How Is IBM's AI Redefining The Role Of The CHRO?

The progression from simple digital tools to an era of intelligent automation is driving C-suite executives to prepare for and lead this digital evolution.

This is particularly true within enterprise HR, where AI is reshaping recruitment, enabling predictive workforce planning, automating tasks and influencing workplace culture.

As a result, Chief HR Officers (CHROs) are increasingly needing to develop strategic AI plans to manage talent acquisition and support the future skill requirements of their employees.

According to the AI-Powered Productivity report by IBM, many executives are in the early stages of using AI for workforce analysis, with just 53% currently using AI automation for this purpose.

However, a significant change is anticipated over the next two years as CHROs prepare to equip their employees with AI tools, with some leaders considering a move toward fully autonomous automation.

The strategy aims to enhance efficiency, simplify processes and create an improved employee experience.

The study found that of the executives surveyed, 62% are prioritising automation in recruitment, 61% in employee self-service using digital assistants and 52% in talent acquisition.

Harnessing agentic AI for strategic planning

A transformative aspect of this technological development is autonomous or agentic AI, a form of intelligence that learns from historical data on employee turnover, promotions and performance to predict future workforce needs.

It operates automatically, without direct user commands, to provide forecasts. This capability offers HR executives recommendations based on these forecasts to employ, train and plan for a company’s future workforce requirements.

Many HR leaders have already started to adopt agentic AI, using it to analyse large datasets and convert them into actionable insights.

Jon Lester, Vice President of HR Technology at IBM, highlights the potential of this technology in an IBM statement.

“It remembers what you told it yesterday and can apply that information to actions today. You can build use case after use case. It blows chatbots out of the water,” Jon explains.

Enhanced by AI agents, virtual assistants provide a platform where employees can communicate about HR-related issues, freeing up HR leaders to move from a reactive support function to focusing on strategic initiatives.

Leading the cultural and procedural change

IBM began its own AI journey in HR in 2017 when a team led by Nickle LaMoureax, IBM Chief Human Resources Officer, introduced HR chatbots.

These were later consolidated into AskHR, creating a single point of contact for HR enquiries. Speaking at a conference,

Nickle says: “AI is not magic. It’s amazing, impressive technology that can totally transform your business. But it takes hard work, behaviour change, culture change, business process change and sometimes leadership change.”

This reflects a common challenge, as many employees remain uncertain about implementing AI tools, either through a lack of understanding or apprehension.

IBM’s research notes this, finding that HR leaders anticipate 56% of their workforce will require upskilling to adapt to AI integration. Despite this, the same executives predict a 2.5% increase in their workforce. This could suggest that roles and responsibilities will adapt to grow with AI capabilities.

Arvind Krishna, IBM's Chief Executive, told The Wall Street Journal: “While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows, our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas.”

Arvind identified these other areas as “critical thinking” domains, such as software engineering, sales and marketing.

Improving productivity and employee experience

With growing AI adoption, the IBM report outlines how productivity, skill enhancement and new expertise can improve performance and the employee experience.

The data projects that using AI could increase productivity by 35%, lead to a 30% increase in the effectiveness of training and a 20% increase in retention rates.

There is also optimism from HR leaders that these successes from agentic AI adoption will greatly improve employee attitudes and performance, with a predicted 26% boost to Net Promoter scores.

To keep pace with expected developments in agentic AI, CHROs must adapt quickly. IBM recommends that leaders begin planning now to get ahead.

This includes spearheading AI-driven learning programmes to meet upskilling goals and engaging external expertise to gain insights on adapting to agentic AI.

To adapt effectively, leaders may need to take planned risks to redefine job roles so AI can be incorporated into HR strategies.

As the technology develops, leaders should use this time to monitor the impact of AI agent performance on the workforce, ensuring that technology adoption aligns with overarching business goals.