AI Transformation is on everyone’s mind. But doing it effectively is another story (an MIT study recently found that 95% of AI pilots fail). So, I thought I’d structure today’s post around four of the questions I hear most from HR and business leaders these days and how I’d address them in a human-centric way. Here we go…
Question #1: How can HR overcome the perception gap of not being AI savvy?
The (perception) gap is real: According to recent research by Gartner, only 7% of CHROs are seen as AI-savvy by their CEO. And only 36% of CIOs would invite their CHROs as partners on the AI transformation journey. But Gartner also found that 71% of AI initiatives succeed if they are co-led across the C-Suite. If the future of work isn't about humans vs. machines, but about humans WITH machines, we need to include people who understand people, PEOPLE!
Here are a few of my initial thoughts for how we might start shifting perceptions:
Cultivate visible micro-learning habits: Instead of trying to “master AI,” HR leaders can build a daily/weekly practice of engaging with AI (e.g., prompt practice, tool exploration, reading research). Credibility comes when you roll up your sleeves. Even 20 minutes a day experimenting with AI in your own workflow builds insight into its friction points, blind spots, and real potential. When you share candidly about what worked and what didn’t, trust follows. Last month, I set myself a 30-day AI learning challenge and recently shared my favorite resources in a LinkedIn post. Feel free to use it as inspiration for building your own AI learning habit and for working out loud along the way.
Re-imagine your role: I do think the role of HR is shifting in the age of AI – for the better. And I think it’s an opportunity to change perceptions around what we do and how we co-create value for the organization and the humans inside. Here are a few roles we need to play:
Strategic Partner: You don’t “just do AI” – it needs to be an integral part of your strategy. HR leaders become strategic partners by facilitating peer dialogue around questions like: “How does AI help us achieve our strategic objectives?” “What business problems are we trying to solve with AI?” “How do we know an AI use case creates value?” “How might we re-imagine our business model with AI?” I love how Noa Perry-Reife, Chief People Officer at Neko Health, co-created guiding principles for AI. [Note: My article on co-creating strategy might also come in handy here]. Being a strategic partner also means assessing the level of AI competency among the executive team and addressing individual skills gaps and collective blind spots.
Critical Thinker: HR leaders must be bold, curious explorers and courageous thinkers who can help steer the company into the AI-future. Plug: Design thinking is a great way to hone your critical thinking skills. Asking better questions (of yourself, your team, and your peers) becomes your superpower. For starters, here are a couple of AI-related questions I would ask:
What are we still doing today that was built for the pre-AI era? What needs to be re-imagined entirely? What does that mean for how work gets done in the future?
How might we re-design entry-level roles/tasks that are or will be eliminated by AI? How do we need to re-think talent pipelining, career pathing, and succession planning accordingly?
If you are looking for more inspiration on how to hone your questioning habit, I highly recommend The Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger.
Connector: AI touches every function, and effective implementation depends on collaboration. HR leaders are poised to orchestrate across silos and cultivate cross-functional partnerships to ensure AI adoption is not just a tech project but a people-centered change effort. I imagine this was part of the reason why biotech company Moderna late last year announced the creation of a new role, chief people and digital technology officer, promoting its human resources chief Tracey Franklin to the spot. Part of being a connector is translating between business needs, tech solutions and people's abilities. One way to do this is by facilitating cross-functional journey mapping to identify real customer pain points that AI can help solve.
Humanist: HR leaders need to be the ones centering humans in AI conversations. An example why this is critical is a trend sparked by some tech companies to become “AI-first” companies - (re-)organized around AI vs humans as their main source of labor. So far, early adopters of this philosophy like Duolingo and Klarna have partially or fully backpaddled due to human backlash and/or not being able to realize substantial business impact. They serve as cautionary tales. I wonder how HR was involved in these cases - at all, or only when it came to executing layoffs?
In addition to being employees’ advocate by getting involved early in the types of discussions outlined above, here are some other human-centric questions to ask yourself and your leadership team:
When we say all employees should “use AI” (like Shopify and Microsoft have recently done) – what does that really mean to us? How might we address the AI gender adoption gap and the “competency penalty” for women and older AI users?
What does it mean to be human at work in the age of AI? What are the implications of AI for meaningful work?
What is our ethical responsibility in the displacement of a (sizeable) portion of our workforce?
How might we partner with communities and governments to co-design support programs that address the psychological toll of sudden AI-driven unemployment?
Question #2: How do you effectively motivate employees to leverage AI to improve their work?
AI effectiveness has less to do with the tools and everything to do with the humans operating them. If you want AI to stick, treat it as an employee experience transformation: Clear the low-value tasks. Double down on the work that matters. Build with employees, not for them. Protect time to learn before expecting results. According to BCG, this approach can increase adoption rate fourfold.
Obviously I am biased, but I believe that AI adoption is one of those complex problems that’s poised to be addressed with a human-centered design approach due to its complex nature and co-creation potential.
Here are a few human-centered design tools that can get you started on this journey:
Human-centered leadership is critical when engaging employees in the AI journey – through genuine care, trust is built.
In a previous article I stipulated, that design thinking is change management 2.0. This is particularly true when bringing employees on the AI journey.
Managing a Design Project is a bit different than leading a traditional project. Design tools like the Empathy Interview can become powerful companions on your AI journey.
You can lead an HR.Hackathon to engage your employees in co-creation. This might be a challenge to hack: How might we leverage AI to improve our work while also documenting the wins?
Question #3: How can we proactively identify workforce skills needed when the AI evolution is rapid and ambiguous?
I previously shared a blueprint for how to map future skills – design thinking style which you might find helpful.
When it comes to specific skills, I believe that the power combo of a digital mindset and design thinking competencies are the engines of the AI evolution.
Digital mindset: In the book The Digital Mindset, authors Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley define the concept as “the set of approaches we use to make sense of, and make use of, data and technology.” Good news for the rest of us: Based on their research, we don’t all have to become computer scientists to develop a digital mindset. The “30 percent rule” of mastery applies when it comes to areas ranging from human-machine collaboration to data and analytics. Sometimes, the term “AI literacy” is used as well. What does it mean? I find AI Literacy Architect Stella Lee’s “AI Literacy Framework” a helpful way to articulate the components of the concept.
Design thinking competencies: The World Economic Forum highlights the enduring importance of human traits that are central to design thinking and essential in an AI-driven world. Investing in these human attributes provides strategic advantages, such as fostering an adaptive, growth-minded workforce essential for thriving amid constant disruption.
I believe that when we up-skill employees in design thinking (incl. curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity), we turn them into better AI thinking partners. In my upcoming book, I will share a design thinking competency model and ways you can embed it inside your organization.
A human-centric way to cultivate these mindsets and competencies is to build an internal AI Community of Practice where employees get a change to hone their digital/design thinking mindsets and build general AI literacy in a safe space with peers.
Question #4: How do I bring my HR team along on this journey while also demonstrating to the organization how impactful an AI transformation can be?
I have a radical idea: Turning HR into an AI Lab can become a cornerstone of effective AI transformation. Here is how:
Build confidence and curiosity among the HR team: Create a 30-day “AI fluency challenge” for your HR team - short, collective exercises that demystify AI. Example: each person uses AI to solve one HR task (e.g., draft policy, summarize survey comments) and shares what they learned. Give each HR sub-function (Talent Acquisition, L&D, People Analytics, etc.) a chance to explore AI use cases directly tied to their daily work. Encourage experimentation over expertise. Make it clear that it’s okay for outputs to be messy at first - curiosity matters more than mastery.
Empower HR to be the first use case: Pilot AI adoption in HR processes before rolling out organization wide. Examples might include AI-augmented job descriptions and candidate outreach, Gen AI-based learning content creation, AI sentiment analysis of engagement data. Track time saved, quality improvements, and employee feedback so HR can show tangible results.
Amplify the story to the organization: Share real HR wins as mini-case studies. Example: “By using AI, our recruiters cut job description drafting time by 70%, freeing them up for candidate conversations.” Invite employees from other functions to participate in HR pilots, making them ambassadors for broader adoption. Proactively communicate how HR addresses bias, fairness, and data security. This strengthens HR’s credibility as the steward of responsible AI.
[Note: This article was originally published as part of the Design Thinking for HR LinkedIn Newsletter.]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Design Thinking for HR is a biweekly LinkedIn newsletter that aims to inspire HR professionals to experiment with the human-centered design framework. The newsletter is curated by Nicole Dessain, a talent management leader and founder of the human-centered transformation consultancy talent.imperative and the HR.Hackathon Alliance. Nicole is currently writing her first book about Design Thinking for HR. Join the Early Readers’ Community here.