Episode Summary

“Make HR more strategic” has been the headline in every decade since the 1980s, so why does the AI moment feel different? Kyle Forrest, Deloitte’s US Future of HR Leader and Dean of its Next Generation CHRO Academy, argues the demand hasn’t changed but the stakes and the speed have. Drawing on Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends data, he unpacks the tension pulling organizations apart, 75% of workers wanting stability while 85% of executives want agility, and the “changefulness” muscle companies need to build instead of running one more time-bound change program. He gives HR leaders a first-principles method for redesigning work from zero, a plain-language way to tell employees where their roles are headed, and a practical test to run on any vendor claiming to sell an “agent.” It is a sober, specific conversation for anyone whose job is to figure out what AI actually means for people on Monday morning.

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Key Takeaways

1. The demand to “be strategic” is decades old; what changes each decade is the topic HR is expected to lead on. AI is this decade’s topic, moving faster than the last.
2. There are three types of HR function, defined by how much a business has invested in the role over time, which is why sweeping statements about “HR’s moment” mostly miss.
3. Deloitte’s data shows a real split: 75% of workers want more stability, 85% of executives want more agility. The job is helping workers find stability in being agile.
4. 42% of workers say their organization isn’t evaluating AI’s impact on people, usually because leaders never made the “what’s in it for me” explicit.
5. 66% of C-suite leaders say traditional functions must change, but only 7% report progress. Career identity tied to headcount and scope is a big reason the other 93% are stuck.

Actionable Insights

1. Sort every role into AI assisted, augmented, or powered, then tell your workforce which bucket they’re in. Clarity invites people into the redesign instead of leaving them guessing.
2. Run a zero-based work exercise: take all the work off the table, and only add back what earns its place. For each task ask should this exist, who or what should do it, and how.
3. Pressure-test any “agent” by tracing the full loop: how it detects a need, plans an action, initiates it, and learns afterward. Ask specifically about memory and tool integrations. No learning loop, no agent.
4. Treat change as a capability, not a program. Have leaders show weekly how they use AI, reward experiments that fail, and consider a small dedicated transformation team so the business isn’t asked to run and rebuild itself at once.

About the Speaker

Kyle Forrest is the US Future of HR Leader at Deloitte Consulting, responsible for Deloitte’s HR advisory work with CHROs and leadership teams on operating models, HR technology strategy, and AI’s impact on the function. He is also Dean of Deloitte’s Next Generation CHRO Academy and an author behind the 2026 Global Human Capital Trends Report and the “HR Reimagined: Agentic AI for HR” point of view.