How HRs Will Quietly Dominate the AI Era

Inside: Transforming Recruiting with Agentic AI

Author

The HR Takeaways
April 29, 2025

Hello HR Pros,

The future of HR isn’t an upgrade — it’s a reinvention. As AI reshapes the foundation of work, traditional HR structures are crumbling faster than most realize. In today's edition, we dive deep into why redesigning workflows, automating the routine, and building agile, AI-enabled teams will define the next generation of HR leaders. Survival isn't about doing more—it's about doing it differently.

Ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of HR? Let’s dive in!

📰 Upcoming in This Issue

  • HR 2.0: Building a More Agile, AI-Driven Future

  • Future-Proofing Leadership: Succession Planning Best Practices

  • Transforming Recruiting With Agentic AI Why

  • Recruiting Roles Are Disappearing Faster Than You Think

  • Remote workers are losing out on promotions, new data shows (WSJ)

  • 21 job titles that will disappear by 2030 (Forbes)

  • Google's remote HR employees told to return onsite or lose their job (NBC)

  • Microsoft launches people skills in copilot, altering HR Tech market (Josh B.)

  • Intel to lay off more than 20% of workforce (Reuters)

  • Former Google CEO warns AI may soon ignore human control (Yahoo)

After reading "Is The HR Profession As We Know It Doomed? In A Strange Way, Yes." by Josh Bersin, it’s clear: HR isn't disappearing — it's being radically reinvented.

With CEOs and CFOs demanding AI-driven productivity, HR teams must rethink everything from workflows to skills to survive the coming wave.

Gone are the days of bloated teams and endless checklists; AI agents will handle much of the "plumbing" work faster and smarter.

The future belongs to HR professionals who can redesign, automate, and lead — not those clinging to old playbooks.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🔧 Prioritize Work Redesign Before Technology: AI will not fix broken workflows. HR must lead efforts to streamline, automate, and rebuild core processes first.

  • 📈 Build Skills, Not Headcount: The future HR strategy must invest in upskilling managers and employees, reducing dependency on layers of project managers and analysts.

  • 🧠 Automate Admin, Amplify Strategy: With AI poised to automate 50–75% of HR tasks, HR leaders must pivot teams toward coaching, consulting, and business advisory roles.

  • 🌐 Reimagine HR as an AI-Enabled Function: HR will evolve into an AI-supervised, data-driven powerhouse—owning the design, governance, and continuous learning of intelligent systems.

Reading "Succession Planning Best Practices" by SuccessionHR reinforced a critical truth: companies that invest early in leadership pipelines drive long-term resilience.

Only 35% of companies have a formal plan — yet those that do outperform peers by 2.5x, proving succession isn't optional.

This article highlights how data, mentorship, diversity, and transparent communication now define world-class succession strategies, not just gut instinct.

Case studies from ABC Recycling and Dollar Bank show that agile, data-driven, and inclusive practices are the new gold standard for building future-ready leadership.

Key Takeaways

  • 📈 Companies with structured pipelines see 34% higher revenue growth, reinforcing why succession planning must be business-critical, not optional.

  • 👥 Best practice is having at least three candidates per key role, with 90% of key roles covered by a "Ready Now" successor.

  • 🔍 Data-driven succession planning boosts internal promotion rates by 27%, making leadership development measurable and strategic.

  • 🌍 Integrating DEI into leadership pipelines, like ABC Recycling did, ensures innovation, resilience, and broader business impact.

I watched "Agentic AI Is Changing Recruiting - And Steven Jiang’s Leading the Charge" by Tim Sackett felt like seeing the future of hiring unfold.

EZ Agent by HireEZ is redefining recruiting, letting AI handle sourcing, posting, and CRM while recruiters focus on relationships, not admin.

Instead of transactional hiring, companies will build talent ecosystems, giving every candidate a real shot — not a "black hole" experience.

Recruiters are evolving into strategic partners, helping teams hire smarter, faster, and more inclusively than ever before.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🤖 EZ Agent unifies sourcing, posting, CRM, and ATS, creating one seamless agentic experience that boosts recruiter productivity. 🚀

  • 🎯 Agentic AI enables white-glove experiences, offering candidates feedback and links to training, improving the overall hiring journey. 🎯

  • 🚀 Recruiters will act as embedded team strategists, working closely with hiring managers to lift performance systematically. 🧠

  • 🌐 Agentic AI will create shared talent ecosystems, reducing waste and making hiring more collaborative across companies. 🌎

Reading “The End of Recruiting: Why AI Won't Just Change Your Job – It Will Eliminate It” by Kevin Wheeler was a wake-up call.

As an HR leader, I see firsthand how AI isn’t just reshaping recruiting—it’s rewriting the entire playbook. Wheeler makes it clear: recruiting isn’t evolving, it’s vanishing, replaced by AI that hires faster, smarter, and cheaper.

The new world doesn’t need more recruiters; it needs architects of talent strategy, workforce planning, and ethical AI governance. Our future depends on how fast we pivot—because the old recruiting model is already burning.

Key Takeaways

  • 🔎 Productivity Myth Shattered: New AI tools often slow down recruiting processes initially instead of boosting productivity, adding complexity.

  • 🧠 Skills-Based Future: AI is killing resume-driven hiring by using predictive analytics to source, engage, and hire before jobs are even posted.

  • 🎯 Human Judgment Crumbles: AI already outperforms human managers in predicting candidate success and retention, making subjective "fit" assessments obsolete.

  • 🤖 Goodbye, Networking: AI can now build, nurture, and activate professional networks faster—and more strategically—than human recruiters ever could.

The bottomline:

The landscape of work is being redrawn—and HR is standing at the fault line. As we’ve explored today, surviving the AI wave means letting go of legacy systems, bloated processes, and outdated assumptions. It means becoming architects of agile, data-driven, human-centered organizations. The future of HR isn’t a safer, faster version of today—it’s something entirely new.

Are you ready to build it? Until next time, stay bold, stay curious, and lead the reinvention.

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