AI Is Significantly Impacting HR Tasks And How

“AI has replaced hundreds of workers but crafted New Programming sales jobs.” – Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM to WSJ

Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in the workplace, including human resources departments. AI agents automate time-consuming and repetitive HR tasks, freeing up HR professionals to focus on more strategic and engaging work. These AI agents can work hand-in-hand with organizations to more effectively handle complex operations, improve response times, and boost employee satisfaction. What began as simple chatbots answering employee FAQs has evolved into intelligent systems handling onboarding, managing performance reviews, coordinating internal transfers, and enforcing compliance. At companies like IBM, these agents have already replaced hundreds of back-office roles marking a shift from AI as an assistant to AI as a worker.

According to Lattice’s 2025 State of People Strategy Report high-performing HR teams were significantly more likely to experiment with AI; 51% of the top-performing teams they surveyed said they were trying out AI, versus just 18% of the low-performing teams.

IBM’s approach has not led to a net loss in employment. Instead, the company has redirected resources to hire more professionals in programming, sales, and marketing areas that demand critical thinking and human interaction. This strategy underscores a broader trend where AI handles repetitive tasks, allowing human employees to focus on roles that require creativity and interpersonal skills.

IBM has obtained $6 billion in AI consulting deals and intends to invest $150 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, demonstrating its focus on incorporating AI into diverse business operations.

For years, the conversation around AI in the workplace has centred on augmentation, that is, AI as a helpful co-pilot that makes humans more productive. But IBM’s move points to a more dramatic shift. He said that instead of hiring for back-office roles in HR, IBM began replacing those jobs with autonomous AI agents that could perform employee onboarding, manage internal transfers, handle compliance tasks, and even deliver performance reviews.

The fact that these roles were in HR is particularly telling. Human resources have traditionally been considered one of the more resilient corporate functions. It requires judgement, nuance, and interpersonal skills, all things that AI was supposed to struggle with.

But Krishna’s statement confirms what newer AI startups have been testing in stealth: LLM-powered agents are getting better at understanding context, following policy, and making semi-autonomous decisions. In many cases, they’re both faster and more compliant than human workers.

At its THINK 2025 conference, IBM announced a significant wave of AI updates, highlighting a shift in AI agents from conversational interfaces to systems designed for autonomous work.

Krishna stated that “The era of AI experimentation is over. Today’s competitive advantage comes from purpose-built AI integration that drives measurable business outcomes. IBM is equipping enterprises with hybrid technologies that cut through complexity and accelerate production-ready AI implementations.”

At this event, the company unveiled significant enhancements to its Watsonx enterprise AI platform, introducing tools designed to streamline AI deployment, execution, and return on investment (ROI). These updates focus on simplifying AI integration into enterprise workflows, enhancing data management, and fostering intelligent automation.

One of the standout announcements was Watsonx Orchestrate, a tool that enables enterprises to build AI agents in under five minutes. It offers over 150 prebuilt agents and integrations with more than 80 enterprise applications, including Adobe, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday. This platform supports both low-code and pro-code development, allowing for rapid creation and deployment of AI agents tailored to specific business functions such as HR, sales, and procurement. Additionally, it includes agent orchestration capabilities for coordinating complex workflows and agent observability features for monitoring performance and ensuring governance across the agent lifecycle.

IBM’s Watsonx Orchestrate has built Watsonx HR agents that IBM offers as pre-built HR automation tools that integrate with existing enterprise applications. These tools can handle complex HR tasks while ensuring compliance. HR leaders can quickly implement these solutions and provide employees with self-service options through natural language chat. 

They automate multiple high ROI use cases in HR including employee support, talent acquisition, onboarding and performance management. They also integrate with enterprise’s existing tech stack, including Workday, SAP and Oracle. These AI tools enable businesses to build their own agents in under five minutes with both no-code and pro-code options; leverage pre-built agents for specialized use in specific domains such as HR, sales, and procurement; integrate with 80+ enterprise applications from the likes of Adobe, AWS, Microsoft, and more.

According to a Business Insider article, Hitachi’s VP and head of IT for the Americas, Bala Krishnapillai, advises that businesses planning to integrate AI into employee onboarding should first identify their current challenges. 

Hitachi, a global technology leader, has revolutionized its onboarding process by implementing AI-powered chatbots and digital assistants. These tools automate routine tasks such as document verification, training assignments, and system access provisioning, reducing manual processing by up to 50%. As a result, onboarding time has decreased from 10–15 days to under a week, and HR workload has significantly diminished, allowing HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives.

Many other American conglomerates and companies have been adopting similar approach, one such is Bank of America, which is  leveraging AI through its professional development arm, The Academy, that uses AI-driven conversation simulators to provide interactive coaching. These simulators enable employees to practice client interactions and receive real-time feedback, enhancing their proficiency and confidence. In 2024 alone, employees completed over 1 million simulations, contributing to improved customer service and consistent client experiences.

The increasing reliance on AI and automation presents risks. Ethical concerns surrounding job displacement and the lack of transparency in AI decisions need consideration. Furthermore, HR professionals will need to be reskilled to take on more strategic roles in this evolving landscape.