This article is based on the Future of Work Podcast episode “Why AI and ESG Must Evolve Together to Protect the Future of Work” with Kate O’Neill. Click here to listen to the entire episode.

In the rush to innovate, are today’s leaders forgetting why they started? 

Businesses chasing AI without aligning to human-centered metrics risk building beautiful systems that fail spectacularly.

In a recent episode of The Future of Work® Podcast, Kate O’Neill, CEO of KO Insights and a seasoned digital transformation strategist, delivered a critical message to today’s business leaders: you must stop chasing metrics in isolation and start thinking in terms of ecosystems. 

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As AI becomes an increasingly central part of how organizations operate, leaders face a choice: retrofit outdated success models to new technologies, or reimagine the system altogether through the lens of purpose, resilience, and human flourishing.

With a career advising clients as varied as Google, McDonald’s, and the United Nations, O’Neill isn’t a futurist just making vague predictions. She’s a strategist with a clear framework and a call to action to solve AI integration problems: align artificial intelligence initiatives with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles — not in name only, but in measurable, mission-driven ways that track real-world outcomes.

“I think ESG as a concept is valid. It’s not the principles that are wrong. It’s that we’ve been measuring the wrong things,” she said during the podcast conversation. 

This insight forms the cornerstone of O’Neill’s approach. In a world captivated by AI’s predictive capabilities and automation potential, organizations often overlook the encompassing impact of their decisions. 

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Are these technologies improving lives? Are they regenerating ecosystems — social or environmental — rather than extracting from them? Too often, she explains, companies confuse compliance with progress, chasing ESG as a branding exercise instead of a structural transformation.

This critique is not about abandoning ESG or digital transformation. Quite the opposite. It’s about evolving both.

From Checklists to Systems Thinking

The past decade has seen ESG reporting become a staple of corporate responsibility efforts. But O’Neill points out a flaw: ESG frameworks often push businesses to focus on standardized inputs and outputs rather than actual impact. 

These rubrics, while helpful for consistency, can fail to reflect the lived experience of people and communities affected by a company’s operations.

Instead, she argues for aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a framework of 17 interrelated goals with actionable metrics designed to improve life for all — not just shareholders.

To her, that’s a better approach, as most businesses are doing something that could be furthering the SDGs, but they just don’t necessarily realize it.

From water access and infrastructure to gender equality and education, the SDGs provide a nuanced, flexible way for companies to identify where their operations already intersect with meaningful societal progress. 

More importantly, they allow companies to evolve those operations in a direction that’s measurable, values-aligned, and resilient.

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Making ESG Real in the Age of AI

AI technologies are tools that mirror the systems they’re built within. When integrated blindly, AI can amplify inequities and environmental damage. But when aligned with well-defined social goals, it can act as a force multiplier for good.

Consider how companies often rush to replace human labor with AI in the name of efficiency. O’Neill challenges this logic, not just from a social justice perspective but from a business strategy standpoint. In many cases, this kind of substitution overlooks deeper ESG implications — regional job displacement, lost organizational knowledge, reduced resilience in the face of uncertainty.

“Additive” use of AI, she argues, is far more effective than “replacing” strategies. Enhancing human capability, rather than removing it, yields more sustainable organizations.

This philosophy stems from a fundamental distinction O’Neill highlights: the difference between sense-making and prediction.

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Humans interpret, synthesize, and apply judgment. Machines, even the most advanced AI, rely on data and probability. One of her favorite analogies comes from healthcare: a doctor can hear the emotional nuance in a teenager’s “I’m fine” — something no large language model can reliably decode today. 

In complex systems — like health, education, or public infrastructure — nuance matters.

A Fast-Changing Landscape Needs Slow, Strategic Thinking

Much of the anxiety among today’s executives comes from the pace of change. Technology is moving faster than ever, and leaders are under pressure to act quickly or risk irrelevance. But as O’Neill notes, movement alone isn’t enough. Strategic motion — guided by values and grounded in measurable, ecosystem-wide outcomes — is what will separate resilient organizations from fragile ones.

The goal is progress, not perfection, and that progress requires recognizing the trade-offs embedded in every transformation decision.

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We are already seeing early-stage consequences: water-intensive AI data centers straining local ecosystems; workers displaced without meaningful re-skilling pathways; energy use surging in areas already vulnerable to climate stress. 

What Companies Can Do Now

The path forward, according to O’Neill, is rooted in clarity, alignment, and iteration. Businesses don’t need to pivot overnight or rebuild their operations from scratch. They need to take stock of what they already do well, identify the SDG most aligned with their mission, and begin tracking meaningful, relevant metrics that reflect their contribution to a better future.

This can be as simple as adding one SDG-aligned KPI to a leadership dashboard or as complex as redesigning hiring practices to retain knowledge and community ties. What matters most is the intentionality behind the action.

For leaders struggling with how to begin, O’Neill offers practical guidance: don’t wait for perfect information. Move. Learn. Adapt. Align technology strategy with purpose — not in a silo, but as part of a larger ecosystem of human and planetary thriving. Because in the future of work, success will be defined by how wisely we integrated AI into the human systems that sustain us.

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Hangzhou, China (ANTARA/PRNewswire)- AliBtrip, a designated platform specializing in business travel management under Fliggy of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988), has introduced an integrated AI business travel solution. The innovative solution features two key modules: an employee travel agent for personalized planning, and a corporate management agent to streamline financial administration and compliance through data-driven decision-making support.

AliBtrip distinguishes itself from other Travel Management Companies (TMCs) with its unique AI applications and digital transformation management, leveraging Alibaba’s extensive ecosystem. Recent data indicates that AliBtrip serves over 20,000 industry-leading clients and more than one million growth companies, with over 20 million corporate employees booking business trips through the platform.

“The foundation of business travel services lies in trust between employees and companies,” said Zhuoran Zhuang, Vice President of Alibaba Group and CEO of Fliggy. “AliBtrip’s solution aims to transform AI capabilities into tangible benefits, reducing both visible and hidden costs while enhancing value for our clients.”

Addressing the challenges of corporate travel

Unlike consumer-focused solutions, the AI implementation for business travel emphasizes efficiency and compliance at every stage. AliBtrip’s AI solution, powered by multiple intelligent agents, tackles the complexities of corporate travel through a sophisticated division of labor among agents. It integrates long and short-term memory management and real-time deployment of the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Powered by AliBtrip and Fliggy’s extensive data from the hotel and travel sectors, this AI solution draws from a real-time price database for flights, accommodations, transportation, and dining, ensuring practical and effective travel planning.

Optimizing management with intelligent analysis

For businesses, AliBtrip’s AI acts as an expert in administrative and financial management, offering real-time strategic analytics and action support. This capability significantly reduces the transactional workload related to analysis, communication, and compliance.

In addition to its pricing database, AliBtrip’s AI solution can customize exclusive datasets that reflect each corporate client’s travel standards and employee preferences, aligning with the company’s policies and values.

Features such as a strategy center and natural language interaction streamline corporate management, with intelligent cost control options presented in clear, quantitative indicators and intuitive examples for decision-makers, allowing them to make adjustments with a single click. The AI can also analyze historical travel data to identify potential issues proactively.

Enhancing employee satisfaction through streamlined booking

For employees, AliBtrip’s AI simplifies the booking process, alleviating the burden of comparing travel policies and booking transportation, accommodation, and car services separately. The employee travel agent generates comprehensive itineraries based on three key inputs: purpose, time, and destination, linking seamlessly to the travel request in the system. After verifying departure and arrival locations, it autonomously creates the itineraries that include tickets, hotels, and transportation, all while considering factors such as weather and check-in times.

