Will AI Replace HR?

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The coming years will undoubtedly bring challenges for HR. Yet within those challenges lie opportunities for the department to prove its strategic leadership role in the age of AI

Lately there seems to be increasing criticism of HR and the much-circulated Coldplay kiss-cam incident featuring an American CEO and CPO over the summer, did little to improve perceptions.

The coming years will undoubtedly bring challenges for HR. Yet within those challenges lie opportunities for the department to prove its strategic leadership role in the age of AI. Granted, not every CHRO or HR leader will see AI or accompanying social change(s) as opportunities, but for those who do, HR could become irreplaceable within their organisation.

In today’s article, I focus only on HR and the impact of AI, namely GenAI.

HR: The neutrality dilemma

Employees often believe HR prioritises the organisation over the individual

When HR does step in, it is frequently viewed as serving compliance rather than addressing the employee’s grievance. As a result, this places HR in the uncomfortable position of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

 The HR value question

There are even those who now question the value HR adds in the age of AI.

There seems to be a lot of social media chatter about this at the moment and it’s not only from AI developers. It’s also not unheard of for some companies to scale from three co-founders to 1,000+ employees without an HR dept. Even where one exists, some still bypass HR, managing recruitment themselves and then only involving HR at the offer stage or, worse, in a panic, calling on HR to clear up a mess caused by them not following proper procedures.

The justification is usually speed with some leaders arguing that in these fast-moving times, low recruitment velocity risks losing top talent. There are even those who now question the value HR adds in the age of AI.

However, while it’s true HR does need to do some heavy lifting, this view overlooks the strategic value HR brings. As I argued in my  recent LinkedIn newsletter article titled: ‘Why CHROs and HR Leaders make good Strategic (AI) Partners to the CEO’, HR can bring insight that no other function can provide.

 HOW DID WE GET HERE?

 Toxic Workplaces

There are also examples when leaders are repeatedly warned about toxic cultures yet fail to act until staff start leaving.  When issues surface, they view HR as obstructive rather than as a partner.

We see the same dynamic with AI, where systems are being deployed in silos with very little to no HR input on Build or Buy decisions, despite clear evidence that much AI is trained on biased data and the issue of privacy violations and concerns keeps coming up too. This has led to lower than expected, AI adoption levels.

 Are people really the organisation’s most important asset?

CEOs frequently claim their people are their greatest asset, yet HR rarely has a seat on the board. Imagine finance or IT not having a voice in board meetings.

Would board members not want visibility on employee turnover, engagement levels, skills gaps or lessons from employment tribunals? 

Would they not want to understand why people leave under NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements), before such cases reach the media or go viral online?

 HR between a rock and a hard place

HR is in an impossible position because it often cannot quantify the value of its work. 

Success is often invisible because prevention is hard to measure. When HR does intervene, it risks being labelled either too bureaucratic or too employee-friendly.

Some commentators online even suggest HR should merge with IT in light of AI. But how realistic is that?

 Can HR really be merged with IT?

Any startup or legacy CEO who believes AI provides an opportunity to sideline HR ignores the reality of AI’s fragile trust levels. AI adoption is slower than predicted, and trust in the very tech companies building AI tools is low. In other words, access to AI, does not, in of itself, lead to adoption. As they say, “you can take a horse to water…” and all that.

 Trust is the new currency in the AI Agent economy

The WEF (World Economic Forum) recently published an article titled: ‘Trust is the new currency in the AI agent economy’ 25 July 2025]. In it, Ivan Shkvarun writes “…Global trust levels are in decline, while the presence of AI agents in our daily lives and business systems is rapidly increasing…. In a pessimistic scenario, this could erode confidence. In an optimistic one, it opens pathways to reimagine trust and to fuel economic growth… Trust will continue to shape outcomes in the AI-powered economy…”

If trust is the new currency, HR should not be diminished. On the contrary, it could become the function best placed to rebuild trust in the era of AI.

Technology alone cannot motivate people

The reality is this, AI alone, no matter how powerful, how many multiple (AI) agents are deployed, cannot train, develop and/or motivate employees

Any leader (tech or other) who believes otherwise need only look at data from MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) and EdTechs. While registrations for online courses are rising, so too are dropout rates which can be as high as 80 percent due to low engagement. 

 According to Coursera (the global online learning platform), paid courses average 55 percent completion rate, while free courses typically achieve just 10 to 15 percent. Completion rates for their free courses remain stubbornly low.  We must also not lose sight of the fact that even among paying learners, nearly half do not finish. The lesson is clear: without human support, people simply disengage.

