In his newsletter, "One Useful Thing," professor Ethan Mollick wrote that if companies want to truly reap the advantages of AI, they must lean on employees' expertise. He asserted that this technology's ultimate value will extend far beyond efficiency gains, which means everyone in an organization must understand how and why to use it.

I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I'd go even further and say that HR professionals in particular will play a key role—perhaps the leading role—in overseeing an organization's AI usage. While HR teams' ownership of AI adoption will vary, this responsibility has huge ramifications for nearly all of the functional pillars within the department.

Based on what I'm seeing, many companies are creating AI centers of excellence (COEs) that are overseen by the HR function, and they're considering having CHROs become responsible for leading organizations' use of AI. While that may surprise some, it makes perfect sense because HR already handles sensitive employee data. AI’s impact on people teams could be transformative, allowing them to perform their traditional blocking and tackling more effectively and efficiently, which would free up team members to focus on high-value strategic activities.

What AI Transformation Looks Like In HR

When assessing how AI drives HR transformation, it’s easy to identify processes that the technology won't affect. This includes investigations of employee wrongdoing and ... well, that’s about it. While the HR-employee relationship isn't going away, it will change dramatically. There's already significant AI use in most phases of talent acquisition, like parsing résumés, scheduling interviews, connecting candidates to job requisitions and onboarding.

Robotic process automation solutions, meanwhile, can drive self-service applications that support workforce administration activities. For example, rather than creating a job requisition from scratch, a hiring manager could ask a virtual agent to create one based on a similar position. This kind of advancement reduces the time spent researching market data and drafting job descriptions. AI tools can even find and remove biased language from job descriptions.

Automated technologies can quickly provide employees with the policies, procedures, articles and other information they need to thrive in their roles. Virtual AI agents can field employees’ benefits questions and provide accurate, consistent answers. With AI applications, HR teams can also increase the effectiveness and efficiency of training and development, performance management and succession-planning activities.

4 Considerations For Implementing AI

Of course, these AI advancements raise a big question: What’s the impact on the HR professional? If your department has a high number of tactical roles or team members who are resistant to change, AI adoption may be a challenge. To get employee buy-in, you'll need a firm grasp of how this technology can transform processes and positions so you can address any concerns. Here are four steps for facilitating the necessary changes.

1. Develop an upskilling strategy.

To build a team of AI-proficient professionals, craft a clear upskilling plan. Beyond developing your team's AI knowledge and experience, train them on critical-thinking competencies, consultative skills and—this may sound a bit meta—the ability to help their colleagues figure out which skills they'll need in the future.

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