US Labor Day is always a time to celebrate workers. Well this year, unlike years before, the entire labor market is changed. Not only are many front-line workers in high demand, white-collar workers are experiencing a hiring slowdown and automation is impacting everyone. And for the first time in my career, the BLS expects very little job growth in the coming decade.

As I discuss in this week’s podcast, it’s time to take a step back and understand that everything we thought we knew about the labor market has changed, and this change is going to accelerate.

Listen in and you’ll see the big picture: how shortages will continue, how productivity will grow, and how new ideas like talent density and the Superworker and Supermanager will redefine our companies. And I also describe your new keys to career success.

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend, we’re in for exciting times ahead.

Additional Reading

US Job Market To Growth Rate To Drop By 75% In Next Decade (BLS)

UK Birth Rate Falls to Record Low

The Rise of The Superworker: AI Makes Employees are More Important Than Ever

In this podcast Kathi Enderes interviews Joe Freed, Chief Product officer at Perceptyx, explains the company’s strategy to extend its employee engagement platform to provide nudges, manager tools, and in-depth analysis of employee needs.

While the employee survey is not dead yet, you’ll see where things are going. Perceptyx is a well-known survey and analytics company, known for its highly customizable employee engagement tools. Joe explains how Perceptyx’s acquisition of Humu, Waggl, and Cultivate brought advanced AI and nudge technology to the company, and explains a vision of high-powered employee engagement tools for the future.

Additional Information

Employee Engagement and Happiness Crisis. What Should We Do?

Perceptyx Acquires Cultivate

Workday Throws Down The Gauntlet On Employee Engagement: Acquisition of Peakon

The AI market boom took a pause last week when GPT-5 and some new research from MIT appeared. As you’ll hear, the expectations for AI are extraordinarily high and that causes a lot of bubble effects. Today I explain this bubble and where it’s going.

I also discuss our latest experiences with AI transformation in business, and why “task automation” is not really the big opportunity ahead. You’ll see that the Superworker effect changes organization design, jobs, and reward systems. Lots of opportunities for productivity ahead.

Galileo, the world’s AI agent for HR, is now the Power Tool you need to stay head. Global research, professional development, data, vendor analysis, and hundreds of HR and management tools, all in one AI platform. Get Galileo now.

Additional Information

The MIT Report And Why It’s Misleading: AI Definitely Pays Off

From 2017: Why Superintelligence Is A Myth

Workday to Acquire Paradox. A Bigger Deal Than You Think.

Get Galileo, The World’s AI Assistant for HR

This week I discuss Workday’s acquisition of Paradox, the pioneer in AI-powered conversational recruiting.

As I describe in detail, this is a big deal – and it goes beyond Workday’s ability to now offer high-volume, conversational recruitment. Talent Acquisition itself is about to radically change with AI, and this moves Workday into a leading position in what we call “The Revolution in Talent Acquisition.” (Report coming out in October.)

I also discuss the latest trends in AI transformation in general, and what we’ve now learned about HR job redesign and how AI really is changing the fundamentals of HR operating models (automating Systemic HR) and job design.

For access to all our research, analysis, professional development, and tools, get Galileo, the world’s AI assistant for HR.

Additional Information

Will Chatbots Take Over HR Tech? Paradox Sets The Pace.

The Systemic HR Operating Model: How AI Transforms The Function

Learn about AI in HR: Join The Josh Bersin Academy (Galileo Learn)

The new battle for AI supremacy is now moving to the application development space, or IDE (Integrated Development Environments). These companies, like Cursor, Windsurf, Github Copilot, Replit, Google AI Studio, and Microsoft Power tools, are exploding with growth. Why? Because in the world of AI, we’re all application developers!

(Listen to “We’re All Software Engineers Now” for more.)

Well, as I explain in this market, the big players like Workday now want to be your development environment. In this podcast I explain this space and some history of IDE’s in the client/server era. (It more or less predicts where this is going.)

Listen in and you’ll understand why billions of VC dollars are suddenly going into dev tools for AI, why you’ll be using one of these soon, and how Workday and others will respond. I also briefly explain how Galileo plays in this space.

We’re coming up on HR Tech season so come see us at HR Technology Conference in Vegas (September), Unleash (October), and SAP Connect.

More to Read

Workday Flowise Acquisition

Windsurf vs Copilot vs Cursor (a little geeky)

Galileo Venus Release (Video: Galileo for Managers, Task Library Tools, Learning Integration)

What Is Vibe Coding Anyway?

1994: Sybase Acquires Powersoft (how history repeats itself!) (NYT Download)

In this podcast I interview Eric Mosley, the Founder and CEO of Workhuman, a $Billion dollar company that pioneered the market for employee recognition. Today Workhuman has more than 7.7 million users and is widely used by many of the largest companies in the world.

