Will support function departments (HR, legal, finance etc) be replaced by AI? Instead of looking to replace these roles, leaders should be looking to evolve them.
Technology has always automated tasks no matter the color of your collar. AI is merely the newest, and perhaps the scariest, because we don’t understand its boundaries. HR teams, for example, don’t (or shouldn’t be) manually scanning through hundreds of resumes anymore to find a new candidate thanks to tech. AI might even make the process better.
A growth-minded organization sees this as an opportunity to improve how HR serves its internal customers, not merely as a cost-cutting initiative.The extra time might be used by the HR team to discover ways of retaining employees, increasing happiness, improving collaboration, and so on, thus bringing “human” back into Human Resources. The same concept can be applied to all support functions.
Evolve the roles so your people can have a more direct impact on the success of the organization. Will tech take jobs? Yep. Might it lead to job-creating growth? Surely, if you up-level the skills of those you’ve already invested in.