AI is more than a corporate buzzword: it is as pervasive as it is transformative. The adoption of generative AI to perform everyday tasks is fundamentally restructuring the global workforce. While we are at the beginning of this industrial shift, it will be swift. We are already seeing companies at the forefront of this transformation consolidating roles, eliminating functions, or reimagining organizational structures altogether.
Take Moderna, which recently announced that it merged its Human Resources and Digital Technology departments. The move comes at the midway point of its 10-year plan to “integrate automation” across the organization. In 2023, the biotech company partnered with OpenAI to design tailored ChatGPTs. Today, Moderna counts 3,000+ AI agents (GTPs) alongside 5,800 humans as employees.
Moderna is not alone. IBM says its internal chatbot, AskHR, handled 11.5 million interactions, representing 94% of common HR questions, last year. Many other companies are following suit and using AI beyond HR, including marketing, sales, customer service, and legal. Even IT isn’t safe.
The shift to AI has generated excitement over the efficiencies and opportunities it brings for human resources. Still, its implementation comes with its own set of internal challenges, privacy concerns, ethical considerations, and communications hurdles. The implications of an AI-first society extend far beyond job displacement – they are broad, encompassing the skills gap, recruitment, cybersecurity, and the meaning of IT support.
From a communications perspective, there’s a lot to unpack. As a B2B tech PR agency we’ve seen first hand how AI adoption is reshaping individual departments and entire industries. In this blog, we’re sharing how our HR tech clients are navigating the intricacies of communications around AI-driven operations.
The Skills Gap – and Leap: Repeating History
This technical workforce shift didn’t start with AI. Automation began with the Industrial Revolution, displacing entire categories of jobs in the 18th Century. While it took 200 years to disrupt agricultural labor, which once accounted for 90% of the U.S. workforce (today, < 2%), AI is proving highly efficient. By 2030, “up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated—a trend accelerated by generative AI,” according to McKinsey.
While the use of AI across workflows and job functions is still in its infancy, albeit on a fast track to widespread adoption, the AI revolution is creating unprecedented demand for new skills while transforming the nature of work. AI is not simply automating tasks; companies are treating AI as an integral part of their workforce. As AI capabilities rapidly advance, the use of AI is moving away from routine work to becoming a collaborative partner.
HR tech teams, which have emerged as early adopters of AI, are deploying it for candidate screening, completing manual tasks, and learning and development. HR professionals also will require advanced training, including understanding new AI capabilities, data interpretation, algorithm bias detection, and how to design effective human-AI workflows. A data-driven PR strategy can help organizations position themselves as thoughtful leaders throughout this transformation.
Moderna’s merger of its HR and Digital Technology departments is a reflection of the company’s integration of AI, but it may not be a trendsetter.
One of the immediate risks for companies going all-in on AI is the consequential skills gap, as seen in previous industrial shifts. Perhaps less highlighted in the equally consequential “skills leapfrog” – or what we might call “before AI.”
“Skill gaps are categorically considered the biggest barrier to business transformation,” according to 63% of employers who responded to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs survey. While “85% of employers said they planned to upskill their workforce, 70% said they were “expecting to hire staff with new skills, 40% planning to reduce staff as their skills become less relevant, and 50% planning to transition staff from declining to growing roles.”
The proclamations of being an AI company tend to come with reports of layoffs or a company-wide restructuring (Moderna, IBM, Microsoft, to name a few). However, history and data show that a workforce disruption also creates new jobs that require new skill sets.
“On average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period,” according to WEF’s report. The biggest skill set gains over this period are, not surprisingly, predicted in AI and Big Data, networks, cybersecurity, and “technology literacy.”
What about when things go wrong with AI? Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in HR
What’s clear: digital labor is on the rise. As organizations rely on automated systems, the knowledge gaps, paired with rising cyber risks, could prove catastrophic. Just read the headlines: Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming and AI agents: the new frontier of cybercrime business must confront. It’s a business imperative to get this right.
The 2021 cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline caused the company to shut down operations because automated systems couldn’t operate safely, and its backup operations (humans) weren’t immediately available. The pipeline cyberattack may seem tangential, but it highlights the importance of maintaining human-AI connectivity – and the need to build a resilient AI infrastructure.
For HR departments specifically, AI creates unique vulnerabilities. These systems process some of the most sensitive personal data within an organization—such as Social Security numbers, medical records, salary information, and performance evaluations—all of which are potential high-value targets for data theft and manipulation.
For AI-driven operations, a single breach could cascade across multiple business functions simultaneously.
How Can Companies Be Proactive With AI Workforce Integration Communications?
Communication in a crisis can get complicated fast. When AI fails, companies are not just explaining a data breach; they are explaining why their artificial workforce stopped working. Partnering with a technology public relations agency ensures the right balance of excitement and realism when communicating AI integration.
The best strategy? Get ahead of the narrative.
Start with transparency before it is needed. Design a communications strategy that allows the company to innovate in the open—bring employees, investors, policymakers, and customers along for the journey. Sharing lessons learned alongside the successes can help stakeholders understand the strategic rationale behind AI adoption and foster industry-wide transparency.
Communicate the benefits of AI. .Moreover, companies must also go beyond channeling their AI-first business strategy to future job seekers; they must communicate how they are assessing and mitigating the associated risks, as well as how they plan to bridge the skills gap with current employees as they increase investments to scale AI. Communicate why this is better for the applicant, employee, or whoever is coming in contact with the AI.
Today’s AI revolution presents an opportunity for AI-first companies and policymakers to drive innovation in education and professional career development, which is necessary to accelerate broad, secure, and equitable access to AI fluency.
Don’t forget the external narrative. In addition to your capabilities, your audience wants clarity on your values. Consider working with a HR tech communication team to craft messaging that aligns with your brand – remember, impressions start with the job posting and last through the entire employee lifecycle!
It’s time for companies to keep their communications team on speed dial.