Moderna Merging Tech and HR because AI and People are the Same Thing?
"Chief People and Digital Technology Officer" is the newest CXO role
Moderna, the mRNA vaccine maker, has merged its tech and HR departments. The idea is that over the next few years, the roles of the humans and AI in the organization are likely to see a lot of overlap and hence the decisions regarding them cannot be split across different parts of the organization.
Moderna’s HR chief, Tracey Franklin has been promoted to the role of “Chief People and Digital Technology Officer”:
Franklin said she is redesigning teams across the company based on what work is best done by people versus what can be automated with technology, including the tech it leverages from a partnership with AI giant OpenAI. Roles are being created, eliminated and reimagined as a result, she said.
The combined “Chief People & Digital Technology Officer” role signals that future executives must be fluent in both organisational design and AI system engineering. Firms that fail to build this hybrid competence will struggle to compound AI gains or safeguard culture as automation accelerates.
What all does this tell you?
That people in HR need to quickly get very familiar with the abilities of various AI tools?
That people in IT need to understand that AI tools behave far more like humans with various human weaknesses (like lying, giving different answers at different times for the same questions, giving different answers depending on how nicely you ask, and having distinct personalities (like Claude like to play it safe, Grok is a little unhinged, etc), and many other characteristics which software tools never had before)?
That “new hires” in the AI tools team (i.e. a new tool approved for enterprise use) can take over work from anyone in other parts of the organization?
That we are not in Kansas anymore and the world of the next few years is going to be very different from the world you grew up in?
That maybe you are not paying enough attention to the elephant in the room? That AI might be a bigger deal that your current org structure implies?
If your HR and IT teams are not having daily standups about your people and AI working together, why not?
There is already a huge shift in customer facing communication roles.
Lots of companies are coming up with chatbota of sales, and completely taking over from human interaction in that space.
And the biggest will be of LLMs decide to monetize search like Google does.
Come to think of it, we have already given away our agency of searching and discovering new things to AI on social media, as we let the algorithm determine what it is we find...