. And people who are getting concerned that, am I moving fast enough, am I being continuously learning, they have to forget that they are learning. They have to just make sure that they are doing their job in a way that learning becomes part of it. So that's why I would say that it is an integral part. Like everything that we are doing in this podcast. I'm going to learn something from you, we are going to learn from something from each other. And that's what learning is. And we have to think about learning as an effort. If it becomes. You don't think about, I'm, um, brushing my teeth. That's it. If you just change that mindset that you're not learning, you're performing, you're going with the flow, then we will start. Stop thinking it is a continuous, it is lifelong, because then it acts as an effort. You have to make learning effortless.

Speaker A: I love the way you phrase that. There's two things I want to highlight there, particularly in your answer. I need you to talk to my three daughters because they think traditional is, uh, the operating system for me. They call me Trad dad. And I need that to stop, uh, right away, if possible. The other thing I was going to say is I love the reframing of learning as actual performance. Right. That that is the core of what you're here to do in most organizations. Right. And I wonder because, uh, I'd love to hear more about specifically how you get people to think about that. Right. In an AI powered kind of economy, in an AI powered workplace or a business environment that's rapidly evolving, how is it that organizations are shifting how they think about jobs, skills, performance, the things that they typically used to think of as the commodities of a talent marketplace.

Speaker B: Sure. So I just did my panel about the job architecture and we, and fortunately we got Some very good feedback because of the terms that we, um, and the thought process that I bring to the table is when people think or uh, when companies think about like SHRM has a lot of HR leaders. But what the, the perspective I bring to the table is, is you're building these architecture, you're building these jobs. But who is performing? People who are performing. If you're not bringing them to the table, then that's the reason organizations have 10% maturity rate, AI maturity rate. Right. Because you're doing things for people who are actually going to learn and perform and you're not taking their consideration. Uh, I did a quick poll in the UM panel and I said you bring in an AI recruiter, uh, as part of your new AI tool. What is that? Is stopping from your actual recruiter to adapt because of the fear, right? The fear that you're going to be replaced by this AI recruiter. So to answer your question, uh, I run a foundation called Mom Relaunch and I started in 2018 after selling my previous company for applicant tracking System. So I built systems that was looking and building these skills taxonomy and everything around it. Um, then I switched my focus to nurturing. In the program, we don't go back and say we are a training company, we are a nurturing company. We are going to make you ready and relevant. These are the two things we go back and focus our program in. From day one, we went back and said, what are you missing in there? What you're missing is the real work experience when moms are coming back into the workforce. So we built our program around it. Now for the past two, three years, it's all about AI readiness within our program. And the day ChatGPT came out, when the world was taken by storm, here my whole thing was before you write an email, make sure you review by ChatGPT. Right? And that helped me. I mean that is like I'm performing my job, but I'm also learning. Oh, if I learn how to. My language has actually improved because I have been learning how to rephrase things. Now I look at it from the perspective of the reader. That is what I'm calling as the integral learning. We also introduced something called, uh, mindset change. Before you do anything, ask a question. Can AI do it for you? If it is, then don't do it. Use your skills for doing something better where you are only needed. Nobody can take that from you. So you become irreplaceable, you amplify yourself. And by doing this, I'm actually making it work. For you, I'm not throwing something at you. And that is the big challenge organizations are facing right now. They just bring in tools, technologies they don't understand. Who are they going to be performing in terms of. I also use the term called atomic habits of learning. So we have like a uh, 30 minutes every day or every week. Whatever works for people. Just come and share what you learned, how you're improving. It doesn't matter whether it is relevant to the job and of course it's good to relevant. But you go back and say I gave an example of um, I have some rental properties and this year I decided not to go over my bank statement. I just built an app quickly, uh, in two hours using relet and now I just feed in my bank statement. Not that my bank connection things, but just like what are the relevant. And it looks into and say does all the analysis which month was paid, which month was not paid, which is the. And I'm done. Right. So that's what I'm trying to say is like I. You have to change the way you think and ask yourself why am I doing this? I have another very favorite tool called Whisper Flow which I use for um, just speaking into. No matter what interface you are in, you just speak into it and it just translates. And I sometimes think like, am I going to forget typing? Because I just don't like typing anymore. So I just talk into the system. So these are the things you have to continue to think about as an organization and bring the people understand because AI is going to amplify the problems if it is not structured properly. It is not going to help you by automating it until you rethink, reinvention and ask yourself why, why, why am I doing it this way? And you will realize that it's not even needed to do it. And back to the learning. I mean I'm telling you there was like I talk um, about the L and D and somebody came and it's like why am I have to. Why do I even have to learn? I just have to do the work right? You care about learning. I was like, yeah, that's what. So that's the mindset we are thinking about.

