In June 2025, UNLEASH published an exclusive interview with Tracey Franklin, Chief People and Digital Technology Officer at Moderna, on the decision to merge HR and IT into a single department (People and Digital Technology). It is the only detailed primary source on this move, which positions Moderna as a precursor closely watched by HR-tech analysts.
Franklin joined Moderna in 2019, when the company had 800 employees in Massachusetts. Six years later, Moderna has 5,000 employees worldwide, with $3.2 billion in revenue. The HR+IT merger, Franklin says, "isn't just about consolidation – it's a deliberate move to close the gap between the people who shape culture and those who build the systems that support it".
The central thesis is a redefinition of the unit of planning. Where IT planned technology and HR planned workforce in separate silos, Moderna shifts to "work planning": "a holistic view of what work is being done, and architect the most optimal workflows and resources to match". The method: start with "what are we trying to accomplish?", then derive the technology that enables the work and the human capabilities required. Signature phrase: "architect the flow of work".
For Franklin, the traditional model separating talent and technology is "increasingly outdated". She recommends the merger to organizations "ready to embrace the integrated lines between people, systems and the flow of work", while noting that it is not universal — it requires a solid foundation and serious commitment.
On AI, Moderna is positioned as an "AI company since the early days." The OpenAI partnership enabled the deployment of more than 3,000 custom GPTs (a 4x increase from the 750 documented a year earlier). On the HR side, Franklin highlights the Ask HR GPT: a "front door" that routes questions to specialized GPTs (performance, career, benefits) and feeds a policy-improvement loop. On AI agents, she remains cautious: "a powerful accelerator… but success depends on staying grounded in real business needs with strong data, governance, and change foundations".
The 2030 vision is explicit: building "a truly adaptive organization – one where people, technology, and work are continuously realigned". The fundamental shift is ontological: "We're shifting from a people-only lens to a systems view", where this system includes humans and AI agents working side by side. The HR mission becomes preparing "a new kind of culture that's ready to manage this blended future".
By placing the HR+IT merger at the heart of an adaptive-organization strategy, this piece turns the Moderna anecdote into a conceptual model later taken up by Josh Bersin (October 2025) and the business press as a signal of a structural shift.