Signal File: This week highlights the workforce under AI pressure

AI’s influence on work is widening, from deep structural shifts in labour markets to the daily habits required to stay digitally safe. This week’s signals show how organisations are moving from experimentation to impact: mapping workforce exposure, redesigning roles, reframing cybersecurity as a personal competency and restructuring teams as AI becomes embedded across operations. The question is no longer whether AI will reshape work, but how quickly organisations can adapt.

The scale of AI disruption surfaces

An MIT study using the Iceberg Index finds that today’s AI could already replace 11.7$ of the US workforce, exposing up to $1.2 trillion in wages across finance, healthcare and administrative roles. The tool creates a digital twin of 151 million workers to show where current AI systems can already perform existing skills.

In action: Build skills intelligence now – identify exposure, redirect training and redesign tasks for human-AI collaboration.

Cyber risk moves closer to home

MasterClass has launched a cybersecurity course reframing digital safety as a personal responsibility. Led by former U.S. security officials, it shows how AI is accelerating everyday threats, from deepfakes to compromised home devices, and teaches simple defensive habits such as verifying payments, using unique passwords and spotting manipulation attempts.

In action: Equip employees with practical, non-technical cyber habits to strengthen organisational resilience.

AI value grows when goals move beyond efficiency

A new McKinsey study shows that while 80% of workers say their organisations frame AI adoption around efficiency, the companies seeing the strongest returns set additional goals around growth and innovation. Limiting AI to productivity gains risks missing its broader potential to unlock new capabilities and creative workflows.

In action: Treat AI as an augmentation tool, enabling experimentation, skill growth and innovation, rather than a narrow efficiency play.

AI-driven restructuring accelerates

HP plans to cut up to 6000 jobs by 2028 as it embeds AI across product development, operations and customer support. The company expects $1bn in annual savings but acknowledges rising memory costs and slower demand are adding pressure.

In action: Prioritise transparent workforce planning and invest early in reskilling to avoid AI adoption becoming synonymous with displacement.