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Speaker B: Shrm.

Speaker A: So help me understand something here, because a lot of what I also think about, when I think about continuous workforce, uh, planning is about seeing around the corner, understanding where you might have emerging skills needs, where you might have skills gaps that are coming through. What are some of the most surprising ways that you've either applied AI to see those skills gaps or those emerging skills needs, or, uh, maybe not you, but you've helped organizations do that.

Speaker B: So you know what AI brings or has the capability of bringing. I don't want to say brings. Lot of companies, big or small, most of them are operating in their own silos. M. Okay, now we have the capability and capacity to bring it all together, right? And just bringing it all together. The visibility that you gave, like, oh, one department is doing really well. How, why? What are the things in there? Then you analyze it, and AI is really good in analyzing. So you first bring it all together in one. Like, again, you have multiple SHRM offices and all, like, why is one place doing better than the other? What are the people doing? And one of the tools that we are creating is like, um, we call it is your daily journal. And not even doing any. Just pick up the microphone, just say, this is what I learned. 30 seconds, you'd say, I spent 30 day, 30 minutes learning this, uh, five minutes doing my work. This is where the struggle says it keeps on tracking your analysis. And then when you consolidate as a whole company, all your metrics and analysis and things are there. So skills tied to the outcome, tied to the organization growth. And if you can bring it all together, that's the way to do it.

Speaker A: Do you think that it requires organizations that really have that skills frame of mind first, though?

Speaker B: No. I think the organization should have a growth mindset.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: I want to grow the company, right? And my end goal is to grow, not. I'll take, uh, another level in there. My company exists to serve the customers, right? So now that is my goal. And if I'm able to serve the customers, this is how I'm going to grow, right? If I'm growing in, then we go back and drill that and say, who are the people who are working if not? Um, in the panel, one of the questions was, what are the leadership skills? And I call myself as the clock cleaner. And literally I go back and say, my job is not to just come and say, oh, you did well and all. Uh, my job is to know where you're stuck and I'm going to move forward from you by saying, you're coming this way. How can I clean your path. How can I clean so that you are not stuck? My job is to clean all that and that as a leadership. If they go back and say where my team is stuck, why it is not, and then use AI or tools and capabilities and bring the expertise that is lacking. Uh, everyone, every individual has certain skills that they are really good at. They can be the mentors and teachers for others. So think about bringing and expanding on their things. Focus on making that person really good that they cannot be replaced. And that is the job of the leadership in terms of bringing it all together in the skills and all. Um, just fix. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who work for paychecks. Nothing wrong with that. We all have to pay our bills. But imagine a world where we go back and say, oh, you're really good in doing podcasts, right. How can we, um, bring you in a position that you bring in the list of people and then create that wisdom thing where people can also not only learn from Alex, but all the people who you're interviewing.

Speaker E: Right.

Speaker B: So that's kind of thing. And then you enjoy doing that because you like talking to people. So bringing that ability to not only, um, let people do the job, but also help them grow personally and professionally is very important for the organization.

Speaker A: How do you see organizations actually using AI insights to really redesign roles and do so in a way that technology isn't dictating everything.

