From Career Ladder to Career Lattice: Larry Durham on Talent in the Age of AI

As AI changes how work is organized, the familiar career ladder may no longer reflect how people build expertise or move through an organization. In the second installment of a three-part Talent in the Age of AI series, host Wendy Wiseman continues her conversation with Larry Durham about a more flexible model for growth: the career lattice.

The traditional ladder assumes that employees develop through a predictable sequence of roles, with each step adding experience and responsibility. AI is disrupting that sequence by automating or reshaping many of the foundational tasks that once helped early-career employees develop judgment, confidence and practical knowledge. When those experiences change, organizations need more than a revised set of job descriptions. They need new ways to create meaningful development.

Larry’s career lattice replaces a single upward path with movement across projects, roles and experiences. As AI disaggregates jobs into tasks and capabilities, organizations can match people to opportunities more fluidly, support internal mobility and open nontraditional routes to growth. The model recognizes that valuable development can happen in multiple directions rather than through promotion alone.

The conversation also makes clear that flexibility must be intentional. Leaders cannot assume that access to AI or a skills platform will automatically prepare people for what comes next. Talent and learning strategies must preserve the experiences that build capability while making continuous learning, mobility and adaptability part of how work is designed.