For decades, HR and it has been seen as two completely independent worlds – one manager, the other managing technology.
But more and more companies are now bringing these two functions under a leader, a move that is largely due to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to Workplace software company Nexthink, 64% of senior IT decision makers in large companies expect their HR and IT teams to merge within the next five years. The goal is to ensure that strategies are developed simultaneously with technology and people – businesses are ready to achieve an AI-driven future.
Tracey Franklin, chief figure and digital technology officer at Biotech Giant Moderna, is responsible for HR and IT to over 5,000 employees of the company. These include core IT services and digital technologies for drug development, manufacturing and commercialization.
“Traditionally, HR will plan how many people we need to complete the task, which will respond to the requirements of the system,” she said. “Now, it’s about how design work flows into organizing, deciding what is going on to technology – hardware, software, AI, and where human skills are most appropriate.”
Moderna works with OpenAI to train all employees on how to use Chatgpt (such as Chatgpt) to reshape their workflows. “We’re saying, ‘This is a tool to rewrite how to get the job done,'” Franklin explained.
She stressed that despite the changes in leadership structure, experts remained: “I haven’t turned HR people into IT people and vice versa.” Instead, the role of co-leaders is to set strategies, allocate capital, remove barriers and attract employees.
In customer service software company Covisian, HR and IT functions merged into Chief Personnel and Technology Officer Fabio Sattolo, formerly the company’s CTO. With 27,000 employees, most in call centers, the company sees AI as a way to speed up problem solving – humans diagnose customer problems and handle back-end processes.
Satolo said the merger of departments increased speed and effectiveness. One example is the in-house job launch tool developed by the joint team that doubles the application for internal job openings.
Breaking the cultural barriers between human resources and human resources is crucial. “It’s really different from HR people,” Sartolo admits. “People aren’t always good at talking, HR is a great audience. We need neutral leaders to help the team find common ground.”
Proponents believe that merging HR and speeding up decision making and combining technology with people’s strategies, but others warn of the risk of diluting expertise.
“The skills of these two professions are complementary, but there is little overlap. Complex human issues require a different understanding of the professional expertise they need. Larger collaboration makes sense, but the risk of complete merger loses the need for deep organization.”
In online banking BUNQ, HR and it sits on the same overall team, Chief Strategy Officer Bianca Zwart believes that makes sense because both set up systems that support a wider business. BUNQ aims to automate 90% of its operations from the end of 2025 to the end of 2025 – without layoffs – and believes that HR-IT integration will help employees adapt to AI.
“In any company, people need to understand that they will work in a completely different way,” Zwart said. “AI will take away repetitive tasks, so they can focus on more complex issues.”
For a growing number of companies following this model, the information is clear: The future workplace will depend on technology and people’s strategies, in some cases, under the same roof.