Speaker B: Technology never dictates. It's in our head that it is dictating, uh, until as the agents are actually starting making decisions for us, if we give the agency and all that. But, uh, in terms of organizations to uh, leverage their talent pool, they really have to go back and forget about them. Do you, are you qualified to do this? Are you doing this? Are you learning? Just think about where they are, how it aligns with the organization goals and see how they can bring them to that path. Right. And once again, it is easier said than done, obviously, because if bigger the organization the challenging is that they're collecting the data because there are all systems are different spread across. Somebody is measuring them on performance management system or somebody's measuring at work being done. How do you. So the key part is like, how do you build those silos of data together M and then use the analysis. It is not department, uh, by department. Somebody's stuck in that department, but they're really good at doing something else. So bringing that ability to filter out the real, um, uh, talent and the real skill, we go back and say do things that you're Passionate about, yeah, we all want to do, but we all have to pay bills. Right. But there is a way. There is never a better time than now, uh, to develop that skill. And I use, um, I train people to amplify their job search because I work with a lot of job seekers and career transitioners. And at the end I always ask them, do you really need a job? This is the time you can have your own entrepreneurship. Think about what you're good at. There's never a better time to be an entrepreneur. There's never a better time to be a solo entrepreneur. And I've always been a solo entrepreneur.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: So I go back and like five days back I was giving a, uh, session and the other person was like, I never thought about it, that I can be an entrepreneur.

Speaker G: Right.

Speaker B: So more and more you dig into it and it's like, what are the skills you have? And it is applicable for you as a person, as an organization. M. And uh, I have built a tool. I call it My Work Life. And the first, all I Give is like LinkedIn profile. It extracts everything from, from my profile. And I go back and ask like, what are the companies that I should target for? And it brought me the companies that I never thought about it.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: And um, so these are the tools now available and it gives you like, how you should approach that company, where it is and all that. Right. So that strategy, the thinking part is outsourced to the um. AI.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: Now you have to decide whether the strategy given is applicable to you. So that's where you come into the picture and then you go back and execute on it. Of course AI can help you execute also, but in terms of making sure that you're giving your best and becoming the best version of yourself.

Speaker A: Hm. That is fascinating. Which companies did it say you should or what type of companies?

Speaker B: Since I was doing AI readiness, there's like, oh, AI for all. And a lot of L and D companies. And I didn't even knew that those companies existed by the way. So it's like, okay, good, good for me. I mean, and I'm um, showing it to some of the job seekers and they're like, oh, wow. It has actually brought in some companies that I never even thought of because candidates, they apply and they call it as a passive search. Right. There's a job opening, I'm going to apply.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: It's not going to be like that. You have to be proactive. Right. You have to reach out to the companies that you want to work two years from now. But build a relationship from now. Right. So that's how you should think about it. And this is the tool, this is the time that you never ever. This kind of research was available at the fingertip.

Speaker A: That's fascinating. So let's talk about Wizdocity for a second.

Speaker B: Sure.

Speaker A: So your company uses AI to help turn, uh, top experts into what is essentially a 24. 7 personalized advisor, right?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Uh, fascinating in particular. And I run a similar business that does that within the HR vertical. But, but uses actual, uh, no AI. It uses the actual people. Uh, how can tools like this actually help organizations close skills gaps before they happen in many cases, or even really think about what you do to create hyper personalized kind of learning experiences?

