HR In The Age Of AI: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities

Practical strategies for leveraging AI in HR

In HR leadership, few topics generate as much curiosity, excitement, and trepidation—as artificial intelligence (AI). The topic evokes both fear and hope, from the boardrooms to the breakrooms alike. Will AI make jobs obsolete, or will it unlock human potential in unprecedented ways? Can HR leaders leverage this technology without compromising humanity in the workplace? Or will it replace HR eventually?

The good news is that you’re not alone in wrestling with these questions. And with a thoughtful approach, AI can become an HR leader’s most powerful ally. A recent McKinsey Global Institute report states approximately, “60 percent of all occupations have at least 30 percent of activities that could be automated.”  Imagine what you do today and a third of the tedious tasks you do is automated. Let’s explore how.

HR and Leadership

After decades of work with HR executives and their teams, one relevant theme persists – how to elevate HR from order-taker to strategic partner, from check-the-box mentality to executive impact focus. While HR must perform processes that require the mundane, here is where AI can break through to free up from the tedious aspects the role demands.

Fear and Hope: The Dual Edges of AI in HR

Fear of AI often stems from uncertainty—an understandable reaction to something we don’t fully understand. However, as AP News recently reported, “CEOs overwhelmingly recognize that AI will impact their business model in some way — with about 73% (of those we spoke to in a) predict … that AI would cause a shift in their business model.” (Source: AI is becoming ingrained in businesses across industries. Where is it going in 2025?)  

We need to shift the fear to curiosity and see what is possible. Because AI offers immense promise. Imagine automating “everything from online psychometric assessments to find the most capable candidates to chatbots that answer candidates’ questions about the application process and deliver progress updates on the hiring process.” (Source: The Times)  This is significant!

How AI Can Impact Every Person to Their Advantage

Let’s be clear: AI will replace people but its most significant power is here to replace tasks that can leverage analytics and streamline the work that is the most tedious as well as provide inspiration, creativity and innovation.  Here are a few examples.

1. Unburdening Workloads

• According to McKinsey, 60% of all occupations have at least 30% of automatable activities. (McKinsey, 2022).  Think data entry, scheduling, and payroll—tasks that, let’s face it, don’t inspire your team’s creativity or growth.

2. Personalized Development Plans

• AI-powered platforms like BetterUp can provide employees with tailored coaching and training suggestions based on their unique career aspirations. SurePeople helps customize team dynamics by understanding each of the team members’ profiles with AI, provides compare and contrast of teams as a whole as well as one-on-one tips when working with different profiles.

3. Fostering Inclusion

• Tools like Textio help eliminate biased language in job descriptions, opening doors for more diverse talent pools. Alternatively, you could ask ChatGPT to review a job description to ensure inclusive language and enable a better outcome. 

By offloading mundane tasks, AI frees up time for HR teams to focus on high-impact activities: building culture, driving engagement, and leading meaningful change.

The Right Tools for the Right Tasks

The AI landscape can feel like a candy store—overwhelming in its variety. Here are a few tools worth considering, categorized by purpose:
 

• Recruitment: Platforms like HireVue and LinkedIn Talent Insights streamline candidate screening, using AI to analyze resumes and assess video interviews.
• Fun fact: HireVue’s algorithms can reduce unconscious bias by evaluating objective data rather than subjective first impressions.
• Employee Engagement: Tools like CultureAmp and Peakon use AI to gather and analyze employee feedback, identifying areas where your workforce feels disconnected or undervalued. You can customize the feedback to provide the top themes and ask for it to provide recommendations. 
• Learning and Development: AI-powered learning platforms such as Degreed and EdCast provide personalized training content, keeping employees engaged and ahead of industry trends.
• Administrative Tasks: Chatbots like Workday Assist answer routine HR queries (think: “How many PTO days do I have left?”), saving valuable time.

