Skip ahead
Trend 1: Traditional HR Is Under Attack
Traditional, compliance-driven HR is increasingly seen as outdated and insufficient for today’s agile, scaling companies. Many founders now question the value of having a conventional HR department focused heavily on policies and controls. Business leaders expect HR to become a proactive enabler of growth, directly aligning its efforts with company goals.
A few months ago, Jennifer Sey, the Founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics made headlines by going on social media and saying that she wants her company to be the first that has no HR because they produce nothing and all they do is try to monitor our words and get in our business. I agree with her, in part, but that’s a conversation for another day.
The bottom line is that organizations will only retain HR functions that can prove their strategic worth. Those that can’t may find themselves eliminated entirely in the not so distant future.
Trend 2: AI is Rewriting the HR Playbook
AI is now ready to handle the majority of transactional HR work, such as scheduling, paperwork, and even complex policy creation. This automation has started freeing up HR professionals from routine tasks, forcing them to shift toward value-adding activities.
The real opportunity is for HR to embrace AI as a productivity multiplier and move from reactive support to proactive, strategic drivers of organizational capabilities. For many, the challenge is learning how to utilize these new tools and keeping pace with rapid advancements.
The accelerating pace of AI innovation makes it clear that administrative HR functions are destined to disappear – it’s not a question of if, but when. For HR professionals, this represents a golden opportunity to shift their focus to the meaningful, strategic work that directly drives business success. We’re witnessing a fundamental shift from “AI versus HR” to “AI empowering HR.
Trend 3: Convergence of HR and IT Functions
In the latest wave of innovation, HR and IT departments are beginning to merge in leading organizations. One headline example is Moderna, the pharmaceutical company, which recently made news for collapsing the IT function into the HR function. The head of their people function now also leads technology, holding the title Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. This change reflects the growing need to align people and technology strategies as AI transforms the workplace.
Traditionally, HR and IT operated in silos, each focusing on their independent tasks, which often led to inefficiencies, compromises, and less-than-ideal employee experiences. But with AI having such a major influence on both how work gets done and how employees are supported, seamless integration between human processes and intelligent systems is critical.
While a complete merger like Moderna’s might not be right for every organization, I expect more companies will create blended governance structures and shared roadmaps for HR and IT to design intelligent, employee-centered workflows. The key is joint accountability and collaboration that both support deep expertise and deliver exceptional employee experiences.
Trend 4: HR Roles Will Get Redesigned
I see HR roles undergoing a fundamental transformation. The traditional, administrative-heavy job descriptions that dominated HR five years ago are rapidly becoming relics of the past, and I see that trend going into overdrive as we move forward.
Today’s and tomorrow’s HR professionals are being reimagined as “strategic capability architects,” individuals responsible for enabling the workforce to reach peak performance and harness technology as a force multiplier. This emerging “super worker” concept means HR must focus on designing optimal ways of working, blending technology and human strengths, and removing barriers to performance.
The new HR job description demands business strategy acumen, strong people analytics skills, comfort with emerging technologies, and a flair for change management. No longer a peripheral support function, HR will move to the core of organizational value creation. The day-to-day grind of administrative work will continue to fade.
Trend 5: Leaner HR Teams
The next major shift I expect is the rapid shrinking of HR teams. At companies under about 250 employees, especially as they mature past the hyper-growth stage, the workload that required a robust HR headcount at the start often declines sharply. When scaling is complete and robust systems are in place, much of HR’s daily work transitions to routine operations, especially during times of headcount and operational stability.
Tech-enabled companies with optimized processes will see the most dramatic reduction in HR workload, with transactional and administrative roles truly disappearing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see organizations cutting transactional HR jobs while investing more in strategic HR talent.
For existing HR staff in administrative roles, there’s an urgent need to retrain and upskill. Roles focused on repetitive processes will likely vanish within 5–10 years, and only those who shift toward strategic contributions will remain. Strategic HR roles are more vital than ever, but teams will be much leaner, with workloads fluctuating based on business cycles, especially at startups.
Trend 6: Growth of Fractional HR Roles
Fractional HR is exploding as a solution to the changing landscape, and I expect it to maintain this accelerated growth. As AI and automation shrink the everyday workload and organizations focus only on high-impact HR tasks, there’s less need for full-time HR leaders in early-stage and scaling companies. Instead, I think companies will prioritize looking for HR talent on a fractional or project basis—often leaders who can serve multiple organizations at once, balancing their time and even exceeding their previous earnings. It’s a win-win scenario!
Fractional work addresses two challenges: the burnout and overwhelming stress reported by many full-time HR professionals, and the need for organizations to access deep expertise at a lower cost. Fractional roles let HR leaders set their own work scope, focus on project delivery, and avoid excess workload. From the company’s perspective, this provides access to senior-level, heavily experienced HR talent at a fraction of the cost. A head of HR with a strong scaling track record, for example, can be hired at a much lower annualized cost in a fractional model compared to a traditional full-time hire.
Fractional HR also enables flexible specialization: organizations can bring in experts in talent acquisition, compensation, or other areas just when needed. This fits the modern reality where not every stage of growth or challenge requires the same HR expertise.
Nahed Khairallah