Agents don't fail on intelligence. They fail on organization.
Every company is buying AI. Almost none have redesigned the work. The result is the same everywhere: pilots that impress in the demo and die in the org chart — because nobody decided what the agents own, what the humans own, and who is accountable for the seam between them. That is not a technology question. It's an organizational design question. And org design is what I've done for twenty-five years.
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AI companies scaled past billion-dollar valuations with talent functions Jon built from zero — including a NYSE IPO.
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of a typical knowledge-work pipeline is automatable with today's agents. Most companies have captured almost none of it.
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remains irreplaceably human — judgment, taste, accountability. Knowing which 40% is the entire job.
Built by someone who's been in the room.
I've spent 25 years leading talent and organizational strategy inside Apple, Amazon, and two AI companies that crossed billion-dollar valuations — including building SoundHound AI's talent function from zero through its NYSE IPO, and deploying production AI agents at scale inside a Cambridge AI unicorn.
In 2019 I asked Jeff Bezos what he'd study if he were a college freshman. "Machine learning, full stop." I've spent every year since at the center of that answer — first scaling the people who build AI, now designing the organizations where people and agents work side by side.
The Chief Agent Officer is the role every board will be hiring in three years. I'm defining it now.
Three moves. One redrawn organization.
Workforce decomposition
Every workflow mapped to the task level and scored for agent-readiness, risk, and human leverage. Your company at a resolution your leadership team has never had.
Hybrid org design
Agents own throughput. Humans own judgment. The governance seam between them is drawn deliberately — not discovered in an incident review.
Agents, onboarded
Job descriptions, performance reviews, and escalation paths — for software. Production agents shipped with the rigor of a real people function.
Hear how I think.
No hype, no jargon, no hot takes. Conversations about AI, work, and who does it now — from someone who's built the teams inside the companies building the technology. If you'd rather judge the thinking before you book the call, start here.
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has agents on it.
Advisory, board work, and speaking for companies that want the hybrid workforce designed on purpose. One conversation tells you whether this is for you.
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