AI agents are gaining popularity with organizations looking to transform workflows and eliminate manual tasks. Here’s how HR leaders can unlock these capabilities while centering human creativity.
By Maggie Mancini
The AI revolution is not just around the corner anymore. By many estimates, it is well underway. Many organizations, both large and small, have implemented AI into their workflows, using large language models (LLMs) and other forms of generative AI (GenAI) to speed up data analysis, perform short routine tasks, and boost productivity. Now, Agentic AI—an autonomous, goal-seeking AI that is capable of handling multiple steps of instruction and adapting as needed. This in turn is augmenting decision-making and making it easier for HR leaders to focus on strategic activities requiring their creativity and insights, says Megan Smith, head of HR at SAP North America.
Mendy Slaton agrees. “By eliminating manual work and freeing up valuable time, Agentic AI allows HR teams to focus on what matters most: developing great managers, building strong organizations with highly engaged workforces, and leading people programs that drive real business impact,” says the senior director of people operations, total rewards, and workplace experience for Lattice.
Agentic AI for HR brings a range of benefits that can enhance efficiency across talent operations, reports Tracey Power, chief people officer at Highspring. Recruiters can automate resume screening, schedule interviews, and write job descriptions. It can also improve time-to-hire by analyzing large volumes of applications and surfacing the best-fit candidates.
“Adopting Agentic AI allows us to be more proactive and deliberate in designing the employee experience,” says Lisa Sterling, chief people officer at Perceptyx. “It moves us beyond providing a reactive service to employees to be able to get to a place where needs are predicted and addressed.”
While the technology is still in its early stages, delegation will unlock added capabilities for Agentic AI, says David Lloyd, chief data and AI officer at Dayforce. The key to enabling that is allowing organizations to determine what their guardrails are, where they want humans in the loop, and how much judgment they want the AI to apply.
“If AI is used correctly, HR teams will no longer be thought of as people who manage processes, tasks, and policies. They will be seen as the team creating a thriving people ecosystem.” – Lisa Sterling, chief people officer, Perceptyx
“If an AI agent is managing essential workflows, for example, how do you ensure it’s doing so in a way that’s accurate and aligned with your company values? HR deals with highly sensitive and confidential information and there’s a lot of risk to an AI agent getting something wrong,” Slaton explains. “The role of AI isn’t just to make sure AI is efficient, it’s also to makes sure it’s human-centered and does not introduce unnecessary risk.”
While Agentic AI can save time, flag attrition risks, suggest interventions, and provide scalable support for HR leaders, quality control is paramount, says Nora Ohlerich, head of global HR at KNIME. There are two important drawbacks for HR leaders to consider, Power says. One is the potential for overreliance on automation, which could reduce human insight in high-stakes areas like hiring, promoting, and evaluating performance. The other is trust.
“Employees may feel uncomfortable or monitored by AI systems, especially if the purpose and function of the technology aren’t clearly communicated,” Power adds. “The responsibility for ethical AI use and transparency often falls on HR teams, requiring them to manage and explain AI-driven decisions in a way that’s fair, understandable, and aligned with company values.”
Gaining Autonomy
GenAI use grew from 31% in 2023 to 71% in 2024, according to McKinsey. Now, AI agents are extending the chatbot interface into tools that “think” through chain-of-thought reasoning, says Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company.
“Agents are the ‘superpower’ of GenAI,” Bersin says. “If you ask a GenAI tool to evaluate a job candidate for skills, for example, you may then ‘tell’ the agent to ‘send a customized offer letter’ and ‘find a competitive pay rate’ or even ‘negotiate pay with the candidate within certain guidelines.’”
These two technologies are highly complementary, Slaton explains. GenAI is great at generating content and accelerating routine tasks, but Agentic AI goes further, acting on those insights, making decisions in real-time, and driving actions without needing someone to press go.
This added autonomy comes with tradeoffs, Ohlerich explains. Execution without human review can miss nuance, so thoughtful implementation is key to make sure Agentic AI adds value without creating noise.
“The true value comes not from any single technology operating in isolation, but from how they function together as a cohesive system to streamline and enhance HR capabilities,” says Brandon Roberts, group VP, people analytics and AI at ServiceNow.
Solving Business Problems
ServiceNow uses a four-point plan to ensure the company is fostering an AI-first organization, Roberts says. These include:
- leveraging the right technology to serve as a foundation for a broader AI strategy;
- focusing on AI use cases that align with that strategy, weaving AI into employee experiences with a clear return on investment;
- investing strategically across thought leadership, infrastructure, people, and data to accelerate use cases and measure results in real time; and
- enabling all employees to harness the power of AI through education, upskilling, and reskilling.
