The utopian view of the future workplace envisages a model where humans are supported by artificial intelligence (AI) assistants that take care of all the boring repetitive work, where hybrid work is the norm, and where lifelong learning and holistic wellbeing are supported by enlightened employers.
We can but hope. It’s a tough, competitive world out there for businesses, and the ESRI is already warning that highly educated workers are at greater risk of being replaced by AI than other cohorts of the workforce. This raises questions about what the workplace of 2030 is likely to look like, and how employees and employers can prepare for that brave or potentially grim new world.
“The honest answer is that nobody can say with confidence what the workplace of 2030 will look like,” says UCD Smurfit Executive Development director Tim Wray. “The pace of change is now so fast that, as one AI expert put it to me recently, if you have not been paying close attention for even a few months, your perspective may already be out of date.”
He cautions against predicting the 2030 workplace with false certainly and says the priority should be to build organisations that can keep learning, adapting and experimenting. “That means staying curious about where AI is going, creating the confidence and risk appetite to test new approaches, and putting the right governance in place so experimentation is responsible rather than reckless.”
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Workforce learning and development will be critically important, says PwC Ireland workforce consulting partner Ger McDonough. “AI agents are set to reshape the workforce, but a fundamental rethink of how work gets done is needed,” he observes. “Many organisations have yet to fully embrace the scale of reinvention required to remain competitive and resilient. However, PwC’s 2025 Workforce Hopes and Fears survey found that organisations can do more to help workers develop skills and thrive amidst a challenging economy. Just 57 per cent of Irish workers said that they have access to the learning and development resources they need at work.”
He believes the roles most affected by AI will be those that involve routine, repetitive, rules-based tasks, both physical and cognitive. Roles requiring judgment, creativity or human interaction will be less affected.
“What we are likely to see in the near term is a reshaping where AI will take on the routine elements of a role and free people up to focus on judgment, relationship management, complex problem solving, ethics, innovation and decision making,” says McDonough. “While some roles may decline, most will evolve, which is why upskilling, adaptability and AI literacy matter so much.”
The human skills of judgment, critical thinking and the ability to work through ambiguity and nuance are likely to be even more valuable in this new world of work, according to Alison Hodgson, market director of CIPD Ireland, the organisation for human resources professionals.
“The human capacity to decipher the slop and hallucinations AI can produce will be very important,” she notes. “But let’s not be under any misapprehension. Humans can produce slop and hallucinations as well. HR teams and the Labour Court are inundated with AI-generated grievances and people just have to work their way through them. One of the very significant challenges of AI is the authoritative tone that it adopts. Humans need to know what they are looking for when checking outputs.”
She also emphasises the need for a renewed focus on learning and development, but in the more traditional mode of on-the-job learning from older and more experienced colleagues. “Organisations will need to create the right environments and opportunities for younger people to learn in the same way as we did when we entered the workforce.”
She also warns against an over reliance on technology. “Organisations are getting hung up too quickly on productivity and profit gains, and they are missing out on where value is truly created. Human capability delivers value for organisations. The positive view is that if organisations are intentional and put people first and foremost then the new world of work is great.”
Wray also stresses the human element. “Fortune may well favour the brave, because the potential disruption is enormous. But the real leadership challenge will be to be brave and thoughtful at the same time, moving quickly enough to seize the opportunity, while bringing people with you and ensuring the human purpose of work is not lost.”
