How CIOs Can Build the Human-AI Workforce

AI ambitions are accelerating at the top, but the workforce is struggling to keep pace. While CEOs are investing heavily in AI and expecting major industry disruption, execution gaps in skills and talent are becoming increasingly visible. CIOs must bridge this gap by aligning leadership, investing in both people and technology, and fostering trust throughout the organization.

As AI takes on more routine work, CIOs must ensure the resulting capacity is channeled toward high-value activities. As CIOs shift to human-AI blended teams, it’s critical to partner with HR and finance to measure, govern and strategically invest this new capacity in innovation and growth, rather than simply filling time with more tasks.

The transition to an AI-augmented workforce brings both excitement and anxiety. Gartner insights show that nearly 90% of employees are willing to adapt to new ways of working, if they trust how change is managed. CIOs need to prioritize transparent communication and upskilling, building trust and resilience so employees feel confident navigating AI-driven change.

Gartner finds that over half of CIOs report feeling pressured because the speed at which new skills are needed is outpacing the available talent, making workforce readiness a major bottleneck. CIOs must reimagine work, rethink job roles and redesign the flow of work between humans and AI, emphasizing innovation, problem-solving and meaningful connection, and ensuring employees see a valuable future for themselves in the organization.

Leaders who excel at building a human-AI workforce:

• Develop teams that are adaptable, innovative and skilled in both technology and soft skills.
• Create future-focused career paths that motivate and retain top talent.
• Strengthen internal talent pipelines to ensure ongoing workforce readiness.
• Help employees find meaningful roles and purpose in an AI-augmented environment.
• Identify the common, portable capabilities that can weave across jobs, and enable IT employees to adapt as work and jobs change.
• Build an internal mobility strategy around versatile capability portfolios.

AI is fundamentally changing how work gets done, requiring CIOs to lead the evolution from a human‑only workforce to an integrated human‑AI labor model that delivers sustained business value. This is important to deliver on the mission-critical priority of building a human‑AI workforce that aligns technology, talent and operating models with enterprise strategy. 

The steps in that journey include:

• Defining an AI‑driven talent strategy by aligning vision, goals, transformation pace and success metrics for the human‑AI workforce with business and stakeholder priorities, and securing cross‑functional leadership buy‑in to drive accountability and enterprise engagement.

• Assessing the future readiness of the workforce, evaluating current skills, capability gaps and change readiness, using continuous feedback and external benchmarks to inform targeted talent investments.

• Designing the organizational balance of technology and human resources, developing future team structures, operating models, processes and governance that effectively integrate AI, human capabilities and external partners while addressing ethical, legal and risk considerations.

• Scaling human readiness for AI, implementing upskilling, reskilling and change management programs that foster trust, transparency and adoption, and build a culture of continuous learning across all levels of the organization.

• Evolving human‑AI labor force agility, monitoring and refining workforce strategies through data‑driven insights, adaptive governance and continuous improvement to ensure ongoing alignment with enterprise goals and advancing AI capabilities.

​​How to Plan Your IT Workforce When the AI End State Is Unknowable

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