Lattice leverages AI in multiple ways to accelerate process improvements. “Lattice has used AI to answer basic employee questions, help our managers write better performance reviews rooted in data and feedback, and improve the way we hire top talent,” Slaton says. “We’ve built tailored learning plans and have hosted countless trainings to help unlock employee potential by showing real-world cases being solved by AI.”
Absorb’s strategy has been to become early testers and adopters of AI, from the offerings of its current suite of vendors, says Cheryl Yuran, the company’s CHRO. The team has grown comfortable using GenAI to reduce time spent crafting messaging, she says, but the company is mindful not to cause disruption to existing processes without clear ROI.
As part of KNIME’s vision for AI, the company established early guardrails to provide internal guidance on what to do and what not to do with the technology, Ohlerich says. Every employee is encouraged to use AI, and it’s piloted across key areas like onboarding, engagement, L&D, and HR analytics.
Dayforce’s HR team is using Agentic AI in the recruiting process and the talent management process, with agents taking requisitions and automatically reviewing them. Agents also write job descriptions, which are reviewed and refined by people, Lloyd says. In adopting AI for its own business purposes, the organization is focusing on privacy and security as the most important aspect of its transition.
“It’s a ‘can we’ versus ‘should we,’” Lloyd explains. “When we’re looking at the use of AI and agent-based approaches in the organization, that’s what leads our thinking first. It’s one of the biggest challenges for most companies, so we’ve been very deliberate in the process of how we use our data.”
Driving Transformative Change
Agentic AI is driving a fundamental change to the makeup of the workforce. Organizations are facing a significant reskilling challenge, preparing human talent for new roles as AI reshapes job functions. Reskilling, upskilling, and increased talent mobility are crucial to ensure employees thrive alongside AI, Roberts says.
One of the biggest challenges for HR over the next five years is organizational transformation. HR will need to help the organization reshape its work design and transform key functions within the business, Lloyd says.
“As more organizations implement Agentic AI, I’m encouraged by the ways it will free up time for HR teams to deliver value in new ways, enable them to go faster, and enhance the level of service they provide,” says Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, global chief people officer at Dayforce. “With AI automating routine tasks, HR can focus more on strategic initiatives and drive transformational change, strengthening its role as a key leadership partner.”
Agentic AI could transform how HR teams work and communicate with employees on a mass scale, Yuran says. Self-service capabilities will increase as AI utilizes company documentation or past responses for things like policy interpretation, updating changes in the HRIS system, performance review writing, and benefit questions.
“HR professionals will have the opportunity to take on a more strategic role, acting as trusted advisors to leadership on critical areas like employee engagement, productivity, and organizational culture,” Yuran adds. “As AI increasingly handles specialist tasks, HR teams will need to adopt a broader, more generalist skill set focused on guiding the strategic direction of these functions rather than executing them day-to-day.”
The role of the human in HR will become even more important as AI takes on additional tasks. There will be a stronger emphasis on ethics and human-centered oversight to ensure that AI decisions remain fair, transparent, and aligned with employee well-being, Power explains.
“People teams are moving away from being a transactional set of services and becoming a more strategic partner that is focused on helping employees realize their potential while driving business outcomes,” Sterling says. “If AI is used correctly, HR teams will no longer be thought of as people who manage processes, tasks, and policies. They will be seen as the team creating a thriving people ecosystem.”
Adopting Agentic AI
For HR leaders adopting Agentic AI, ethics are paramount. AI agents are only as strong as the data they’re trained on, so it’s important to make sure that the data is clean, current, and unbiased, Power explains. Here are a few key steps to consider.
- Start small. “Focus on a few high impact use cases where AI can make a real difference, like automating a manual workflow or improving how you share information internally,” Slaton says. “Then build from there.”
- Provide robust training. “Part of this education is empowering them to think more strategically and tackle bigger picture problems with the time freed up from the use of Agentic AI,” Cappellanti-Wolf says. It’s also important to make sure that employees are comfortable working in new ways and understand the importance of privacy and safety.
- Combat the fear of jumping in. Slaton explains that Lattice has been able to avoid this issue among its employees by highlighting real examples—like team members using AI to summarize meetings, draft communications, or streamline project plans. Once people see it in action, the mindset shifts from hesitation to experimentation.
- Audit regularly. “AI can’t be empathetic or demonstrate compassion, so organizations and HR teams can’t lose sight of that. AI’s impact must be evaluated continuously to understand what you’re trying to facilitate,” Sterling says.
- Measure impact before expanding. “Communicate transparently to the team when AI is involved,” Ohlerich adds. She explains that AI should be integrated thoughtfully, and should be helpful, not disruptive.
- Keep humans involved along the way. Maintaining “human-in-the-loop” systems, especially for sensitive HR functions, is crucial. This can preserve empathy, nuance, and employee trust, Power explains.
