AI Expands Capacity, but Are We Expanding Skills?
#27 || We can have productivity, efficiency, AND engagement
Twenty-five years ago, our HR business partner team was facing a challenge similar to what we are experiencing today with AI adoption. As we transitioned to a shared services model, we recalibrated not just how work got done, but also what work was most valuable. The “less valued” transactional tasks that most HR business partners wanted to offload, like answering questions about benefits, running headcount reports, and managing performance issues, were the very things that gave them their sense of worth. What looked like resistance to a changing strategy was actually an identity crisis tied to a broader cultural shift.
As an HR business partner, I had been preparing for a more strategic role through graduate studies and external coaching work. I knew the skills needed to be a “strategic HR business partner”. However, many of my colleagues had not confronted the deeper question of what “strategic” really meant or the behaviors and skills required to build that new identity.
Today, as AI promises to automate routine work, we're seeing the same pattern. Employees are not just resisting the use of technology or AI tools; they are also questioning the value of these tools. They are resisting an identity shift. When we ask employees to relinquish their current identity and ways of working, we also need to help them establish a new identity while developing the tools and skills alongside them.
The cultural shift we underwent in HR required new behaviors and skills, as well as a complete re-evaluation of how we perceived ourselves and our value. We started to discuss these shifts more actively across the team. Some colleagues left the company to continue doing similar work elsewhere after realizing that they actually liked doing the hands-on role and working through those transactional questions. Most of us stayed because we were excited about making an even greater strategic impact than we were able to do before. We reframed a core question that kept coming up from "What tasks will be taken away?" to"What behaviors and skills do I need to learn to add more value to the business?”
The same holds true for AI adoption. Before rushing to implement new tools, organizations need to help people understand not just how AI tools are benefiting the company, but also how they can enhance employee skills and strategic impact. How can we first shift employees’ mindset from fear to excitement? Instead of asking, “What more can we get out of our employees with AI?”, we need to be asking, “What more can we do for and with our employees and AI?”
Instead, most organizations today are not clarifying this mindset shift and running toward more productivity and cost efficiency.
A recent Stanford study showed that while 83% of employees in China see AI as an opportunity for growth, only 39% of U.S. workers share that optimism. We are throwing tools, stats, and training at people without connecting those things to what matters in an employee's day-to-day workflow. No wonder we are not excited in the US.
Mindset shifts have to be part of any major cultural change. They are part of answering “the why”. Taking the time to answer this question helps employees understand how leveraging AI tools is not only beneficial for the business, but also beneficial for them.
Most organizations today see the opportunity of AI through two lenses:
The productivity lens: "Do more tasks per hour"
The efficiency lens: "Process every request faster."
But what if we could be more productive and efficient while also giving employees additional opportunities to grow?
What if instead of asking, “How can we do more tasks per hour?" we ask:
“How can we create more strategic value?”
When people see that their company is leveraging AI as an amplifier to their work, rather than outplacing them, they will more readily dive into identifying opportunities where AI can free them up to focus on higher-impact activities. Leaders can support this reframe by reinforcing the importance of augmentation and keeping “humans in and on the loop” with our work. If we can offload more tactical tasks, how are we supporting employees in working on those more strategic opportunities? Are we equipping them with the skills to perform that kind of work?
Moderna’s shift to "work planning" from "workforce planning" in the context of AI is a great example of this. This means that they are not just looking at how to automate work with AI; they are assessing whether tasks need to be created, eliminated, or reimagined based on whether the task is better suited to people or machines. Their strategy emphasizes technology augmenting rather than replacing humans.
What if instead of asking, “How can we do more with less?” we ask:
“How do we ensure we are focused on the right priorities?”
AI can’t tell us what matters most. It’s an averaging tool with outputs that reflect the patterns we feed it. While it can surface faster options, it can’t sequence priorities, define quality, or decide what success looks like. That’s still up to us. Without deliberate human judgment, AI will only amplify hustle habits that keep us busy with everything, rather than prioritizing the few things that truly matter.
Klarna's experience illustrates the risks of prioritizing efficiency over effectiveness. After replacing customer service representatives with AI, they had to reverse course when they realized they'd "amputated" empathy from their customer interactions. Today, they've adopted a hybrid approach where AI handles simple queries while humans manage the more complex cases. Their journey illustrates why focusing solely on speed and cost reduction, rather than customer value, ultimately leads to less effective results and a significant disconnection with employees.
As we navigate this major shift in how we work, let’s ensure we take the time to bring our teams along, getting them excited not just to leverage tools for greater productivity and efficiency, but also to develop more value by being strategic and effective in their roles. If we do this right, our employees will stop asking, "Will AI replace me?" and start asking, "How can AI help me create more value?"
If we do this right, our employees will stop asking, "Will AI replace me?" and start asking, "How can AI help me create more value?"
It’s always good to have forcing functions to think these ideas through. Thanks to Jeff Scardina at Marqeta for giving me the opportunity to speak at your company last week and to JP Elliott for inviting me to your HR conference, Elevate.
P.S.
I've just launched my new website (always a work in progress), so please check it out here and give me your feedback. I added a section on how I’m advising and working with companies and leaders now, too.
I’m diving into WDAI again with their summer cohort. It’s the second time I’ve done this learning experience, and I’m already layering in new tools and ways of working with AI. If you are a woman wanting to learn more about AI and a safe space to do it in, this is the place. The team also runs a company called Almost Technical, and I highly recommend them if you need help developing your AI strategy, which aligns closely with what I shared above. Also, check out Helen’s fantastic Udemy course here.
I'm super excited about some upcoming talks about culture and AI in July at both Wharton (virtual) with Lindsey Cameron and Misk (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). I will share more of what I’m putting together for the executive students, and of course, any new adventures I experience locally.
Great article. Your analogy to an HR transition of shared service model sparked a thought for me about how we are approaching AI. Frequently it’s about upskilling the org around AI technical or associated skills such as Prompt Engineering or Critical Thinking, but there is probably responsibility on the orgs part of also enabling the employee pop around skills like Strategic Mindset. We say we want to use AI to free up employees for more strategic work—but do they have a vision of what that work is? And do they feel confident operating at that higher level?