How AI can affect work design of HR professionals for better or worse

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is receiving increasing attention in both academics and business. As AI technologies are constantly improving, they are increasingly being used to assist with or automate Human Resource Management (HRM) tasks. While research on the effects on employees of using AI technologies to manage them is expanding fast, the research on the effects that HR professionals experience from using AI in their work is going at a slower pace. This research aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how HR professionals view AI and more importantly, how they expect their work will be affected by using AI technologies in their work. By focusing on work design—meaning the content and organisation of one’s work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities—this research found that HR professionals are expected to experience the same effects to their work as others would, in addition to some indirect effects that result from the ways other employees are affected by HR using AI technologies. The results also showed that the role of the technology is nondeterministic, that it is irrelevant whether the technology has AI, and that the effects on work design are mainly shaped by higher management and system design.