Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

January 21, 2026: Most conversations about the future of work in 2026 focus on the obvious things: AI tools, hybrid policies, skills, and perks.
That's not where the real change is happening.
In this episode, I break down the top future of work trends for 2026 that actually matter—the ones quietly reshaping how work is structured, how value is created, and how organizations really operate.
This isn't a prediction episode and it's definitely not a fluffy trend list. It's about a deeper shift in labor architecture, including:
Why organizations are now managing a second workforce of AI agents—and why most leaders aren't prepared to govern non-human labor

How work is turning into a product, making clarity more valuable than effort

Why entry-level jobs are disappearing, and what that means for long-term expertise and leadership pipelines

How governance is becoming culture, as systems—not slogans—are increasingly shaping behavior

Why truly human work is becoming more valuable and more unequal at the same time

Across all of these trends runs one idea most leaders underestimate: legibility. When systems execute work and decisions, organizations must be able to explain what's happening, why it's happening, and who is accountable.
Grab a copy of my new book: https://8exlaws.com/ 
Request to join my CHRO group: https://futureofworkleaders.com/

January 20, 2026: Oxford Economics data suggests AI-driven layoffs are still a small slice of overall job cuts, raising questions about whether AI is being used as a convenient explanation for traditional cost cutting. At the same time, Goldman Sachs warns that up to 25% of work hours could be automated—not as a job apocalypse, but as a task-level shock that exposes poorly designed roles.
I also unpack new PwC research showing that most CEOs aren't seeing meaningful ROI from their AI investments yet—and why that failure has more to do with broken workflows and leadership decisions than with the technology itself. Meanwhile, a quieter but more consequential shift is happening as physical AI and robotics move rapidly into logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, and other parts of the real economy. And finally, I explain why ServiceNow's partnership with OpenAI signals AI moving into the core "plumbing" of organizations—where it will force leaders to confront inefficiency, bureaucracy, and outdated ways of working.
Grab a copy of my new book: https://8exlaws.com/
Request to join my CHRO group: https://futureofworkleaders.com/

Imagine an eighty-year-old grandmother discussing Russian literature with ChatGPT in her native tongue; it is a powerful reminder that AI is no longer a futuristic concept but a present reality that bridges generations. For CHROs, the challenge is not simply the technology itself, but rather shifting the human behaviour that interacts with these tools. In this episode, Joanne Rodgers, the CHRO of New York Life, shares the strategic roadmap used to scale AI adoption across 24,000 employees and agents by focusing on the mindset, skill set, and tool set. We explored the firm's Ignite AI initiative, which prioritised responsible AI and AI training, remarkably leading to the creation of over 10,000 self-made GPTs. We look into how they integrated mandatory AI goals into performance reviews while maintaining a strict human-in-the-loop governance model to protect the employee experience. Moreover, Joanne highlights the success of their career hub and talent marketplace, explaining how time-bound gigs have boosted internal mobility to 40%. This discussion is your fresh playbook in change management, demonstrating how to foster employee engagement and upskilling in a rapidly evolving landscape without sacrificing the essential human element.
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Future-ready organizations are built, not hoped for. My latest book, -The 8 Laws of Employee Experience shows how. Preorder here: 8EXlaws.com

January 16, 2026:
Everyone keeps asking whether AI is going to destroy jobs. That question is already outdated.
In this episode of Future-Ready Today, I walk through five stories that reveal what's really happening in the labor market—and why the biggest risk isn't job loss, but broken pipelines.
I explore why Boomers are staying in the workforce longer while Gen Z struggles to break in, how AI is driving a surge in construction and infrastructure jobs, and why the real bottleneck in the AI economy isn't software talent but electricians, plumbers, and skilled trades. I also unpack new data showing that AI has already created more than a million jobs globally—and why those jobs aren't evenly accessible. And finally, I look at what it means when firms like McKinsey deploy tens of thousands of AI agents and fundamentally change the leverage equation in knowledge work.
Taken together, these stories point to a hard truth: AI isn't replacing humans—it's exposing weak systems. Systems that stopped training, stopped investing in skills, and assumed talent pipelines would take care of themselves.

January 15, 2026: AI job data says work is stable. Productivity reports promise trillions in gains. Job seekers tell me finding work is getting harder. These stories can't all be true at the same time.
In this episode of Future Ready Today, I break down new research from Anthropic on how AI is quietly reshaping jobs task by task, why supposed productivity gains are leaking away through rework and quality issues, how bold $4.5 trillion productivity projections depend on leadership decisions most companies still aren't making, and why job seekers are sensing a tightening labor market before it shows up in official data.
This isn't an episode about AI hype or fear. It's about the growing disconnect between what the data says, what companies promise, and what workers are actually experiencing — and what leaders need to understand if they want to be future ready.