---
id: "concept-workflow-redesign"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ Redesign."]
tags: ["operations", "job-design", "human-ai-collaboration"]
related: ["claim-redesign-over-deployment", "framework-aware", "entity-moderna", "action-redesign-workflows", "entity-bcg"]
definition: "The holistic restructuring of business processes to optimize the division of labor between human skills (empathy, critical thinking) and AI capabilities (data processing, automation)."
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-sig-52-genai-threatening-to-workers"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/03/why-gen-ai-feels-so-threatening-to-workers"
sourceTitle: "Why Gen AI Feels So Threatening to Workers"
---
# Workflow Redesign (Automation vs. Augmentation)

**Workflow redesign** is the strategic alternative to simply deploying 'plug-and-play' AI tools with preset prompts. It fundamentally restructures tasks to create **synergies between human workers and Gen AI**, and it is the Redesign step of [[framework-aware]].

**The division of labor:**
- **Automation** — Gen AI is assigned repetitive, data-heavy, and simpler tasks.
- **Human-reserved work** — tasks requiring empathy, creativity, critical thinking, and ethical judgment stay with people.
- **Augmentation** — for tasks where humans and AI perform similarly, AI acts as an assistant, freeing human attention for difficult and ambiguous work.

**Case studies:**
- **[[entity-moderna-d9|Moderna]]** merged its Tech and HR departments (into 'People and Digital Technology') to design AI workflows collaboratively and deliberately decide which functions remain human-led versus automated.
- **Dell** simplified its sales processes *before* introducing AI, avoiding automation of broken workflows.

Structural redesign is what ensures the [[concept-psychological-needs-triad]] is met: **competence** through meaningful contribution, **autonomy** through increased agency, and **relatedness** through human-centered roles. [[entity-bcg-d52|BCG]] data shows redesigners outperform tool-deployers — see [[claim-redesign-over-deployment]] and the operational step [[action-redesign-workflows]].

**Enrichment note:** McKinsey and BCG independently argue value emerges from end-to-end process redesign rather than isolated pilots; 'vastly superior' is a qualitative emphasis, not a published effect size.


## Related across articles
- [[concept-ai-augmentation-strategy-d9]]
- [[concept-augmentation-vs-automation]]