Speaker B: So um, I would go back and encourage, again, don't worry about the skill gap closing. What organizations have is their institutional wisdom is their asset. Right. And that's what is leaking. People leave, they retire, they don't have time, they don't think that they know anything to share with it. But everybody has something to teach and something to learn. So if we give a system and we go back and say our system is to preserve your institutional wisdom. Right. So if you collect that now, you can apply it for L and D, you can apply it to be a thought leader, you can apply it to bring in and help other people. But the key is how do we capture and preserve that and that becomes such an important part of what we go and offer. Like I have a. The client that we have signed up, he teaches to the CPAs and others and uh, he's literally retiring and his successor is waiting for his avatar to be available so that they can continue to. So and then, uh, like moms in my program, they talk to my digital avatar and I don't have to go back and repeat the same thing again and again. And I'll tell you one very interesting thing that happened as part of my, uh, these sessions. Like I. One of the moms asked is, um, there was some certification for, um, I think, yeah, project management. And uh, and then it requires some more, um, number of years of experience. And she said, should I do it? I said, yeah, you should, but see if you qualify for that criteria. And another person said like, you know, I asked your digital avatar and they also recommended this certification. And I said, yeah, that's good because I missed to say that, but my digital avatar, remember that. So think about. It's not only for the institute, but people who are, uh. And again, I don't want to get into that. Um, Emotional side of it. But I wish we can always talk to people in our lives who are no longer with us. And um, so all those things is like back to this is a way, this is like the multimodal way of now. Like um, we used to write, we used to speak to tell and share. Right now this is another way of sharing, another way of keeping, keeping the wisdom alive in that environment. Mhm.

Speaker A: How is it that HR leaders can really ensure that employees are engaged but also doing what they need to do to keep up with skills, to think about uh, capabilities, redesigning their roles, thinking about capabilities. Really in an era where the job requirements, the things that are changing, are changing almost continuously.

Speaker B: Yeah. So uh, if HR leaders are aligned with the company's outcomes and growth then they can trickle it down to their employees. So I cannot go back and imagine a scenario where um, HR leader says you need these capabilities but why do you need these capabilities? How it is going to be impacted? How are you actually contributing this? I think at one of the plenary session we were talking about revenue per employee and that is becoming more and more so people are going to go back and say yeah you are one of the best and top shop but are you generating enough revenue for my company? And that's the measurement that HR has to align with the employees. Then skills and capabilities come along with it is how do you execute that? But ultimately they are being measured is like am I going to have an employee who is bringing m me 10 times the revenue for my company? And if that's not happening and now because of these tools and technologies we have possibility of having one person company running the show. Right. And there will be, there are like it's so many. That matrix is very, very interesting now. So aligning the HR leaders has to align it to the growth of the company and to the ultimate um, the skills and capabilities become part of it.

Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit about uh, AI driven or AI powered kind of learning platforms.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: How do you see them evolving and or changing the capabilities that an organization can build but more importantly uh, doing so over time, how do you see them changing that?

Speaker B: Yeah. So uh, the platforms itself are changing and adapting. That's no doubt about it. What is missing is the motivation and inspiration of the people who are learning M and if they don't see it that learning actually impacting their performance then they will lose the interest. So I'm sure that um, all these L and D platforms, the big and small companies, they are keeping up to date with the Outcomes and results. And my brain works like you can do as many activities as you want, but if the result is not there, it's all of no use.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So in terms of the L and D platforms, if they're not capturing those metrics, eventually it will not be used. Right now for the companies to be motivated enough to use those platforms is to make employees inspired enough to use it. Otherwise the big question is like, why do we even have to learn? There will be a question. I'm going back to the same thing over and over again is like, yeah, I need a degree, but why do I need a degree? I need this certification, but why do I need the certification? Where am I proving that I'm doing this, utilizing this? So even the SHRM certificates that people and hr, uh, uh, professionals are taking, obviously they can prove it that they are learning and applying, then first of all they will feel good about that they're applying. Second of all, it will help uh, L and D companies and content to go back and say, no, this content is not relevant anymore because it is not being applied or it is more content relevant, then we should work on it. So L and D platform has a huge responsibility right now. Not only just delivering the content, but keeping the engagement, keeping it relevant and making sure that it is actually used for the jobs that is important.

Speaker A: I uh, love the way you couch that in large part because I also think about some of the things that I've heard in recent times around making not just relevant but curiosity based learning and doing things that allow organizations to build capability. But through curiosity, coworker to coworker, you're learning, right?

