Workplace Digitalization Impact

In December Purdue University became the first institution in the country to approve an "AI working competency" as an official graduation requirement for undergraduates. Starting Fall 2026, incoming students at Purdue's West Lafayette and Indianapolis campuses will need to demonstrate three core AI competencies before graduating: - Understand and use AI tools effectively in their chosen fields, including being able to identify the their key strengths and limitations. - Recognize and communicate clearly about AI, including developing and defending decisions informed by AI. - Adapt to and work with future AI developments effectively. The competency will be embedded into existing programs in field-specific ways rather than extending graduation time. Each college will establish industry advisory boards to ensure workforce readiness. The contrast is striking: while Purdue requires AI competency for graduation, many higher education institutions are still debating whether to restrict or ban AI use in coursework. The divide reveals fundamentally different views on workforce preparation. This move is particularly significant given the current landscape: while Purdue requires AI competency for graduation, many higher education institutions are still debating whether to restrict or even ban AI use in coursework. The divide reveals fundamentally different views on preparing students for the workforce. Other institutions will need to decide: are they preparing students for the workforce that exists, or the one that's coming? #aiforeducation #highereducation #ailiteracy #genai

🚨 "I wish I would have taken one of your electives. Every project in government I am working on now is a digital project." 🚨 That quote captures a real gap in public administration education. While governments worldwide struggle with digital transformation—most public policy programs still treat "digital" as a niche elective, not a core competency. That's why I'm so excited about our new paper, co-authored with Ines Mergel, Amanda Clarke, Tom Steinberg, and Jordyn Fetter in Information Polity Journal which tracks a five years effort working with academics and practitioners across innumerable countries to answer a simple question: What's the minimum public managers need to know about digital to do their jobs well? The result: 8 digital-era competencies that are now being taught in 80+ universities worldwide: 1. User-centricity in service design 2. Anticipating risks 3. Building multidisciplinary teams 4. Working iteratively 5. Navigating barriers to change 6. Working in the open 7. Data literacy 8. Assessing digital technologies This isn't about turning bureaucrats into coders. It's about giving them enough fluency to ask the right questions, spot problems early, and work effectively with specialists. Because when governments lack these skills, citizens pay the price in failed policies and broken services. The curriculum is open source and has been translated into German, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Turkish. Over 200 professors have gone through our train-the-trainer workshops. The full paper is out now in Information Polity. Link to the paper and the syllabus in the comments. More exciting news on this work to come later this year. #DigitalGovernment #PublicAdministration #DigitalTransformation #GovTech #PublicPolicy

Why Deregulation Won't Stop the Need for Digital Governance Skills In HR and Recruitment, we often view digital governance (privacy, AI ethics, and data security) as a compliance burden driven strictly by the legal landscape. We assume that if the regulations disappeared, the pressure would vanish (hello, potential delay in EU AI Act High Risk rules..) However, the latest data suggests the opposite. According to the Organizational Digital Governance Report 2025 by the IAPP, 87% of organisations would continue to invest in and support digital governance activities even in a deregulated environment. Why would businesses maintain these strict standards voluntarily? The drivers have shifted from legal necessity to brand survival. The top two factors motivating organisations to deliver on digital governance are now impact on reputation (87%) and consumer expectations (79%). What does this mean for HR leaders? If governance is no longer just about avoiding fines, but about maintaining trust, the responsibility moves closer to the People function. We are moving away from governance as a legal checklist and towards governance as a cultural competency. Three key takeaways for your talent strategy: Training is an Innovation Driver: 32% of respondents cited workforce training as a primary incentive for digital innovation. We must equip our teams not just with technical skills, but with the ethical frameworks to make decisions that protect the organisation’s reputation. Adaptability is Essential: 60% of organisations take a global approach to governance but with variations based on local requirements. Your talent pipeline needs leaders who can navigate a fragmented regulatory map, balancing global standards with local nuance. Risk is Now Reputational: With 'Technological Risk' cited by 62% of organisations as a motivator, our recruitment processes for technical roles must assess candidates for their understanding of risk and ethics, not just their coding ability. As we integrate AI deeper into our workforce, the question is not "is this legal?", but "does this align with the reputation we are trying to build?".

AI is making us more productive—yet we're working longer hours?! This counterintuitive finding from a new NBER study exposes what I call the "productivity paradox". The study shows that employees in roles where AI is involved are working longer hours and have less time for fun, even if they are working more efficiently. The long awaited 4-hour workday put forth by the technological utopians seems further away than ever. This highlights a foundational issue: Who reaps the rewards from AI ramping up productivity? Without some kind of assurance that workers will share in this bounty, there's a palpable danger that AI will just be another tool making us work all the harder—without very much downtime. Companies that wish to harness the remarkable power of AI must first acknowledge that simply raking in all the productivity gains from it for themselves will backfire. When people see AI as something that makes their jobs even harder and doesn't credibly give them any added boosts, they're less likely to whole-heartedly adopt it, and AI's full potential might not be harnessed. The answer is not to restrict AI but to put in place profit-sharing plans or do something else that's smart and ensures everyone shares in the value created. Otherwise, we're just repeating industrial-era patterns with shiny new digital tools. What are your thoughts? Is AI enhancing your work-life balance or making your workday longer?

