As companies make increasing use of AI, they are in danger of not sufficiently updating their operations and employee wellbeing thinking to help their workforces cope with the way AI tools are fundamentally changing companies’ processes, employee performance, and the human interactions involved.
Studies suggest that more than half of companies are failing to successfully deliver AI pilot programmes because of insufficient planning; they haven’t fully involved their IT team, or organised effective IT ecosystem training that would embed the pilot into existing processes. Harvard Business School research on AI impacts on individual workers shows people becoming more efficient in strict 'process' terms but feeling more isolated and finding their wellbeing being undermined.
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AI use is a revolutionary – not evolutionary – shift in the way we work. HR and company leaders need to think beyond quick-win automations of certain processes and focus on how to accommodate new technologies that can enhance the productivity of every employee and the different ways that people interact, collaborate and innovate.
People leaders will need to prepare the workforce by acquiring higher-order human skills and capabilities as well as specific AI and technical ones. Anyone from senior executives to down to individual employees will need to acquire skills that promote more meaningful and effective employee experiences and help to inspire talented people. New capabilities for the AI world will include emotional intelligence, health and resilience, inclusion and belonging, and developing others and coming together. These are all essential capabilities in people remaining connected to each other and their wider company mission, and thriving in a workplace that is being made more uncertain by the day.
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But how can companies deliver this shift in their company culture and employees’ mindsets to address the AI challenge? And do so in a way that doesn’t feel unwieldly or look like another company transformation?
I believe that company executives and HR leaders will need to place greater emphasis on performance-based approaches. They will need to strategically align their workforce’s and individual employees’ knowledge, skills and experience with the company’s business objectives and help it remain competitive.
In the performance-based company, an employee’s value lies in how they can perform in an agreed role, as part of a wider team and their organisation, rather than what they know or their existing skills. Through this holistic approach, the role of HR, talent, and learning and development functions are put at the service of driving employee effectiveness, team coherence and the pursuit of organisational goals.
The challenge for HR leaders in 2025 will be how to agree on a performance- and outcome-based approach, and a practical business case for developing human-centric and AI skills across entire workforces, while moving away from upskilling approaches.
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Such a shift means facing sizeable obstacles. Companies implementing skills-based frameworks can feel burdened by tracking workforce skills and company-wide inventories and aligning them to business targets while managing the transformation involved – a heavy lift that is beyond most organisations. After years of Covid-19-pandemic-related upheaval, employees may lack the time (or inspiration) to learn in work, and after repeated digitisations and IT upgrades, may be suffering from technology fatigue.
If companies can make the shift to performance thinking and targets, HR leaders can organise learning opportunities in the flow of work with a careful balance of intentional learning experiences that are individually customised while being delivered at scale. This approach will help HR executives meet the urgent demand for new AI and human-centric skills while maintaining the sense of team, connectedness, and collaboration needed for their company to prosper.
As AI redefines company processes, if not entire organisations, HR leaders will need to take the lead in performance-based thinking. They will be key to helping workforces acquire the skills and capabilities to meet customer needs and innovate in an AI world while retaining the sense of mission, teamworking and human bonds that marks out a successful organisation in any era.
By Lynsey Whitmarsh, CEO of Hemsley Fraser, a global learning and people development provider
