You think you have a reasonable picture of your workforce. Headcount by function. Turnover rate. Time-to-hire. The engagement scores from last year's survey. What you actually have is a rear-view mirror. And right now, driving by rear-view mirror is how talent strategies fail.
If you're a CPO or CHRO, that gap is your problem to solve. And the way you solve it will define whether your function leads the AI transformation or spends the next three years cleaning up after it.
The remit has shifted, whether or not your job description has
Current research on what separates AI-leading organisations from the rest makes one thing clear: the CPO role has fundamentally changed. The traditional mandate, attract talent, develop people, manage the function is still necessary. It's no longer sufficient.
The CPOs generating the most impact right now are operating as "chief capabilities architects": leaders who decide what work is best done by people and what is best done by AI, and then build the processes and capabilities to make that vision real. Not implementing someone else's AI strategy. Shaping it from the outset, with a seat at the table that influences how the whole enterprise is being redesigned.
That's a bigger brief than most people functions have historically held. It's also the opportunity of the decade for HR leaders willing to claim it.
Three questions you need to be able to answer
The new CPO remit centres on three challenges, and your ability to answer these questions with data, rather than instinct, is what determines your influence.
How is AI changing what we need from our people? Gartner found that 27% of Australian organisations have already redefined job roles due to AI, and 24% have redeployed employees into new roles as a result of technology-driven changes. The pace is accelerating. If you're waiting for the picture to stabilise before redesigning capability strategy, you're already behind.
Do we have the capability pipeline to meet those needs? You cannot build a credible skills strategy without a clear, current baseline of what capability you actually have, where it sits, and how it's distributed across the organisation. Skills taxonomies and internal talent intelligence aren't nice-to-haves. They're the operational infrastructure of a high-performing people function.
Are we bringing our people with us? Accenture research found that 58% of workers globally are concerned AI is increasing their job insecurity. In Australia, where the labour market remains tight and skilled talent has options, that anxiety converts directly into attrition risk. The CPOs navigating this best are the ones who can articulate clearly, with data behind them, what AI adoption means for roles, what the development pathway looks like, and what the organisation's commitment to its people actually is.
What connects all three challenges
It's workforce intelligence. You cannot answer the redesign question without talent data. You cannot build a capability pipeline without an honest skills inventory. And you cannot earn employee trust through communications alone, you need the substance behind the message.
The CPOs making the biggest impact right now have invested in their data foundation first, and are using it to lead every subsequent conversation from a position of clarity rather than instinct.
Harrier's Talent Intelligence service is designed to give people leaders exactly that foundation. If you're redefining what the CPO role looks like in your organisation, we'd like to be part of that conversation.