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Organizations are racing to become AI-native, but many of the changes now described as AI transformation have very little to do with AI. Customer centricity, outcome-based work, fluid talent, faster decision-making, continuous planning, and flatter organizational structures were already characteristics of high-performing companies. Leaders knew these changes mattered long before generative AI arrived.

In Episode 9 of The Edge of Now, Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank examine what AI has actually changed. It has created urgency. It has exposed management practices that are more than a century old. It has made it harder for organizations to defend annual planning cycles, rigid hierarchies, static roles, and technology decisions that begin with a vendor announcement rather than a business outcome.

Jason and Jess also look ahead to conference season, when technology announcements arrive faster than most leaders can evaluate them. They offer a practical filter: determine whether an announcement represents a real product or merely market direction, look for customer-zero evidence, and return to the organization’s own business strategy before changing the roadmap.

AI did not create the need to transform. It removed many of the excuses for waiting.

Episode Highlights

• Why many “AI-native” work practices were already essential to high-performing organizations
• What prevented companies from transforming before AI created a new sense of urgency
• Why change accelerates when people and institutions feel forced against a wall
• How century-old management practices continue to shape modern organizations
• Why annual budgeting, static succession planning, and rigid spans of control deserve renewed scrutiny
• What leaders should measure instead of tool usage and adoption
• Why AI will struggle inside organizations that preserve outdated ways of working
• How HR, IT, and business leaders can stop competing for ownership of the moment
• How to separate a real product from a conference-season press release
• Why a vendor roadmap should never become the starting point for business strategy
• What customer-zero and early-mover evidence can teach organizations about what is already possible

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
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonaverbook/
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