Will HR positions survive the rise of AI?
I often see the media sharing articles about layoffs due to AI, how junior programmer positions are less in demand, how there is also a decreased interest in copywriters and graphic designers, etc.
About 2 weeks ago, Teammates launched a tool (AI HR-ist), and right now I came across a post from a local marketer who shared interesting data about Ask AI (an internal AI/chatbot system), which today handles almost 94% of all routine HR requests, such as:
vacation requests
onboarding new employees
payroll information and attendance records
benefit selection and answers to basic employment questions
Results of AI implementation at IBM
94% of the HR agenda is automated
Payroll, vacation, administration – even terminations have been automated
$3.5 billion saved
40% drop in HR costs
IBM also claims that employees are happier. The HR department’s internal NPS score increased from -35 to +74 after the implementation of AskHR (source: HR Asia). 6% of questions are still directed at people – AI has not yet completely replaced complex or emotionally sensitive situations.
How do you see it with HR positions (+ white collar positions) in big corporations after acquiring AI?
Maybe the specific question is for your region. :-)
Replies
I think it really depends on the time frame we're talking about.
If you’re asking whether we’ll see major changes in the next year or two, I’d say probably not.
But if we're looking at the next 5–10 years, then yes, significant changes are likely.
Right now, I don’t believe AI can fully replace a human. Sure, it can make someone 2–3–5 times more productive, which could mean you end up needing fewer employees.
For example, if your company only has one HR person, I wouldn’t let them go yet. But if you have ten HR staff and AI can enable three people to do the work of ten, then yes, I would let the other seven go - or better yet, find them new roles in areas where AI still isn’t very helpful. That way, they can keep adding value to the business, just in a place where AI isn’t making a big difference (yet), say less than 5–10%.
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@byalexai For me, the boring and unnecessarily expensive HR world will just disappear, and people will have to upskill, plus those who deal with HR with added value for the company and business will jump out, beyond the obligatory administration and hiding behind buzzwords. HR positions will not disappear, just the content of the work will change slightly.
But I would like to see how these people upgrade, when they have been operating on established processes the whole time.
@busmark_w_nika I agree, although it really depends on what exactly is meant by HR. I know companies where these people only review CVs. In others, they review CVs but are also accountants and trainers at the same time. So my question here is: what exactly do you mean by HR in your question?
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@byalexai I mean also those people who not only review CVs, but also proactively try to find candidates or come up with some activities to improve teams – this will be harder to replace tho.
Frankly speaking, I don't think the waves of layoff in the last two years were because of AI. We don't have magical tools that will replace programmers in enterprises at scale.
In fact, these companies were on hiring spree in 2021 (right after COVID) and recruited more people than required. The companies were experiencing massive growth and all the hiring was justified.
But now that the business has slowed (returning to normal growth), companies are finding it difficult to justify the expense; and hence the firings.
Unfortunately, the firing has affected even the most loyal employees who've worked at these companies for decades.
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@thebigk Yes, COVID was probably the main cause, but we are still in the AI wave, so the process is unfinished and whatever can happen. 😬
Cal ID
I'm stunned by such a spectrum of thoughts, this topic feels close to home for so many!
AI in HR is clearly not just a trend. We’re already seeing the repetitive stuff like payroll and leave requests moved off HR’s plate.
What I find most interesting is how this actually puts the spotlight on what humans do best- building culture, solving conflicts, reading nuance, and supporting teams when things get messy.
Sure, we might see HR teams shrink, but I doubt we’ll see the core of HR disappear. If anything, the role’s going to get even more strategic and people-focused, since those are the things AI can’t touch (at least for now). This point has been made by many already, but it really is the crux of the matter.
Feels like we’re entering an era where good HR will be defined less by policies, more by empathy, coaching, and the trust folks can build across a team.
I'm curious to know some real experiences- Has anyone seen new kinds of HR roles pop up since AI started making waves?
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@sanskarix To be honest, I am not on watch of HR roles but could spot that there are completely new roles: AI vibe-coders, vibe-marketers, MEME makers – I literally saw such kinds of positions.
AI will revolutionize the hr market. But most normies, in my opinion, still don't really realize what's coming. And yes, junior programmers are easily replaced by Claude and Gemini.
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@boogiemuffin Having McDonald's jobs will be a luxury in the future. 😂 Jokes aside, I had my first part-time in McDonalds.
I think for the general HR stuff, yes. But a friend of mine was into TA and her work was not to just gather more applicants but understand if the candiate is good for the client's work culture. Of course, you can always define the culture and train on that but the intuition part is still a big factor there. So yeah, I think the general HR stuff will be done by AI but the hiring part will still be in hands of humans at least for long period.
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@lakshya_singh Thank God, empathy and emotions are our proposition value :D
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@surya006 We are on the same boat – I was always disappointed not hearing back from the company, and it would be useful for candidates (job applicants) to have some constructive feedback so they can improve their future attempts to succeed.
SalesTarget.ai
This is such a timely topic, Nika — and wow, those IBM numbers are wild. 🤯
I think HR isn’t going away, but it is evolving fast. Most of what AI is replacing are the repetitive, rule-based tasks — which honestly, many HR folks never loved doing in the first place.
What’s exciting is that this opens up space for HR to become more human, not less — focusing on culture, trust, coaching, tough conversations, and strategy. The stuff that actually builds great teams.
So yeah, tools like AskHR or AI HR-ist are powerful — but they don’t replace the need for empathy and judgment. They just give HR more time to be there when it matters most.
Curious to see how this shift plays out across different industries and regions too. Great discussion. 👏
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@salestarget Thanks for your 2 cents. Do you know what I like to see doing AI in the HR field? To finally give feedback to unsuccessful job applicants! :D
AI is clearly transforming not only HR but pretty much any knowledge work's repetitive tasks. for HR things like payroll, onboarding, and routine tasks are ripe for automation, but areas like conflict resolution, culture building, and nuanced decision-making I believe will always be a space that needs a human. AI can never (at least in the near term) be psychologically perceptive or have EQ like humans, even if its only going to deal with remote employees and working on text based communication, I think humans read between the lines that machines don't, and that's irreplaceable. regardless, if headcount goes down as AI takes care of the onscreen tasks, HR folks will get to spend more quality time with people face-to-face, and being present when it really matters.
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@narayan_prasath face-to-face will be a real differentiator. My reckoning is that HR will survive but in very modest numbers.
Great question, Nika.
At Token Talent (AI-powered HR & Payroll for emerging markets), we see AI transforming—not replacing—HR. Tasks like onboarding, payroll, and attendance? Automated. But the human side—culture, conflict, retention—still needs people.
In our region, AI is freeing up HR teams to do more meaningful work, not making them obsolete.
HR isn’t dying. It’s evolving.
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@zubairayazasim Have there been some people fired because of Token Talent?
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I think Human Resource department should be converted to to AI Resource Manager department.
This is what i would have done:
I would make my HR train my AI agents like you'd onboard interns
use HR folks to emotionally QA your AI replies.
I would make the HRs overlook all prompts that our employees are using to track if they're breaking rules.
I would put them in charge to train the AI for flagging rogue interns.
I would make them police over all the non-tech savvy people in the company to adopt AI into their daily work and be more efficient. I hate slow people. Seriously!
What do you think about this?
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@mosymimi "use HR folks to emotionally QA your AI replies." – this way, those HR folks would prepare AI so well that some HR folks wouldn't be needed anymore :D neat neat