By Martín Padulla for staffingamericalatina

In my final column last year, I argued that in 2026 AI would cease to be optional. I am convinced that its emergence will set the organizational pace of this year. To explore this further, I believe it is timely to take a step back—one that may be useful in rethinking our organizations and moving forward strategically.

It is not possible to understand the relevance of AI’s impact on our organizations without addressing the need to dismantle the myth of innovation as a department, a laboratory, or an isolated function. It is imperative to understand that innovation is, fundamentally, an emergent property of organizational culture.

A people-centered focus is the foundation of innovation. There is no room for creation without psychological safety, autonomy, trust, and humanity. Innovation cannot thrive in organizations that view people as resources rather than as sources of value. I will not dwell on my well-known rejection of the term Human Resources; I will simply note, once again, that it is an oxymoron devoid of poetic value—a declaration of principles that is unacceptable and a very poor business strategy.

Humans, more than ever, must contribute ethics, context, creativity, and meaning. AI contributes scale and speed. Because of these contributions, it has become a revolutionary actor in the world of work. Without necessarily replacing people, AI reconfigures roles, decisions, and responsibilities.

When we talk about hybrid teams, we are no longer referring solely to people working from different locations under diverse work arrangements, but to teams composed of human talent and artificial intelligence collaborating in real time under those same conditions. The news is not hybridity itself, but its growing sophistication.

The culture of innovation, therefore, is not about adopting AI, but about how people relate to it.

A culture of experimentation and learning fosters human–AI co-creation. Cultures based on punishment, control, or fear, by contrast, generate resistance and the underutilization of AI. AI does not replace leaders; it exposes obsolete leadership. It strips away the transactional and highlights the importance of the transformational.

Our research shows that the true gap organizations will face will not be technological, but cultural. Organizations that adopt AI with a 20th-century culture will not innovate. They may optimize the past, but they will never explore the future. Without a culture of innovation, AI merely accelerates what already works poorly.

So, what truly matters in terms of capabilities for this new way of working and managing people? Which competencies must be developed—through diverse ways of acquiring knowledge—when AI becomes an operational and cognitive partner?

In my view, there are five essential ones:

• Critical thinking: It is imperative to learn how to question AI and avoid trusting or accepting its outputs unquestioningly.
• Curation: Developing assertiveness in crafting prompts, asking good questions, testing plausible hypotheses, and distinguishing what is relevant from what is superficial will be crucial.
• Ethical judgment: Human responsibility and oversight will be non-negotiable. Deciding which decisions should not be automated is already an ethical dilemma that must be resolved with integrity.
• Meaning and purpose: These essential inputs will never be produced by AI. The true competitive advantage will not belong to those with more AI, but to those with better human talent working alongside it with meaning, purpose, and impact. Leaders manage not only people, but interactions—socio-technical systems with purpose.
• Continuous learning: The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn throughout life is the final capability I highlight. It is, however, transversal to the other four. Continuous learning across diverse competencies encompasses them all and is the foundation of transformation. It is not possible to hack culture without hacking oneself—without leaving the comfort zone.

In a scenario marked by human diversity, algorithmic diversity, expanded (non-human) cognitive diversity, and diverse ways of acquiring knowledge and working, the expansion of alternatives, simulation capacity, and learning speed creates unprecedented opportunities. Innovation emerges from friction that is well led.

The real challenge for Latin America will stem directly from whether it chooses to position itself as a consumer or a designer of intelligence. Will we use AI merely to reduce costs and increase efficiency, or will we design hybrid and flexible work models that generate innovation and global value?

These lands can be fertile ground to bring to life the best piece of business advice Richard Branson ever received. This week, the Virgin Group leader shared publicly that he received it at a very young age from his mother: “See every day as a fresh chance to try something new.”

I believe our region should become a natural laboratory for diverse, flexible forms of work, where a diverse, resilient, creative talent—historically underutilized by transactional, control-oriented cultures—can fully unleash its potential through the design of cultures of innovation and transformational leadership.

In this part of the world, bureaucracy can give way to humanocracy, and workforce solutions can become the architects of new hybrid work systems, integrating people, technology, and AI with ethics and purpose.

We have—and we can create—more and better talent. We must organize it in new ways. Workforce solutions can help create more human, innovative, and inclusive work systems.

The cards are on the table.

True innovation will not be technological; it will be cultural.

Photo of Kvalifik in Unsplash