The future of HR is tech-partnered
CHROs and CPOs are rapidly moving from “people experts” to “people-and-tech” leaders as HR and IT functions begin to converge in many organisations.
This phenomenon was recently discussed in a roundtable hosted by HRD and ADP where a group of senior HR professionals all agreed that IT and HR are converging into a singular function.
The need for people leaders to be tech-savvy is only going to grow. The rise of AI and its rapid deployment across all facets of business is a major reason behind this.
This trend wasn’t just recognised among the attendees of this roundtable. In conversation with HRD, LinkedIn’s senior director, ANZ talent and learning solutions, Adam Gregory noted that the skills profile of HR leadership is transforming far faster than most anticipated.
Gregory described a “very different” conversation with HR leaders compared with just a year ago, with AI and technology now central to the CHRO remit.
“AI literacy is really important, tech literacy, far more a sought-after skill,” he said, adding that leaders need a strong “growth mindset” to set and meet expectations for how their organisations adopt new tools.
No longer can HR just be “good with people”
The traditional view of HR leadership as primarily about relationships, coaching and conflict resolution is no longer sufficient on its own. Gregory pointed to a growing expectation that HR leaders be as comfortable talking about systems, automation and data as they are about engagement and culture.
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In some organisations, the convergence is already formalised. Gregory described experiences of seeing the CTO be handed the HR function completely as companies begin to realise just how intertwined the functions have become.
While these instances are not too widespread at this stage, the signs are there that more organisations could follow suit.
Gregrory sees it as a logical response to the simultaneous demands of people strategy and tech enablement.
For CHROs, this shift means becoming deeply conversant in how technology supports the workforce – from talent acquisition and learning to workforce planning and productivity.
The reliance on IT partners is growing, but so is the expectation that HR can engage at a sophisticated level on “what are the systems, what are the processes that can be automated through AI… and what they need to bring into the business”.
HR–IT convergence: Partnership today, one function tomorrow?
Gregory said the “coming together of IT and HR” is now a common theme in conversations with customers and at executive events.
The drivers are clear:
- Skilling and reskilling at unprecedented pace
- Organisation-wide AI literacy
- Automation of manual processes and workflows
- Data-driven workforce planning and skills taxonomies
When you “think about the priorities of a CHRO or CPO… around skilling, around AI literacy and all those things that are more tangible than some of the soft skills,” the natural consequence is a far closer partnership with IT, he argued.
Whether this ultimately becomes a single combined function will vary by organisation, but Gregory said it is “no surprise that that's part of the conversation because we're hearing that more and more.”
One of the strongest messages for HR leaders is that being “pro-AI” can’t just be a policy position – it has to be visible in their own behaviour.
“Part of leadership now is not setting the expectation of what people should be doing, it's demonstrating it,” Gregory added.
That means personally experimenting with AI, understanding how it can streamline processes and “talking about it” openly with teams.
Leaders using AI simply to replace people are, in his view, missing the point. The opportunity is to “bring the human in to use the technology better, not just have the technology replace the human.”
Behind this convergence is a fundamental reshaping of work itself. Gregory said that up to 70% of the skills for a typical job will have changed by 2030 – compared with around 25% over the last 10–15 years
That rate of change is “far greater today” and is hitting “a far broader set of skills and a far broader set of industries,” he said. For HR, this creates both a risk and an opportunity:
A risk if the function cannot anticipate and support rapid reskilling at scale. And an opportunity if HR can harness data, platforms and AI to map skills adjacencies, career paths and internal mobility.
What this means for people leaders now
For senior Hr professionals, what all of this means is that they must remain alert and aware of the shifts.
To ensure they aren’t left behind, CHROs and CPOs must treat AI as a strategic partner. The organisations moving fastest are those where HR is “on the front foot with IT, understanding what the skills that are going to be required” and what can be automated or augmented.
This can be achieved by building genuine tech and AI literacy at the top of HR. This is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s central to being able to engage credibly with the C-suite on compliance, ethics and investment decisions around AI.
Leaders should also model the behaviour you want the organisation to adopt. This is achieved by actively trialling and demonstrating that you're having a crack at AI tools, not just mandating their use.
Data is crucial for success and should be leveraged to steer workforce strategy. Platforms that marry internal skills data with external labour-market and career-path information are becoming essential in deciding where to invest in skills, where to redeploy talent and where to hire.
As AI permeates every facet of our society and the professional landscape as well, HR’s role is shifting from stewards of people processes to architects of human–technology collaboration.
Gregory is clear that the pace of change is outstripping many people’s expectations. “It's happening so fast,” he said, and the organisations that will unlock the most value will be those whose people leaders are not only comfortable with AI but actively helping to “lead that conversation” in their markets.
As HR and IT march closer together, CHROs and CPOs face a choice: remain adjacent to technology decisions, or step into a new, merged identity as leaders of both people and the systems that enable them.
For those willing to embrace the convergence, the opportunity to redefine HR’s influence has never been greater.
