Unlocking business value through artificial intelligence (AI) depends on one crucial element: your people.
In our latest DX Coffee Chat webinar, we explored why leaders in human resources and other digital transformation teams are essential — from strategy to deployment and every stage between. These leaders play a key role in fostering a culture of growth, emphasizing value creation, and setting intentional goals around AI deployment.
In Workforce AI: Empowering your people to drive AI value, host Lewis Curley, a Partner in KPMG in Canada’s People and Change practice, spoke with Helen Davies, Senior Vice President of Talent at TD Bank Group, and Megan Jones, Director of KPMG in Canada’s People and Change practice.
Read on for insights shared during the session and watch our DX Coffee Chat on-demand to learn more about how human resources (HR) leaders can help shape AI strategy, drive organizational transformation, and engage with their people effectively to create a culture of trust and learning.
How AI is transforming workplaces
HR’s close collaboration with other digital leaders across the organization is key to shaping a sustainable and high-value AI strategy because of their understanding of workforce impacts and talent strategies. Consider asking your HR leaders:
- How would they support organizational change alongside AI?
- How would they evaluate AI's impact and improve productivity?
- How would they engage employees about AI while fostering a culture of trust and learning?
During our coffee chat with Helen Davies, KPMG asked TD Bank the same.
For TD Bank, HR is integral to the AI conversation. The bank has used AI and machine learning for over a decade, running hundreds of models that assist customers and employees, from credit decisions to fraud detection.
However, the emergence of generative AI presents a new set of challenges and TD is tackling this by experimenting with generative AI through a cross-functional approach that includes HR.
"HR needs to engage with leaders in the business to understand what's most important,” says Helen. This collaborative effort can help tailor AI strategies that align with organizational goals. Moreover, Helen highlights, “What we’ve learned is that AI doesn’t necessarily take jobs away," she adds, "AI helps companies make better decisions.”
In a poll, we asked our DX Coffee Chat audience if their HR function is ready to support workforce transformation through AI. Only 10% reported being ‘ready’ or ‘very ready,’ while 35% indicated they were somewhat ready, and 29% stated they were not ready at all. Another 24% were unsure.
How would you rate your people or HR functions readiness to support workforce transformation with AI?
Source: KPMG in Canada's DX Coffee Chat - Workforce AI: Empowering Your People to Drive AI Value
Nonetheless, HR leaders are eager to learn how to leverage generative AI and deliver business value. Here are key takeaways on how AI is reshaping the workforce for HR and digital leaders.
AI has unique adoption challenges
The true potential of AI can only be realized if organizations consider the ‘people and change’ aspect of their deployments. “Concerns around automation, especially generative AI, create unique adoption challenges,” says Megan. It’s rare to embed a technology in business operations that is so widely discussed in public culture—employees will bring those preconceived views to work. “HR needs to get ahead of the message by clearly communicating how the organization plans to use AI and be open about changes, which will go a long way in calming any nervousness about job security and other concerns.”
Action: Work early and closely with business leaders to address workforce needs and concerns. Get, ahead of the rumors with clear messaging about AI in your organization.
Integrating AI into workflows means rethinking career pathways
“We’re about to disrupt the traditional hierarchy of work,” says Helen. If generative AI can write basic code and take over testing, what happens to entry-level jobs that teach engineers to code? These roles are essential for career advancement and taking on more sophisticated work. Deploying AI means rethinking pathways to develop professionals who are ready for higher-magnitude, more complex work.
Action: Review current career pathways and develop a perspective on how they will need to change when ‘entry-level’ activities can be completed by AI. Consider how you will provide experiences or upskilling activities to enable early career development to rapidly progress talent to the next level.
Rethinking mental health and job satisfaction
Generative AI can reduce mundane tasks, allowing more time for creative work. However, this shift has implications. “I enjoy some mundane tasks because they provide relief from harder tasks,” says Helen. For example, generative AI can summarize meetings and send follow-up emails. But what if these tasks offer a mental break for employees?
Organizations must consider realistic workloads and avoid adding pressure when redesigning workflows.
Action: Be intentional in the design of work in an AI-enabled environment, considering the need to balance intensive, focused strategic work with time to recharge.
HR need to play a key role in planning and implementing AI initiatives
In another poll, nearly half (40%) of respondents indicated that HR is not involved in their organization’s AI transformation. Collaboration across HR, IT, and Operations is critical. Megan noted, "This will keep legacy organizations competitive with AI-native ones."
HR leaders can identify AI opportunities and lead conversations about workforce impacts, from redesigning workflows to removing friction. Redesigning organizations around AI is significant, making HR's involvement essential.
What role does your organization's People/HR function play in planning and implementing AI initiatives?
Source: KPMG in Canada's DX Coffee Chat - Workforce AI: Empowering Your People to Drive AI Value
The emergence of AI centres of excellence, which involve collaboration among employees from various departments, fosters a culture of experimentation. As Helen pointed out, "We're starting to put digital experts and HR technology experts in HR," highlighting how HR is evolving in response to these challenges.
Action: Implement a collaborative framework that actively involves HR in the AI transformation process, such as centres of excellence. HR Professionals, consider how you can illustrate the need for a people lens in all AI initiatives.
Don’t get too caught up in ROI
When it comes to generative AI, ROI isn’t always the best measure of success. “I have seen the hunger for ROI kill experimentation. And what we need, more than anything, is experimentation to see the impact and where AI really adds value,” says Helen.
Megan also pointed out that organizations should focus on measuring outcomes rather than just time spent on tasks. “We need to reward people who deliver high-quality outcomes,” she emphasized.
Action: Create space to enable experimentation with AI technologies, be ready to scale those experiments and consider how you will ‘take people on the journey with you’.
Transforming talent
In our Global Tech Survey, 49% of Canadian tech leaders strongly agreed that AI will restructure job roles, requiring substantial investments in upskilling and reskilling. Talent transformation starts with HR. Traditionally, workforce planning has focused on roles, but this may be insufficient in the fast-changing world of AI, where roles evolve daily. HR leaders must engage with business leaders to map out future talent demands.
Action: Proactively align with leaders across the business to propose talent transformation strategies that address changing job roles and skills.
Source: 2024 KPMG Global Tech survey
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