Digital technology is supposed to free healthcare workers to focus on important work and enjoy more leisure time. But history suggests it may paradoxically make us even busier. For example, in his 1930 essay titled "Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren," the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that new technology would enable his grandchildren to work just 15 hours a week. We know how that turned out. In her 1963 classic book, “The Feminine Mystique,” Betty Friedan explained that “even with all the new labor-saving appliances [e.g., dishwashers and washing machines] the modern American housewife probably spends more time on housework than her grandmother.” Most recently, Cal Newport has described how digitization has created a “hyperactive hive mind,” forcing knowledge workers to multitask constantly.   How could this be? For one, Parkinson’s Law explains that work expands to fill the time available, regardless of the amount of work to be done. For example, for 1960s housewives, less time spent handwashing clothes or dishes meant more time to polish the floor and iron the window drapes. Second, as Tim Wu explained in this compelling New Yorker essay, “As every individual task becomes easier, we demand much more of both ourselves and others. Instead of fewer difficult tasks (writing several long letters) we are left with a larger volume of small tasks (writing hundreds of e-mails). We have become plagued by a tyranny of tiny tasks, individually simple but collectively oppressive. And, when every task in life is easy, there remains just one profession left: multitasking.” None of this is to say we should we should resist healthcare automation and digital tools. But we must carefully examine claims that new technology will free us. We should recognize we may be even busier. And we must work to ensure we spend any newly found time on work that matters. As the Jesuit scholar John Culkin explained, "We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." https://bit.ly/3yBLB77

On any given weekday, when your manager drops an e-mail bomb on you in the post-working hours (say 7.30 or 8 PM), why do you choose to respond? Does the ticking time bomb make you feel anxious and influence your choice to respond? Do you derive the decision to respond solely based on insecurity? Hybrid and remote work have blurred the lines between personal and professional life. But let’s be honest— we are responsible for the choices we make, including responding to emails post working hours. Managers will manage; organizations will have an unsaid expectation of your availability 24x7; it is us as employees who need to draw the boundary and start respecting our as well as everyone else’s time. As employees, here are a few #growthhacks to better manage such situations- · Expectation setting - Inform your managers about your working hours. Give them clarity about your unavailability and draw the line. Start today and avoid deviations yourselves! · When you work, deliver your 100% – Ensure you are dedicated to your work deliverables in a timely manner and be mindful of taking long extended breaks. While incremental breaks are good for camaraderie, it does mean that you are eating out of your actual working hours, which impacts your working hours. · If you are a manager – Add a message on your email signature citing ‘Our work times and time zones might differ, please do not feel obliged to respond to this communication’. By creating space for people to truly disconnect and providing them with space and #psychologicalsafety - we foster a #culture that prioritizes holistic well-being over relentless productivity. The boundaries we set now will lead to healthier, more engaged employees tomorrow. We will be able to create an impact to change the below metrics: · Burnout - According to a study by Deloitte, 40% of remote workers feel burned out because they struggle to switch off. · Trends like #Quietquitting & #greatresignations – EY’s global survey revealed that 39% of employees are actively seeking new roles due to poor #worklifebalance · Kantar's data is clear: Over 60% of Gen Z workers prioritize #mentalhealth and #worklifebalance when choosing employers. If we fail to address this now, we’re giving them every reason to leave. On August 26th, Australia implemented its long-anticipated #righttodisconnect law, giving #employees the right to refuse employer contact outside of working hours. While I welcome this undertaking, I also feel that it should not take legislation for us to respect basic #workplace boundaries and avoid #burnout of our teams. This conversation is bigger than just today—it’s about the #futureofwork for generations to come. As we start a new week and a new month today, the onus lies on us to start the dialog and initiate this #change Can we really fight the ticking time bomb and win the battle within? #leadership #HR

63% of employees say their company’s AI training isn’t good enough, according to TalentLMS. That’s a call to action. As AI adoption accelerates, one of the most impactful steps leaders can take is preparing teams to use these tools with confidence, and those who get this right design training as a catalyst to spark new ways of working. The most effective training programs I’ve seen share three qualities: they’re role-based, hands-on, and ongoing. 1️⃣ Role-based training helps AI adoption stick. When employees leave with three or four clear ways to apply AI immediately, those practices are far more likely to become part of daily work. 2️⃣ Hands-on beats hypothetical. Confidence grows fastest when instruction is concise and paired with time to experiment in low-risk settings. Learning by doing makes adoption real. 3️⃣ Training isn’t one-and-done. Quarterly or biannual sessions, with updates as tools or capabilities evolve, help teams feel supported and ready to keep pace. When training is structured this way, employees feel empowered to use AI, and that’s when it starts to truly transform how work gets done. #AITraining #AIEnablement #LearningAndDevelopment #EmployeeTraining #Upskilling

Nearly 1 in 4 tech jobs now require AI skills. This isn't just another tech trend—it's transforming how we build teams across every industry. Our AI ALPI research last week uncovered a transformative shift in the talent landscape: → 68% growth in AI job listings since ChatGPT's release while overall tech listings declined 27% ↳ Signals critical reshaping of talent priorities even during hiring slowdowns → Information sector leads with 36% of tech jobs requiring AI skills ↳ But the real story? Healthcare, retail, and transportation seeing their AI job share DOUBLE since 2022 → Companies aren't creating new AI-only roles ↳ They're integrating AI competencies into existing positions across functions HR implications are profound. We're witnessing the most significant workforce transformation since the original digital revolution—one where talent strategies must evolve beyond traditional "skills acquisition" to continuous capability building. The average ramp time for new HR tech adoption is 9 months, but organizations with structured AI literacy programs are reducing this to just 3 months while achieving 2.7x higher ROI on their HR technology investments. 🔥 Want more breakdowns like this? Follow along for insights on: → Getting started with AI in HR teams → Scaling AI adoption across HR functions → Building AI competency in HR departments → Taking HR AI platforms to enterprise market → Developing HR AI products that solve real problems

Serius, masih ada tim L&D yang belum memanfaatkan ChatGPT untuk memperkuat program pengembangan karyawan? 🤔 AI hari ini bukan lagi sekadar alat efisiensi, tapi bisa jadi learning partner yang mendukung career growth dan learning journey karyawan. Misalnya, dengan beberapa contoh prompt ini, tim L&D bisa membantu dalam mendukung kinerja: - Training Needs Analysis (TNA) "You are an experienced L&D consultant. Design a comprehensive step-by-step Training Needs Analysis framework that I can use with business managers to systematically identify skill gaps, prioritize learning needs, and align them with organizational goals." - Blended Learning Design "As an instructional designer, create a detailed blended learning programme on [topic] that integrates e-learning, live workshops, and coaching. Clearly outline learning objectives, delivery methods, assessment approaches, and suggestions for learner engagement." - Leadership Development "Develop a 6-month leadership development curriculum for first-time managers that strengthens competencies in communication, delegation, coaching, and performance management, with monthly themes, activities, and measurable outcomes." - Microlearning "Write 5 concise and engaging microlearning scripts (max 2 minutes each) on [topic], using a conversational tone, practical examples, and ending with a clear call-to-action that reinforces behavior change." - Workshop Activities "Suggest 5 highly interactive workshop activities on [topic] that are designed to engage 20 participants, promote peer learning, and stimulate critical thinking, with clear instructions for facilitation." - Evaluation & ROI "Create a robust evaluation framework for measuring the impact of a training programme using the Kirkpatrick Model. Provide practical examples of metrics, data collection tools, and methods to demonstrate ROI to senior management." - Inclusive Learning "Recommend strategies to make a digital training course more inclusive and effective for diverse learners by applying the VARK model, with specific examples for adapting content, delivery, and activities." - Coaching & Mentoring "Generate 10 thought-provoking coaching questions that a manager can use to reignite motivation, build trust, and empower their team members to take ownership of performance challenges." - Learning Technology "Summarize the latest innovations in learning technologies (LMS, AI-powered tools, VR/AR applications) that L&D teams can leverage to elevate learning experiences. Include clear pros, cons, and real-world use cases." - Content Conversion "Transform this 1,000-word policy document (paste text) into an engaging learning module with simplified key points, knowledge check questions, and visual aids that make the content more learner-friendly and memorable."

Technology is changing fast—AI, automation, and data tools are reshaping how we work. This means companies need to keep their teams up to speed or risk falling behind. Here’s what’s happening: Job roles are evolving. Employees need to learn new tools and workflows to stay productive and relevant. Digital learning platforms are helping bridge the skills gap. They offer scalable, flexible, and personalised training that fits into daily work. A 2024 McKinsey report found that companies using generative AI in upskilling are more successful, especially when learning is data-driven and continuous. Why this matters? - Traditional classroom training is costly and time-consuming. - Digital platforms like AI-based courses, microlearning, and virtual reality are more efficient and engaging. - Soft skills like problem-solving and teamwork are just as important as technical ones like data analysis or cybersecurity. In the UAE government initiatives like Emiratisation are driving workforce development. Companies like VFS Global are supporting Emirati youth through upskilling programs in partnership with government agencies. The goal: build a competitive, future-ready local workforce. Trends to watch: - Immersive learning with VR/AR - Gamified learning to boost engagement - Microlearning for busy professionals - AI-powered learning to personalise and scale training To stay competitive, businesses must invest in continuous learning—combining digital tools, soft skills, and local workforce strategies like Emiratisation. Upskilling isn’t just a benefit anymore. It’s a business necessity. #Upskilling #DigitalLearning #Emiratisation #FutureOfWork #AITraining #WorkforceDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment