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AI is redefining work as we know it, and implementing it company-wide is one of the major challenges that HR leaders are currently facing.
One one hand, the new tech holds the promise of taking rote tasks and generally drudgery out of employees’ workflow. But because those tasks are often done by entry-level workers, it has the potential to create another problem: Breaking the talent pipeline for young people entering the workforce.
“I think there’s a small, short term, realistic thing that’s happening as people are saying, we don’t know what these entry-level hires will do, because with our old programs, we don’t need them to do those things anymore,” said Nickle LaMoreaux, the CHRO of technology giant IBM at Tech Week 2025 in New York City on June 6.
But she urges companies to take a wider-lens approach to how the tech can contour work, not kill it altogether. At IBM, she says that her department now uses an AI bot to assist with basic HR tasks like locating benefit information. While entry-level HR workers might have been tasked with doing that in the past, they now do things like analyze the feedback around AI processes, and troubleshoot ways to improve.
Constantly finding new ways for employees to work with the technology will be how companies will find success with AI adoption moving forward, says LaMoreaux, and get the most out of their people.
“What are organizations doing around training? How are they redefining jobs? How are they thinking about not just today, three, five years out?’ If you want to be a leading organization, those are the conversations you should be spending time on, not on how many jobs can we get rid of.’”
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
The United States added 139,000 jobs in May, more than expected, but still showing an overall cooling of the market. Wall Street Journal
Multiple coal and gas plants were planned to close, until the president decided to keep them open through emergency orders. New York Times
Some economists warn that a projected slowdown in the U.S. economy could accelerate the use of AI. Washington Post
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Sneaky signs. Here are some oddball recession indicators that come straight from consumers themselves. —Sydney Lake
Not a bad gig. Here’s a look inside Walmart’s army of cake decorators, who are some of America’s highest-paid hourly workers. —The Associated Press
Radical change. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicts that AI will be smarter than humans in as soon as 5 years. —Emma Burleigh
