AI is rapidly reshaping the skills required across the workforce, and new data suggests that HR teams are increasingly prioritizing AI knowledge in their skill sets.
According to recent figures from LinkedIn, AI literacy has become the fastest-growing skill among HR professionals in the UK, with more HR practitioners adding AI-related capabilities to their profiles in the past year than any other competency.
Erin Scruggs, VP and Head of Global Talent Acquisition at LinkedIn, said this was because AI literacy is key to the “future readiness” of the profession.
“AI isn’t going to replace jobs, but it will dramatically change them, so being ready for what’s coming and staying effective in your role is incredibly important,” she added.
As businesses accelerate the deployment of AI technologies, HR teams are under increasing pressure to understand how these tools work, how they affect employees, and how organizations can use them responsibly. That trend becomes even clearer when looking at how companies are currently using AI within HR functions.
AI Skills Rising as Organizations Expand Use
The surge in AI literacy among HR professionals is not happening in isolation. It reflects a broader expansion of AI across business operations, including recruitment, talent development, and workforce planning.
Research from Boston Consulting Group suggests that nearly 70 percent of HR and business leaders now use generative AI in some capacity at work. However, despite this growing experimentation, relatively few HR functions say they have successfully scaled AI across their operations, highlighting a gap between early adoption and fully embedding the technology into everyday workflows.
That gap is beginning to shape hiring priorities across the HR profession. Businesses are increasingly looking for HR professionals who can deploy AI tools responsibly while also guiding employees through the organisational changes the technology brings.
According to Kerry White, Director at HR Recruitment Specialists RedGreen Partners, HR candidates who combine AI capability with traditional strengths are becoming sought after.
“HR professionals with strong AI capability, combined with softer skills, such as change management, communication and stakeholder engagement, are in particular demand,” she said.
Automation Risk or Strategic Evolution
The rapid rise of AI within HR has also sparked debate about what the technology will ultimately mean for the profession. HR is widely considered one of the corporate functions most exposed to automation, particularly when it comes to administrative, repetitive, and routine tasks.
Activities such as onboarding administration, document management, and certain learning processes could increasingly be handled by intelligent systems. At the same time, new AI-driven tools are enabling business leaders outside HR to manage aspects of people operations themselves, including recruitment screening and performance tracking.
This dynamic has led many HR professionals to believe the future could unfold in one of two directions. One possibility is that AI weakens the traditional HR role, with technology absorbing many of its operational responsibilities. The other path suggests a transformation in which HR becomes more strategic, helping organizations manage the human impact of AI adoption and guiding how employees interact with new technologies.
Analysts at Gartner support the belief that AI will reshape the role, predicting that by 2030, up to 60% of HR tasks could be handled by intelligent agents. This shift could free HR leaders to focus on strategic initiatives such as organizational transformation, workforce engagement, and governance of AI-enabled workplaces.
With AI set to bring such fundamental change to HR, the sector’s response reflects a recognition that professionals who build AI capabilities will be better positioned for the evolution of the role.
Preparing HR for an AI-Driven Workplace
For many HR professionals, the growing influence of AI has created an urgent need to develop new capabilities. Rather than waiting for automation to reshape their roles, many are actively building the skills needed to manage and guide the technology’s adoption within organizations.
Industry leaders say the most successful HR professionals will combine technical literacy with the human skills the function has traditionally emphasized. Change management, communication, and stakeholder engagement remain essential as companies integrate AI tools into complex organizational environments.
As a result, HR professionals who can confidently work with AI tools while maintaining strong interpersonal and strategic skills will be able to combine their human strengths with the new capabilities AI brings to the role.
