Key Takeaways
- Move away from rigid, specialized roles and embrace flexible, skills-based teams. The future requires “Swiss Army knife” employees with broad skill sets who can collaborate dynamically.
- Instead of a traditional ladder, structure teams around business value, such as customer journeys. This aligns employees with business impact and fosters clearer paths for development.
- Be wary of replacing experienced, higher-paid employees with self-proclaimed “AI experts.” In the age of AI, true value lies in combining experience and perspective with a resourceful approach to new technology.
- By connecting people with their environments and technology, you can improve knowledge sharing and better utilize collective skills, leading to more effective team building.
Listen: Reimagining org design in the fast-paced new world of AI.
Your company just shifted business strategy, again, and the new direction sounds exciting, but daunting. And it needs to happen fast. How do you identify the right people, with the right skills, available at the right time, to convene quickly and ensure success? Probably not by consulting your traditional, hopefully up-to-date organizational chart.
To tackle this meaty challenge, senior creative operations leaders in our InsideOut community met in person to explore alternatives. But first, they identified a key question: Can an org chart meet the demands that leaders face in an AI world?
What's the point of an organizational chart?
The first org chart was designed in 1855 and was built to manage the flow of mission-critical data across the Erie Railroad. It served the purpose of improving communication and accountability, and ultimately demonstrating the interconnectedness of a complex system.
Technically, though it’s now driven by HR, not much has changed since those first organograms. These days, they are relied upon to support communication, help workers orient to other teams, define career paths, and are often tightly tied to compensation. In stable environments, that’s useful.
“Organogram: a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships between the different people, departments, and jobs at different levels within that organization.”
Cambridge Dictionary
However, in today’s state of rapid technological change, market disruptions, and economic instability, corporate reorgs have become status quo, making the org chart an unsustainable tool. Recent AI-driven layoffs, leaving fewer workers to do the greater volumes of work (let’s not get started on AI agents), have made it impossible to keep up with change on a “chart.”
So instead of reworking this antiquated framework to match the pace of progress, leaders in our community decided to reimagine org design and explore how it could work in the age of AI.
The future org chart must be centered on value and agility, not levels
In the past, career development meant climbing the ladder. But as any motivated employee will tell you, most ladders lack clear instructions on how to move up, and rarely do managers and their staff agree on what progress should look like. That’s because neatly crafted levels seldom match the business’s needs, which are, by necessity, dynamic.
What if the best structure for an organization were equally dynamic and anchored to business impact? Sounds too good to be true, but by starting with that end in mind, ops leaders in our sessions uncovered three ways to reimagine org design to respond to the rapid shifts of an AI-altered world. Let’s take a look.
Rethink roles and adopt skills-based, flexible teams
With artificial intelligence embedded in future business strategies, it’s tempting to simply look at existing roles, figure out where AI can take on repeatable, low-risk tasks, and redistribute the work. While this approach can be fruitful with roles like Project Managers, automating tedious activities and making space for human-critical ones won’t unlock new ways of work.
Dynamic goals demand dynamic acquisition of new skills, exceptional communication, and the ability to adjust to a constantly shifting group of coworkers and stakeholders. The days of specialists may well be numbered. One leader noted that incoming talent are organically bringing hybrid skill sets and are interested in broader access and opportunities.
As another leader stated, tomorrow’s work requires humans who are “Swiss Army knives,” who bring broad skill sets and are outstanding collaborators. But to harness the power of multi-talented workers, organizations must find ways to define which talents are critical to their business success, capture the competencies of their staff, and utilize the power of AI to help managers tap into the skills they need in real time.
Imagine a world where flexible teams are assembled just in time, and staff align around business outcomes, not arbitrary team structures. That sounds like a great use of AI.
Map humans to business value and individual development
Hiring and deploying humans with hybrid skills that match business needs and superior learning capabilities is just the beginning. Leaders must break their long-held beliefs and reorganize the org chart. Leaders in our discussions had a few ideas on how to do just that.
Instead of attaching roles arbitrarily to a set of skills and titles, organize employees around customer, user, or buyer journeys. Mapping paths for what your customers need and how they interact with your product is clearly tied to business return, and when employees are coordinated around those, they are better able to organize themselves in ways that generate the greatest value. In fact, their value becomes clear.
Complex organizations with huge teams may require a different technique. A leader in our roundtables suggested mapping the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) across an entire group or division as a starting point. By establishing a coherent understanding of the problems customers are trying to solve, leaders can assign teams smartly and provide clarity on desired outcomes.
One sharp leader pointed to the importance of building human APIs, instead of focusing solely on integrating technologies. These critical connections between workers, their environments, and the technologies at hand ease the transfer of knowledge and tap into collective skill sets. Emerging roles like an AI Automation Engineer demonstrate the potential impact of one multifaceted human in connecting across teams and roles.
Consider the impact of connecting employees on missions that matter. Sure, the business will undoubtedly benefit, but so will those doing the work—and the customers they support.
Beware shiny objects
Now for a note of caution. An interesting trend is starting to take shape: some organizations are choosing to replace experienced, and often higher-paid, workers to make room for what they call “AI expertise.” In our live InsideOut sessions, leaders shared stories of these kinds of short-sighted eliminations, driven by a belief that new talent claiming to excel at artificial intelligence is the only path forward.
It’s an attractive idea, but it overlooks a key point. While some junior talent may be adept at using the latest generative AI tools, this is often limited to clever prompts and broad idea or asset generation. This skill, while useful, cannot replace the deep industry knowledge, business acumen, and strategic foresight that seasoned professionals bring to the table. True AI integration has been a part of business for many years, and its successful application has always relied on more than just technical skill.
This doesn't mean companies should ignore less experienced staff who grasp the technology. As one leader pointed out, the focus should be on hiring and retaining people who align with the company's vision first. From there, you can assess them for AI aptitude, prioritizing resourcefulness and a growth mindset over surface-level proficiency.
Another leader emphasized that this powerful technology will not run itself—at least, not yet. Investing in AI tools without an equal or greater investment in the people who can direct its learning will only lead to disappointment. Instead of rearranging the org chart to make space for AI, forward-thinking companies will place this technology into the skilled hands of professionals who possess both business intelligence and human insight.
Creative Operations leaders are the key to org design success
Before you say that reimagining your organizational structure sounds like a monumental task, we’ve got great news. Yes, the traditional chart is failing to keep pace with AI’s impact on human collaboration. But help is likely already on your team: Creative Operations leaders.
These strategic partners, with broad purview across departments, are best suited to work cross-functionally to redefine how teams work. By championing skills-based, flexible teams mapped directly to business value, and prioritizing the discernment of experienced staff, they can guide the shift away from rigid hierarchies to a new, agile structure.
Why do we care? Our mission is to connect leaders to find solutions. If you're a senior design, experience, or creative operations leader of an in-house team at a high-profile brand and want to connect with others who share your unique challenges, let's talk. Our InsideOut community hosts small- format roundtables to support the learning and growth of our members, and we’re honored to facilitate those discussions.
About the author
Susie Hall is Aquent's Community & Customer Engagement President. In 1999 she joined Aquent as an interactive Agent. Over the past 21 years, she's led regional teams, developed a robust interactive design practice and launched Aquent's Vitamin T brand in 2011 to address the rapidly evolving digital talent needs of agencies and mid-sized companies. With 15 Best of Staffing service awards and hundreds of thousands of connections made, she brings a deep understanding of creative, design, and leadership. In 2019, Susie launched Aquent's InsideOut Design Leadership Community, connecting senior in-house design, experience, and operations leaders from high-profile brands through facilitated peer discussions based on real-world challenges.
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