Borrowing from Tomorrow, a report released September 30 by the Coqual Global Lab at the Center for Talent Innovation, makes a point I haven't been able to shake. An entry-level task may be inefficient, and it may also be how expertise develops. AI is now very good at the work your newest people do, and that work is where most of them learn judgment.

In this episode I look at what the report's survey of 173 organizational decision-makers found. 49% said a broad range of human perspectives, experiences and needs are never, rarely, or only sometimes intentionally considered in AI governance. The figures were 47% for workflow redesign and 44% for workforce restructuring, which are the moments when junior work gets cut or merged. SHRM's 2026 Talent Trends report adds a US data point: 80% of HR professionals said the skills they had the hardest time finding in candidates were systems and resource management skills, which include judgment and decision-making. If you can't hire for judgment and you've stopped growing it at home, the gap shows up in three to five years, right when you need a new supervisor.

For a mid-sized employer, I'd start with a task inventory before you switch on a new AI feature. A spreadsheet is enough. Beside each task the tool will take over, answer one question: who learns something from doing this today? I also cover getting HR on the agenda before the contract is signed, treating the first rollout as a 90-day test, and adding one line about learning to your AI policy.

Want a hand building that task inventory, or working development checks into your AI approvals? Book a free 20-minute discovery call: https://cal.com/clarityatwork/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=episode&utm_campaign=ep8-junior-work

Sources:
Center for Talent Innovation, Borrowing from Tomorrow report page: https://www.talentinnovation.org/globallab/borrowing-from-tomorrow
Center for Talent Innovation press release, Sept 30, 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-warns-companies-may-be-borrowing-from-tomorrow-as-they-redesign-work-302894545.html
SHRM 2026 Talent Trends release, Apr 27, 2026: https://www.shrm.org/about/press-room/shrm-unveils-2026-talent-trends-report--data-driven-insights-for

A Clarity at Work Ltd. Podcast. More at ClarityAtWork.ca.

Since recording: in an October 16, 2026 report on its own workforce, Anthropic says junior roles fell from 27% to 9% of its technical hires since early 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/research/employment-at-anthropic

On October 13, HR Dive reported that Workday is rolling out what it calls autopilot agents for hiring, payroll and accounting. The agents start work on their own and bring a person in when judgment matters. That sounds useful until you ask who decides which actions need a human, and what happens when that human almost never changes anything.

In this episode I put Workday's announcement next to a governance test from Helen Lalthanpari. Workday says customers choose which actions run automatically and which need review, and Gerrit Kazmaier, its president of product and technology, said in the release that in payroll and finance a good guess isn't good enough. Helen's test asks if reviewers ever use that power. Pull the override rate for your highest-risk AI system over the last 90 days. If reviewers almost never change or reject what the system recommends, review has probably become approval by habit.

For mid-sized employers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, I cover who should own the sign-off settings before an agent goes live, who is allowed to say no (one name, in writing), and how you'll track the override rate once it's running.

Want help mapping which agent actions need a human sign-off, or building an override-rate check into your AI approvals? Book a free 20-minute discovery call: https://cal.com/clarityatwork/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=episode&utm_campaign=ep9-oversight

Sources:
HR Dive, "Workday brings autopilots to hiring, payroll in autonomous AI bet," Oct 13, 2026: https://www.hrdive.com/news/workday-brings-autopilots-finance-autonomous-ai-bet/832890/
Helen Lalthanpari, "Artificial Echo Chambers: The Quiet Danger In AI Governance," The AI Blind Spot (LinkedIn), Oct 15, 2026: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-echo-chambers-quiet-danger-ai-governance-helen-lalthanpari-ewzre

A Clarity at Work Ltd. Podcast. More at ClarityAtWork.ca.

Your People Are Worried About AI. Is Anyone Talking to Them?

Gallup's latest numbers show 27% of U.S. workers now worry technology will make their job obsolete, the highest since they started asking. For workers under 45 it's one in three. When people are worried and nobody's talking to them, they fill the silence with their own stories, and those stories become your culture.

In this episode I get into what that silence costs you in trust, retention and quiet workarounds. I also cover what leaders can say even when they don't have every answer, and why the message should come from the district manager, with leadership behind them and HR in the room.

One thing to try this week: ask your managers what they're hearing from their teams about AI. If the answer is "nothing," that's your first problem to fix.

A Clarity at Work Ltd. Podcast. More at ClarityAtWork.ca.