Transform 2026: What to do about Transformation Overload?

Many companies have already launched AI pilot projects or are using AI on a broad scale. However, role models, responsibility structures, and talent architectures often remain unchanged. A current study by the consulting firm Deloitte shows that the bottleneck in AI transformation is no longer in the technology itself, but in organizational design, governance maturity, and the redefinition of work.

Nina Moeller, Managing Director, Materna TMT, already describes it in the title of her talk at Transform. In many places, there is “Transformation Overload.” Transformation is no longer just a time- and organizationally limited project, but the permanent state across the entire company, in which numerous transformation and change initiatives run in parallel.

The result is Transformation Overload: disorientation, overwhelm, and declining effectiveness, as change projects compete for time, attention, and resources. In her view, the focus in the future will no longer be on the successful management of individual change projects. Instead, companies will have to orchestrate change as a permanent state.

Josephine Hofmann, Deputy Head of the Research Division for Work Design and Corporate Organization at Fraunhofer IAO, addressed in her talk what the increased use of AI does to employees, especially to managers.

AI unsettles employees

For example, the AI agent colleague leads to general unease. Employees wonder what they and their work are still worth if the AI often performs their tasks faster and around the clock. If AI takes over tasks from humans, there is also a risk of de-skilling: If the human employee no longer performs tasks regularly, they may forget skills. Finally, AI in the team can also lead to changed social behavior among employees, as current studies show.

To manage these and other changes, Hofmann proposes a whole bundle of measures. These include, for example, a shared knowledge pool and a collaboratively maintained prompt library – know-how prepared and provided by the team largely on its own initiative.

Regarding employee training on digital topics “from above,” there is still much room for improvement, according to a survey by Bitkom Research. Most companies offer training on digital topics for selected employees – but only 14 percent train all or almost all employees.

Two-thirds of the surveyed companies train sporadically within the workforce. 40 percent of companies state that employees have no desire for further training on digital topics, an equal number lack the time to train employees, and 28 percent say there is a lack of money for it.

(jo)