The Role of the CHRO in Building a Human-AI Advantage

Why the human-AI connection belongs with HR

For many organizations, AI is now embedded across products, processes, and people decisions. The role of the CHRO is to define and translate expectations into policies, behaviors, and development guidelines of how people interact with AI at work to prevent against:

• Leaders launching AI pilots without clarity on skills, roles, or change impact
• Employees unsure how AI will affect their jobs, progression, or evaluation
• Limited governance over where AI is used in hiring, development, and performance 

CHROs can take an ‘embrace and defend’ approach encouraging AI usage to speed up decisions, routine work, and surface more and broader insights while setting boundaries around AI use, ensuring people decisions remain transparent, explainable, and grounded in sound evidence.

Working from real issues: what can be done

AI readiness lands best when it is anchored in specific problems the business is trying to solve. Below are 3 key issues CHROs often face, with targeted actions and what to track.

Issue 1: Confusion and anxiety about AI

67% of employees in the US believe AI is decreasing the number of job openings, making the job market feel tougher, and creating anxiety for workers fearing about their future. CHROs need their teams to be clear to candidates and employees alike about the impact of AI on business and changing expectations of their workforce.

Action

• Launch a clear internal “AI at work” narrative with clear policies of where AI is used, where it is not, and the principles guiding decisions.
• Offer short, role‑specific AI literacy sessions, emphasizing that AI supports rather than replaces people, and that certain decisions will always involve human review. 

​Track

• Adoption of AI tools and pulse surveys on understanding and trust in how AI is used.
• Employee engagement to gauge motivations, sentiment and confidence in the business and their own career. 

Expected outcome

Employees feel informed rather than blindsided, fear levels fall, and adoption of approved AI tools improves because people understand both benefits and safeguards.

Issue 2: Inconsistent or risky use of AI in people decisions

Employees are wary of bias and a lack of fairness, demanding transparency and human oversight. Whenever AI contributes to hiring, development, or mobility decisions, HR should explain its usage in human terms: what inputs were used, how they were weighted, and how outcomes are verified.

Transparent, responsible, and human-centered design will separate organizations that thrive from those that face resistance.

Action

• Partner with legal, risk, and IT to identify data and AI requirements to ensure compliance with legal, ethical and regulatory requirements.
• Design, develop, and use AI assessments with fairness in mind, including the reasoning behind how, why and when it is used.

Track

• Guidance and legalities across regions where AI is used within the business, ensuring consistency.
• The ability to respond to candidate, employee or regulator questions around data and AI usage together with clear documentation and rationale. 

Expected outcome

Less reliance on ad‑hoc or shadow AI, more consistency in how tools are used, and a clearer line of accountability when decisions are challenged. The organization can move quickly with AI while remaining confident it can withstand regulatory scrutiny and public questioning.

Issue 3: Skills gaps for working effectively with AI

Part of the CHRO’s role is to help the workforce embrace and thrive with AI. Through skills assessment, untapped capabilities, skills gaps and strengths can be identified and utilized to create personalized development plans to upskill, reskill and empower employees to work with AI.

Action

• Do a skill-based talent audit to identify the skills of individuals, teams, departments and organizations.
• Measure the AI-Readiness of your workforce and leaders to understand where the skills needed to thrive in an AI workplace exist together with hiring and development insights.

Track

• Ongoing skills proficiency in critical areas over time and the impact of targeted upskilling and reskilling programs.
• Capability of workforce against strategic initiatives to form future plans.

Expected outcome

Key populations become more productive and confident using AI in their daily work, reducing resistance and dependency on external specialists. The CHRO moves their organization from passive consumers of black‑box reports to active interpreters and challengers of AI‑driven insights, strengthening its role as strategic partner.

The evolving role of HR

Successful HR initiatives are critical to overall business success. Addressing these issues, CHRO’s can shape the narrative and principles around AI so they align with values and strategy and build the human capabilities that allow AI to be used thoughtfully and safely. This enables the organization to work faster, make better people decisions, and empower their workforce to lead with confidence in a fast-moving landscape.

Discover more about how AI is impacting the workplace and how CHROs can take the strategic lead in responding to this change.