Don’t ‘wash everything in AI’: HR leaders chart realistic course for AI
As HR leaders plan for another new year ahead, they find the business of managing people at a crossroads between tech innovation and the evolution of the human-centric workplace — and they’ve got a full plate of challenges before them.
In recent conversations with industry professionals at HR tech events and elsewhere, several key priorities emerged that will help define the agenda in 2025, ranging from a more cautious approach regarding AI-powered solutions to enhanced employee benefits and company culture.
Here’s some of what people managers expect as they gear up for Q1.
A measured approach to AI
The rush to adopt the latest AI tools has resulted in what David Lloyd, chief AI officer at the HR tech company Dayforce, describes as a moment necessitating careful discretion.
With so much confusion and many questions surrounding AI, it’s no wonder so many of us — including himself — feel like “we need an AI therapist,” as Lloyd put it. But enlisting the hot tech of the moment doesn’t have to be so complicated. “Of every 10 ideas we see come through, three need AI,” he said, cautioning against viewing automation as a universal solution. “Generative AI, especially, looks like a massive hammer — and everything looks like a nail right now. So, be careful.”
Eric Glass, chief marketing and communications officer at Dayforce, likewise emphasized a measured approach, describing how his company deliberately chose not to simply “wash everything in AI.” Instead, Dayforce has focused on developing practical use cases that enhance productivity and efficiency, in areas like accessing company data and managing time-off requests.
For organizations looking to develop their AI capabilities, a yearlong-plus study of more than 10,000 workers across 18 industries by the coaching platform BetterUp and Stanford University’s Social Media Lab revealed that success depends heavily on the employee’s own point of view.
“What we get out of AI depends on our mindset going in,” said Moritz Sudhof, vp of AI at BetterUp. The research identifies two distinct approaches: “pilots” who approach AI with agency and optimism and “passengers” who are more concerned about negative impacts on their work and autonomy.
Lee Gonzales, director of AI transformation at BetterUp, emphasized that traditional training approaches won’t do. “Normal training is not going to effectively meet this moment of AI disruption — and frankly, a lot of people are struggling to know where to start,” he said. Instead, organizations need to create environments where employees can experience genuine, paradigm-shifting “a-ha” moments, he advised.
System integration and employee experience
Another focus in 2025 may have organizations addressing fragmented HR functions, which have led to peak inefficiency and significant headaches for teams.
Glass pointed out that employers often operate with up to a dozen different systems across various HR domains — from payroll to benefits — creating technical complexities and organizational silos. It’s the motivation behind Dayforce’s rollout next year of a range of new features to its product suite, announced at the company’s annual convention in Las Vegas last week.
Those enhancements include Dayforce AI Agents, designed to automate time-consuming tasks and simplify workflows across HR, pay, time, talent and analytics by interfacing with the company’s Dayforce Co-Pilot feature, and Dayforce Communications, a unified platform enabling HR teams to craft mass, scalable correspondence and streamline communications across multiple channels.
“If you’re disconnected in terms of your talent acquisition and then from your talent management and your learning … when you think about the employee experience that’s trying to run through that, it’s just not simple,” Glass said.
Workplace flexibility and culture building
With the RTO debate still raging, the evolution of workplace models is sure to demand more attention in the coming year, with employers continuing to seek the most innovative, workable ways to maintain connections in remote and hybrid environments.
Art Cruz, senior manager of people and culture at Chosen Foods, a marketer of avocado oil-based products, emphasized the importance of building culture through listening rather than dictating.
“Culture is our No. 1 priority — but it’s not just about having pizza parties,” he said. The company’s various employee activities, including yoga classes, massage therapy sessions and a hiking club, are all planned by the employees themselves, not management, Cruz said. That way, the company ensures team members are getting perks they value most.
For companies with dispersed workforces such as his own, maintaining culture will continue to require intensive effort, Cruz said, pointing out features at Chosen Foods like coordinated meal deliveries for in-office as well as remote employees during all-hands meetings and a “tree of life” at headquarters where employees can share life milestones. Remote workers are the most actively engaged when it comes to the tree of life initiative, he noted — proving that remote employees don’t necessarily have to be distant employees.
Breaking down HR silos
Many companies, particularly larger ones, still treat talent acquisition/retention and talent management/development as separate domains, creating arguably artificial barriers that can hinder organizational effectiveness. To the mind of Steve Knox, vp of global talent acquisition at Dayforce, that siloed approach is long overdue for change in organizations.
Why are such seemingly interconnected disciplines so often divided in the first place? “HR has done it to themselves — we’re all unique specialists doing our own thing,” Knox said. As a result, business leaders ultimately get disconnected guidance from multiple HR touchpoints when what they really want is one, linear solution to talent challenges.
Knox and his colleague, global vp of human resources Katie Meyers, have purposefully broken down the traditional barriers, creating a more joined-up partnership aimed at attracting employees as well as advancing them.
Joining forces enables understanding of what is appealing to team members and prospective ones across a range of demographics, Meyers said, adding, “Employment currency looks different to everyone.”