What does Workhuman do? Well they help you build a corporate wide program for employee recognition and feedback that creates one of the most important positive engagement drivers one can find.

Employees who feel appreciated and recognized are 4X more likely to be highly engaged and 4X more likely to see a growth path in their companies. Our research found that companies with a high recognition culture have a 70% lower voluntary turnover rate.

And there’s much more: the information from recognition (Workhuman calls it “Human Intelligence”) gives you valuable information on skills, strengths, culture, and organizational health you can find.

This is a story about entrepreneurship, culture, and the importance of human centered leadership, something that’s refreshing in a world where everyone always wants to talk about AI!

Additional Information

Our Recognition Research, explaining the power of appreciation and thanks.

U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low (Gallup)

Why Are Managers So Miserable at Work?

This week I have an update on the “real world” of AI transformation, based on some important conversations I’ve had (and these folks will join the podcast soon.)

First, I talked with the Department of Labor and also reviewed new research from Goldman Sachs and we do find that “AI is not wiping out jobs.” As you’ll hear, there is a slowdown in hiring, but actually AI is “creating new work,” despite Dario Amodei’s predictions that white collar jobs are going away.

(I don’t know about you, but I rarely wear my white collar shirts any more, so he may be correct on the shirt front.)

Second, listen to the discussion about software automation, Thomas Dohmke, who was interviewed on The Verge. That convo was fascinating: despite AI’s ability to write code, engineers will just write more code.  Listen to my explanation in the podcast.

Third, I had a wonderful conversation with Jacqui Canney, the CHRO and AI Enablement Officer at ServiceNow. As you’ll hear, Jacqui’s team at ServiceNow has published their AI Playbook and AI Maturity Model which I encourage you to read. She described their governance model, use case approach, and more – and further convinced me that AI transformation is a people problem, not a tech problem.

And one more thing: for those of you who think AI “destroys” or “disrupts” your company, I put together a ten minute video on our own AI journey and how AI amplifies and scales what we do, essentially creating a company of Superworkers. We are proving the Superworker company model right here.

Additional Resources

Get Galileo: Agent and Learn Bundle

Goldman Exchange podcast on labor market

The Verge interview with Thomas Dohmke from GitHub

The Rise of the Superworker: Four Stages of AI in the Workforce

The Josh Bersin Company’s AI Transformation

This week we introduce Galileo for Managers, an exciting new part of the Galileo Platform – designed to help business professionals with day-to-day management. As you’ll hear in this podcast, Galileo for Managers brings together the best of AI with 25+ years of research into management, leadership, business, and HR.

As I discuss in today’s announcement, Galileo for Managers revolutionizes the market for leadership development, coaching, and organizational change. And as HR budgets get tight, Galileo for Managers also helps HR teams scale and extend their leadership development to every manager and every leader. Listen to the details, you can license Galileo for Managers and learn more here.

Additional Information

Get Galileo for Managers (learn more)

The Galileo Platform Strategy Explained (Video)

This week SAP SuccessFactors announced the acquisition of SmartRecruiters, one of the fastest-growing talent acquisition platforms. This is much more than a technology deal: it demonstrates the value of talent and the massive redefinition of “applicant tracking systems” taking place today.

While the deal is not final and details are yet to come, I highlight the real implications of this acquisition and why SAP will see a lot of value out of this deal.

Stay tuned for more from us about SAP coming this Fall, and our new “Revolution in Talent Acquisition” research will be launched in September.

Additional Information

Research Shows It’s Time To Reinvent Talent Acquisition

Why Do Companies Hire Too Many People?

The Dynamic Organization: How To Design For Growth

This week the WSJ highlighted the latest trends. CEOs proudly announcing layoffs and hiring freezes, only to see their stock price go up in celebration. The AI Superworker era has arrived, and companies are now plowing ahead with automation-induced workforce reductions.

All this is not as simple as it sounds. AI budgets are skyrocketing (EY survey shows that 21% of large companies are spending more than $10M already on AI agents), well before the productivity benefits have occurred. So while many great AI use-cases exist, a lot of the headcount cuts are just budget-reallocation from labor to capital, with hopes for productivity to come.

I have no concerns that massive Superworker productivity is coming, but the process is spotty, messy, and uneven. So in this podcast I discuss our newest research on AI transformation and give you some perspectives on all these announcements. A few nuggets to think about:

Additional Information

The Rise of The Superworker: AI Empowers Workers

The Four “New SoftSkills” We Need To Thrive In The Age of AI

A Revolution in Corporate Learning: Save Millions with AI-Native Learning

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