- A new study from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services commissioned by Eightfold finds that HR leaders must claim their seats at the AI strategy table or risk being left behind.
- The study finds that while 91% of respondents agree having the right talent is essential to AI success, 72% say focusing on AI has exposed technical skill gaps.
- AI isn’t replacing HR — it’s elevating the role into a more strategic, data-driven powerhouse. Yet more than half of survey respondents said that they lack the AI skills needed to meaningfully contribute to the conversation.
AI is reshaping how work gets done, and HR is in the thick of it. Today’s leaders are challenged with finding and training talent to work with AI — and balancing how to use it in their own practices to drive organizational change.
We commissioned a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (HBR-AS) report to explore how AI is elevating the importance of HR’s role in shaping and accelerating talent strategies across industries.
The findings are clear: while most organizations recognize AI’s strategic importance, many HR teams are still playing catch-up. But if you’re ready to act, there’s real opportunity to lead.
Here are five critical takeaways from our HBR-AS report for any talent or business leader ready to seize the benefits of AI right now.
Related content: Eightfold Co-CEO and Co-founder Ashutosh Garg shows how agentic AI has the potential to improve the HR workflow.
1. You can’t be a bystander in the AI conversation
AI is becoming a business imperative. According to our HBR-AS survey of 371 leaders from organizations using or considering AI, 64% said the pressure to create value with AI has never been greater, and 61% said their C-suite is prioritizing the technology.
But when it comes to developing the organization’s AI strategy, HR is often left out. Just 21% of respondents said HR leadership is closely involved in their organization’s AI decision-making.
That disconnect is a missed opportunity.
“AI agents are impacting every single part of what I lead today at Salesforce, every part of our business,” said Andy Valenzuela, Salesforce EVP of Global Rewards, Employee Success Strategy, and Operations. “It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in my career.”
If HR leaders aren’t at the table, critical talent conversations will happen without them.
That’s especially risky when 91% of survey respondents agreed that having the right talent is essential to AI success, but 72% said focusing on AI has exposed technical skill gaps across their workforces.
Related content: Hear more about how HR is leading the charge in the age of agentic AI from Eightfold Co-CEO Chano Fernandez.
2. You need to build credibility as a strategic partner
One of the biggest barriers to HR’s involvement in AI strategy? Perception.
More than half of survey respondents said that they lack the AI skills needed to meaningfully contribute to the conversation. Nearly a third said that they don’t have a clear strategy to source AI talent.
This credibility gap won’t close on its own. You need to show that your priorities are aligned with overall organizational goals.
“HR needs to ensure that, as they deploy AI initiatives around hiring, the outcomes are connected to business needs and aren’t just for the sake of having AI or solely for HR benefits,” said Jennifer Galbraith, Salesforce VP of Employee Success Product Management.
In practice, this starts with cross-functional collaboration. Leaders from Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Salesforce surveyed in the report all stressed the importance of regular conversations with finance, IT, procurement, and other teams to ensure that everyone is working toward the same business goals.
Understanding priorities — and tailoring talent strategies to support these initiatives — is what earns HR a seat at the table.
It also means using data to drive decisions. Melissa Keiser, Bristol Myers Squibb Executive Director, Global Skills and Career Development Strategy, described how her team uses business intelligence dashboards to pinpoint top emerging skills.
“That allows us to really hone in on the most important technical skills within a group of tasks or work,” she said.
3. A skills-based approach is essential
Forward-thinking organizations are shifting away from rigid job structures and toward dynamic, skills-based talent strategies. It’s a natural fit for an AI-enabled future, where agility and adaptability matter more than hierarchy.
At Bristol Myers Squibb, a skills-first approach is helping leaders rethink roles entirely.
“Sometimes we have a job description, and it is nowhere close to the actual work that needs to get done,” Keiser said.
By focusing on the most critical work and the capabilities required, these leaders are unlocking new ways to staff and develop their workforces.
Salesforce is taking a similar approach with its AI-powered internal career marketplace. The platform helps employees find new opportunities across functions based on their skills, even when those moves might not follow traditional career paths.
For example, Galbraith said that recruiters and salespeople have overlapping capabilities, but in the past, switching between those functions raised eyebrows. Now, it’s encouraged.
The result is more internal mobility, better retention, and a deeper bench of talent ready to flex across different priorities.
4. AI can make you more effective — if your teams are ready to use it
While AI is often talked about in the context of business transformation, it’s also becoming a critical tool for HR itself. Many HR teams are still in the early stages of using AI to improve workflows.
Only about a third of survey respondents said that their HR teams are moderately or very effective at AI-related tasks like reskilling employees, recruiting AI talent, or evaluating workforce readiness.
In fact, HR was seen as more effective at traditional tasks like general hiring or talent management than those related to AI. That’s a missed opportunity, because when AI is thoughtfully applied, it can significantly improve outcomes.
At Bristol Myers Squibb, an AI-powered recruiting platform helped reduce time to fill by 21%. At Bayer, gen AI is being used to update job descriptions and candidate communications, while chatbots pull data from across the organization to support faster decision-making.
These tools also change how HR professionals see their roles.
“How do you take a recruiter who feels transactional and make them more of a business consultant?” said Robert Carruthers, Bayer VP North America Talent Acquisition. “That’s where some of these tools have really helped out tremendously.”
5. You must build new capabilities now
Adopting AI in HR isn’t just about implementing new tools — it’s about cultivating new mindsets and skill sets across the team.
According to the survey, most HR teams aren’t there yet. Only 5% of respondents said HR’s processes are fully prepared for AI. Just 8% said the same of HR employees’ digital skills.
That’s why many organizations are focusing on training HR professionals to better understand AI, both in terms of how it works and how it can be applied in their everyday work.
Some companies, like Bayer, are even appointing AI leads within each function to coordinate strategy and ensure employees get the support they need.
Technical skills aren’t the only ones that matter. Other critical capabilities include:
- Data literacy and the ability to translate insights into action.
- Change management expertise to support adoption.
- Creativity and problem-solving to explore new approaches.
- Adaptability and a continuous learning mindset.
“This is an exciting time to be in the people profession,” Keiser said. “But doing that isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s an expectation now, the new requirement.”
Ready to get started?
If you’re wondering how to take the first step, the report offers a few practical starting points:
- Align closely with your CIO or CTO to understand your organization’s AI priorities.
- Start small and find early wins with use cases like internal mobility or recruiting automation.
- Use data to tell the story of HR’s impact, especially when it supports business goals.
- Champion employee development by helping your workforce navigate AI-related change.
Valenzuela said the time to act is now: “Executives are saying, ‘Hey, this AI revolution is happening, what are you doing about it?’ None of us have all the answers, but you have to get out there and get in front of it.”
HR doesn’t need to be the expert in every AI tool or technology, but it does need to lead when it comes to people.
And in an AI-powered world, that’s more important than ever.
Read the full report, Empowering HR to Become AI-Savvy Talent Leaders, now.
