Columnist

The true value of HR in an AI-driven working world

Artificial intelligence’s increasing mainstream presence is making more business leaders ask, ‘do we need HR if technology can replicate human thinking and, by extension, the HR people who used to do that thinking?’ 

It’s an understandable question. But it’s a risky one too.

Human brains will never match the speed of information processing boasted by computers.

But the clue is in AI’s name: its intelligence is artificial. It is simulated and not the same as human judgement.

To be clear, I’m not denigrating artificial intelligence; I’m an AI advocate. 

But the clue is also in HR’s name.

HR is about human matters, and the humans involved matter. 

Start by thinking of the problems a business might expect artificial intelligence to handle solo. 

Where do these problems start? 

There’s no getting away from the fact that HR relies on detail and administration. 

We need documentation, policies, processes, systems and data to enable the employee lifecycle; think onboarding, offboarding, leave requests and the appraisal process. 

A lot of this demands smooth transactions and tends not to be the source of tension that escalates into poor employee relations and employment disputes. 

But a poor onboarding experience and failure to help the new recruit acclimatise, a difficult conversation avoided by a manager or an unfairness feeling unaddressed?  These things drift and often get worse.

And the thing that needs to be in the centre of all that? A good people partner who understands the human impact.

Farming this out to an artificial intelligence tool misses the opportunity to do things better and, possibly, makes it altogether worse.

In short, HR people sit upstream of those problems. 

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t expect to sit in on every conversation.

But we are there to notice the early signs: the change in tone, the softly-landed but repeated concern, the manager lacking in confidence, competence or both. 

Insight doesn’t just come from data. It comes from relationships, context and judgement.

The A in AI fundamentally misses that mark. 

This matters even more right now because of changing employment law, shifting employee expectations, expanding trade union access and increased fairness scrutiny.

In that mix, removing human expertise is unlikely to be a sensible strategy.

If employers are relying on artificial intelligence to manage their side of the employment relationship, it is only reasonable to assume employees will do the same. 

At that point, if both sides are outsourcing judgement, communication and trust to technology, what is actually holding the relationship together?

For business leaders, the opportunity isn’t to cut HR investment because artificial intelligence exists; it is to invest differently because it does. 

Use technology to reduce friction, and focus on humans for building on trust, judgement and relationships. 

Artificial intelligence won’t fix your people problems and it might even create new ones. 

But find a good HR specialist, and you’ll have real intelligence on your side. 

Lauren Bathan is associate director - HR Partnership at Newcastle, Teesside and Leeds-based recruitment and outsourced HR services provider Jackson Hogg

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