Why AI is Leading Companies to Merge HR & IT Departments
AI is creating an entirely new paradigm in the business world, changing the way that companies do things both externally and internally.
Of all the effects that AI has had on businesses in the past few years, one of the most interesting has been the way that human resources and IT teams have started to merge.
Traditionally, each of these departments fulfil very distinct functions. But a new survey, published by software firm Nexthink, has revealed that 64% of senior IT decision makers at large firms expect their HR & IT teams to integrate within the next five years.
But what exactly is the rationale behind this change?
The answer is rather simple. It is all about breaking down siloes, sharing data and dovetailing the ideas of all sides of a company, thereby creating one coherent business strategy.
Breaking down barriers
Tracey Franklin, Chief People & Digital Technology Officer at biotech company Moderna, is one of the executives at the forefront of this new trend.
"I am responsible for the entire HR function and the entire IT function," she explains.
Her role encompasses both core IT infrastructure and the digital technology required for drug development, manufacturing and commercialisation.
"Traditionally, HR departments would say, 'we're going to do workforce planning, so we're going to count how many humans we need to get tasks done'. And then the IT team would take requests [for] the systems that we need," she says.
Tracey describes her position as being "an architect of how work is done". She focuses on "how work flows through the organisation, and what should be done with technology – whether that's hardware or software or AI – and where you complement human skills around that".
How to merge two departments
Customer service provider Covisian merged its IT and HR teams all the way back in April 2023, under the guidance of Chief People and Technology Officer Fabio Sattolo.
The company, which employs 27,000 people – primarily in call centres – faced the challenge of integrating two distinctly different professional cultures.
"Making people speak the same language was the hardest part, because IT and HR people are really different," Fabio explains.
He addressed communication barriers by appointing neutral team leaders to facilitate collaboration between the departments.
"It's like a judge who makes them negotiate to find the proper solution," he says.
The merger has yielded tangible results, with a new internal job postings tool doubling responses to job advertisements.
A new kind of workforce strategy
At online bank Bunq, the IT and people teams operate within the same organisational structure.
Chief Strategy Officer Bianca Zwart argues that both functions serve similar purposes in supporting broader business operations.
The bank is pursuing an ambitious automation strategy, aiming to automate 90% of its operations by the end of 2025 whilst continuing to hire new employees.
"In any company, people need to understand that they need to work in a completely different way moving forward," Bianca says.
"AI will be taking away the repetitive tasks so they can focus on the more complex problems."
Are there any concerns about this trend?
While it sounds great on paper, this trend has faced its fair share of scepticism from HR professionals, many of whom warn against the diluting specialist expertise.
David D'Souza, is Director of Profession at the CIPD. He cautions that "the skillsets of the two professions are complementary, and don't have much overlap".
Instead, he is advocating for better collaboration, rather than a full merger between IT and HR.
"Merging the departments risks losing or diluting the specialist expertise organisations need to thrive," he says.
It's a debate that will continue to rage as businesses experiment with and adapt to new AI technologies.
One thing is clear, though – things are changing, and fast.
