Human Capital Intel - 10/15/25
Culture vs. Skills | AI Workslop Costs Rise | CEO Stress Test | Hiring for Learning | Cognitive Fatigue at Work
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Intelligence, your weekly brief synthesizing over 250 leadership, HR, and people sources to filter out the noise. As always, we would love to hear from you at ken@reyvism.com with questions you’d like answered or topics covered.
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By Ken Stibler; Powered by Reyvism Analytics
Culture or skills? What’s the best antidote for uncertainty?
Leaders are discovering that resilience in a volatile environment is not built through skills alone. It depends on culture. Yet as technology and uncertainty reshape work, most organizations are struggling to balance the two. Brené Brown told HR leaders recently that “organizations have no core,” relying on the wrong “muscles” to manage disruption. Her point was simple: companies are trying to address systemic change with outdated behavioral foundations.
A strong corporate “core,” she says, is made up of emotional intelligence, accountability, and systems thinking, the traits that enable agility. But Gartner’s latest CHRO survey found that less than half believe their culture actually drives performance. Meanwhile, LinkedIn data shows that 71 percent of leaders would rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a seasoned one without. The result is a dangerous imbalance: culture without skill is soft, but skill without culture is brittle.
Skills-first hiring has major benefits. It expands candidate pools up to 20 times and improves hiring accuracy by 12 percent. But as HR leaders rush to automate screening and assessment, many risk hollowing out the “human” side of human resources. The next advantage will come from combining both. Teams that are technically adaptive and emotionally grounded will outperform those focused only on one side of the equation.
The tension between culture and skill will define the next decade of talent strategy. The organizations that succeed will not choose between them. They will fuse them.
The growing risk of AI “workslop”
A new problem is spreading through offices: “AI workslop.” The term, coined by Stanford’s Social Media Lab and BetterUp, describes work that looks polished but adds no value. Or worse in the case of Deloitte this week, which admitted AI hallucinations had ended up in a $290,000 report for the Australian government.
Forty percent of white-collar employees say they have encountered it in the past month, and more than half admit to producing it - your employees are very likely doing the same. For a 10,000-person company, that reportedly translates to about nine million dollars a year in lost productivity.
The research identifies two types of workers. “Pilots” use AI to enhance creativity and precision. “Passengers” use it to avoid work altogether. The more passengers an organization has, the greater the hidden cost in wasted time and frustration. Colleagues report annoyance, confusion, and loss of trust toward those sending low-quality content.
The solution is not banning AI but building a culture of thoughtful use. Managers should teach critical evaluation, define quality standards, and reward judgment and originality. If organizations fail to do that, automation will not bring efficiency but confusion.
Quote of the Week: Who’s responsibility is the “build”
“A majority of leaders surveyed said training is mostly the responsibility of workers, with 6 in 10 saying employers hold at least some responsibility. But while 80% of leaders said they offer adequate training the number of workers that agree is falling rapidly.”
— Research from training firm General Assembly
Reading List:
CEOs struggles prompt rethinks of the the role
CEO departures have hit the highest level ever recorded this year, and many boards are questioning whether a single person can handle the growing complexity of the role. Some firms are testing co-CEO structures, such as AlixPartners, whose leaders credit trust and “pre-planned forgiveness” for making shared authority work. Analysts say AI-driven transformation, board pressure, and constant disruption have made the job almost impossible to sustain alone. The CEO role is evolving from individual heroics to collective leadership, and that may be the only way forward.
The job market is teetering, but companies still struggle to hire key skills
Despite widespread layoffs, companies are still struggling to hire for critical skills. Eighty-four percent of hiring managers say they will pay premiums for expertise in AI, data, and analytics. Yet many roles remain unfilled as employers hold out for elite talent, widening the gap between specialists and everyone else. The lesson is clear: hire for learning, not perfection. Companies that prioritize adaptability and training will fill gaps faster than those chasing a shrinking pool of technical stars.
Maturing AI adoption comes with impressive output - and increased cognitive fatigue
AI adoption is producing both gains and strain. Productivity has improved, but so has exhaustion. KPMG found that “cognitive fatigue” has replaced “fear of automation” as the dominant workplace feeling. Some executives, like MasterClass founder David Rogier, say AI has given them back an entire workday each week. Others, however, are struggling to keep pace. For most employees, it has become another layer of complexity. The divide between empowered and overwhelmed workers is widening. Without clear communication, pacing, and training, leaders risk burning out their teams before realizing the benefits of transformation.
Data Point: Not exactly passing
8%
The number of HR managers in a recent survey that view GenZ as ready for the workplace
In Other News
When Authentic Leadership Backfires. (Harvard Business Review)
Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says. (Fortune)
When You’re the Executive Everyone Relies On—and You’re Burning Out. (Harvard Business Review)
Is prompt engineering dead? One expert describes what HR should focus on instead. (HR Executive)
Most Work is Translation: And LLMs are the first universal translators for work. (ACD)
Employers report tightened social media policies in wake of political upheaval. (HR Dive)
71% of Workers Untrained in AI as Adoption and Expectations Surge. (Stock Titan)
From 0 to $1.25B: How Linear grew without over-hiring. (Rippling)
SHRM: 15% of US jobs at heightened risk of automation. (HR Dive)
‘We are going to destroy jobs faster than we can replace them’: The CEO whose 80% stock plunge personified the dotcom bubble on AI’s impact. (Fortune)
Wow, the part about LinkedIn's AI hiring data really stood out to me, that 71% stat is wild but understandable from a tech perspective. You're so right though, 'skill without culture is brittle' is a perfect way to put it. We see that often; a brilliant coder who just can't gel with the team makes the whole sytem less resilient. Maybe the cultural 'core' needs to be more about fostering adaptability and continuous learning as much as pure EQ for the tech space.