OM DENNE EPISODE
Peter Miscovich is Global Future of Work and AI Transformation Americas Consulting Leader at JLL. He explores how AI is reshaping the future of work, leadership, and workplaces. Drawing on three decades of office design and workplace transformation, Peter traces the shift from headquarters-centred work to distributed, hybrid, and AI-enabled models. He discusses employee autonomy, flexibility, and intentional in-person connection. Peter describes the disciplined decisions AI adoption demands and why adaptive thinking, emotional resilience and a more human approach are needed. He explains the elevated importance of systems thinking, cross-functional leadership, and emotional resilience as human-AI work and workforces evolve.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[01:27] Peter combines engineering studies with love of the humanities as his guiding principles.
[02:38] Interior workplace design in New York leads Peter to consider missing human needs.
[04:35] Early corporate offices reflect militaristic organisational models which are highly structured.
[05:25] New designs with the 'action office' then desktop computers begin changing workplaces.
[06:22] More collaboration starts to transform offices, with 'alternative' workplaces.
[07:19] Consulting lets Peter combine workplace design, technology, and organizational advice.
[08:48] Laptops, hoteling, and shared spaces give some firms new ways to work.
[09:41] Early alternative workplaces require repeated experimentation, learning, and perseverance.
[10:46] Workplace transformation is first ego and brand driven as financial services firms compete.
[12:14] Mobile devices, WiFi and Silicon Valley campuses in the 2010s reshape workplace expectations.
[12:59] Pandemic conditions show CEOs remote working possibilities while many tensions continue.
[15:24] Workplace strategies are still in play, influenced by leaders' personal and emotional experiences.
[16:18] Peter's clients are already planning for workforces and workplaces in 2030 and beyond.
[18:27] The future of work is a marathon with accelerated dynamism that hinders long-term plans.
[19:41] Leaders need adaptability agility, and emotional resilience to work through uncertainty.
[20:45] Effective teams can accept ambiguity and develop answers together as conditions change.
[22:49] Return to office pushes follow earlier cycles of enthusiasm and retreat from hybrid work.
[23:42] Close working relationships can develop digitally, in-person frequency needs exploring.
[24:30] People value autonomy, flexibility, and meaningful opportunities to engage in person.
[26:22] Managing AI at scale requires changes in leadership, behaviour, and operations.
[27:10] The internet's impact took 10 years. AI is advancing faster than human adoption capacity.
[28:28] Legacy processes and tech make effective AI adoption a trial and error learning process.
[29:00] Leaders need disciplined safeguards and realistic expectations about AI's benefits.
[30:05] AI's convergence with robotics and other technologies brings opportunities and challenges.
[32:06] More progressed (20% of JLL clients) organizations invest in both talent and technology.
[33:00] One high performing client's executives have combined upskilling employees and deploying AI agents widely.
[33:25] Inconsistent data, outdated systems, and insufficient training hold other organizations back.
[34:22] Cheaper, more pervasive AI could ease organizational problems or make them worse.
[35:44] Effective AI integration depends on aligned leadership, investment, processes, and governance.
[37:00] Strong technology literacy helps leaders and employees align and participate in change.
[38:44] HR, IT, real estate, and business leaders increasingly need to work together.
[39:52] Leaders across functions need broader skills as their responsibilities increasingly overlap.
[40:49] Peter sees financial, operational, and administrative leadership responsibilities converging.
[41:11] The human element grows more important as workplace technology advances.
[42:40] Peter's meditation practice supports the resilience and wellbeing he considers essential.
[43:34] Peter urges organizations to develop adaptive leadership and systems thinking.
[44:00] Technology symbiosis to discover technology's strengths to support human creativity and performance.
[45:35] Conversation and debate help people explore and update their ideas and opinions.
RESOURCES
JLL's Future of Work Survey 2026
QUOTES
"At a basic human level, people appreciate autonomy and flexibility. They want intentional engagement that's meaningful. I think that construct is still being developed."
"With all the technology advanced, the human element is probably more important today than ever."
"You have to sit with the complexity, be comfortable with the uncertainty, and be comfortable with ambiguity. You have to understand that I don't have the answer, but maybe together we can figure out an answer for the moment. That takes an adaptive mindset."
"The challenge today is that technology is advancing faster than human adoption capacity can manage the adoption of it."
"We also have to take away the hype that AI is going to transform a business in three months or that it can do everything and solve every human and business problem that ever existed. How do we manage it? It will take time and it will take discipline."
Focus on technology symbiosis means "working with technology in the most constructive and productive way for human performance…understanding what AI can do well and what it cannot do well, then working with those capabilities and hopefully uplifting our own."
