Strategic Workforce Planning in the AI Era: New Research on Closing the Gap Between Vision and Practice
New research reveals why most companies can't keep their workforce planning pace with AI strategy. Discover the five critical challenges and what best-in-class organizations do differently.
As AI reshapes markets, operating models, and what talent even means anymore, there's a critical question every leader needs to answer: Can your workforce planning actually keep pace with your AI strategy?
For most organizations, the honest answer is no.
Our recent survey of 50 business leaders across the US reveals a troubling disconnect. While AI transformation has become business-critical and strategies are evolving at breakneck speed, workforce planning remains stuck in the past, moving at what we call "spreadsheet speed." Every day, the gap widens between what you want to achieve and your ability to execute on it.
Organizations know AI is essential to their future. They're investing in it, building strategies around it, and talking about it in every board meeting. But when it comes to actually planning their workforce, they're still using the same tools, processes, and annual cycles that were designed for a world that no longer exists.
When your business strategy accelerates but your workforce decisions lag behind, you lose the ability to:
Respond fast enough to market shifts
Align talent with evolving goals
The misalignment creates decision-making chaos that ripples across everything you're trying to accomplish.
Five challenges standing between you and effective workforce planning
Our research uncovered five critical obstacles that prevent organizations from planning effectively in the AI era:
The AI Readiness Challenge: Your ambition is sky-high, but your planning capability hasn't caught up. You know transformation is necessary, yet you lack the infrastructure to make it happen.
The Siloed Insight Challenge: You need high performance, but your planning reality is fragmented. When business teams, HR, and technology functions operate in isolation, the full picture never comes together because no one sees all the pieces at once.
The Integration Challenge: Everyone's calling for alignment, but your data is scattered everywhere. Without unified systems, cross-functional planning stays an aspiration you talk about in meetings but never actually achieve.
The Strategy Challenge: You have business goals, but poor planning keeps undermining them. Short-term thinking dominates when you lack the discipline and accountability structures needed for long-range outcomes.
The Agility Challenge: You need fast decision-making, but you're stuck in slow planning mode. Annual cycles can't support the continuous adaptation that AI demands, and by the time you've finished planning, the market has already moved on.
What best-in-class companies do differently
Leading companies have already cracked the code on strategic workforce planning in the AI era. They take a long-range view while staying nimble in the short term, modernizing their tech stacks with capabilities built for this moment rather than clinging to last decade's tools. Most importantly, they make truly data-driven planning decisions that set them up for success both now and years down the line.
The gap between AI strategy and workforce planning isn't permanent. Closing it requires intentional action, real investment, and a fundamental shift in how you approach workforce planning itself.
Get the roadmap you need
This report is your guide for navigating this transformation. You'll find research insights, yes, but more importantly, you'll get practical advice drawn from years of observing companies that have successfully used strategic workforce planning to stay agile and drive growth.
We walk through real examples from leading organizations, giving you a snapshot of how they've approached these challenges and the specific pathways they took.
Whether you're just starting to modernize your workforce planning or looking to take it to the next level, this report gives you the roadmap to get there.
