Adapting to an AI-driven Workplace

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)-driven advancements and evolving employee expectations are already changing the nature of work. All leading businesses are adapting their business processes, restructuring their workforce and places of work, and reconsidering their use of outsourcing.

As CEO of OBH Solutions, a division of Ethical AI Ltd employing and managing our clients’ staff who work outside of normal business hours, my principal interest lies in the impact these changes will have upon the role and responsibilities of senior management in the new, evolving ways of working. Anecdotally, my daughter works at Heathrow, and my thoughts in this blog were really kicked off a couple of months ago when I read about the embarrassment of the airport’s CEO who, presumably not realising the critical nature of the problem, returned to his bed while the fire caused mayhem. In this blog I consider these trends and especially how they may impact 24-hour operation.

IMPACTFUL TRENDS

Hybrid work models, rapidly increasing use of generative AI, and a focus on employee well-being have joined the need for 24-hour operation in radically reshaping business operations and employer-employee interactions. The US is always a leading indicator for the UK. There, AI-exposed jobs such as software development and customer service declined by 6% between 2022 and 2025 for workers aged 20-25, and this rate is accelerating.^[1] Between 10-12% of US companies using AI have already hired fewer workers, and 25% more plan to do so.^[2] In addition, multiple surveys report that 70% of Gen Z and Millennials are unwilling to work outside normal business hours, and 75% would trade lower salary for more personal time.^[3] These are all highly significant figures, which will radically transform work patterns over the next 5 years and beyond.

OPPORTUNITIES ARISING

Opportunities for improved efficiency include changing both core and non-core processes, reducing staffing levels, reducing skill levels, amending contracts of employment, re-structuring the nature of various types of work, and renegotiating or cancelling outsourcing contracts, all with the goal of improving operational efficiency. Almost all these trends will suffer from trade union resistance and, principally through the popular press (which itself is undergoing these changes), risk reputational damage if not conducted ethically and practically.

An alternative is to outsource as much of the affected tasks as possible, which is not practical for core tasks, nor is it always advisable. Many existing outsourcing contracts use low-skilled workers whose tasks can be wholly or partially replaced by AI. It is thus more likely that the preponderance of outsourced tasks will be replaced by AIs. This likelihood has, to my knowledge, not yet affected the business outlook or share price of outsourcing businesses but is highly likely to do so.

Those more skilled employees, mostly white-collar staff, especially those with moderate-to-good abilities and an appropriate attitude to learning new skills, will become more productive. Others who are less effective may have to be removed.

The likelihood of AI replacing rather than augmenting the two groups identified above as at risk (low-skilled replaceable workers and the less capable among higher-skilled staff) provides businesses with a unique opportunity to significantly reduce both white-collar employees and outsourced costs. However, to prevent negative market reaction, a new business model, such as that offered by OBH Solutions (www.obh-solutions.com) is required.

Our offering encompasses ring-fencing certain outside business hours tasks (whether employees or presently outsourced), employing those affected within our business, and adding to or reducing the workforce as necessary to complete the tasks, without generating negative publicity for the business for whom they work. To find out more, simply view our website and ask to be sent a brief, two-page document outlining how our company achieves this. Or call me directly. It is my personal number that appears on our contact page, and I will always respond to a call or to a message left by you.

^[1] Source: Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

^[2] US Federal Reserve Banks survey

^[3] e.g. Forrester report, May 2025