Resources Blog The Future of People and Culture Intelligence: 8 Insights from Industry Experts
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The Future of People and Culture Intelligence: 8 Insights from Industry Experts

Author: Dr. Max Bloomberg Last updated: February 7, 2025 Reading time: 6 minutes

Is your organization ready for the future of work? As technology reshapes our workplaces and employee expectations shift, People and Culture Intelligence has become a critical focus for forward-thinking businesses. But what does this mean for your organization, and how can you stay ahead of the curve?

We’ve gathered insights from top industry experts to help you navigate this new landscape. Let’s dive in.

1. Cultural Measurement: Beyond the Annual Survey

Gone are the days when annual employee surveys could accurately gauge organizational culture. Today’s workplaces demand more frequent, nuanced approaches.

Charlie Sull, co-founder of CultureX, emphasized that psychological safety is one of the most critical cultural dimensions, linking it to positive outcomes such as employee engagement and problem-solving.

Sull explained, “If you have effective cultural measurement, you can recognize where that problem with agility is breaking down, and also identify high impact ways to fix it and so on and so on with collaboration execution, you know, processes any one of these hundreds of cultural dimensions.”

Key points:

• Psychological safety allows employees to speak up about issues

• Real-time feedback tools offer a more accurate picture of organizational culture

• AI-driven tools analyze vast amounts of data to reveal cultural nuances

Dr. Max Bloomberg of Bloomberg Partnership explained that Culture Intelligence uses data to analyze and forecast organizational cultural trends.

Reflection: How might real-time cultural measurement change your approach to employee engagement?

2. AI in Culture Management: Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Organizations must balance efficiency and effectiveness as AI becomes more prevalent in HR.

Dr. Bloomberg explained two modes of AI operation:

1. Efficiency mode: “This operates without human intervention and creates task outputs more quickly but without improving quality. It allows companies to compete on price.”

2. Effectiveness mode: “This combines human and AI to extend human capabilities. It may not be more efficient but it improves quality and allows companies to differentiate on quality.”

Jason Averbook, senior partner at Mercer, suggested that AI, especially agentic AI, could help shift our focus from how to do work to the actual work itself.

But Sull cautioned, “You don’t want to have AI in the driver’s seat, making the big decisions about what is our desired culture, what’s our North Star?”

Reflection: How can you use AI to enhance rather than replace human decision-making in culture management?

3. Maintaining Human Connection in a Digital World

As workplaces become increasingly digital and remote, maintaining human connection is crucial.

Averbook emphasized that while technology is essential, the focus should be on building meaningful connections rather than just facilitating connectivity.

Dr. Bloomberg suggested that HR should be more active in managing various productivity resources.

Key points:

• Leaders must model open communication, vulnerability, and inclusivity

• Digital tools can enhance our ability to create inclusive cultures if used thoughtfully

• Culture is interconnected across different segments of a company and between cultural dimensions

Reflection: What steps can leaders take to ensure technology enhances rather than erodes human connections?

4. Leadership’s Role in Cultural Transformation

Leadership remains the linchpin of successful cultural transformation, regardless of technological advancements.

Sull stated emphatically, “Without leadership buy-in, even the best cultural initiatives will fail.”

Averbook distinguished between change management and change leadership: “Change management is the tactics to get people to work together. Change Leadership is the behavior that I need to be able to demonstrate to get people to follow what I’m trying to do.”

Dr. Bloomberg advocated for a business outcome-driven approach, where organizations begin with desired results and then determine the necessary people processes and data.

Reflection: If your leadership team was assessed on their ability to drive cultural change, how would they score?

5. Linking Culture to Business Outcomes

To gain support for cultural initiatives, it’s crucial to demonstrate their impact on business outcomes.

Sull shared insights from a study of companies with strong cultures: “We did a study of the culture champions a couple of years ago where we looked at 25 or so of the strongest cultures in the United States, and then we looked at across hundreds of cultural dimensions compared to their industry, what traits do these cultures tend to have?”

Averbook used an analogy of measuring sleep or weight to suggest that infrequent measurement of organizational culture is not enough: “If I measure my sleep once a year or weigh myself every year, that’s not enough.”

Reflection: Are your culture initiatives directly tied to business outcomes? If not, how might you create that connection?

6. Challenges in Implementing People and Culture Intelligence Initiatives

While the benefits are clear, implementation isn’t without challenges.

Key challenges:

• Data privacy and ethical concerns

• Fear of the unknown

• Lack of leadership support

Sull warned, “If you listen to employees without consent there, it’ll make the culture more toxic. Once they realize they’re being listened to, they’re going to change their behavior.”

Averbook noted, “People often fear what they don’t understand.”

Dr. Bloomberg emphasized, “Unless you have the leadership behind you, their downlines are just not going to make those kinds of modifications.”

Reflection: What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve faced in implementing culture initiatives, and how did you overcome it?

7. Developing Critical Thinking Skills for the Future

As AI takes over routine tasks, critical thinking skills become increasingly valuable.

Averbook warned, “We focus on mindset, very little skill set. Oh, let’s do some training on chatGPT, and then tool set. Let’s do a heavy tech implementation. And because we put all of our weight on training and implementation and not enough on mindset, what we end up with is we end up putting in technology or focusing on training people how to use that technology without them understanding the why.”

Sull added, “Effective cultural measurement can drive change quickly if supported by leadership.”

Reflection: How is your organization preparing for a future where critical thinking is the key differentiator between humans and AI?

Looking ahead, several trends are shaping the future of People and Culture Intelligence:

• Predictive Analytics

• Managing Diverse Productivity Resources

• Hyper-personalized Employee Experiences

Averbook noted, “We’re getting to the point and we’re really, really close, you guys, where personalized incentives and personalized benefits will be how we all work based on what we need.”

Reflection: What cultural shifts do you anticipate in your industry over the next five years? How are you preparing for them?

Watch the entire panel here:

To see the episode recap check out The Way Forward in HR People and Culture Intelligence Panel Discussion – Main Takeaways

Key Takeaways:

1. Move beyond annual surveys to real-time cultural measurement

2. Balance efficiency and effectiveness when implementing AI in culture management

3. Prioritize human connection in digital workplaces

4. Ensure strong leadership support for cultural initiatives

5. Link cultural initiatives directly to business outcomes

6. Address challenges like data privacy concerns proactively

7. Develop critical thinking skills across your organization

8. Prepare for future trends like predictive analytics and hyper-personalized employee experiences

The future of work isn’t just about technology—it’s about creating cultures where people can thrive, innovate, and drive business success. By staying attuned to these trends and keeping the human element at the center of our strategies, we can create workplaces that are more productive and more fulfilling for everyone involved.

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