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Most organizations are preparing to apply new intelligence to old processes, old roles, and old organizational structures. That may produce faster work, but it will not necessarily produce better work.

In Episode 8 of The Edge of Now, Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank examine why this moment demands more than another round of upgrades. Talent acquisition, learning, talent management, and workforce planning have spent years operating as separate functions, often because the technology and data required those divisions. Now that people can access intelligence more directly, the technology is no longer the only constraint. The operating model, organizational mindset, and willingness to let go may be the larger barriers.

Jason asks whether some HR functions have become too old for another app update and need a new phone instead. Jess introduces a sharper mandate: do not automatically rip and replace. Rip and retire. Before automating a workflow, protecting a job, or buying another platform, leaders should ruthlessly question whether it still belongs in the organization they are trying to build.

This is a conversation about the difference between protecting jobs and protecting people, why interruption is a leadership capability, and what organizations must be willing to leave behind before AI accelerates everything they have already built.

Episode Highlights

• Why talent acquisition’s early exposure to AI created both fear of job loss and new optimism about a more strategic talent role
• Why labels such as talent acquisition, talent management, and talent development may reinforce the silos leaders say they want to eliminate
• How direct access to workforce data can change who produces insights and who is empowered to act on them
• Why technology has caught up, but organizational structures and mindsets still stand in the way
• Whether established HR functions can keep updating old systems or need to start with a clean operating model
• Why meaningful transformation can require closing the kitchen while continuing to serve the business
• The difference between incremental upgrades and exponential change
• Why leaders should retire obsolete work before replacing systems or automating workflows
• Why protecting people does not mean preserving every job exactly as it exists today
• How leaders can create a culture in which questioning an established process is expected, not punished
• Why 2027 could become the year organizations stop buying and start interrogating what they already have

About Jason & Jess

Jason Averbook

Jason Averbook has spent more than 30 years shaping HR technology and workforce transformation. His career includes leadership roles at PeopleSoft and Ceridian, co-founding and leading Knowledge Infusion from 2005 to 2012, serving as CEO of The Marcus Buckingham Company, and co-founding and leading Leapgen from 2018 to 2023. After serving as Mercer’s Global HR Transformation Leader, he co-founded Now to Next to help leaders prepare people and organizations for an AI-shaped world.

Jess Von Bank

Jess Von Bank brings more than 20 years of experience across recruiting, talent strategy, employer branding, HR technology, and workforce transformation. She began as a recruiting practitioner before moving into leadership roles focused on bringing workforce solutions to market, including global HR transformation and technology advisory work at Mercer. She is now co-founder of Now to Next, where she combines industry expertise, community building, storytelling, and a human-centered perspective on change.

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Jason Averbook
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