Speaker B: In one of the panel, um, our moderator, when I was speaking the same thing, he said, so you're saying that we should have a curiosity of a four year old? I said yes. If you can ask how many times kids ask us, why am I doing this? If you're losing that, be childlike in your learning. And that's what the L and D platforms has to engage with.

Speaker A: Let's assume that you're giving advice to a chro and they're on the beginning of this path.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Towards continuous workforce planning. What's the first step that you tell them they have to take?

Speaker B: You will laugh at it. So when I go and do these AI readiness sessions, I said, forget about everything that you know, just dream. You get into a dreamland and think about if you have no constraint, how would you like your life, your career, your work to look like? And if the things that you want to eliminate Doing over and over again, right? And the moment you put people in the dreamland, you see the magic happen. Because if you go back and say, tell me about your job. Tell, uh, me what's working. You won't get that excitement. It's like, oh, imagine that you have no constraints. Suddenly you put them in a Disneyland. And then you go back and say, there's no limitation. You just keep on telling me. And I was automating some things for the marketing, for my own thing. I told my marketing person, just close your eyes. Just close your eyes and just say, oh, my God, this is something that I hate to do. This is something really working. And I just told her, imagine you're in that dreamland. Don't say anything else, and don't think that somebody is listening to you. I just recorded her, turned into her thing, showed her how, and with the tools now we have. We have literally automated her dream. That's the key, that you have to go back and tell the chros that, like, look, you have to hear from your people what they can, what they are struggling, and then give them the tool so that they are happier, save time, and then they can be more productive. So I never go back and say, let's run with the process. It's like, go dream, because this is the time to dream.

Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it's fascinating because I'm going to throw you a little bit of a curveball here. And this will be my final question. When you think about that dream, right, and think about going back into that dream lab, what are some of the future roles that you've kind of seen or predict when you think about this, based upon your AI work and specifically what you've seen?

Speaker B: Yeah. So, uh, I would say, depending on who you're talking to, um, lot of people. And I'm saying that I go back and say there are two, three different categories of people that I work with. One is people who are really struggling, and I work with the career centers and job seekers and tell them to think about, and somehow they're not able to break out of that, uh, uh, mindset like, oh, but I'm doing this, and they're kind of stuck in their dream, you know, those things. So I have to really dig, then dig it out in terms of what can be done. They can't think about it. Okay. So the problem is not about, um, what work, uh, they are doing. The problem is they're so tuned to doing something in a way that it become their DNA and they're not able to break it out. So the first thing that I like to see, the roles and things that evolve out of it is how do you unlearn what you already know? Unlearning is so important. And then rethink about how you can redo those stuff. So some of the roles is about talking to people and there is no, um, need to do how you're doing right now. But then the question, uh, comes is like, if I'm not doing this, what am I doing right? And then that fear comes in. Like, I have these examples every day in my mom relaunch and others and getting them to show a path of like, if you're not doing this, you're better off doing something else. And then you decide what you want to do is the big learning that I have and my own HR person is like, I said, you don't do this. This is like, what am I going to do? And always I go back and say, what do you want to do? And then you build your career on that. So the roles itself, if you ask me, is there any particular role that has come out, I would say let that decide. Right? Even in my own companies, I never give them any titles or anything else. Not that it should be done. It's just like me. I have small companies I can work with, uh, and make everybody feel part of the growth, right? But in terms of the big organizations, if they come out with the fact that if not, if mentally we become what thoughts are right first. We all do everything in our m mind first and then we act, right? And if you clear up that mind and then go back and say, oh, uh, now you're able to think a little further, you're able to clear it up and then you decide what role and things can be done, then it is helpful. I don't know if I've answered your question properly.

Speaker A: You did, without question. I appreciate it very much. Rina, you are officially my favorite person from the state of Bihar. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and the wisdom of wisdosity with us. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here and we look forward to the next time.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me.

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