Are Human Resource (HR) jobs safe in the long run? A former Google, who has also worked at Microsoft, believes they are not. Warren Wang, CEO at Doublefin.com, however said HRs will get their rightful place”.
From traits to what the HRs exactly do, from skimming through resumes to answering questions, from human interaction to real work — Warren explained how things will change one of the most talked about work profiles in the present world.
‘HR jobs will be gone, But HR work will stay’
In a detailed post on Substack.com, Warren said many that people still believe HR is the safe corner of the company. “That if you’re empathetic, good at listening, patient enough to mediate conflict, and naturally warm with people, you’d automatically make a great HR professional,” he said.
Stressing that these “traits matter”, he highlighted that “kindness isn’t the job, mediating drama isn’t the job and solving human friction isn’t the whole job” .
Stating that HR’s jobs have always been “heavier, harder, and far more consequential than people outside the function ever understand”, he said that the artificial intelligence (AI) will remove the need of routine tasks that used to disguise the real work, “HR’s true weight is finally being exposed”.
“The HR jobs will be gone, but the HR work will stay,” he added.
Does AI threaten HR jobs? Warren explains
Warren mentioned that AI will be doing the work that HR never wanted to, never enjoyed doing and never should have been responsible for in the first place.
“Gartner projects that half of HR tasks will be automated by 2030. McKinsey says 30% of all work hours will vanish because automation will consume everything repetitive. The transactional work will be erased,” he said.
He quoted a World Economic Forum (WEF) report that forecasts that 92 million jobs displaced globally, mostly routine ones are those built on checklists, templates, and predictable inputs.
“That’s the part people fear,” he added, while explaining why the HRs must not feat this. Warren listed the misunderstandings of the HRs:
AI is removing the labor that buried HR.
It is not removing the leadership that defines HR.
HR isn’t losing its identity.
HR is finally reclaiming it.
“Because what disappears first? The exhausting, repetitive, low-leverage tasks that turned HR into a human version of middleware,” he said.
So, it means the HR’s works like endless resume screenings, benefits enrollment cycles, onboarding checklists, scheduling back-and-forth, data entry, payroll adjustments and policy questions will be done away with.
The HRs, he said, will no longer be answering questions like – “Can I get my letter?”, “How many sick days do I have left?” which, he believed, “were the mechanical chores that kept HR from doing the work that actually transforms a company”.
AI is simply deleting the noise, he said.
‘What’s Actually Vanishing’
Stressing that “AI is not replacing HR”, but is “returning HR to its rightful place”, the Doublefin.com CEO said recruitment, resume searching, writing job descriptions, outreach emails, and candidate summaries will all be automated.
“That doesn’t diminish HR. It actually frees HR,” he said, adding that AI can rank fit scores, build shortlists, and schedule interviews faster than a team of ten recruiters working around the clock.
Why are these not threats? Warren says this brings the opportunity for the HRs to build on the core skills. “The future HR leader is not defined by operational strength but by intellectual depth and emotional leadership,” he added.
Citing another WEF data, he said the upcoming HR leaders “must translate AI outputs into human decisions”.
They must guide executive teams through organizational redesign.
They must coach leaders through change that destabilizes entire departments.
HR becomes the bridge between the machine and the human.
And that bridge cannot be automated.
“Resilience defines the best HR leaders. Not charm. Not surface-level people skills. Not being good with conflict,” Warren further said in the post.
In the next decade, he said, the HR leaders will:
- Delegate what doesn’t require judgment
- Protect what requires human wisdom
- Speak in the language CEOs respect
- Build systems that support humans instead of draining them
- Invest in the skills that elevate the entire organization
- Lead with steadiness when everyone else is rattled
- Carry culture when the organization wavers
- Advocate for people when it is least convenient