Tackling the ‘biggest disruption of work in human history’

In the face of growing anxiety surrounding AI implementation in workplaces, one expert has urged HR leaders to be at the forefront of AI upskilling, with 90 per cent of C-suite leaders saying adoption needs to speed up.

In 2025, LinkedIn found a 56 per cent global uptick in posts on its website expressing they were overwhelmed when navigating change, and revealed that over half (51 per cent) of professionals globally said mastering AI feels like a second job.

LinkedIn’s “three-bucket framework” addresses this growing fear and anxiety about AI by implementing a strategy to benefit from the technology, said Aneesh Raman (pictured), chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn.

The professional networking company’s latest book, Open to Work, authored by Raman and LinkedIn chief executive Ryan Roslansky, covers the “three-bucket framework” for the future of work.

The first bucket contains tasks that AI can do or do very quickly. The second bucket contains things that can be done with AI to learn something new, and where the employee can be a higher-value employee at an organisation because of the tools being unlocked. The third bucket includes tasks that can be done using the time saved by AI use and the time used to do things with other humans that are new, including partnerships and collaborations.

According to LinkedIn, since 2016, thirty-eight per cent of job skills have changed globally, a figure it predicts could reach 70 per cent by 2030.

“That’s a lot. That means that even if you aren’t changing jobs, your job is changing on you into a totally new job,” Raman said on a recent HR Leader podcast.

“All jobs are going to change, but no job category is going to disappear. Job titles might change, the tasks might merge into new ways, but entry-level work’s not going anywhere.”

LinkedIn’s data revealed that 85 per cent of employees are in jobs where AI can automate at least a quarter of routine tasks. It also found that 92 per cent of workers who used AI several times per week said they experienced a productivity boost, while 93 per cent said that it helps them to focus on their most important work.

Despite this, HR investment in developing these skills has not kept pace with investment in technical AI training – a gap that HR leaders can close, LinkedIn said.

“Suddenly there starts to be all these implications, not just to build a more adaptive workforce, but to build one anchored on the mind, not the machine, on human capability, not just technological capability,” Raman said.

Eighty per cent of global CHROs agree that managers in the future will spend less time managing tasks and more time coaching teams, the data revealed.

“At a time when we’re going through the biggest disruption of work in human history, [it] is a really necessary thing for LinkedIn and a really impactful role for me to play in this role where I’m trying to shape the global conversation around where work goes,” he told HR Leader.

According to LinkedIn, 90 per cent of global C-suite leaders say speeding up AI adoption is critical right now. Further, 68 per cent of US executives said that failing to upskill employees is the biggest risk of AI adoption, an issue for HR to handle, not IT, Raman said.

Raman said that change management in the AI transformation must be made approachable and actionable.

“Make it about small steps that eventually, over time, lead to giant leaps. And that’s true for you as HR leaders as well,” he said.

“That is [an] opportunity to completely remake work [in an] organisation in ways that are more pro-human and pro-mobility and pro-everything you believe in, more than any other era of work.”