A recent survey by BCG showed augmented learners outshine AI-specific learners, organisational learners and limited learners respectively (where augmented learners were high on AI-specific learning and organizational learning, while limited learners scored low on organisational learning and AI-specific learning).
What is the message here for creating high-performing organizations? High Performing organizations require linking right talent, and right technology with right strategy and right lessons for organizational performance & effectiveness.
How do we foresee the role of HR in this? It goes beyond traditional HR practices, and involves effective and planned usage of tools and technology of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and expertise of specialised agencies/services to optimize HR functions like talent acquisition, talent development and talent retention.
Challenges and Expectations: Josh Bersin and Dave Ulrich’s Perspective
Today, Human Resource professionals are expected to deliver more advanced and differentiated human capital skill sets, create and maintain high-performing work groups, plan the impact of AI/technology platforms on employees, and partner with business leaders to align people strategies with business goals to achieve corporate initiatives.
In other words: strategising cognitive augmentation for effective HR augmentation and implementation. Speaking simply, talent management, leadership development, managing right culture and achieving organizational excellence are the work of HR. The mandate for the HR function is to work better, faster and cheaper with the best use of technology.
Josh Bersin the Global HR Tech Guru discussed the Challenges of 2025 and asserted, “These include (1) economic uncertainties, bifurcated labor market, (2) the impact of AI on the workforce and the Rise of Superworkers, (3) the new “soup” of issues in employee experience, which lands in HR’s lap, (4) the changing nature of leadership and leadership development, and (5) the urgent need to HR transformation from the inside out….”
He also added, “Suddenly, with AI everything is different. As the most intelligent and data-hungry technology ever, AI stands to integrate and redefine every business process and “superpower” every employee. And this shift, toward copilots, agents, digital twins, and intelligent platforms, forces us to rethink how we’re organized, what we do, and what we define as a “job.” We are building a company of Superworkers.”
The role of HR department is to prepare such super workers with right planning and effective decisions & interventions keeping organisational and environmental context in mind.
In the words of Father of Modern HR and world’s leading HR Guru Prof Dave Ulrich: “In every ‘Trends for 2025’ report, GenAI for HR is a top agenda. HR and business leaders recognize the power of technology to transform HR, change the workplace, streamline HR processes and solutions, access information, and improve decision-making.”
Gartner found that 76 percent of HR leaders believe that if their organization does not adopt and implement AI solutions, such as generative AI, in the next 12 to 24 months, they will be lagging in organizational success compared to those that do. When we talk to senior HR (and business) leaders, they recognize and agree with the potential impact of GenAI for improved HR services. But often they are feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to focus attention, which leads to poor decision making, unintegrated actions, and burnout.
Cognitive Augmentation and Its Impact on Stakeholder Value
The HR professional should be more proactive in developing strategies, processes, and understanding amongst the top management in the organization to evolve as a learning organization. They have to diagnose the requirements for stakeholders and the desired outcomes. Stakeholders are looking for their value addition through the “human resources”—the HR professionals are required to work on.
Therefore cognitive augmentation is all about creating the right employee experience, integration of ability of the organisation to design and deliver strategic goals, ensuring right upskilling and reskilling efforts of people so that customer aspirations are met and investor confidence is maintained.
This draws our attention to the fact that in this changing scenario, Human Resource professionals are required not only to meet the challenges of identifying right genAI tools ‘for the right impact’ and facilitating mastering new competencies in such tools but also their responsibility to determine which apps best deliver stakeholder value. When there is a proposal for an app, HR department is required to identify and diagnose the expected outcome for key stakeholders.
The value of a GenAI app is less about the information it provides and more about the impact of that information to create value for the key stakeholders. Key areas to work towards cognitive augmentation on part of Human Resource Development professionals (needed for managing organizational learning & development) are- extensive information sharing, empowerment, decentralization of decision-making, work organizations based on self-managing teams and high investment in training and development.
The key competencies of Human Resource Professionals required for managing learning organizations are– business-driven, process-sensitive, systems-driven, strategic thinker, change manager and value-driven.
Again, in the words of Prof.Dave Ulrich, “HR and business leaders want to know which of the GenAI apps not only streamline HR processes and access information to improve decision making but increase value to customers, investors, and communities so that business financial results follow. For HR to continue to move up the s-curve of GenAI impact and to implement the right GenAI tools, the daunting proliferation requires prioritization.”
Need for Critical Thinking
This prioritisation would need more critical thinking and effective decision-making & problem-solving abilities from HR professionals by reading and responding effectively to the forces influencing the organisational eco-system rather than simply implementing the tools of automation.
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