“Nothing’s being asked of HR that hasn’t been asked before.” | Deloitte's Kyle Forrest on zero-based work, spotting fake AI agents, and what the CHRO job becomes by 2030

Every vendor at every conference is selling you an agent. Most of them are selling you a workflow with a chat window. Kyle Forrest runs Deloitte’s Future of HR practice and its Next Generation CHRO Academy, and he spends his weeks in the room with CHROs trying to separate the real from the rebranded. In this episode, he lays out the test for a genuine agent, why “make HR strategic” has been the same ask since the 1980s, and what it actually costs a leader to redesign a function that includes their own job.

Timestamps:

• 02:00 - The knowledge walking out the door as boomers retire

• 09:36 - Can HR’s “unique AI moment” and “nothing new here” both be true?

• 15:37 - The three types of HR function, and why “be strategic” is a lazy demand

• 24:00 - Stagility: 75% of workers want stability, 85% of execs want agility

• 28:09 - 42% of workers say no one is measuring AI’s impact on them

• 31:45 - AI assisted, augmented, powered: telling people where their role is headed

• 33:19 - Zero-based work: should this work even exist?

• 40:55 - The BS test for a real agent versus a workflow with a chat window

• 47:10 - The trend Kyle wants you to push back on: pre-built agents