UK 
United States
You can probably take your pick from the stacks of reports or from the piles of statistics around the current uptake or planned roll-out of AI (and ‘agentic AI’ in particular), but sometimes you just need someone to cut to the chase about where AI, is going and the extent to which it will likely dominate HR.
And Leon Butler, CEO, IBM UKI was that man last week, when at a special gathering of experts at its UK HQ, he said something that pretty-much summed things up: “This will be the last generation that only manages people.”
To the assembled press, clients, and industry experts, it was this simple sentence that really did the job of contextualising the fact that it will be AI ‘agents’ that will start to do full-in beginning-to-end tasks, and not just humans anymore.
And why not? Earlier in the year the US tech giant famously grabbed headlines when it revealed it would be replacing 8,000 roles (mainly those in HR), as it sought to integrate artificial intelligence into its operations, particularly in back-office functions. This included 200 jobs that have already reportedly been removed in HR by AI agents capable of handling repetitive administrative tasks such as responding to employee queries, processing paperwork, and organising HR data. As one news outlet at the time put it, “These software-driven agents require minimal human supervision and are designed to boost efficiency while reducing costs.”
Agents generate productivity…
Butler wasn’t being trite. “Using our own tech, we’ve generated $3.5 billion in productivity gains in the last few years,” he said. “Our just published ‘Race for ROI’ report found 62% of businesses felt AI would get them to the next level of productivity gains.”
This will be the last generation that only manages people
He added: “The big question ahead for all of us is how we now want this all to unfold. Trust is integral to unlocking productivity gains, and everyone in this space still has a long way to go in this area. Businesses may still not know what AI models have been trained on, and what happens when you add in and mix it with your own data. But the trajectory we are all moving in is there to see.”
... but do they reduce or elevate HR?
Perhaps this view of agentic AI’s impact on businesses (and the HR profession in general), is why HR is facing an existential moment.
HR folk discounting it, and rallying around the need for ‘human’ intervention might sound like a last desperate cry to want to be relevant in the face of technology take-over. Embrace it fully though, and it essentially looks like Turkey’s voting for Christmas.
So where are things currently, and where are they ‘really’ likely to go?
“It probably worth realising that not every company is like an IBM,” pitched in fellow panelist, Sue Daley OBE, Director, Tech & Innovation, techUK, the trade association that champion’s technology's role in preparing and empowering the UK for what comes next.
