New Expectations Facing HR Professionals in the Age of AI

Organizations are pouring money into AI, but too little of that investment is reaching the people responsible for turning the technology into business value. HR professionals must expand their role in shaping, governing, and implementing AI.

“AI is becoming a business strategy. It’s not just a technology initiative,” said Adrina Walker, interim vice president of HR at the University of Vermont Health Network. “HR has to understand the workforce implications of it, not just the HR process.”

For Walker, that shift means HR can no longer limit its focus to using AI within its own function. Instead, HR must connect these new technical decisions to its traditional responsibilities — such as workforce strategy, culture, and compliance — to lead AI adoption across the organization.

SHRM’s 2026 State of AI in HR report found that 62% of organizations use AI somewhere in the business, while 46% expect to use it within HR this year. Meeting this new demand requires practical AI literacy, human-centered leadership, and structured learning. AI certification programs can bring these elements together by helping HR professionals evaluate use cases, validate their skills, and lead implementation with the human side of AI in mind.

AI Moves onto the C-Suite Agenda

AI is becoming increasingly embedded in the workforce, and the C-suite is taking notice: 92% of CHROs expect greater AI integration across the workforce, according to SHRM’s 2026 CHRO Priorities and Perspectives report. 

CHROs aren’t the only leaders paying attention. Forty percent of CEOs say AI adoption is a leading priority, signaling that the push to integrate AI across the organization is coming from the top, according to SHRM’s 2026 CEO Priorities and Perspectives report. HR professionals who understand technology and the workforce can help close the gap between ambition and readiness. This could mean taking on any, or all, of the following:

• Reskilling employees.
• Redesigning Job Taxonomies for the AI era.
• Using workforce data to advise executives. 
• Balancing AI innovation with ethics, governance, and trust. 

HR’s longstanding knowledge of job design, employee sentiment, and organizational culture becomes essential when leaders decide where automation belongs — and where it does not.

HR Brings What AI Can’t

AI can accelerate recruiting, forecasting, sentiment analysis, and repetitive administrative work. But that speed comes with tradeoffs: AI does not eliminate bias or account for organizational context.

Walker warns that an AI system can inherit the historical biases of its developers or training data, overlook the reasons behind employee behavior, and fail to account for cultural differences across business locations.

“You still need human judgment, and AI can’t replace any of that,” Walker said. “You’re still going to need that emotional intelligence (EQ) to understand: What does this mean for my organization?”

That judgment should extend to tool selection. Walker recommends testing every proposed use case against familiar business questions, such as:

• Does it solve an immediate or foreseeable organizational problem or address an external headwind?
• Will it improve the experience for employees, managers, customers, or the community? 
• Can the organization measure time savings, cost savings, and return on investment?

If these questions cannot be answered clearly, the investment may be better spent elsewhere. As Walker explained: “If AI replaces one manual process with another complicated manual process, it’s not worth implementing.”

Additionally, an AI investment that fails to account for the human side of implementation can do more than fail to add value; it can create new challenges. One global company Walker worked with automated most of its HR support below the business partner level to reduce costs. Self-service worked better in some locations than others: For employees in cultures that valued face-to-face service, the shift felt disrespectful and disengaging. 

Not only did the organization fail to properly implement the new tech, but it also faced new employee morale and company culture concerns.

When HR Is Left out of AI Decisions

Walker argued that HR needs to know about any enterprise-wide AI pilot because the function holds people data, allowing HR professionals to anticipate how adoption may vary by role, location, and culture. Waiting until an AI tool has been selected and introduced to employees before involving HR leaves the function reacting to a decision it could have helped shape.

Yet 52% of organizations do not involve HR directly or through cross-functional collaboration in developing their overall AI strategy and vision, according to SHRM’s 2026 State of AI in HR report. “Many times, HR finds itself as a reactor and not driver,” Walker said. “We need to become a part of the process earlier.”

But doing so will require HR leaders to claim a more proactive role in enterprise AI decisions. That includes helping employees build the skills they need to navigate AI adoption, validate their AI expertise and adapt to an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.

HR Needs to Know AI to Lead AI

HR cannot ask to lead AI implementations without understanding the technology itself. That understanding starts with practical AI literacy. Practical AI literacy begins with curiosity: experimenting with a relevant tool, understanding its settings and limits, questioning its output, and interpreting what its insights mean for a real business problem.

Formal training can then help HR professionals turn foundational AI knowledge into practical expertise by focusing on ethics, governance, strategic evaluation, and — ultimately — hands-on implementation.