Human Resources

Organizations are investing billions in enterprise transformation. They are embedding AI, redesigning operating models and reinventing how they create value. Yet every transformation ultimately converges in the same place: the work. As work becomes more dynamic, distributed and increasingly performed through new combinations of human and digital capability, traditional approaches to workforce strategy are reaching their limits.

Based on a global survey of 1,750 senior transformation leaders across 20 countries and 13 industries, including a dedicated survey of HR leaders, Transforming the Enterprise: HR explores how organizations are redefining HR transformation for the intelligent economy. Rather than managing the workforce alone, the next era of HR will help organizations redesign work, orchestrate capability across the enterprise and build workforce operating models that adapt as quickly as business needs change, redefining the future of work.

Organizations are redesigning work faster than workforce models can evolve

Organizations are managing multiple enterprise transformations simultaneously, yet the workforce operating models supporting those transformations are struggling to keep pace.

The workforce operating model is reaching its limits

Organizations are setting dramatically higher expectations for HR productivity as AI, automation and intelligent technologies reshape how HR work is performed.

^{Source: APQC Open Standards Benchmarking Database, licensed content accessed through KPMG's APQC Benchmarking Tool.}

Organizations know the destination. Few have built the operating model.

Organizations increasingly recognize that managing employees, external talent and digital labor separately is no longer sufficient. Total Workforce Management offers an integrated approach, yet only a small minority of organizations have fully operationalized it.

Organizations are building the foundations for AI adoption, but advanced capability remains limited

Few HR leaders believe their organizations have developed the culture, expertise, training and workforce proficiency required to fully realize AI’s potential.

While organizations are laying the foundations for AI adoption, workforce capability is still maturing, increasing the risk that technology investment will outpace work redesign.

The future workforce is both human and digital

HR leaders increasingly expect future operational performance gains to come from combining AI agents, automation and human capability rather than human workforce transformation alone.

One of the biggest transformation challenges many organizations now face is no longer technology alone. It is the transformation of work itself. Organizations that redesign work, build for adaptability and rethink how capability is assembled across the enterprise are likely to be better positioned to respond to change, accelerate transformation and create long-term value in an increasingly intelligent economy.