I’ve spent the last three months deep in an AI project, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: AI isn’t just creeping into HR—it’s sprinting. The question is, are we keeping up?
This week on Freeformers Unplugged, Emilie and I tackled what feels like the most pressing issue in HR right now: AI is moving faster than HR’s ability to adapt, and if we don’t change that, we’re in trouble.
HR has always lagged behind when it comes to tech adoption. Most of us still work with systems that are a decade behind consumer-grade technology. That’s been frustrating but manageable—until now. AI’s rapid evolution means that if HR doesn’t get to grips with it now, we risk being permanently left behind.
“HR tends to be full of laggards anyway with technology, not necessarily because of the individuals, but because of the organizational structures, right? I often cite that technology inside organizations is often 10 years behind consumer-grade technology”
Where is HR on the AI adoption curve?
Emilie asked a great question: Are we in the early majority phase of AI adoption, or still stuck with the early adopters?
The answer depends on how you look at it:
👉 At an individual level, many freelancers, business owners, and forward-thinking professionals are already using AI to speed up their work. We’re likely past the early adoption phase here.
👉 At an organisational level, things look different. AI isn’t yet reshaping how most companies operate—it’s mostly being used as a bolt-on. Few organisations are redesigning their workflows to take full advantage of AI, which means we’re still in the innovation stage.
👉 At a product and service level, most companies are just slapping AI onto existing offerings rather than fundamentally rethinking how they deliver value.
What’s worrying is that AI can be either a bolt-on or a complete game-changer. If HR continues to treat it as an add-on, we’ll fall even further behind.
The AI divide: adopters vs. avoiders
We’ve got a problem brewing—there’s a growing gap between those who engage with AI every day and those who don’t touch it at all.
Some HR professionals have embraced AI, using it to streamline processes, generate insights, and enhance employee experience. Others, however, are avoiding it completely—either because they don’t trust it, don’t understand it, or don’t want to change the way they work.
Emilie pointed out that this could end up looking a lot like the digital divide—but I’m not sure it’s that simple. AI tools like ChatGPT aren’t expensive or difficult to access. What’s stopping people from using them isn’t a lack of access—it’s a mindset problem.
“If you put shit into a machine, you are going to get shit out of a machine.”
The human-in-the-loop problem
Let’s be honest—AI isn’t perfect. It makes things up, it hallucinates, and it isn’t always reliable. But neither are people.
This is where the human-in-the-loop approach comes in. AI is a tool that needs human oversight, but that oversight requires effort. The mistake many HR teams are making is assuming that AI should just work without any input. It doesn’t.
A lot of people I’ve spoken to dismiss AI after trying it once and not getting the results they wanted. But the reality is that AI is only as good as the input you give it. If you feed it bad prompts, you’ll get bad output. AI isn’t a magic box—it’s a machine that requires fine-tuning.
If we want to fix corporate learning, we need to learn from industries that already know how to engage digital audiences.
“I think there’s gonna be a chasm between late majority and laggards, because I think there are people who will not use it, or will not take the time to explore it, or will use it very, very peripherally.”
The problem with HR’s AI strategy (or lack of one)
A lot of HR teams still don’t have a clear AI strategy. Some are even banning tools like ChatGPT over security concerns. I get it—there are risks. AI can be unreliable, and companies need to be careful about what data they share.
But banning AI outright is like banning the internet in 1995. It won’t stop people from using it—it just means they’ll do it in ways you can’t control.
Instead of shutting AI down, HR should be:
✅ Training employees on responsible AI use
✅ Setting clear guidelines for security and data privacy
✅ Experimenting with AI to see where it adds value
AI won’t replace HR. But HR professionals who ignore AI? They might just get replaced by those who don’t.
The time to act is now
This isn’t about scaremongering—it’s about reality. AI is already here, and the gap between those who use it and those who don’t is growing.
HR has a choice: stay in the slow lane and risk becoming irrelevant, or start engaging with AI now and figure out how to make it work for us.
If you’re in HR, leadership, or people ops and you’re not sure where to start with AI, let’s talk. We’re helping businesses navigate AI adoption, and we’d love to help you too.
Because AI isn’t waiting for HR to catch up.
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