Integration: Bringing AI into HR Teams Thoughtfully

AI’s potential will only be realized if it’s integrated thoughtfully. Here’s a roadmap:

1. Start with a Clear Purpose

• What will make your team proud 2-3 years from now with how you will level up HR’s impact on the business? 
• What is the work that only your team can and should be doing? 
• Identify pain points. Is your team drowning in administrative tasks? Are you struggling to retain top talent? Use these challenges to define your (AI) goals and see where AI could potentially help you.

2. Involve Your Team with a Curious and Positive Mindset

• Transparency is key. Involve your team in selecting and implementing AI tools. It builds trust and reduces fear. 
• Learn together, for there is no way to learn it all, so consider a divide-and-conquer approach by having small groups research opportunities to automate with AI. “Test and measure” in pilot projects. And realize even by the time you evaluate a certain set of AI tools, more will be on the market. 
• Get excited about what is possible as you are learning new ways of working

3. Test, Learn, and Adapt

• Pilot programs are your best friend. Start small, measure impact, and tweak as needed.
• Revisit regularly to assess progress and reevaluate new AI tools. 
• Be sensitive to the impact this work will make on specific jobs. Not everyone will adopt new processes, so honor what has been before jumping in to adopting a new way. 

4. Prioritize Ethics

• Ensure your AI solutions align with organizational values. Regular audits can prevent unintended biases and uphold fairness.
• Consider appointing an AI ethics officer or establishing a cross-functional team to oversee AI initiatives.

Developing Teams for an AI-Driven Future

AI isn’t just a tool; it’s a catalyst for growth. HR leaders must ensure their teams are prepared to thrive in this new era.
 

• Upskill Continuously: Provide training on emerging technologies. Coursera’s “AI for Everyone” by Andrew Ng is a great starting point. 
• Cultivate Adaptability: Encourage a growth mindset. Celebrate experimentation and learning from failure. No one is going to have knowledge of all that is out there but to enjoy the learning process and see what is possible will only help advance your team.
• Lead by Example: Use AI tools yourself to demonstrate their value. Show, don’t just tell. For example, try out ChatGPT to demonstrate how you might create an overview of a new process or write a job description. Speaking of leading by example…

Note: this article’s first draft was generated by ChatGPT. Gone are the days when we had to look at a blank screen and get paralyzed by it. Having great prompts can get you started. For example, for this article, I used the following prompt:
 
Once I pressed, enter the first draft of this article was created in seconds providing me with a structure to make my own. With the help of my human editors, I learned I couldn’t rely on the data the AI provided and needed to review the sources more thoroughly. I made sure to weave my own examples into the article as well. Quite frankly, I too learned about AI tools I had never heard of, enabling me to do a deep dive to research which ones were most applicable. 

Please note my expertise is in executive leaders and teams, however, one persistent challenge my HR clients have consistently had over the last 30 years is being relevant and a strategic partner vs. an order taker. AI enables HR leaders to think differently about how we approach our work and frees us up to be more strategic if we decide to. 

A Humorous Aside: AI Doesn’t Have All the Answers

Let’s not forget: AI isn’t infallible. One HR director tested an AI tool for writing job descriptions. The result? A line reading, “Must have 3 years of experience in a technology that’s only 18 months old.” Oops. The lesson? Human oversight is critical. Use AI as an enabler, not a replacement. But think of it to get you 80% there. What is that value regarding time, energy, and impact you can have? Where else might you use that initial 80% of the time?

Final Thoughts: The Human Factor

AI is not the future; it’s the now. As HR leaders, we have a unique opportunity to harness its power while safeguarding the human spirit of the workplace. This requires curiosity, courage, and—above all—compassion.

To paraphrase the legendary Peter Drucker: Technology is a tool. The purpose of a tool is to enhance human effort, not replace it. So, let’s use AI to do what we do best—help people and organizations thrive.

Now, take a deep breath. You’ve got this.

Laura J. Stone partners with executives, emerging leaders, and their teams to increase their strategic and stakeholder impact. She equips them with the skills to focus on what truly matters: fostering high-performing teams, enabling meaningful careers, and results that make them proud. She is the CEO and Chief Catalyst at Laura Stone Inc. Laura is also the author of the Pocket Guide to Purpose Series.  Visit laurastone.com