<p>The Future of Work (FOW) has evolved from a question of jobs and skills into a fundamental international business organizing challenge. Digitalization, artificial intelligence, automation, platform intermediation, and geopolitical fragmentation jointly reshape how work is decomposed, allocated, coordinated, and governed across borders. These shifts pressure key assumptions in canonical theories of the multinational enterprise (MNE)—especially the primacy of hierarchical internalization and the durability of location-based arbitrage—without rendering their core insights obsolete. Anchored in internalization theory and internationalization process models augmented by research on ecosystems, dynamic capabilities, global virtual work, and algorithmic control, this paper introduces an Adaptive Ecosystem Orchestration (AEO) framework that conceptualizes the MNE as an orchestrator of cross-border work systems spanning employees, contractors, AI-enabled processes, and external ecosystem partners. The AEO framework specifies interrelated organizing elements linking MNE work-system configurations to the Theory of the MNE under conditions of technology disruption, workforce transformation, and institutional and geopolitical reconfiguration. It develops testable propositions, outlines research designs, and suggests measurable indicators to support empirical work.</p>