AI’s Real Multiplier at Work: Human Leadership and Judgment

Artificial intelligence may transform how work gets done, but human workers will ultimately determine whether organizations implement it successfully, according to AI pioneers Adam Cheyer and Vishal Sharma, who spoke during the closing plenary session of SHRM’s The AI+HI Project 2026. 

Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, and Sharma, vice president and general manager of AGI Information at Amazon, discussed with SHRM Executive –in Residence for AI+HI Nichol Bradford how leaders — particularly HR leaders — must rethink roles and organizational design in an AI-driven workplace. 

AI technology is advancing rapidly, but both Cheyer and Sharma emphasized that organizations need human intelligence to multiply AI’s effectiveness. 

People Will Differentiate Organizations 

As AI tools become widely available, Cheyer argued that the competitive advantage between organizations will come down to the quality of their people. 

What sets apart "the breakthrough companies when every company has the same AI ... will be the people in the organization,” he said. 

That distinction reflects the uniquely human capabilities that technology cannot replace. 

“People bring leadership. People bring creativity. They inspire others. They bring vision,” Cheyer said. “They make decisions. They’re accountable in a way AI machines are not.” 

For HR leaders, the AI transition will require more than just deploying new tools. Organizations will need to rethink how teams work, how performance is evaluated, and how employees collaborate with intelligent systems. 

Cheyer said leaders should expect roles to evolve as AI becomes embedded across workflows. 

“We know roles are going to expand and cross over, and evaluation and performance is going to change,” he said. “Build a flexible, adaptable organization that cares about people, because that’s what’s going to matter.” 

Today’s AI Is Powerful — but Still Imperfect 

Despite the excitement surrounding AI, Sharma cautioned that the technology remains far from flawless.  

He pointed to persistent AI limitations in areas such as memory, reasoning, and training methods, which researchers are still working to improve. For example, some modern AI systems rely heavily on reinforcement learning — an approach where models optimize behavior based on reward signals. That approach is powerful, but it can also produce unintended behaviors if the incentives are poorly designed. 

Still, Sharma emphasized that progress continues, and the pace of innovation remains extraordinary. For organizations experimenting with AI today, the key is understanding both AI’s strengths and its limitations. 

Avoid the ‘Cost Reduction Trap’ 

One of the biggest mistakes that companies can make with AI, Sharma said, is focusing too narrowly on efficiency and cost. 

“Don’t get stuck in the cost-reduction trap,” he said. “The question you need to be asking is: Given the resources at the disposal of my company, what else can we do?” 

AI has the potential to dramatically expand what organizations are capable of building and delivering. That opportunity requires leaders to rethink the scale of their ambitions. 

Instead of simply automating existing work, companies should ask which ideas were previously impossible but might now be achievable with AI’s help. 

“The constraint will become how you think about your business,” Sharma said. “Are there things about how you’re serving your customers that you’ve ruled out because, historically, they were impossible — but are not anymore?” 

For HR leaders, enabling that shift means helping organizations develop new skills, roles, and career pathways that reflect a more AI-augmented workforce. 

Unlocking Human Potential

As routine work becomes automated, Sharma suggested that employees may have more space to focus on creative and strategic thinking. That opportunity, he said, is far larger than many organizations currently realize, potentially making workers exponentially more productive than they were without AI. 

Helping employees reach that potential will require more than technical training. Leaders must also inspire people to rethink what they are capable of achieving, he said.

In an AI-enabled organization, that may mean encouraging employees to experiment, rethink their roles, and explore new ways of creating value so that they can exceed their own expectations for themselves, he said. 

A Defining Moment for HR

Sharma and Cheyer both said that HR will play a central role in navigating the transition to an AI-empowered workforce. 

As AI compresses traditional career paths and reshapes how work is structured, organizations will need new approaches to hiring, development, and performance measurement.

Leaders must also balance experimentation with stability, creating space for innovation while maintaining organizational cohesion. Cheyer and Sharma suggested that AI’s future will depend less on algorithms than on how people choose to use them. 

AI technology may be powerful, but human leadership, culture, and imagination will shape its impact. For organizations willing to rethink how they work, the possibilities could be enormous.