5 Steps To Help CPOs Build A Strong People Strategy In The Age Of AI

Co-founder and CEO, Cliquify.me. Amit Parmar has held multiple HR leadership roles in the Technology and Consulting space over 15+ years.

We’ve entered the beginning of the golden AI age. Back in 2018, the McKinsey Global Institute predicted that AI could contribute around $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030. In 2023, further McKinsey research suggested that generative AI’s impact could add up to $4.4 trillion to the economy each year. So it’s no surprise that CEOs are increasingly expecting their chief people officers (CPOs) to develop and execute strategies that will accelerate AI’s benefits to shareholders’ top and bottom lines.

As a CPO, navigating your people strategy in the age of AI is crucial. Consider following this blueprint so you can be better equipped to succeed.

1. Identify how AI is changing work.

Partner with your organization’s chief information officer to identify the AI tools your employees are currently using and loving. Analyze which ones are most effectively changing the way people work, and pinpoint how work is changing for particular jobs. This initiative will help you understand the current AI landscape inside your organization.

2. Drive workforce productivity.

The most obvious benefit of AI is enabling people to do their work faster and with better quality. So analyze the job functions that are drastically changing with AI assistance. Then train and mobilize your HR team to work with the heads of these job functions and identify how AI may be impacting workflows. These insights have implications for your organizational design/structure, as well as the key skills and capabilities required for employees to be successful in the AI-driven working world. Now, you have the basis for an end-to-end people strategy at the job function or department level.

3. Assist with change management.

For those job functions experiencing the most benefit and change with AI tools, provide support to leaders as they navigate the change that comes with new operating models. Conduct a gap analysis to identify the magnitude of change, and help leaders develop a change communication plan for the next 12 to 24 months. Your HR and internal communications teams will be key in executing these plans successfully.

4. Instill trust with your employees.

According to EY’s 2023 AI Anxiety In Business Survey, 65% of workers were anxious about the possibility of being replaced by AI. More than 70% felt AI would negatively impact their pay, and 67% felt they’d lose out on promotions if they didn’t know how to use AI.

HR has a key role in helping employees navigate the fear. A good starting point is having leadership communicate a transparent, clear stance on how AI will positively impact workers. For example, share real examples and testimonials from employees who are using AI to work smarter. This is something we do at my own company, Cliquify, to foster trust, and research we conducted with the Top Employers Institute indicates this is exactly what employees want.

5. Extract intelligence from AI tools.

You can unlock a tremendous opportunity by collecting and analyzing workforce data to generate business-driven insights. Partner with your people intelligence team and AI platform providers to identify how work is changing based on employees’ interactions with AI. Based on this big data, create a job architecture map with current and future skills, as well as success criteria, required for each job. This will serve as the basis for communicating new and exciting career paths to your employees. It will also help reduce their AI anxiety.

The way people work with AI—and the way they feel about working with it—is having a profound impact on the employee experience. The pace of change continues to accelerate, and the traditional models of how HR supports the business are changing. You and your team must be more proactive and come to the table with a pragmatic strategy for navigating talent in the age of AI. Leverage this blueprint as a starting point to engage in decision-making with your CEO.

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