GenAI Is Rebuilding Work — HR Must Be the Architect

When two global companies—one headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the other in Singapore—decided to give their CHROs oversight of IT, it sent a clear message: GenAI is not just a technology shift. It’s an organizational redesign. And the function best positioned to lead that redesign is HR.

GenAI is changing the structure of work, not just automating tasks. It’s transforming what people do, how they do it, and what skills they need. The blueprint for this new reality is not being drawn in IT or operations. It’s being drafted in HR. And it's time for HR to draw up the blueprints.

This Is More About Transformation Than About Tools 

GenAI affects the basic units of work: tasks, skills, workflows, and learning. That places the transformation squarely in HR’s court. The key challenges are not about deploying software. They’re about:

• Redesigning how work gets done

• Reallocating tasks between people and machines

• Building AI fluency across the workforce

• Developing new capabilities while preserving human value

These are the foundational responsibilities of HR. If the function doesn’t lead this effort, who else will?

From Jobs to Tasks to Skills

One of the most important shifts enabled by GenAI is the move from fixed jobs to flexible task-based work. Some tasks will be automated. Others will be augmented. Still others will become more critical and more human.

That means the old job architecture is becoming obsolete. HR must stop thinking in terms of fixed roles and start thinking in terms of dynamic task-skill combinations.

This approach is more granular, more adaptable, and more accurate. And it’s the only way to plan effectively in a world where GenAI constantly reshapes what’s possible.

Skills-Based Organizations Will Have the Advantage

Deloitte’s research shows that companies using a skills-based approach are:

• 63% more likely to achieve business outcomes

• 107% more likely to place the right talent in the right roles

• 98% more likely to retain high performers

These strategy-enabling advantages, not marginal gains. And they’re essential in a GenAI environment where speed, adaptability, and talent fit are everything.

Leading Organizations Are Already Moving

The redesign has already begun:

• A global retailer deployed a GenAI chatbot to handle basic customer queries, and then retrained thousands of their support staff as design advisors, not to eliminate roles but to create new value.

• A telecom provider used AI to simulate incentive models across markets, thereby cutting redesign time and improving employee adoption.

• Learning teams are embedding prompt engineering, AI validation, and “when-to-use” skills into onboarding and development programs across functions.

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These are examples of what it looks like when HR leads.

Three Priorities for HR Now

To take the lead in this transformation, HR must focus on three high-leverage areas:

1. Redesign Work at the Task Level

   Move beyond static job descriptions. Break roles into tasks. Identify which tasks can be automated, which need to be retained, and which require new skills. Work with business leaders to reshape workflows, instead of just adjusting headcount.

2. Build AI Fluency Across the Workforce

   AI fluency is for everyone. All employees need to know how to prompt, validate, and collaborate with GenAI. HR must embed this into learning strategies, leadership development, and job expectations.

3. Create a Culture of Safe Experimentation

   Piloting is essential. Use test environments to try GenAI in areas like knowledge management, reporting, recruiting, or internal mobility. Track impact. Communicate outcomes in business terms. Teach employees how to run projects, adjust and scale.

   
   

This Is HR’s Design Challenge 

The future of work will not be handed to us. We will have to build it in our organizations, one task, one workflow, one person, one capability at a time.

Some organizations are waiting to see what GenAI will mean. Others are drawing up plans.

This is the moment for HR to act not as an implementer, but as the architect. We don’t need to control the technology.We need to design the system it will operate in.

If GenAI is rebuilding how work gets done HR must be the one holding the blueprint.