Laurent Aufils, Chief People Officer at Orange Business: AI Transformation Is a People Project
What if the biggest mistake companies make with AI transformation is treating it as a technology problem? Laurent Aufils, Chief People Officer at Orange Business, knows that it’s all about people.
In this episode, Kathi Enderes sits down with Laurent to explore how one of the world’s leading digital services companies transformed its entire 30,000-people workforce through a people-first approach to generative AI.
The results are concrete and striking. Orange Business’s AI-powered contract management tool slashed what previously took teams weeks of painstaking analysis to under three hours — fundamentally disrupting not just how people work, but how they understand the value they bring. Rather than letting 30,000 people go and rehiring AI specialists, Laurent and his team made a bold choice: there will always be a human in the loop. That principle became the foundation of everything — the cultural compass that kept employees from fearing the future and turned anxiety into engagement.
The numbers tell the story. Among employees who went through Orange Business’s reskilling and upskilling programs, employee Net Promoter Scores shot from a modest +8 to a remarkable +41. Over 90% of the company’s workforce is now trained in generative AI, and more than 60% use it as a regular part of their daily work. AI certifications became a business objective on par with financial targets, and the company won contracts specifically because clients knew their teams had the credentials to back up their pitch.
But perhaps the most powerful insight Laurent shares is about learning. In the AI era, learning is no longer a one-time investment or a classroom event; it is a continuous business capability, and it must be embedded into the rhythm of everyday work.
Orange Business’s YouTime initiative — dedicating three hours per month per employee to learning — changed the entire mindset of the organization. Paired with an 11,000-member internal generative AI community, it created the kind of grassroots momentum that no top-down mandate ever could. Laurent’s advice to CHROs and HR leaders: stay humble, keep experimenting, and never let technology outpace your people.
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