Let’s be honest, most CHRO groups out there are bad. They are expensive, filled with vendor pitches, and loaded with “fluff” resources that are outdated by the time they are published. That’s why I put together Future of Work Leaders. A CHRO group for people leaders who are moving beyond traditional HR to focus on the future of work and employee experience. No pitches, no selling, no fluff.
The community is focused on discussions, candid Q&A sessions, and sharing of resources and insights. Members include Lego, Novartis, PwC, Saks Global, and dozens of others. I’m just in the process of planning our annual in-person forum which will be at the end of March. if you want to learn more and request an invite go to Future of Work Leaders or email me directly Jacob[at]thefutureorganization[dot]com.
As a leader, how do you embrace the incredible power of AI without causing a wave of anxiety to ripple through your organization? It’s the central challenge of our time: moving fast enough to stay competitive while being thoughtful enough to bring your people along on the journey.
In a world where many companies are still debating governance policies, some are already years ahead, offering a powerful blueprint for the rest of us.
On a recent episode of my podcast, Future Ready Leadership, I had a fascinating conversation with Nathaalie Carey, the Chief Human Resources Officer at Prologis. Their impact is staggering: as a global leader in logistics real estate, an estimated 3% of the world’s GDP flows through their warehouses annually. To put that in perspective, that represents roughly $3.2 trillion worth of goods—a figure equivalent to the entire market value of Nvidia,.
When a company of this scale pioneers a human-centric approach to AI, the lessons are invaluable. As Nathaalie put it, an easy way to think about them is as “Amazon’s landlord.” Here are the most powerful takeaways from our conversation for every leader navigating the future of work.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
A Counter-Intuitive Strategy: Prioritize Innovation Over Governance
Prologis was an aggressive early adopter of AI, launching an enterprise version of ChatGPT for its workforce about two and a half years ago and achieving a remarkable 95% adoption rate in the first year. Their strategy ran counter to the prevailing corporate wisdom at the time.
While most companies started by building strict governance frameworks and focusing on risk mitigation, Prologis did the opposite. They chose to prioritize innovation by getting AI tools directly into their employees’ hands first, layering in training and support along the way, using practical tools like seven-minute video clips and hosting open office hours with their tech team to demystify the technology and encourage experimentation.
This “innovation-first” approach empowered their teams and unleashed a wave of creativity, leading to the crowdsourcing of over 1,000 employee-built GPTs. These employee-built tools ranged from personal productivity aids—like a travel GPT that an executive assistant built to manage a complex multi-country trip across different time zones (China, Singapore, and Japan)—to sophisticated business tools that help teams prepare for investor earnings calls.
Some companies are moving so fast they risk breaking things, while others are moving so slow they risk being left behind. Prologis intentionally chose the path of managed speed.
“Speed is critical; but speed with thoughts, with strategy, with a plan.”
Building Trust Is a Deliberate Act, Not a Hope
The most common fear among employees today is that AI is simply a tool to automate them out of a job. Acknowledging this anxiety is the first step; addressing it directly is the clever next move. Prologis’ leadership tackled this concern head-on in a global town hall with a clear and unambiguous message: they would not be conducting layoffs because of AI.
They framed the rollout not as a threat, but as an investment in their people with a clear expectation in return: any time saved from mundane administrative tasks was to be reinvested into higher-value, actionable work.
As Nathaalie explained, instead of having to “crunch the numbers” themselves, employees are now expected to spend their time figuring out how to take action based on the outcomes the AI produces.
To accelerate comfort and competence, Prologis encourages employees to use the tools for personal tasks as well as professional ones, helping them build a fundamental skill that will be critical for their careers both inside and outside the company.
If you’re involved with or leading employee experience initiatives at your company and you’re not a CHRO, then check out Employee Experience Leaders. When I created my CHRO group I received over 1,500 from non-CHROs who wanted to join an EX community, so I decided to create one. It’s launching in March ONLY for 150. You’ll get access to monthly Q&A sessions with CHROs, officer hours with me, a monthly EX newsletter, and online community, and more to come!
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building with a true peer group, we’d love to have you at Employee Experience Leaders.
Beyond Efficiency: AI as the Great Equalizer
At Prologis, continuous learning is the engine that drives their high AI adoption rate, moving beyond simple tool deployment to a culture of constant evolution. They ran a structured 12-month training program within the HR team that uses case studies to build employee competence over time. This is supported by low-friction learning methods like seven-minute video clips and regular office hours with the technology team to demystify new tools.
While the immediate benefits of AI are often tied to efficiency, its most profound impact may be on human capability. Nathaalie described AI as the “great equalizer,” a tool that can unlock talent that might otherwise remain latent within an organization. This concept is powerful because it removes the technical barriers that often stall brilliant concepts.
An employee might be a “great idea person” who previously struggled to articulate thoughts in writing or a visionary with “amazing ideas” who lacked the programming skills to build them. AI bridges these gaps, allowing those ideas to finally be “implemented or executed” rather than remaining unfulfilled.
As AI continues to absorb more of the technical and repetitive work, Nathaalie believes the skills that will truly differentiate humans are the ones technology can’t replicate: “the greatest creativity and imagination”.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
The Human Connection Becomes More Critical Than Ever
As we move deeper into what I call the “algorithmic enterprise,” we face a new cultural challenge. When every email and report is polished to perfection by an AI, we risk losing the authentic, nuanced, and sometimes messy communication that defines human interaction.
Nathaalie observed that it’s now easy to tell when an email has been written by AI because it sounds “too perfect.” She laughingly noted that even her mother can now spot AI-generated Facebook posts, a sign of how widespread this phenomenon has become. The danger of this issue is that it prevents you from getting an “authentic viewpoint on how someone feels” about a matter.
Nathaalie clarifies that while AI hasn’t changed their culture at Prologis yet, she believes it will change culture over time, making intentional human interaction a defensive necessity for the future.
The more our work becomes mediated by digital tools and AI, the more valuable direct, face-to-face human connection becomes. To counteract the drift toward sterile, algorithmic interactions, organizations must be intentional about investing in and fostering genuine human connection. This is essential for maintaining a strong, vibrant culture and preventing a future where employees become little more than “the physical manifestation of the bots that they’re using.”
Final Thoughts
The journey at Prologis offers a clear and compelling vision for the future of human work. Their success demonstrates that a human-centric approach—built on a foundation of trust, a bias for innovation, and an unwavering focus on elevating creativity—is not just a feel-good strategy, but a decisive competitive advantage. It proves that the goal isn’t to replace humans with technology, but to augment humanity with it.
As AI becomes a core part of your team, how will you ensure you’re elevating the uniquely human skills that technology can’t replicate? As Nathaalie reminds us, our competitive advantage would be to remain thoughtful and “not lose the human aspect,” ensuring that we utilize these technologies for the “betterment of our human life”.
For more in-depth insights, listen to my complete conversation with Nathaalie Carey below.
