Overview For many years, data analysts sat at the center of organizational decision-making, yet often at the end of the value-creation process. Business leaders asked questions, and analysts gathered data, cleaned it, ran queries, built dashboards, and translated results into insights. AI is fundamentally changing that flow. Instead of analysts bending their work to fit tools, tools increasingly adapt to analysts and even anticipate their needs. This perspective explores how AI is augmenting the data analyst role, what the superworker data analyst looks like in practice, and how organizations must evolve to fully unlock this potential. A Turning Point for the Data Analyst Role Historically, data analysts spent a disproportionate amount of time on data preparation rather than analysis. Traditional workloads included data extraction, cleansing, validation, structured query language (SQL) querying, and dashboard creation—often executed manually across fragmented systems.[1] While tools evolved from Excel to business intelligence platforms to big...

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Alim Dhanji is a seasoned business executive (ex-President of Adidas Canada) who came back to HR with a fresh perspective on the business value of HR. In this discussion Alim clearly articulates where and how he creates business value as a CHRO. This is a fascinating discussion about the value drivers of HR and AI and the process for redesigning work. He explains what he learned about the value of HR as a CEO, and how he then took that knowledge back into HR. Sample Quotes: “True change happens at the manager level, and there is a compression of demands at the people manager level. Our number one value diver is investment in the front-line people manager.” “Managers just don’t have enough time in the day. Now by leveraging AI we can help managers create capacity to spend more time with teams and peers.” Like this podcast? Rate us on Spotify or Apple or YouTube. Additional...

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It’s a tumultuous time to be a leader. From the acceleration of AI to the change in global politics, I think it’s worth asking: *What has changed about leadership?* Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of books on leadership and it feels like trendy topic. From the foundational teachings of Peter Drucker to the command and control era of Jack Welch, to the servant leadership of Howard Schultz to the first-principles leadership of Elon Musk, we can always find a new leader to emulate. What’s the model for today? While all leaders have to set direction, define mission, and align people, the behavioral rules are changing. Let me give you our perspectives, particularly informed by our new Supermanager research. 1. Leading a “Voluntary Army.” The most significant change in the last 50 years is what I call the “decoupling” of the employee from the organization. In the past, leaders could...

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After many weeks of work with corporate HR leaders, technology companies, and implementation teams I’m realizing the word that describes AI is “confusion.” Too much going on, too many unanswered questions, and no clarity about what to do. And many of you have been asked (or told) to lead the “AI Transformation” (which is the wrong phrase, as I explain) to reduce cost. Well I hope today’s podcast gives you some clarity. Obviously the space is changing quickly, but there is a clear strategy emerging. I discuss the technology market, vendor strategies, and most important of all, how you as a business leader can leverage AI without going down dead ends. I hope this gives you clarity, and I urge you to read our 2026 Imperatives for Enterprise AI for more. Topics covered: Why AI adoption isn’t a transformation — it’s a continuous learning process How to design an architecture...

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After many weeks of work with corporate HR leaders, technology companies, and implementation teams I’m realizing the word that describes AI is “confusion.” Too much going on, too many unanswered questions, and no clarity about what to do. And many of you have been asked (or told) to lead the “AI Transformation” (which is the wrong phrase, as I explain) to reduce cost. Well I hope today’s podcast gives you some clarity. Obviously the space is changing quickly, but there is a clear strategy emerging. I discuss the technology market, vendor strategies, and most important of all, how you as a business leader can leverage AI without going down dead ends. I hope this gives you clarity, and I urge you to read our 2026 Imperatives for Enterprise AI for more. Topics covered: Why AI adoption isn’t a transformation — it’s a continuous learning process How to design an architecture...

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Everywhere I go people talk about reskilling, upskilling, and accelerating the adoption of AI. This week I met with more than 200 CHRO’s in India and Singapore and the #1 topic was AI readiness: how can we accelerate AI fluency and capability in all areas of the company? Well we’ve been studying corporate training for years and I have a surprise for you. Our entire approach, philosophies, tech stack, and operating models for learning are out of date. This week we launch our fifth major study of corporate L&D and the results are staggering: 74% of companies tell us they are not keeping up with their company’s demand for new skills. This is a shocking statistic. Businesses spend $400 billion on training, content libraries, L&D technology, trainers, and learning consultants. If three-quarters of them are not keeping up it says we have billions of dollars of wasted effort. Well there...

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