A lesson for AI developers and those offering AI only training/upskilling courses: technology alone cannot motivate people to upgrade their skills; it needs to be supported by engaging teachers and trainers.

 AI is a support tool not a silver bullet

"In the age of artificial intelligence, the most important innovation in education is still the teacher…” Salman Khan

Even Salman Khan, a guru of online education, an AI advocate, and founder of Khan Academy (a MOOC which Bill Gates not only invested in, but used as an education tool for his children), recently wrote an op ed titled: ‘We Created AI-Based Learning Tools for Classrooms. Teachers Matter More Than Ever’ [Newsweek, 2 September 2025]. In this, Khan writes: “…In the age of artificial intelligence, the most important innovation in education is still the teacher…” Khan goes on to say “… That's not a sentimental talking point. It's a lesson grounded in data, experience, and hard-won insight from working with nearly 1.5 million students across more than 500 school districts…”

 In other words, technology supports but people motivate.

The same applies in workplaces. AI cannot drive adoption and skill upgrades on its own. It needs HR to provide the human system around the technology.

 That said, HR cannot afford to remain passive: to do so is simply delaying the inevitable

Any organisation that underplays the role of HR or humans, even in the agentic world is ignoring reality 

However, CHROs and CPOs must be more visible now, in the era of AI and outsourcing, or risk constantly having to justify their department’s existence.  This is why HR needs to be part of the AI ecosystem to not only advise on Build or Buy AI systems, but to use AI for low-value, mundane work (rules-based tasks), leaving them free to focus on high-value services including engaging with colleagues as well as building talent pools. Any HR leader who is not doing so is simply delaying the inevitable. [Studies show that when employees know or recognise HR members, trust in the department increases as I wrote here].

Furthermore, any HR leader who plays the role of ‘AI-taker rather than AI-maker’, while AI (often trained on biased and/or copyrighted data) is being rolled out in their organisation, in silos, is putting their organisation at risk.

 Global regulation Is coming

Regulation is coming and people are also fighting back as can be seen by recent headlines earlier this month, which announced that Anthropic (the developer of Claude AI – a foundation model also used by some organisations to build their in-house AI system(s)), had agreed to pay authors at least US$1.5 billion in an AI Copyright settlement. However, days later, on 8 September 2025, the federal judge overseeing the case rejected the deal, leaving unresolved questions about liability, damages and the future of AI copyright law. Anthropic admitting its reliance on pirated digital libraries now means the company can no longer rely on “transformative” fair use as a defence, thus significantly increasing the company’s potential (legal) exposure Read more

With regulators calling for ethical & transparent AI, who better to advise the CEO and board than the CHRO/CPO

For HR, the risks of ignoring ethics, transparency and intellectual property in AI deployment are too high. Whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, or the USA, regulators are raising the bar. If your organisation has employees or customers in these regions, then you need to act now.

This is an opportunity for CHROs and CPOs to step forward and position themselves as trusted advisers on responsible AI and people strategy.

After all, does it not make moral as well as financial sense to Build or Buy responsible AI from the outset, rather than scrambling to comply with regulation such as the EU AI Act, which has been described as “GDPR on steroids” and is applicable to anyone with employees or customers in the EU irrespective of where their HQ is based?

Will AI replace HR?

Humans are complex, even in the best of times

Like other departments, some HR tasks and functions could or should be automated. Yet anyone who underestimates human interaction need only recall the effects of lockdowns on some people for whom, no amount of technology could replace face-to-face connection.

In addition, humans are complex, even in the best of times, and so while AI still relies on training data that is often biased and keeps making mistakes (referred to as "hallucinating") , there will always be a need for human judgement and/or intervention. Ignoring this reality could increase the organisation’s legal exposure. However...

 … with data showing that few employees would recognise their HR staff as I recently wrote here, visibility is no longer optional. For HR to survive and thrive, CHROs and other HR leaders must claim their place at the AI strategy table, or risk being left behind.

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If you’d like to learn more about embedding AI Literacy and Responsible AI in your organisation, then please free to contact me on LinkedIn or, visit ExecutiveGlobalCoaching.com to learn more about how we work

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1. Responsible AI - (this one) Putting People and Culture at the heart of AI Strategy.

2. Leading with Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

3. Inclusive Leadership in the era of AI