Most leaders are planning for jobs that won't exist.
AI, automation, and geopolitics are not just changing who does the work — they are changing the work itself. I help boards and senior leaders see that clearly, so they can make better decisions about what comes next.
in practice
- Schneider Electric
- Orgvue
- AIA Group
- HSBC
I show the mirror.
You decide what to build.
I'm Arun Murali — a practitioner in Strategic Workforce Planning and Future of Work with over 20 years spent across some of the world's most complex organisations. I currently lead a global Strategic Workforce Planning function at a Fortune 500 energy company, where I've spent the last four years building the capability that helps senior leaders understand how their workforce needs to change before their strategy demands it.
Before that, I advised more than 20 organisations across Asia Pacific and North America on workforce planning, HR analytics, and organisation redesign — at companies including HSBC, AIA, and clients of orgvue, where I led the APAC consulting portfolio.
My job is not to hand you a ten-step plan. It is to make the problem visible clearly enough that the company can act on it with confidence. That is a different kind of engagement — and it tends to produce more durable results.
Start with work.
Not jobs.
Most workforce plans begin with the wrong question. They ask how many people are needed in today's roles. The right question is: how is work itself changing — and what does that mean for how we design the human, machine, and location configuration around it?
- Starts from existing job families and org charts
- Assumes job content is stable — only volume changes
- Produces headcount scenarios, not workforce strategy
- Misses how AI is reshaping the activities inside roles
- Starts from critical value streams and business activities
- Models how AI, regulation, and geopolitics reshape each activity
- Designs the human–machine–location configuration first
- Derives roles, skills, and headcount from the redesigned work
Identify the business processes where value is created and risk is concentrated. These are your planning anchors — not org charts.
Break each value stream into the specific activities that comprise it. Use activity maps and process intelligence to see how work actually flows today.
For each activity, ask how AI, automation, regulation, geopolitics, and climate will reshape it over 3–7 years. Which parts get automated? Which become more human and more valuable?
Design the optimal human–machine–location configuration for the redesigned work. Only then define the roles, skills, and headcount you need.
Three ways to engage.
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Speaking
Keynotes and workshops for CHRO forums, board strategy sessions, future of work conferences, and executive leadership programmes. Built around The Work [re]design Framework applied to a specific challenge your audience is facing right now.
- How AI is actually redesigning work — the activity-level view
- Why your workforce plan is answering the wrong question
- From headcount planning to work architecture
- The human–machine–location decision your strategy is missing
Advisory
Structured advisory engagements for senior leaders and HR functions building a strategic workforce planning capability — or pressure-testing an existing one against AI's real impact on their work.
- Applying The Work [re]design Framework to your context
- Building an internal SWP capability from the ground up
- Assessing AI's impact on your specific workforce
- Redesigning roles and workflows around human–machine boundaries
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Media & Research
Available for media commentary, podcast conversations, research collaboration, and guest contributions on AI and the future of work, strategic workforce planning, people analytics, and organisation design.
- AI's impact on work — the practitioner perspective
- Why workforce planning needs to start over
- The skills-based organisation: hype vs. reality
- What boards are missing about workforce risk
Original thinking on
AI, work, and what
comes next.
A publication for senior leaders who want depth, not hype. Every piece applies The Work [re]design Framework to something specific and current — so you leave with a clearer view of a problem you are actually facing.
Flagship piece · 12 min read
Why Your Workforce Plan Is Answering the Wrong Question
Most strategic workforce plans start from job families, headcount scenarios, and skills gaps. That is the wrong architecture. AI and automation are not changing how many people you need — they are changing the work itself. Here is a different way to see the problem.
Read the full piece →7 min
The Skills-Based Organisation: What the Hype Is Missing
Everyone is building skills taxonomies. Very few are asking whether the jobs those skills map to will exist in the same form.
Read →6 min
What Boards Are Not Seeing About Workforce Risk
Workforce risk has moved from an HR conversation to a fiduciary one. Most boards do not yet have the language or the data to hold it properly.
Read →7 min
AI Is Not Replacing Jobs. It Is Decomposing Them.
The unit of AI's impact is not the job — it is the activity. Understanding this distinction changes everything about how you plan for AI's effect on your workforce.
Read →Let's make the
problem visible.
Whether you are facing a workforce challenge AI has made more complex, building an SWP capability, or looking for a keynote that will reframe how your audience thinks about the future of work — I'd like to hear what you're working on.
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I reply to every message personally, typically within 48 hours.
