SHRM’s AI+HI Project Starts with Deep Dive into the Future of Work

SHRM’s The AI+HI Project opened April 9 in San Francisco with a level-setting discussion exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (HI) in shaping the future of work.

Nichol Bradford, executive in residence for AI + HI at SHRM, described the session as a “Greek chorus” — a way to articulate questions, tensions, and uncertainties surrounding AI in the workplace.

“AI is reshaping not only our organizations, but also our roles, our relationships, and even how we think,” she said. “Let’s take a moment to pause, reflect, and examine what is under the surface.”  

Bradford was joined on stage by Ben Eubanks, SHRM-SCP, chief research officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory in Huntsville, Ala., and Lyn Jeffery, distinguished fellow and director of IFTF Foresight Essentials at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif.

Understand AI’s Impact 

“It’s important to understand the impact of these technologies on us so we can develop norms around how we use them that also empower us,” Bradford said. 

Eubanks said HR has the dual purpose of figuring out how AI can help the profession at work but also what it means for the people they work with.

“The question is not what AI can do, it’s what should it do,” he said. “AI can do almost any part of your HR job. But should it? That’s the question you will have to wrestle with.”

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Eubanks is paying close attention to research showing that AI is already consuming entry-level roles. “For example, I may give my HR assistant different tasks I don’t want to do," he said. “That practice builds her skills so that when I give her higher-order tasks, she is able to accomplish them. If I use an AI to do those entry-level things, I don’t need that person anymore. What does that mean for how we hire in the future? Do we only hire midlevel professionals and up?”

Agentic AI

In as soon as five years, “we will be surrounded at work by as many agents as we are humans,” Jeffery predicted. “The way we relate to one another will be different, the way we relate to agents will be different.”

Over the next year or two, you will see so much on agentic AI, Bradford said. These agents are able to perform sequences of actions based on human guidance and are becoming more embedded in workflows, she said.  

Jeffery described four categories of AI agents: 

• Agents that work for you, like a personal assistant or copilot.
• Agents that work with you, like a teammate.
• Agents that work on you, like an influencer.
• Agents that work around you, embedded into smart environments. 

“I am trying to encourage people not to get stuck on older mental models of what AI is —something you have seen in the movies, for example,” she said.

SHRM Members-Only Toolkit: Using Artificial Intelligence for Employment Purposes

Challenges and Concerns

AI is rapidly transforming the workplace, but it comes with a number of challenges and concerns. One of those is around ethics. 

“Whether or not it’s in your job title or not, I believe that HR has always had a responsibility to have an ethical lens on work,” Eubanks said. “We have always had that responsibility, and AI does not let us abrogate that responsibility. Will these tools introduce bias in the workplace?”

Displacement and fear of displacement is another concern. “If you have jobs that will be negatively impacted by the implementation of AI, and you are not having a conversation about that, I would challenge you that you are not fully doing your job,” Eubanks said. “Yes, you must see to the needs of the business, but you must also balance that with the needs of the people. If you don’t advocate for them, they will go elsewhere.”

Bradford agreed, saying that “talent will vote with their feet.” People will want to know whether the AI being used in their organization is fair. “Is it transparent?” she asked. “Do I understand how it is being used to determine my compensation or performance? Does it fairly evaluate me?”

Another issue that warrants further study is the quality of work done with AI. Bradford said research from MIT has shown that when people are using AI for a task — called autopiloting — a certain brain signature is registered. And when people thought they were copiloting, or guiding the AI to do a task, their brain signature showed they were actually still autopiloting.

“The challenge is finding the balance between the new opportunities and the impact on your people,” Jeffery said. “There will be strong opinions about AI in our lives, there will be social and political movements against it, and resistance inside your organizations. You also have to wonder what kind of regulatory framework will be produced in the coming years and how that will shape how we use these tools.”

A New Way of Thinking

One way to prepare for this seismic change at work is to practice strategic foresight, Jeffery said. “That means not trying to predict what will happen but creating long-term evidence-based perspectives on what is possible and systematically consider the impacts,” she explained.

“I’ve seen org charts that show people lined up next to agents,” Eubanks said. “I cringed, but then I thought about what this makes possible. I know as HR professionals, there are things that are on your to-do list that are repetitive and painful and that you don’t want to do. That is the work that AI could take on, freeing you to do the work that invigorates you and adds more value.” 

There will be a time soon when new hires are given a computer, a phone, and an AI agent when they onboard, Jeffery said. “The modern enterprise is only about 100 years old,” she said. “The way we structure things now is a particular way to organize people and workflows. When we add agents into it, I think organizational structure is going to change, and there is opportunity there.”