What We Did When Employees Were Displaced by Gen AI
When generative AI first captured the world’s attention in 2023, Ivanti didn’t respond with panic or denial. The global software company saw opportunity and responsibility in equal measure. At the center of this thoughtful approach was Brooke Johnson, Chief Legal Counsel, who also serves as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Security. Wearing all three hats, Johnson led Ivanti’s effort to guide its workforce through a technological disruption that upended not just workflows, but roles.
Rather than simply react to the rapid deployment of Gen AI tools across the industry, Ivanti made a strategic decision: define what Gen AI would mean for its people before letting it reshape the company. In her interview with me, she described how Ivanti built a sustainable AI governance model, prioritized transparency and equity, and tackled the complex challenge of employee displacement—not with layoffs, but with reinvention.
Building Guardrails Before Acceleration
The executive team at Ivanti understood early that they needed more than a technical roadmap—they needed principles. Johnson orchestrated a company-wide initiative to examine Gen AI not just as a product enhancer, but as an internal force that could transform, or destabilize, the workplace. This meant asking hard questions: Would Ivanti allow Gen AI to replace jobs outright? Or would it find ways to transition affected employees into new roles?
The result was the formation of the AI Governance Council (AIGC), a cross-functional body designed to translate executive vision into practical policy. It wasn’t a legal body, despite being helmed by someone from the legal team. It included representatives from IT, privacy, product, security, and HR, ensuring that decisions weren’t just compliant but human-centered. Subcommittees focused on compliance, training, and intake—each tasked with helping Ivanti balance innovation with integrity.
One of the council’s foundational concepts came from HR: treat AI like a new hire. Every new AI tool was to be evaluated, supervised, and developed like an employee, not simply deployed and forgotten. This human-centric analogy drove the company’s approach to both onboarding AI and managing the impact it had on real people.
When Jobs Changed, People Stayed
The elephant in the room for every business embracing Gen AI is workforce displacement. But at Ivanti, the commitment to retaining talent was embedded in the company’s values. “We explicitly chose to stay committed to our people,” Johnson explained. “Even if their specific job was changed, our goal was to find another place for them within the organization.”
This wasn’t lip service. The company created a structured intake and review process to evaluate each potential Gen AI use case. Part of that evaluation included a return-on-investment analysis, not just in terms of dollars and hours saved, but in the human cost. Could Gen AI increase efficiency without diminishing employee value?
In many cases, yes. When an AI tool eliminated repetitive tasks, the employee whose work was impacted was retrained for a more strategic role. In fact, AI became a catalyst for internal mobility. “Reliable AI requires human oversight,” said Johnson. “We weren’t just reducing roles—we were redefining them.”
Ivanti’s employee base didn’t just accept the shift. They participated in it. Johnson led internal communication efforts to ensure everyone understood the process. No team could implement a Gen AI-powered solution without passing legal, privacy, and security review. And once approved, tools were deployed in pilot programs with clear metrics for success.
Legal Leadership in an Evolving Landscape
While many companies leave AI governance to technical or operational leaders, Ivanti’s choice to place legal in the lead reflects a deeper understanding of the risks. “We knew Legal couldn’t just come in at the end and sign off,” Johnson noted. “We needed to be part of shaping how AI was implemented from the start.”
That involvement proved crucial. Gen AI tools bring with them thorny issues around privacy, ethics, and bias—many of which sit at the intersection of law and technology. Johnson cited recruiting as a key area of concern. If a Gen AI-powered hiring platform is filtering candidates based on flawed or biased data, how can the company know? Without transparency, the risk of discriminatory outcomes becomes very real.
Ivanti’s legal team focused on making AI explainable. They selected vendors carefully, asking tough questions about training data, error rates, and mitigation of bias. And while the U.S. regulatory landscape remains uncertain, Johnson pointed out that being a global company means aligning with the EU AI Act and other emerging standards. “We’re not going to see the toothpaste go back in the tube on AI,” she said. “So we need to make sure we’re using it responsibly from day one.”
Measuring Impact with Intention
One of the most important challenges in the Gen AI era is quantifying the actual benefits. At Ivanti, that meant developing metrics that went beyond buzzwords and hype. The company tracks ROI through practical measures: hours saved, meetings avoided, and task completion times reduced.
In one example, employees were able to skip hour-long meetings and instead review a five-minute AI-generated summary, saving precious time. “It’s not magic, but it’s real,” said Johnson. “And it adds up.”
To validate these benefits, Ivanti set up a dedicated team to run controlled tests of Gen AI tools within specific teams. Feedback loops were established, and adoption was rolled out gradually to avoid disruption. “You can’t just buy every shiny new tool,” Johnson said. “You have to know if it’s actually worth it—for the business and for the people using it.”
Reimagining Work, Not Replacing Workers
Ivanti’s journey with Gen AI is a case study in how large organizations can approach innovation with empathy. The company embraced transformation without sacrificing its workforce, viewing Gen AI as a collaborator rather than a competitor. By creating governance structures, elevating legal and ethical oversight, and investing in employee adaptation, Ivanti demonstrated what responsible AI adoption looks like in practice.
“We never saw this as just a legal issue or a tech opportunity,” Johnson reflected. “It was always a people question.”
And in that answer, Ivanti found a way forward—one where AI enhances rather than erases human value.
Key Take-Away
A core principle was to treat AI tools like new hires—evaluated, supervised, and trained—emphasizing oversight and accountability in their deployment. Share on XImage credit: Yan Krukau/pexels
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky was lauded as “Office Whisperer” and “Hybrid Expert” by The New York Times for helping leaders use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while cutting costs. He serves as the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote the first book on returning to the office and leading hybrid teams after the pandemic, his best-seller Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage (Intentional Insights, 2021). He authored seven books in total, and is best know for his global bestseller, Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (Career Press, 2019). His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Korean, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he makes sure to spend abundant quality time with his wife to avoid his personal life turning into a disaster. Contact him at Gleb[at]DisasterAvoidanceExperts[dot]com, follow him on LinkedIn @dr-gleb-tsipursky, Twitter @gleb_tsipursky, Instagram @dr_gleb_tsipursky, Facebook @DrGlebTsipursky, Medium @dr_gleb_tsipursky, YouTube, and RSS, and get a free copy of the Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace by signing up for the free Wise Decision Maker Course at https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/newsletter/.