As demographic pressure intensifies and labor markets tighten, organizations are confronting a new reality: traditional workforce planning models no longer capture the full picture of available talent. New research from Deloitte Insights argues that the next era of competitive advantage will depend on making the invisible visible — uncovering hidden capability, capacity, and potential across the workforce ecosystem. Richard Stein, CEO of talent intelligence advisor HSiQ – a Hunt Scanlon Company – explores what this shift means for talent intelligence and why it sits at the center of modern workforce strategy.
The global workforce is shrinking. Fewer people are entering the labor market, while a growing share of experienced workers are reaching retirement age.
Deloitte Insights notes that by 2030, one in six people globally will be over the age of 60, and more than a quarter of the world’s population now lives in countries where the working-age population is declining.
This is not a short-term labor imbalance – it is a structural demographic shift reshaping how organizations must think about talent.
In response, many organizations are looking to artificial intelligence as a solution to workforce shortages. But Deloitte’s research cautions against treating AI as a form of labor arbitrage. When AI is used simply to replace work, it erodes differentiation because competitors can deploy the same tools.
Instead, Deloitte frames the economy as fundamentally human-powered, driven by creativity, judgment, and empathy – capabilities that cannot be automated away without sacrificing long-term value.
This framing challenges the foundations of traditional workforce planning.
From Visible Talent to Hidden Capacity
As Deloitte explains, most organizations plan around visible capability – job experience, credentials, and formal skills – and visible capacity, measured through headcount or utilization. Yet what is visible often represents only a fraction of what is actually available across the broader workforce ecosystem.
A central insight from Deloitte’s study is the need to shift from planning around visible workers to uncovering hidden capability and capacity. Hidden capacity exists in adjacent skills, underutilized employees, extended workforces, and the ways AI can augment – not replace –human performance.
“Most organizations are planning around what they can easily see, not what they can actually unlock,” said Richard Stein, CEO of Greenwich-based HSiQ. “Talent intelligence becomes essential when the real opportunity sits in overlooked skills and nontraditional contributors.”
“Most organizations are planning around what they can easily see, not what they can actually unlock.”
Deloitte emphasizes that unlocking this potential requires a systems-level view of work – rethinking how tasks are distributed, how people are deployed, and how work itself is redesigned to maximize impact rather than activity.
Beyond Build, Buy, Borrow, and Bot
For decades, workforce planning revolved around four levers: build talent internally, buy it through hiring, borrow it through contractors, or bot it through automation. Deloitte argues that this framework is now incomplete.
A fifth lever, blend, has emerged. Blending human and digital capabilities allows organizations to create force multipliers of productivity, where AI enhances workers’ performance, creativity, and reach. Deloitte refers to this as “convergence,” where the boundaries between human and machine work blur.
“AI’s biggest impact isn’t replacement – it’s amplification,” said Mr. Stein. “The planning challenge shifts from how many people you need to how performance changes when humans and machines work together.”
Deloitte’s research shows that organizations are already recalibrating.
A majority of leaders surveyed now say that making workers redundant after implementing AI was the wrong decision. Instead, organizations are rediscovering that AI delivers speed, while people deliver empathy, judgment, and trust.
Reclaiming Capacity by Fixing the Work
Deloitte also points to a less obvious source of capacity: time. Its research indicates that a significant portion of employees’ daily work does not contribute meaningfully to organizational value. Highly trained professionals often spend hours on administrative or low-impact tasks that dilute their effectiveness.
“This is the shift from workforce planning to workforce intelligence.”
By deconstructing roles and eliminating nonessential work, organizations can unlock capacity without hiring. Deloitte highlights examples where redistributing work freed specialists to operate at the top of their capability – boosting productivity, engagement, and retention simultaneously.
“Capacity isn’t just about adding people,” Mr. Stein noted. “It’s about removing friction so the people you already have can focus on what actually creates value.”
Broadening the Talent Lens
Another major theme in Deloitte’s study is the need to broaden how organizations define their workforce. Gig workers, freelancers, alliance partners, and extended labor models already account for a significant share of how work gets done – yet they are often excluded from workforce planning altogether.
Deloitte also highlights the opportunity within “hidden workers,” including caregivers, veterans, neurodiverse individuals, and people without traditional credentials. These populations often possess transferable skills that do not show up in conventional talent systems but represent a critical source of future capacity.
Talent intelligence plays a central role here. By integrating internal and external data, mapping skills rather than titles, and analyzing workforce signals beyond the balance sheet, organizations can surface capability that would otherwise remain invisible.
Why Talent Intelligence Matters Now
Deloitte’s research makes one thing clear: demographic constraints and skill gaps are shrinking the margin for error in workforce strategy. Leaders can no longer rely on static org charts, backward-looking credentials, or intuition alone.
“This is the shift from workforce planning to workforce talent intelligence,” said Mr. Stein. “The organizations that win will be the ones that can see their talent clearly, move it fluidly, and multiply its impact.”
HSiQ Insights Lab was created to examine exactly this intersection – where data, technology, and human potential converge. As the workforce contracts, advantage will not come from doing more with less. It will come from seeing more of what already exists – and using it intelligently.
For more information on how HSiQ can help your business succeed, please contact us today.
Article By
Richard Stein
Richard Stein is CEO of HSIQ. He has a distinguished career supporting the C-suite of many of the world’s top corporations and financial services organizations in all aspects of talent acquisition, development and retention. Richard is one of the industry’s top advisors with experience across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
