A global survey of CEOs points to a growing role for HR in business transformation
CEOs are betting on their HR leaders. A new IBM study of 2,000 executives across 33 countries found that 59% expect the CHRO’s influence to grow in the coming years, a vote of confidence rooted in the recognition that the biggest barrier to AI success isn’t the technology itself. It’s people’s adoption of it.
“There’s been a bright spotlight shone on skills from the investments companies are making in AI,” said Ravin Jesuthasan, a future of work researcher and global leader of Mercer’s Transformation Services business.
“They’re recognizing that what’s really getting in the way of deployment is the skills to use AI. This whole conversation about skills that previously had been pushed by HR has now rapidly become a CEO-level concern because it’s becoming visible that it’s such a big obstacle.”
Skills are now a CEO-level problem
The IBM study puts numbers to that obstacle. CEOs say 83% of their workforce has the skills to work with AI, yet only 25% use it regularly as part of their jobs. That gap, Jesuthasan argues, won’t close on its own.
Jesuthasan says the problem is uneven. Top performers tend to embrace new tools quickly, but the majority of employees need more guidance.
“When it comes to new models, the pace of release can be overwhelming, creating confusion and uneven adoption,” he said. “Fear and uncertainty, particularly among the core workforce, can further slow adoption, as employees worry about what AI will mean for their roles.”
READ MORE: CHROs not as excited as CEOs about AI, report finds
Kim Morick, Partner and HR Technology Offering Leader for IBM Consulting, sees the same dynamic.
“HR plays a critical role in shaping culture and encouraging innovative approaches to work, while business units own their data and operational priorities,” she said. “Many employees are familiar with AI in their personal lives, but struggle to apply it effectively at work. Unlocking value requires teaching people new ways of thinking, such as how to access data, redesign workflows, and simplify or automate tasks.”
For both, the implication is the same: closing the gap between AI access and AI adoption is fundamentally a people challenge, and that makes it HR’s challenge.
Redesigning vs. retraining
Jesuthasan says too many organizations have focused on giving employees access to AI tools in the hope that productivity follows.
“The ones who are really moving forward are the ones who are actively redesigning their jobs, actively changing role descriptions, changing the core requirements of people, changing the skill requirements,” he said. “If I haven’t changed the way the work is done, I’m never going to get the real lift in productivity.”
The IBM study supports that view. Organizations that redesigned five core business areas, including HR, technology, finance, operations, and cross-functional collaboration, were four times more likely to deliver on their business objectives than those that didn’t.
Morick echoes the point.
“Strategic workforce planning is essential to determine which new roles will support growth and how AI can be used as a catalyst for new revenue streams,” she said. “This moment is as transformative as the dot-com era. Organizations are redesigning themselves amid rapid technological change, with no fixed answers yet.”
For Jesuthasan, that redesign work requires a different kind of HR function. One of his clients, a large global consumer goods company, has retrained its HR business partners to act as what he calls stewards of work rather than stewards of employment.
“Actually working alongside the person running the business to ask: do we really need to go out and hire someone, or can we rethink the way we resource the work?” he said.
Fear is getting in the way
Even the best-designed reskilling program will struggle if the workforce it’s meant to serve doesn’t trust it. Both Jesuthasan and Morick point to fear as the most underestimated barrier to AI success right now.
Mercer’s own Global Talent Trends 2026 study found that employee concern about job loss due to AI has jumped from 28% to 40% in a single year. Jesuthasan says the pattern is especially pronounced among employees who are actually using AI.
“As people are using these tools, yes, they’re getting maybe more productive, but they’re also getting a lot more fearful because they see where the tools can start to substitute the work they’re doing,” he said.
READ MORE: Global CHRO turnover up in 2025 amid need for organisational alignment
Morick frames it in similar terms.
“Fear, uncertainty, and doubt remain the biggest barriers,” she said. “Employees need clarity about how their roles will evolve and reassurance that they won’t be left behind. Many organizations are still focused on quick wins, but long-term success will depend on helping employees understand and adapt to change.”
Jesuthasan says the organizations getting this right are the ones making a visible, credible commitment to their workforce.
“I may not be able to promise you a job for life, but I will ensure that I’m keeping you relevant, either for opportunity within or without,” he said.
Who’s getting it right
The IBM study found that the Chief AI Officer role has grown from 26% to 76% of organizations in a single year. That rapid expansion is changing the dynamics of the C-suite, and Jesuthasan says the CHRO-CAIO relationship will be one of the defining partnerships of the next few years.
“The CHRO owns talent, workforce planning, and job design. As new AI workflows are developed, the CHRO should be involved in evaluating the people impact, including which roles are shifting and what skills are necessary,” he said.
He pointed to companies like Atlassian and ServiceNow, where the CHRO role has been expanded to include direct responsibility for AI deployment, as early indicators of where things are heading. At Moderna, the CHRO and CTO roles have been combined entirely.
READ MORE: Atlassian's VP of HR on why AI is making teams slower, not faster
However, not every organization is there yet.
“It is the enlightened organizations who really see the need for the CHRO to be involved,” Jesuthasan said. “There are others who continue to view AI deployment as largely a technology challenge. The people side is ignored, I think, to that peril.”
The IBM study projects that between 2026 and 2028, 29% of employees will need reskilling for an entirely different role, while 53% will need upskilling in their current one. That’s not a technology problem. It’s a people problem. And increasingly, CEOs know it.
