How leaders are protecting culture while AI rewrites how work gets done

Keith Ferrazzi is Founder of Ferrazzi Greenlight, and Ulrika Biesert is Chief People & Culture Officer Ingka Group.

Across large enterprises, AI is moving quickly from experimentation into daily work. That shift is forcing leaders to confront issues they can’t delegate to technology: how performance is measured, how people are supported through change, and how values show up when machines start doing more of the work. Not every company is approaching those questions in the same way.

Some organizations are responding by racing for efficiency. Others are stepping back to define, or reaffirm, what kind of company they want to be as AI becomes more embedded in the organization; and what obligations they still owe the people who make the business run.

In practice, this means senior executives are grappling with the social contract between the company and its employees. As AI takes on more execution, leaders must decide what remains human, what becomes automated, and how much disruption their culture can absorb along the way. These are leadership decisions about trust, accountability, and what kind of organization people are being asked to commit to.

At Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer in 32 countries, leaders recognized that tension early and set out to adopt AI in a way that wouldn’t put their culture at risk. The technology would move forward, but not without steady leadership and clear support for their people. IKEA’s approach stands out as one example of how a large enterprise is choosing to let values, not just productivity, shape how AI enters daily work.

At IKEA, the commitment to employees shows up in how senior leaders talk about their people and their responsibilities to them. IKEA’s people-first orientation is reinforced explicitly at the executive level. As their Chief People & Culture Officer, Ulrika Biesert, emphasizes, “People have been at the heart of IKEA for over 80 years—and that’s exactly where they’ll stay.” It’s a disciplined approach that’s helping the organization modernize without losing the people who make it work.

What IKEA is doing reflects a deliberate set of leadership choices about how people will be treated as AI changes the nature of work. Those choices are rooted in the company’s values and history, and shape how far and how fast the technology is allowed to go. Other companies will make different calls, like some pushing harder on automation or moving faster on workforce reduction.

There is no single model for competing in an AI-driven market. A strong culture does not automatically mean preserving every job; it means being clear about how human contribution and machine execution are aligned with the organization’s purpose.

Values as a Filter for AI

As companies embark on their AI transformations, leaders are discovering that technology decisions now carry cultural and ethical weight. Before a new........

© Fortune