HR Reimagined
Elevating the role of HR in the age of AI
The transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation—including within the HR function—is becoming undeniable. This report examines how AI will shape HR and outlines strategies for HR leaders to reimagine their function into a strategic partner that can drive organizational growth and competitive advantage in this new era of work.
It’s clear that the investment and adoption of AI is only going to continue to accelerate. In fact, 78% of business leaders plan to increase their AI spending in the next fiscal year.1 The time is now for HR to proactively develop a clear plan to evolve itself and set the standard for how the rest of the organization can tackle this massive opportunity. Broadly speaking, there are three potential pathways we foresee HR organizations taking, and with the right focus and investment, one of these pathways presents a clear approach to reimagine the function.
- Pathway 1: Business as Usual. HR maintains the status quo, relying on existing AI tools without investing in new capabilities. This risks falling behind more advanced organisations and facing future cost-cutting pressures.
- Pathway 2: Cost Efficiency. HR focuses on reducing costs using AI but misses out on reinvesting in capabilities needed for workforce transformation and innovation, limiting long-term value.
- Pathway 3: Value Creation. HR leads by investing in AI and digital tools, reimagining skills and ways of working to drive strategic business and human outcomes. This approach delivers significant returns and positions HR as a leader in the future human-machine workforce.
The choice is clear: HR must act now to unlock AI’s full potential.
Empowering Your Organisation’s HR Transformation with AI
AI and automation are reshaping how HR and organisations work, blending human and machine efforts. These technologies are rapidly changing the skills needed, with the World Economic Forum forecasting that 39% of core worker skills will evolve by 2030 - HR included. To thrive, HR must adapt its capabilities and support the wider organisation’s transition to AI-powered work. HR tasks will increasingly shift toward AI-driven approaches, falling into three evolving categories over time:
- AI-Assisted: Tasks will remain primarily human-owned, with moderate support from AI and automated solutions.
- AI-Augmented: Tasks are more evenly split between human workers and AI and automation capabilities, with high levels of collaboration and hand-offs.
- AI-Powered: Tasks are owned primarily by AI and automation solutions, with humans managing outputs and monitoring performance to drive continuous improvement.
AI in HR goes beyond automation, it enhances human potential and enables strategic workforce management. By handling routine tasks, AI frees HR professionals to focus on complex, value-driven activities. To unlock this potential, HR must adopt digital tools and evolve continuously to deliver critical workforce insights. Rapid advances in AI, especially agentic AI (GenAI tools that plan and execute workflows), are transforming HR by creating seamless, end-to-end experiences with less human intervention. Nonetheless, human oversight remains essential to ensure effective and responsible AI use.
AI, especially agentic AI, is freeing HR professionals from routine tasks like process execution and employee inquiries, allowing them to focus on delivering valuable workforce insights and solutions. This shift empowers HR and business leaders with data-driven decisions for faster, tailored workforce strategies. For example, a recent project with a consumer products company revealed that AI could free up 25% of HR business partners’ capacity, enabling them to take on strategic roles in “workforce architecting” to drive broader AI transformation—work that HR teams are eager and well-equipped to embrace.
How do we get there? Reimagining HR requires an agile approach that introduces AI and digital tools incrementally as technology evolves, while simultaneously redefining human skills and adapting work and operating models. The true power of AI lies not in replacing people but in enhancing their effectiveness by complementing their skills. AI excels at analysing large data sets and spotting patterns with precision, but it lacks the ability to understand context or meaning. Humans, though slower in processing, bring judgement, empathy, creativity, and anticipation—qualities essential to working alongside AI.
HR organisations are already exploring and experimenting with AI and digital tools to reimagine their function. Many have launched pilot programs and proofs of concept. Over the next 12 to 18 months, those focused on value creation are expected to scale these initiatives by strengthening the foundations that support advanced AI adoption in HR.
When we conducted our research on the maturity of AI in HR6, we also sought to understand the underlying factors separating those organizations exploring and experimenting with AI and digital enablers from those truly scaling and innovating. Six key indicators emerged:
- Strategic focus. High-maturity HR teams are aligned internally and with the broader enterprise on how AI will advance their strategy and ambitions. The HR function is intentional and coordinated with their investments and focused on creating measurable and demonstrable value with AI.
- Data readiness. Mature HR teams understand data is the lifeblood and fuel of any AI solution. They are focused on increasing structured and unstructured data quality, making fragmented data more integrated and accessible, and expanding available data sets to enable more sophisticated use cases.
- Enterprise tools. High-maturity HR teams recognize AI is not “one solution” and will require an ecosystem approach to harness and embed its full potential. They seek to leverage and maximize the AI offerings of their core HR technology while extending enterprise tools into HR and exploring the marketplace for innovative and differentiated solutions.
- Agile delivery. Mature HR teams know the AI journey never ends and are focused on continuously sensing business and workforce needs to drive the ongoing enhancement and prioritization of AI solutions and use cases. These teams apply agile product management disciplines and principles to effectively deploy and maintain AI in strong partnership with IT.
- Governance. High-maturity HR teams understand the risks and limitations of AI and proactively implement policies, guardrails, and mechanisms to protect the enterprise and the workforce. They are invested in using AI responsibly and regularly monitor AI outputs to mitigate unintended outcomes.
- Workforce enablement. High-maturity HR teams recognize there is a strong correlation between end-user adoption and value creation with AI solutions. These teams understand adoption is dependent on the ability to foster a culture of experimentation, build trust in AI with the workforce, and increase the fluency and proficiency of AI consumers.
How will HR evolve from current operating models to AI-enabled ones? Here’s a glimpse:
- Workforce Solution Architects: HR business partners (HRBPs) will combine their HR expertise with advanced digital and data skills to proactively orchestrate the workforce through dynamic, insight-driven approaches.
- Innovation and Insights Hub: People analytics teams will leverage AI to reduce reliance on data scientists, scaling predictive insights that drive HR innovation and enterprise strategy for competitive advantage.
- Solution Delivery: HR operations and technology will adopt agile delivery focused on strategic business outcomes, deploying and maintaining AI and digital solutions that support the evolving HR model.
- Workforce Engagement: AI-powered HR services will handle administrative and operational tasks, while humans manage, improve, and intervene in complex or high-touch interactions.
HR maturity will influence the pace of adoption, with Deloitte research showing around 75% of HR teams currently in “exploring” or “experimental” AI stages. As organisations progress, investments will grow to enable seamless human-AI collaboration that boosts efficiency, enhances digital experiences, and delivers actionable insights for better decision-making and performance.
Explore Our Four-Part "HR Reimagined" Video Series
- Reimagine and Elevate HR
- Agentic AI for HR
- Four Futures of HR
- HR Sub-Functions.
How can your organisation get started?
AI and automation offer exciting opportunities to transform HR—but how can organisations make the leap to an AI-enabled function? The key is to think big, start small, and scale fast, using an agile, product-driven approach to AI deployment. Explore:
