In this episode of The Talent Transformation Podcast, Avature CEO Dimitri Boylan sits down with Seán Morris at Deloitte’s Washington, DC, office to explore what it takes to lead digital transformation when people are the business. As Deloitte undertakes its largest-ever transformation, HR has emerged as both a proving ground and an accelerant for enterprise change. The conversation moves beyond systems to examine HR transformation best practices, leadership resolve, and how trust shapes everything from adoption to long-term impact.
5 Key Takeaways from Deloitte HR Leaders on Digital Transformation and AI Adoption in HR
- Digital transformation succeeds only when anchored in a hardened vision, one that has been challenged, refined and stress-tested across stakeholders before execution begins.
- HR transformation best practices start upstream, with talent professionals involved early enough to see their fingerprints on the change.
- Leadership buy-in must be visible and sustained, particularly during multi-year transformations that test organizational patience and confidence.
- AI adoption in HR requires deliberate trust-building, with guardrails, transparency and room for experimentation.
- Skills are emerging as a new organizational currency, enabled by technology that can finally handle their complexity at scale.
Why Trust — Not Technology — Determines Transformation
For Morris, the most common failure point in digital transformation is not the technology, but the fragility of alignment behind it. A vision that has not been challenged early will not survive years of scrutiny, resistance and shifting priorities. At Deloitte, strategy is intentionally “hardened” by inviting debate across stakeholders, ensuring the organization can hold steady through both momentum and friction.
This philosophy underpins many of Morris’ tips for HR transformation. Change must be shaped with, not delivered to, the people it affects most. When talent professionals are brought into the process early, adoption becomes a shared outcome rather than a forced one. The same thinking applies to pacing: some transformations demand urgency, others benefit from patience. Knowing the difference is a leadership skill in itself.
That lens becomes even more critical when it comes to AI adoption in HR. Morris argues that HR is the right place to begin, not simply because of the abundance of use cases, but because of its dual responsibility as innovator and steward of people, data and trust. At Deloitte, best practices for AI adoption in HR have rejected the temptation to simply layer new tools on top of existing work. Instead, volunteer communities experiment within clear guardrails, share learning openly and build confidence collectively, proving that credibility matters more than speed.
Looking ahead, Morris sees skills as the most consequential frontier for HR transformation at Deloitte. For decades, organizations aspired to treat skills as a dynamic currency, but technology lagged behind the ambition. That gap is now closing. AI-enabled systems are making it possible to deploy people faster and more accurately, reshaping everything from sourcing to internal mobility and talent experience. In this sense, transformation is not a destination, but a continuous recalibration between capability, opportunity and trust.
I always like to start with a strong vision and strategy — one that’s been challenged and hardened across the organization. Because it will be tested over a multi-year transformation journey.”
Seán Morris
Principal & US Talent Transformation Leader, Deloitte
Listen to the full episode of The Talent Transformation Podcast to hear Seán Morris share lessons from leading Deloitte’s largest-ever digital transformation and rethinking the future of HR.
