Survey shows optimism among HR professionals
A recent survey conducted by The Conference Board found that 65% of chief HR officers believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will be beneficial to human resources (HR) professionals in the next two years rather than being harmful to their jobs. The survey also revealed that 51% of CHROs plan to increase hiring in the next six months, up from 42% in the previous survey for the first quarter. However, in the current slower-growth environment, other measures are being taken such as eliminating non-business-critical travel (42%), freezing hiring for non-critical positions (36%), reducing or delaying employee development opportunities (22%), and conducting layoffs (15%).
Rebecca Ray, Executive VP of Human Capital at The Conference Board, stated that the challenge of hiring workers has become even more difficult in recent years due to acute labor shortages. Therefore, despite the weakening economic environment, CHROs are hesitant to resort to layoffs and are instead focusing on shorter-term actions to address the economic downturn. The Conference Board CHRO Confidence Index for the second quarter reached a level of 58, indicating more positive than negative responses, up from the first quarter’s index reading of 57. The survey was conducted from April 3 to April 17 and had 130 chief human resource officers participating.
Separately, the CEO of IBM announced plans to replace 7,800 jobs with AI over the next five years, with HR department functions such as employee verification or moving employees from one department to another being likely tasks to be taken over by AI.
