HR executives are tasked with the increasingly challenging job of filling the ranks of the C-suite—and that includes the future leadership of their own function. The next generation of HR leaders is going to be—and needs to be—distinctly different than today’s, experts say, a reality current executives must consider as they strategize for long-term sustainability.

As winners of this year’s HR’s Rising Stars competition, Prerna Ajmera, general manager, HR digital strategy & innovation, at Microsoft, and Gabrielle Rodman, global senior talent projects & programs lead at Dell Technologies, have unique insights on the next class of HR leaders. Ajmera and Rodman recently shared what will define this future bench of talent—and how HR can take advantage of these differentiators to shape success.

3 realities about future HR leaders

An AI-native generation

The HR talent that will be entering organizations in the coming years aren’t just equipped to use AI—they will be AI natives, Ajmera notes.

“They’re going to bring to the table a very different way of working,” she says. That creates “huge potential” for the future of HR leadership, she says.

Ajmera points to Microsoft’s research on the emergence of the “Frontier Firm”—the organization that will eventually have a hybrid human-AI workforce, which can help it scale and drive growth rapidly. In the journey toward that future state, she says, many organizations are still on the first phase: employees interacting with AI as a thought partner—consulting the tech to answer questions or write summaries. During the second stage, AI becomes a real teammate, a progression that, she says, the rise of agentic AI will facilitate.

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By the final stage, humans become “agent bosses,” setting the direction while agents execute.

Future HR leaders, themselves AI natives, will be critical to making these new operating models sustainable. And they need to have a voice today in what that will look like, Ajmera says.

“Imagine this future AI native team coming into play,” she says. “How are you going to enable and empower them?”

Skills beyond the tech

While the next generation will bring advanced tech know-how, they have a “beautiful set of hybrid skills,” Ajmera says, including being “highly” sensitive to how decision-making, including around technology, affects people.

“I can speak for my own son, who’s very people-focused,” she says. “It’s the way this generation is growing up in this world: They equally think about purpose and diversity and ethics.”

This rising talent, for instance, could be a key contributor as HR teams determine ethical AI questions, such as who are the “first responders” exercising human control over the tech?

“With our HR services team, we’ve been talking about how they have managed transactions—new hires and hundreds of transfers—but what will that look like when they become agent managers, because the agents are going to be doing all of that work?” Ajmera says. “It’s the notion of understanding the end-to-end aspect [of AI integration].”

That has to be “intentional and thoughtful,” with a focus on people, Ajmera says.

With the right support, the incoming class of HR leaders is ideal to lead this work, Rodman says.

“Expect a generation of HR leaders who are tech-enabled, purpose-led—and very eager to drive positive change,” she says.

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