From HCM to AI: Why CHROs are reopening workforce architecture

Navigating legacy systems, AI whiplash, and the shift to agile ecosystems

CHROs are navigating a period of profound and often messy transformation. Beyond the hype of AI, these organizational leaders are in the trenches of implementation, grappling with the strategic, technical, and cultural implications of a new era in workforce management.

For example, there is a growing consensus that legacy HR operating models and frameworks, such as the Ulrich model, are no longer sufficient. HR organizations need to take the next step on their century-long journey from personnel management to Total Workforce Management. That means investing in capabilities like dynamic workforce planning, hyper-personalized training and job restructuring at scale. Moreover, it will have to accomplish this growth while becoming more efficient and supporting every other group in the enterprise with their workforce disruption.

However, this restructuring is just the first step. A deeper, more complex challenge lies in redesigning the foundational plumbing of HR: the job architectures, compensation philosophies, and career frameworks that have existed for decades.

HR leaders are questioning whether to undertake a massive redesign or wait for the rapid pace of technological change to settle. This tension is acute; while AI and automation are creating efficiencies, leaders recognize that without a flexible, skills-based foundation, these gains will remain marginal. The core strategic question is no longer if the foundation needs to be rebuilt, but how and when to do it without being immediately outpaced by the next wave of innovation.

CHROs are caught in a messy middle. On one hand, they are encouraging experimentation, deploying a vast array of AI agents and tools to drive individual efficiency. On the other hand, this has led to a proliferation of agents and a fragmented, confusing employee experience.

Evan Metter with KPMG talks about the whiplash many organizations feel from having just completed massive HCM implementations, only to be faced with a new, disruptive wave of AI technology.

The AI wave is prompting HR leaders to reassess how their existing HCM platforms fit into a rapidly evolving technology landscape. While these platforms continue to serve as critical systems of record, many CHROs are exploring how to extend their value within a broader, more integrated ecosystem. This includes connecting HCM foundations with more agile, AI-enabled capabilities to support more seamless and intuitive employee experiences. As a result, the focus is shifting from managing HR technology in isolation to influencing enterprise-wide experience design—often in closer partnership with IT and other business leaders.

“The relationship between HR and IT is incredibly important. It’s an enterprise decision that HR is contributing to.” Evan Metter, KPMG 

Balancing AI-driven automation with strategic job redesign and employee engagement

As technology and AI begin to automate routine tasks, CHROs are focused on how to facilitate automation while also redefining work roles. This involves a deep analysis of existing roles, from engineer to operations manager to product owner to identify tasks that can be automated. It also requires creating new career paths, like technical tracks separate from leadership, and launching initiatives to identify necessary skills, assess the impact of AI on those skills, and reskill the workforce for the future.

Some CHROs refer to the Herculean task before them using the tried and true enterprise phrasing of “flying a plane while trying to build it.” According to one CHRO with a utility company, the goal is reinvention. “There’s this pressure I’m feeling to blow up our job architecture, how we think about compensation, and all the underpinnings.”

One approach shifts the focus from job titles to emphasizing tasks. This entails identifying the tasks the organization performs, isolating specific tasks better suited for AI, and coming up with strategies for reskilling employees for the future.

A key challenge is ensuring that employees are not only capable of performing higher-level work but are also guided to focus their extra bandwidth on strategic objectives. Leaders and managers have a role in ensuring that time saved is focused on higher value work that aligns with strategic objectives.

A CHRO for a health organization has a more strategic approach to skills assessment and how employees are deployed. “We have a skills-based initiative underway that scores people on their propensity to use AI tools. Results channel people toward a corporate university where they can pursue what they’re passionate about and interested in.”

CHROs are also finding it necessary to reassure the workforce. Employees have a lot of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty that naturally arises during a period of rapid technological chain and job redesign. According to a CHRO with a private equity firm, there is an advantage of speaking for the company, as well as directly to the headcount issue.

“We don’t expect that we’re going to cut 25 percent of you due to AI efficiency. People will be able to do something else or roll off naturally, and we’ll hire less in the future. We’re hitting headcount worries on the head by saying there’s always opportunity for good people.”

“We’re focused on driving engagement up and fear down.” Retail CHRO

HR’s new strategic mandate – adopting the role of experienced designer

The rapid deployment of AI and digital tools has created an unintended consequence for many organizations: a fragmented, friction-heavy employee experience.

Many CHROs described a sense of “technology whiplash” as they shift energy post-large-scale HCM implementations to rapidly emerging AI capabilities. Combined with the fact that the pricing model for HCMs and agentic solutions is becoming more complex with tokens and credits, many are at a crossroads.

A healthcare CHRO shows one way forward. “We’re plugging into the broader enterprise digital transformation journey. It’s casting a vision for orchestration. The goal is a one-stop front door for team members and for leaders, so they don’t have to go to 30 different places.”

Rather than forcing employees to log into separate HR-specific portals, these enterprise platforms meet workers where they already are, embedding critical HR capabilities and AI agents directly into the daily flow of work. Architecting this single front door can bridge the gap between complex backend HR data and a seamless front-end user experience.

But does architectural shift fundamentally redefine HR’s mandate? If the objective is no longer simply buying and managing HR technology but actively shaping the broader enterprise digital fabric that may rapidly overlap into the domain of other functions. It requires HR leaders to partner with IT, stepping into the role of an experience designer. By adopting a platform-driven orchestration strategy, organizations can manage AI overgrowth and transform isolated technological efficiencies into a cohesive, consumer-grade digital workplace that drives sustainable workforce transformation.

But with decades of transformation behind them, CHROs know that the way forward isn’t necessarily clear. This moment calls for a re-evaluation of where the next HR-tech dollar gets spent. Organizations have important and time-sensitive choices in both strategy and tactics. To extend the value of their previous investments or to join with other functions in pursuit of an enterprise orchestration layer? Perhaps a mix of both. For HR, these are old tensions resurfacing in a new guise.

“As we develop more tools, the employee experience is becoming more difficult, more complex.” Food and Beverage CHRO