For companies to fully integrate AI, their HR leaders are going to require more training
For chief people officers, a company’s human assets are their ranking concern. But with the rise of AI, more HR leaders are being called on to be tech experts, too.
That could be a reason not for anxiety but, rather, exhilaration on the part of CHROs.
“This is the most exciting time to be in the HR profession,” said Karalee Close, global lead of talent and organization at consultancy Accenture. “You are going to shape the future of this company like there’s no tomorrow.”
Accenture’s latest research report, “Reinventing Enterprise Models in the Age of Generative AI,” co-written by Close, reveals that three times more gen AI budgets are spent on technology as opposed to people, while just one-third of executives have devised a roadmap for how tech will reshape their workforce.
While tech leaders tend to dominate headlines about the implementation of AI, the research stresses that the technology’s successful integration hinges not on tech alone but also on the human element, where HR’s expertise rules.
It says something that of all organizational roles, HR and IT are expected to see the greatest job growth in the coming years, with projected increases for both fields through 2033, according to a study from marketing tech firm Linkee.ai. That suggests that “human oversight of increasingly automated processes will be vital as we navigate the evolving workplace landscape,” a spokesman for Linkee.AI. said.
Meanwhile, the Accenture study, based on 2,000 gen AI projects and responses from 3,000 c-suite executives, finds that just 13% of companies implementing AI at scale are seeing real value from it. The differentiator? Organizations that are successfully leveraging AI happen to score 88% higher in their workforce-reshaping capabilities.
That means HR is primed to evolve from a traditional support function to a strategic driver of AI-powered organizational change, the research suggests — a shift that requires chief people officers to reimagine fundamental aspects of talent management.
Principally, HR should be leading the evolution of their workplaces from job-based to skills-based, Close emphasizes.
“The skills taxonomies that exist in a lot of organizations are pretty immature,” she said, explaining that in an AI-driven environment, the unit of measurement shifts from jobs to skills and tasks. Thus, HR leaders who create systems allowing employees to identify growth opportunities and chart personalized development journeys will empower teams to adapt alongside the technology.
Close also proposes that it is upon HR to craft the narrative around AI implementation in their organizations, since framing matters a great deal when introducing AI-driven systems.
As Close explained, “If you announce in a call center that you’re going to identify all the call center activities, it might sound wonderful to some, but to the call center people, they’re like, ‘Wait, what’s our job?’” Alternatively, positioning the tech as a tool to provide better service to customers generates enthusiasm rather than fear.
Meanwhile, the emergence of an agentic workforce raises questions only HR can address. Should AI agents be onboarded like human employees? Should they be trained on company culture and behavioral norms? Those are not merely theoretical considerations but practical challenges requiring HR expertise.
Close stresses that successful AI integration happens where HR and IT intersect with company leadership. While firms focus on change adoption or simply implementing new systems, they often lack discipline in adapting teams to work with the technology — a gap that may represent HR’s greatest opportunity of all, as AI becomes more integral across organizations.
“HR needs to be at the table early when [new technology] is being introduced because when the way people work starts to shift, they look to HR for direction,” said Christina Cherniawsky, director of people and culture at Blackbird.ai, whose platform protects enterprises against risk. “All too often, AI decisions are made in tech or product silos,” she said. “And by the time HR is looped in, we’re playing catch-up instead of guiding change.”
Cherniawsky added that it is the job of HR to “help employees understand what AI is doing, how it connects to their work, and how it aligns with our mission and values.”
HR’s transformation to tech guide won’t be easy. Close notes that many HR people are not as tech-savvy as they could be, pointing to the need for more training on AI’s capabilities and limitations.
And yet the rewards can be extraordinary — not just in terms of organizational efficiency but when it comes to fostering more fulfilling work experiences for team members, seeing as AI eliminates a range of pain points in current workflows.
Again, AI’s successful implementation is largely about training — training HR leaders as well as the rank and file. As Close explains, “We need to start maybe with the education of the HR function before everything.”