AI, Superagency, and the HR Leadership Imperative: Are You Ready?

HR Leaders Are Lagging Behind in AI – Your Workforce Knows It

AI in the workplace isn’t some distant future – it’s here, embedded in how employees work today. Yet, most HR and talent leaders are still treating AI as a nice-to-have rather than a business-critical transformation.

The latest research from McKinsey makes it painfully clear: employees are already using AI at three times the rate their leaders assume, but just 1% of organisations consider themselves AI-mature. While 92% of businesses plan to increase AI investment over the next three years, nearly half of C-suite leaders admit their AI deployment is too slow.

So, what’s holding companies back? It’s not the technology. It’s not employee resistance. It’s leadership hesitation – a lack of clear direction, training and real commitment to making AI work at scale. And in HR, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The question isn’t whether AI will change hiring, talent development and workforce planning. It already has. The real issue is whether HR and talent leaders will shape this future or be left trying to catch up.

HR’s AI Blind Spot: Your Workforce Is Already Adopting AI Without You

This report reveals a stark truth: AI adoption isn’t a problem for employees – it’s a leadership problem.

🔹 More than 70% of employees believe AI will change at least 30% of their work in the next two years
🔹 Millennials are leading AI adoption – they are 1.4x more likely to have extensive AI experience than other age groups
🔹 Nearly half of employees cite lack of training as the biggest barrier to using AI

Yet, while employees experiment, HR leaders are still debating policies. Instead of enabling AI skills development, most organisations are leaving employees to figure it out themselves. That’s a massive missed opportunity – and a risk.

If employees are self-adopting AI tools without governance or strategic direction, what happens to data privacy, ethical AI use and compliance? More importantly, how will HR justify its relevance when the workforce moves faster than the function meant to support it?

HR and Talent Leaders: You Can’t Be an AI Passenger

The AI adoption gap in HR isn’t just about tools. It’s about the fundamental role of the function.

HR has a choice:

1. Be the architects of AI-driven workforce transformation – embedding AI into recruitment, talent management and learning strategies.
2. Remain reactive and let other functions dictate AI strategy – resulting in fragmented, unscalable, and compliance-heavy solutions that HR struggles to govern.

HR is uniquely positioned to lead AI adoption, but most aren’t taking the opportunity. Why?

• Fear of job displacement narratives instead of focusing on augmentation and capability building
• A lack of AI literacy at the leadership level – HR decision-makers don’t know enough about AI’s real potential to confidently implement it
• Failure to prioritise AI upskilling for HR teams – when was the last time you trained your HRBP or recruiter on AI beyond a vendor webinar?

This hesitation is why AI is being driven by IT and business units, while HR lags behind. But AI isn’t just a technology play – it’s a people transformation issue. If HR doesn’t lead, someone else will.

From Hype to Impact: AI’s Role in HR and Recruitment

AI in HR isn’t theoretical. It’s already delivering value in hiring, talent retention and workforce planning.

🔹 Recruitment is AI-powered whether HR likes it or not. Candidates are using AI to generate CVs, optimise LinkedIn profiles and prepare for interviews. Recruiters who aren’t using AI to match this will be at a disadvantage.
🔹 Talent intelligence is shifting from hindsight to foresight. AI-driven workforce analytics can predict attrition, identify high-potential employees and optimise internal mobility.
🔹 Skills-first hiring is no longer optional. AI can assess candidate skills in real-time, offering a scalable way to move beyond outdated CV-based hiring.

But most HR leaders are still in the experimentation phase. Pilots are running, but only 1% of organisations have fully embedded AI into HR workflows. The majority are stuck in “proof of concept” mode, too slow to move from pilot to scale.

If HR leaders don’t accelerate AI adoption, they will lose ownership of the talent agenda to more AI-mature business functions.

What HR and Talent Leaders Must Do Now

If HR wants to remain relevant in an AI-driven workplace, it must act decisively. Here’s where to start:

1. Build AI Literacy in HR Leadership

HR leaders must stop outsourcing AI understanding to vendors and IT teams. AI is no longer just a technology issue – it’s a people issue. If you don’t understand AI’s potential, you can’t govern or implement it effectively.

📌 Action: Run an AI literacy programme for your HR team. Ensure HRBPs, recruiters and L&D professionals understand AI’s real capabilities – not just marketing buzzwords.

2. Prioritise AI Training for Employees

48% of employees rank training as the most important factor for AI adoption, yet nearly half feel unsupported. If employees don’t learn AI from HR, they will learn it from YouTube – and governance will be impossible.

📌 Action: Introduce AI skills training as a core L&D initiative. Make AI fluency a leadership competency. AI should be part of every employee’s development plan, not just a side project.

3. Shift from AI Pilots to Scalable Implementation

Most HR AI projects are stuck in the pilot phase. That’s not a strategy – it’s hesitation disguised as caution.

📌 Action: Identify three AI use cases that scale across HR functions (e.g. AI-assisted workforce planning, automated talent sourcing, skills intelligence). Set a clear roadmap for adoption beyond pilots.

4. Own the Ethical AI Narrative in HR

AI bias and ethical concerns won’t go away – and HR must lead on this. The workforce trusts their employer more than tech companies to get AI right. HR must ensure AI is used transparently and fairly.

📌 Action: Establish an AI ethics framework for HR. Ensure AI-driven hiring and talent management decisions are auditable, explainable and bias-mitigated.

Final Thought: HR Must Lead, Not Follow

AI is not waiting for HR to catch up. Employees are already using it, recruitment is changing and the workforce is evolving.

The question is: Will HR be a leader in AI adoption, or will it remain a reactive function?

This report makes it clear – the biggest risk in AI isn’t moving too fast. It’s moving too slowly.

HR and talent leaders must step up, drive AI adoption and take control of the workforce transformation agenda. The alternative? AI will still reshape HR – just without HR at the table.