EP25: The Trust Collapse: Why Your Workforce Has Stopped Believing Your AI Strategy
BCG dropped two studies that should be taped to the wall of every CHRO's office. One shows that adding AI "employees" to org charts is making human workers sloppier and more likely to blame the bot when things go wrong. The other — "AI brain fry" — shows that cognitive overload from managing AI tool sprawl is driving errors, burnout, and intent to quit. Meanwhile, 48% of Q1 tech layoffs were attributed to AI, Gen Z workers are listing AI skills they don't have on their résumés, and boards are demanding governance answers most executives cannot give yet. But the story underneath all of that — the one you won't find in any headline today — is a trust collapse. Workers don't believe what leaders are telling them about AI anymore. And that gap is now a credibility crisis. This episode is about all of it.
Highlights:
- Why BCG’s latest research found AI workers can reduce human accountability
- The rise of “AI brain fry” and the hidden cost of tool sprawl
- Why employees are increasingly disconnected from leadership AI narratives
- The growing credibility crisis around augmentation vs replacement
- How organizations are accidentally creating burnout through poor AI experience design
- Why eliminating junior roles without redesigning development pathways creates long term risk
- The dangerous rise of inflated AI skills data across the workforce
- Why boards are asking governance questions most executive teams still cannot answer
- The difference between deploying AI and redesigning work for humans
Host Bio:
Jason Averbook has spent thirty years watching the gap between where organizations say they are with technology and where work is actually happening. He has a name for it. He has a framework for closing it. And he built Now to Next to do exactly that.
Now to Next is the AI studio Jason co-founded with Jess Von Bank in 2026 — built on practitioner intelligence, original research, and the conviction that human transformation precedes digital transformation. Always has. Always will.
Before Now to Next, Jason co-founded Leapgen, acquired by Mercer in 2023, where he led global HR transformation strategy and the firm's generative AI practice. Earlier he served as CEO of The Marcus Buckingham Company, co-founded Knowledge Infusion through its acquisition by Appirio, and held senior roles at PeopleSoft and Ceridian. He has advised hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies, authored two books on the future of HR and workforce technology, delivered more than 1000 keynote presentations globally, and teaches as an adjunct professor at universities worldwide.
He is consistently recognized as one of the top three thought leaders globally on the future of work.
Follow Jason Averbook:
Substack: https://substack.com/@jasonaverbook X: https://x.com/jasonaverbook LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonaverbook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonaverbook YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nowtonextwithjasonaverbook Facebook: https://facebook.com/jasonaverbook
Sources Cited:
- BCG / Fortune: "Adding AI 'employees' is backfiring" (May 28, 2026)
- BCG / HBR: "AI brain fry" — 1,488 workers surveyed (March 2026)
- Oliver Wyman CEO Survey: 43% of executives cutting junior roles, up from 17% (Q2 2026)
- Fast Company: "Skills manifesting — workers citing skills they intend to learn" (May 2026)
- Society for Corporate Governance / Nasdaq: "AI in the Boardroom" (May 2026)
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Transcript
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