Finding a New Chair at the Table: HR’s Role in the Age of AI

A lot has changed for the HR function over the last decade — actually, over the last several. The function has needed to reposition and redefine their value in organisations as a result of changing economic landscapes, during and post COVID implications for office and working dynamics within organisations, and more recently the growing momentum that AI has and is having on work, on people and the potential replacement of roles in the future. Particularly in HR.

It’s not a question of “if” AI will impact HR — it already is. The real question for HR leaders is: how do we adapt, leverage technology, and use it to become more strategic and human-centered innovators?

When I started my career in HR more than 25 years ago, the function was already well down the path redefining its value in the organisation. With thought leaders such as Dave Ulrich and Jay Galbraith shaping HR operating models and strategic organisational modelling, what I experienced in the early part of my career was a function that was discovering commercial relevance. I had a boss who disliked the expression - “finding your seat at the table”. In her view, HR already had a critical seat — the question wasn’t whether we were invited, but how we chose to use it. If you’re still asking if you belong, you’ve missed the point and are irrelevant before you even started. I had the privilege of working for a few organisations and leaders who were at the leading front of this type of thinking, and have always believed HR to have a critical role in an organisation.

What I’ve noticed more recently is that parts of the HR function have risked regression — not through lack of capability, but under the weight of operational complexity, external pressures, constant crisis management, and necessary evils of our systems today, particularly influenced by the dynamics of the last 10 years.

Let’s take the pandemic and post-COVID-19 - HR suddenly found itself responsible for rewriting how people worked — supporting mental health, managing fear and isolation, balancing home-schooling, job loss, and financial strain — all while sustaining business performance. As we returned to a ‘new normal’, HR has needed to pivot again: designing hybrid workplaces, rewriting flexible work policies, managing complex remuneration challenges in an environment of performance decline, and navigating economic and political instability. For some HR practitioners, they have had to become office design experts and construction managers to cater to more collaborative and hybrid working conditions, all whilst keeping real estate costs to a minimum.

All of that takes an incredible amount of time, and it’s really easy to become distracted by the most immediate monkey on your shoulder. And yet, amongst all of that I am still impressed and inspired by the HR leaders and practitioners that I work with across the globe. Those that value and are valued by the business partners who genuinely see the strategic partnership and value of the function.

Some might see AI as just the latest distraction — but what if it’s actually the next evolution? If the last 20 years has been focused on evolving the HR role from “Operational Partner to Strategic Leader”, could the next evolution for the function of HR be the shift from “Strategic Partner to Intelligence Integrator, and Human-Centered Innovator” – the new role in leveraging AI for insight, agility, and foresight?

Ask ChatGPT how HR will evolve, and it’ll likely tell you three things:

• AI as a Co-Pilot, Not a Competitor – HR leaders developing AI literacy and curiosity
• Data + Empathy = Strategic Edge – HR leaders who are both analytical and empathetic
• The Trusted Advisor 2.0 – HR guiding on human risk, capability reinvention, and cultural adaptation

All good and likely true, and we can’t really argue with any of these. For me, something’s missing.

There is one aspect of HR’s role that I believe is the difference that makes the difference in organisations. It’s the one thing AI cannot replace. That is - the “Human” in HR. Or for those organisations that have moved away from the titling of HR - the “People” in P&C. Helping leaders make sense of complexity through a human lens.

Let’s agree that HR practitioners need to be both commercial leaders and people centric experts. Looking at business issues - commercial issues - through the lens of people. Whilst HR administration, process management and some development can be outsourced to AI, there is an incredibly unique skillset of HR practitioners that make sense of business challenges by understanding employee mindset, cultural context and systems biases. Providing leadership advisory by knowing and understanding the deeply complex context of situations and decisions needed. Not necessarily having the answers, but the ability to help leaders think through situations from a human-centric perspective, and be more innovative in their own thinking to solve challenges with and through people.

Imagine a world where you had time back to redefine your day and spend time on the business issues that mattered most to performance and shareholder value - innovating organisational structures, cultural initiatives, leadership impact. Leveraging AI for workforce analytics to spot trends, and facilitate more meaningful human to human conversations, vs focusing on the dashboard.

Can you imagine waking up every day and asking yourself - where am I leveraging human judgment to add irreplaceable value? Because AI can’t do that, and whilst we’re distracting by protecting the function from change, we’re missing the true value of what we have to offer.

HR is once again at the edge of evolution. The question isn’t if AI will transform HR, but how HR leaders and practitioners will step forward to shape that transformation — and perhaps, this time, choose a new kind of chair at the table.