Will HR positions survive the rise of AI?

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%.

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.

I dont think AI is going to replace HR roles.

Yes we are seeing dramatic shift in how AI is eliminating much of HR responsibilities but its not to say it will eliminate HR role altogether because there is HUMAN in HR which AI lakes.

HR roles require emotional intelligence, judgment, and trust-building which are hard to automate.

And while we are seeing AI doing incredible things in technical fields like code generation debugging and even vibe coding were still far from vibe hiring.

Human hiring decisions are shaped by context, culture, emotion, and nuance -- areas where AI still struggles and so while AI might help write the job description and even shortlist candidates it wont replace the judgment needed to decide who truly belongs in the role

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.

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?

@busmark_w_nika You're absolutely right, Nika. In my opinion, we're witnessing a significant shift AI is rapidly transforming roles that were once considered stable.

Many manual, repetitive tasks especially in HR and support functions are now being automated. It's a wake-up call for professionals to evolve, adapt, and sharpen the skills AI can't easily replicate: strategic thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence.

No matter how powerful AI becomes, it can never fully replace the human element. A great example is Cristiano Ronaldo outperforming an AI-powered robot in a challenge a clear reminder that instinct, experience, and the human spirit remain irreplaceable. AI may be smart, but it lacks the heart, intuition, and real-world adaptability of a human being :)

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.

For human to human communications empathy is important, so humans will be required. For vacation approval etc tasks will be automated so no of HR required will be reduced.

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. 👏

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.

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.

I think Human Resource department should be converted to to AI Resource Manager department.

This is what i would have done:

1. I would make my HR train my AI agents like you'd onboard interns

2. use HR folks to emotionally QA your AI replies.

3. I would make the HRs overlook all prompts that our employees are using to track if they're breaking rules.

4. I would put them in charge to train the AI for flagging rogue interns.

5. 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?

This conversation reminds me of early DevOps debates. Automation didn’t kill engineers, but it did redefine what good engineering looked like. Same with HR. The role isn’t disappearing, instead we can think of it as being re-scoped.; and the ones who lean into complexity, inclusion, and long-term thinking will come out ahead. Anyhoo, that’s been our mindset at Equally AI - build with intention, not just automation.

If any role will vanish the fastest - it will be the traditional HR role.

However what we'll see though, is specific committees getting formed / departmental merger happening:

Merger Examples for HR Roles:

1. Payroll, Performance Management & Directory-> will get transferred / merged into FinOps, with automation vendors: examples

   • tax (eg: Clear Tax),

   • payroll (eg: greyHR)

   • reimbursements (eg: Razorpay)

   • insurance (eg: Plum)

   • corporate cards (eg: Ramp)

   • performance management (eg: People Box)

   • attendance, employee logistics & directory (eg: Keka)

   • offer letter rollout (Panda Docs)
     

2. POSH, Employee Rights, Contracts, DD & BG verification -> will be merged into Legal, GRC (Governance Risk & Compliance) & Independent Committees
   
   
   What will be interesting to observe is which industry size adopts these faster -> SMB Vs MM Vs Enterprise
   
   @busmark_w_nika
   
   

@shatoolshub AI is clearly transforming HR by automating routine tasks and saving costs — IBM’s numbers prove that. But HR isn’t just admin; it’s also empathy, culture, and people strategy. AI will reduce HR headcount, not replace the human heart of it. The role will evolve, not vanish.

Yeah it’s definitely transforming. AI is amazing for handling repetitive tasks at scale, and tools like AskHR make things faster and more consistent. But when it comes to navigating sensitive issues, resolving conflicts, or building culture, humans still matter a lot. AI helps humans handle....

Really interesting topic and this is the beginning of many of us to start to find our value in the new ecosystem and be valuable for companies and machines. HR will be impacted and they will shrink a lot the size, like any other industry in the coming months and they will use a lot of AI too to make sure bring the right candidates.

Let's see what is going to happen in the coming months.