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Much has been written about AI’s impact on the workforce, but a new article from BCG turns the lens specifically on corporate functions (finance, HR, legal, compliance, procurement, and technology). It contrasts where most corporate functions operate today (siloed departments, manual handoffs, and AI layered onto unchanged operating models) with where they need to shift, what BCG refers to as “Functions of the Future” (FoF): leaner, more automated corporate functions designed to perform at AI speed, with integrated workflows, flatter leadership structures, and digital fluency embedded into how work gets done. Although the article offers various insights for making this shift, one I want to zoom in on is digital fluency as a talent requirement for hiring, promotion, and leadership. In an FoF model, digital fluency is treated as a baseline expectation. A few questions HR leaders can help corporate functions think through: How is digital fluency defined in our organization, and are our hiring criteria reflecting that? Are we assessing it in promotion decisions? And since succession planning is a priority for most organizations, how will the future requirements of corporate functions, including digital fluency, change succession plans for successors who were identified based on criteria that may no longer reflect the new reality? These are questions worth raising now, before talent decisions fall further behind the pace of change.
