Jason Averbook on AI, HR, EX, and the next wave of transformation

Adaptability, agility, and implications are common themes in conversations about AI and industrial transformations in action today.

Jason Averbook, global thought leader and HR analyst, recently delivered a keynote at People Matters TechHR 2025, mapping the path forward with clarity and urgency in response to real-world signals of disruption.

Averbook outlines that while technology is becoming more exciting and easier to manage, the human connection side is harder to sustain.

He added that transformation without analysing the real impact is not an effective strategy. “Digital is a vision. Technology is just the toolset. It’s about setting the destination, not just optimizing the ride. Too often, we get stuck in “go live” mode—launch a module, launch another, fix a bug, repeat, all without ever asking, “Where are we actually going? Why are we doing this?”

Further emphasizing that digital strategy is not equal to technology transformation roadmap.. “A real digital strategy has four parts:

He added that most people begin with tech first, and a few months later regret the decision. “The problem usually isn’t the tech—it’s that the other steps weren’t done, or weren’t done well… or at all.”

Averbook explains that in the last three decades, people focused on bringing tech into the workplace, and hoping employees will use it. But then deal with concerns of “struggling with adoption.” The issue isn’t the tech, it’s how we design the employee experience.

Sharing an example, he said, “Here’s another way to think about it: We often buy software to control risk… but it ends up controlling us. People say, “we’re struggling with position management.” I ask: “why are you even using position management?” And they respond, “Because we have to..” I ask them “Why do you have to?” “Because we can’t do succession planning without it.” “Since when?” “Well… that’s what the vendor told us.” 

Organizations don’t have to rush into AI without changing the fundamentals. “You can’t just drop AI on top of old processes and call it transformation,” he added. “Because transformation isn’t about tech, it’s about becoming, leadership, alignment, and vision. To care about ‘change’ over ‘tech’, or it will be a failure. 

Averbook shared the four sets that make up the reset that applies to any kind of transformation:

“Actions happen when we realize transformation isn’t a project, it’s an always-on program. When people say, “We just finished our HR transformation,” I say, “You finished? What—like you finished living?” We’re always evolving,” he added. 

We learn from mistakes and failure, that’s transformation.  

Averbook drew attention to why people want change and why they need to replace their old mindset instead of just their old tech. “Why does onboarding have to work a certain way? “Well, it’s best practice.” Best practice according to who? And if it doesn’t work in your company, why are you doing it? Why do we have job descriptions? “Because…”

Why do we do sentiment analysis once a year? “Because we have to.”

No, we don’t have to do anything if it doesn’t serve us in today’s world.” he pointed out. 

And this is not an easy sail, he flagged, “If you don’t have this mindset in your organization, or if your HR leadership team doesn’t, it’s tough.” 

For clarity, he shared an example: If someone says, “We can’t do AI. We have organizational change fatigue,” I ask “Why?” If they respond, “We’re still recovering from COVID.” I question, “Were you sick?” “No, the organization is still recovering from COVID.”

That kind of thinking doesn’t work in an exponential world. That’s incremental thinking, and you’re not implementing change, you’re igniting it.” he underscored. 

“Changefulness is opening your mind to change, being willing to do something you’ve never done before, like walking on stage in tennis shoes in front of 1,000 people..change management is actually putting on the idiot shoes..It’s easy to wear them. It’s hard to get over the fact they don’t match your suit. But that’s the mindset shift we need,” said Averbook in a playful but pointed contrast. 

Bringing back the spotlight on AI adoption, he added:

Minimum lovable means people want to stay on the journey with you. And yes, it impacts timelines and budgets, but if your success metric is “Go Live,” stick with MVP. If your metric is “People actually use it,” you need MLP. Launch isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting line because that’s when value actually begins.”

“HR is changing, from counting heads to making heads count to building human–machine teams. Now, we can all run a headcount report in seconds. Many of us are good at talent management. But how many of us are good at figuring out how humans and machines can work together?,” questions Averbook. 

“That’s the future!," he remarked.

But the real problem is, we often know our machines’ skills but not our people’s. And without knowing that, building teams is impossible.”

For the past three decades, we’ve been fighting with machines, complaining about dashboards, reports and avoiding training. But now, it’s time to stop fighting and start teaming.

Answering this, Averbook outlined: “Automation is just the output but the real power of AI isn’t automation..that’s just one part. The real power is coordination and intelligence, bringing the right knowledge to people where they weren’t expecting it.

Imagine your sales team instantly knowing the same customer data your service team has. Your HR team enters a job change, and it instantly updates staffing forecasts for sales and customer service, that’s coordination, not just automation.”

Averbook says, Jobs aren’t disappearing, they’re being redesigned without consent.

“Nobody asks, “Hey, is it okay if I redesign your job?” If you’re a coder, nobody asks, “Is it cool if we change the whole factory?” They just do it.

But as an agency, are you taking ownership of that redesign, or are you waiting for it to happen to you?

Jobs are decomposing quickly. And remember: a job is just a set of tasks. Those tasks are being broken apart and recombined into systems and flows.

If your title today is “HR Technology,” your real job isn’t HR technology—it’s redesigning work.

We all are familiar with ‘AI won’t replace you, but someone using AI will.’ But the truth is someone using AI with agency will. Agency means you take ownership, you learn on your own, you experiment. Waiting for a “Copilot Training” or “ChatGPT Workshop” means you’re already behind.

Jobs are breaking down into hands work, heads work, and hearts work, where:

We don’t need more tools, we need more behaviors. And it's everyone’s job to change behaviors, don’t wait for your leadership to nudge this change.

In conclusion, Averbook said that while we all feel like we’re behind, no one really is. We’re just in the middle of figuring things out. Technology will change faster than we expect, and that can create FOBO (fear of becoming obsolete).