Cheney Hamilton sees a lot of myths surrounding AI and HR. The lead analyst for FusionWork at UK-based Bloor Research Group and founder of The Find Your Flex Group is particularly critical of the idea that artificial intelligence needs to kick humans out of the equation altogether.
“The most dangerous myth is that AI is a threat to HR itself,” Hamilton, who specializes in the fusion of digital and human workers, tells StrategicCHRO360. Done right, AI can create awesome opportunities. Handle it badly, however, and you will indeed ensure your irrelevance, she says.
Here’s how to make sure you’re in the former group.
How can HR integrate AI into talent acquisition and planning without losing the human element?
If we automate the human parts of talent acquisition, then we’ve missed the point entirely. At The Find Your Flex Group, we use AI where it creates efficiency, like parsing thousands of CVs, skills tagging and mapping candidate suitability to outcomes, but emotional intelligence is required to read between the lines and engage authentically with a candidate. Assessing a cultural fit? That still sits squarely with a human being.
At one of our client organizations, we implemented AI HR assistant Humaxa to absorb FAQs and first-line employee queries. This gave the people team 30 percent more time to work proactively on engagement, DEI initiatives and internal mobility. The key was freeing HR from the grind so they can amplify the human side, not erase it. The winners will blend AI precision with human empathy and strategic judgment.
What are the biggest misconceptions HR professionals have about AI in the workplace?
The most dangerous myth is that AI is a threat to HR itself. Many professionals are paralyzed by the fear that AI will replace them, but in reality, what’s being replaced are outdated ways of working. For example, manual processes, admin-heavy tasks, rigid systems.
In a research interview for our FusionWork white paper, an HR director said: “My team sees AI as a black box, they think they don’t need to learn it and IT will sort it all out.” That mindset is a trap, because if HR isn’t shaping how AI is used, then we’re just passengers, not drivers.
We need to move beyond the binary of AI vs. humans. The opportunity lies in becoming strategic leaders who understand how to leverage AI responsibly and how to redesign roles and teams for the future. From what we are seeing, the best HR leaders are learning to speak both “people” and “machine.”
How should HR approach the ethics of AI use, especially around bias and transparency?
Ethics cannot be retrofitted; they need to be embedded from day one. If HR leaders don’t insist on auditability, explainability and ongoing oversight of AI tools, they are risking not just reputational damage but legal exposure too.
Our own rule is simple: If we can’t explain it, we don’t use it. When piloting AI hiring tools, we simulate candidate journeys to stress-test for bias and in the past, we’ve rejected vendors that can’t clearly explain how their algorithms work.
A practical example of this is when we worked with a business using an AI CV-scanning tool that consistently deprioritized applicants with career gaps. When we challenged it, the vendor realized their training data had built-in bias against parents and returners. Without HR scrutiny, that pattern would’ve gone unchallenged, so we still need people.
My belief is that HR teams need to treat AI with the same due diligence as financial systems. If we’re stewards of fairness, we must interrogate the tech as rigorously as we would a hiring manager’s decision.
What skills or mindsets will define successful HR leadership in an AI-driven future?
Adaptability will outrank experience and strategic thinking, digital fluency and the ability to design human-centric, AI-augmented systems will be critical. Emotional intelligence will also rise in value. As machines handle more cognitive labor, what remains uniquely human is our empathy, ethics and sense-making.
Our work has helped clients redesign roles with outcome-based goals and realigned team structures to support AI augmentation, and we’ve trained HR teams to move from process gatekeepers to performance enablers, with new roles like workforce AI governance specialists leading the way.
The shift is here, which means HR leaders must evolve from policy enforcers to architects of the future workforce because those who embrace the redesign will not only stay relevant, but they’ll also lead the change.
