Episode Details

Volkswagen Group is running two HR playbooks simultaneously: eliminating 50,000 legacy roles while racing to hire battery engineers, software developers, and EV specialists it couldn't have predicted needing a decade ago. The numbers are staggering — 662,000 employees, a 44% drop in net profit, and a deal with Germany's most powerful union to do it all without forced layoffs. In this episode, we break down how VW is managing one of the most complex workforce transformations in corporate history. From AI-assisted screening for hard-to-fill engineering roles, to a company-wide program that trained 130,000 employees on artificial intelligence, to what all of this means for HR leaders navigating their own AI transitions. The VW story isn't just auto industry news. It's a live case study in what enterprise-scale talent transformation actually looks like — and what tools HR teams need to pull it off.