_{‍The end of all-human workforces}

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declared at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year that today's executives are "the last generation of CEOs to manage all-human workforces."

As organizations increasingly adopt AI, leaders must now manage both human and digital workers, a fundamental shift that's reshaping how we think about organizational leadership.

This transformation is already happening at the highest levels, with pioneering executives like Tracey Franklin at Moderna, Jacqui Canney at ServiceNow and Satu Salminen at ZoomInfo, leading the charge. As Franklin explains in a recent interview for Unleash: "We can move toward 'work planning', rather than siloed 'workforce planning' (historically HR's focus) or 'technology planning' (historically IT's focus)."

_{From siloed functions to integrated work design}

The common thread connecting these leaders is their recognition that traditional organizational boundaries are dissolving. Here’s how Franklin, Canney, and Salminen are putting this new leadership model into practice.

_{The systems integrator: Tracey Franklin, Moderna}

Franklin's role as Chief People and Digital Technology Officer represents the most radical experiment: completely dissolving the boundary between people and technology strategy. At Moderna's scale (5,000 employees globally), this integration has enabled:

- Holistic work architecture: "Together, we can truly architect the flow of work and how tasks, information and decisions get done".

- Human-AI system design: Moving beyond managing people to orchestrating integrated human-AI work systems.

- Custom AI solutions: Developing over 3,000 specialized GPTs through OpenAI partnership, including tools like 'Ask HR' that blend human support with AI efficiency.

Franklin's model demonstrates that separating talent and technology strategies is increasingly counterproductive when managing hybrid workforces. As she explains "Merging HR and Digital isn't just about consolidation, it's a deliberate move to close the gap between the people who shape culture and those who build the systems that support it."

_{The change catalyst: Jacqui Canney, ServiceNow}

Canney's evolution to Chief People and AI Enablement Officer shows how organizational leaders can drive enterprise-wide transformation while maintaining focus on human experience:

- Cultural AI integration: Leading company-wide initiatives to build AI literacy and comfort across all employee levels.

- Learning system innovation: Launching AI-powered platforms like ServiceNow University that adapt to individual learning paths.

- AI-Skilled talent acquisition: Training recruiters to identify AI-relevant skills while managing high-volume hiring, quadrupling AI hires across the organization

- Prioritizing soft skills development: Creating manager training programs that teach navigation of complex human situations like difficult conversations, recognizing that humanity becomes equally important as AI confidence.

Canney's approach illustrates how traditional people-focused leaders can become primary drivers of technological transformation. As she notes in a recent article for HR Brew: "I think the HR function is probably going to lead in a lot of that, to be able to discern: When is it a human interaction? When's it human plus machine? When can it just be machine? It's not something that HR teams have grown up having to figure that out."

_{The transformation architect: Satu Salminen, ZoomInfo}

Salminen's evolution from Vice President of Talent Management & Development to AI Transformation and Talent Management & Development Leader exemplifies the strategic pivot happening across organizations. Her expanded role demonstrates how deep organizational knowledge translates directly into AI implementation leadership:

- From reactive to proactive: Shifting from responding to technology changes to architecting AI adoption strategies.

- Cross-functional integration: Building bridges between traditionally separate functions, like IT, Legal, Product Management, to create cohesive AI workflows.

- Process optimization: Moving beyond training delivery to designing AI-enhanced business processes that drive measurable impact.

Salminen's approach proves that understanding how work actually flows through an organization is the key qualification for leading AI transformation.

_{The new leadership imperative}

The experiences of Salminen, Franklin, and Canney suggest that successful organizations will be led by executives who can bridge people strategy and technology implementation. This represents a fundamental evolution in leadership itself: from managing separate functions to architecting holistic work systems designed for a world where, as Benioff notes, we're managing both human and digital workers from day one.

Sources: CNN, HR Brew, Unleash.