What is a CPO in the age of AI? Andy Doyle on becoming Kantar’s chief people and agent officer
Andy Doyle has one of the more unusual job titles in HR right now: chief people and agent officer. In this episode of What is a CPO, our mini-series from The People Agenda podcast, Andy sits down with hosts Debbie Mitchell and James McClintick to explain what that title actually means, and why he thinks every CPO will need a version of it soon.
Redefining the CPO role
Andy has led HR teams at ITV, Worldpay, National Grid and now Kantar, the market research and business intelligence consultancy. But he’s clear that the job has changed. He now describes the CPO as: “The architects of the human capability of an organisation, not the custodian of process.” That shift, from process owner to workforce architect, sits behind everything else in this conversation.
Listen to the full episode of The People Agenda:
Why Kantar merged people and AI
Kantar’s answer to that shift was to put people and agentic technology under one function. As Andy puts it: “The workforce of tomorrow is both human and agentic. If you think about those things in different ways, you’re missing a trick.” Debbie picks up on this too. As she says: “AI becoming a workmate, not a work tool” is exactly what’s changing what people expect from it at work. Andy is honest that the decision has caused friction inside Kantar, alongside real progress, including 90% daily Copilot usage across the organisation.
Rebuilding the business partner model
Some of the most practical detail in the episode covers what Andy actually changed. Kantar split its business partner community in two: a smaller senior group working like an internal consulting practice, and a larger pooled team assigned to specific transformation projects. James asks the question a lot of listeners will be thinking: “It sounds very human resources, doesn’t it, deploying humans?” Andy doesn’t dodge it. He admits the change hasn’t been easy, and that Kantar is still adjusting it eight months in.
What comes next
Looking ahead, Andy argues the CPOs who succeed will be the ones who are genuinely technology literate, not just AI-aware, because that’s what lets you redesign work rather than automate the version you already have.
In brief
- Andy Doyle explains why he sees the modern CPO as the architect of human capability, not a process owner
- Kantar has restructured its HR business partner model around a smaller senior consulting group and a pooled delivery team
- Andy sets out why technology literacy, not just AI adoption, will define the next generation of CPOs
If you’re rethinking where AI sits in your people strategy, this episode is a useful place to start.