Real-time travel assistance enhances the overall experience, with automatic reminders and recommendations integrated into the travel itineraries that comply with corporate standards. This significantly reduces risks associated with budget overruns or non-compliance.

The AI solution also uncovers cost-saving opportunities often-overlooked; for example, suggesting business class tickets with early departures that could avoid overnight stays or prioritizing hotels that align with employee preferences within budget constraints.

“Employees should be served, not restricted,” said Shenyang Shi, General Manager of AliBtrip, highlighting the philosophical shift underlying the innovative solution. “By leveraging advanced travel planning algorithms and combining intent recognition capabilities with comprehensive datasets and route optimization, the platform demonstrates how AI can reconcile cost management with employee satisfaction, creating value for both businesses and their traveling workforce.”

About Fliggy

Fliggy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988 (HKD Counter) and 89988 (RMB Counter), and is one of the leading online travel platforms in China. Fliggy places a strong emphasis on innovation in its products and services, catering to the increasingly personalized and diversified needs of consumers in both China and overseas markets.

Leveraging Fliggy’s advantage as part of the Alibaba ecosystem, merchants can benefit from the vast user base within the Group. Fliggy also collaborates with partners through a full-service management format, helping more merchants, especially small and medium-sized ones, easily and efficiently share opportunities enabled by digitalization.

Fliggy’s long-term strategy is to promote the digital transformation of the tourism industry, using an open platform and mechanisms to help the industry make better use of digital business infrastructure for their operations.

Source: Fliggy

Reporter: PR Wire
Editor: PR Wire
Copyright © ANTARA 2025

Press Release – Calabrio

Workforce Intelligence, launched this week by Calabrio at its C3 event, is designed to bridge the gap between modern customer expectations and outdated workforce systems.

Customer experience (CX) is now a competitive battleground. In sectors from banking to healthcare, customers expect fast, seamless, and personalised support—often across multiple channels at once. But for the agents tasked with delivering this service, the job has never been harder. Staffing shortages, unpredictable demand, and the complexity of digital interactions mean burnout and turnover are at an all-time high. A new category of workforce technology aims to shift the balance.

Workforce Intelligence, launched this week by Calabrio at its C3 event, is designed to bridge the gap between modern customer expectations and outdated workforce systems. By embedding artificial intelligence at the core, the solution delivers real-time insights and automated support that make life easier for both managers and frontline staff.

Unlike traditional WFM systems, which were built for an earlier era of call-centre operations, Workforce Intelligence continuously adapts to changing conditions. Forecasting, scheduling, and intraday management become smarter and more accurate, reducing the manual tasks that typically bog down teams. The outcome: faster decisions, fewer errors, and more satisfied customers.

For agents, the benefits are tangible. Agent Assist, the platform’s Gen-AI scheduling tool, allows employees to use plain language to check rosters, swap shifts, or request time off. This empowerment fosters greater engagement and flexibility, both of which are critical in an industry where attrition remains a pressing challenge. By humanising the technology, the platform helps organisations not just retain staff but also elevate the quality of service.

The strategic value is equally clear for business leaders. In an era of economic pressure, the ability to improve forecasting accuracy and reduce operational costs is a game changer. As CTO Joel Martins noted: “We pioneered self-scheduling, multi-skill forecasting, and cloud-native WFM—now we’re leading again. Workforce Intelligence gives leaders the agility, cost savings, and real-time visibility they need to outpace change.”

This shift also aligns with broader trends in enterprise technology. Across industries, AI is moving from experimental pilots to mission-critical deployments. By positioning workforce management as a proactive intelligence hub rather than a back-office function, solutions like Workforce Intelligence demonstrate how AI can generate measurable business outcomes—from higher customer satisfaction to improved operational efficiency.

As companies continue to face pressure from both customers and shareholders, the ability to turn every interaction into a strategic advantage will become central. Workforce Intelligence is more than just another tech upgrade—it signals a new chapter in how businesses think about customer service: not as a cost centre, but as a driver of growth and loyalty.

Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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