Dive Brief:
- While HR leaders largely said they have more input into which tasks are selected for automation than they did two years ago, only 30% said they were involved from the outset on artificial intelligence strategy. That shows a strong disconnect from other C-suite leaders, 60% of whom said HR is involved from the start.
- In fact, HR is “often sidelined” when it comes to workplace AI transformation, HR data vendor Beamery said in a report released Tuesday. When asked to pick the two most influential decision-makers on AI, survey respondents picked the CEO (81%), digital transformation lead (50%) and CIO (36%) among the top three. CHROs trailed at 12%.
- “If HR doesn’t get a seat at the table, workforce considerations, skill gaps, and employee engagement may not be fully accounted for in AI-driven transformation,” Beamery said.
Dive Insight:
For its report on AI workplace redesign, Beamery surveyed more than 170 C-suite executives, 115 HR leaders and 200 early-career employees with five or fewer years of experience at companies with more than 5,000 employees.
“With the right workforce insights, and HR involved from day one, companies can ensure that AI-driven decisions fully account for workforce implications,” Beamery said. The report noted that HR can be brought in earlier to prioritize tasks that can be automated without hurting employee engagement or customer outcomes; shift employees to higher-value tasks that develop workers’ skills, experience and growth; and align workforce planning, reskilling and role design with business goals.
When it comes to specifics, more than a third of CHROs said there was not enough clarity in what employees do day to day, creating a barrier to effective AI adoption. More broadly, the C-suite highlighted three challenges when it comes to workplace automation: choosing the right tasks to automate, ensuring data quality and availability and gaining employee trust and overcoming pushback.
Perhaps surprisingly, early-career employees largely reported optimism about AI, regarding it as a “launchpad, not a threat,” according to Beamery. Nearly three-quarters of employees said AI made them more likely to stay with their current employer, with 66% of those respondents saying it was because the technology was creating major growth opportunities and 60% stating that their engagement has increased due to new career and skill development opportunities.
Smaller percentages reported staying put due to fear: either of becoming a “last-in, first out AI layoff” at a new company or that AI has made it harder to find new jobs.
CHROs will play a critical role in the future of AI, two AI leads at Deloitte wrote in an op-ed for HR Dive earlier this year, similarly pointing to HR’s potential to help maintain employee buy-in through AI transformation, align AI’s usage with business goals and focus upskilling strategy.
Leaders’ failure to connect AI adoption to upskilling may be the biggest workplace challenge; an October report from Express Employment Professionals and Harris Poll found that while nearly three-quarters of hiring managers said their companies had adopted AI, more than half also said their companies don’t have the resources to train their employees to use it effectively.
And while currently employed workers may be optimistic about the effects of AI, job seekers are notably not — suggesting very different experiences for those looking for a change. Nearly two-thirds of job seekers surveyed by Express Employment Professionals and Harris Poll said they “worry AI will significantly limit job opportunities.”
