As AI forces companies to rethink everything from job design to workforce size, CEOs are increasingly looking to their CHROs to help architect that transformation. They need leaders who can determine which functions to automate, which skills to invest in, and how to reorganize their workforces without undermining productivity or growth. The problem? Few are equipped for the job.
A new study by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles found that just one in four CHROs currently operate as an “enterprise CHRO,” with capabilities spanning AI, automation, CEO advising, ethics, succession, and workforce planning. What’s more, fewer than 5% of sitting CHROs have backgrounds in strategy consulting, product, or engineering—the very things CEOs now want, says Heidrick & Struggles partner Brad Warga.
The expectations have shifted dramatically. CEOs now seek nearly twice as many skills in CHRO candidates than they did a decade ago, Warga said. Increasingly, that means leaders who can identify which jobs and functions AI should automate, then rethink how the workforce is structured.
At Heidrick, Warga notes that CEOs are requesting HR chiefs who are creative problem solvers, intellectually curious, and have a product mindset. “This is a major shift,” he says. “It’s about adoption versus compliance.”
AI-native companies are already rewriting the CHRO job description. This year, OpenAI named Arvind KC, a former Palantir CIO and ex-Google engineering vice president, as its chief people officer. Anthropic tapped Hannah Pritchett, a former Stripe product operations manager, for the same role.
“HR has now become incredibly strategic, a consigliere to the CEO, and has probably the most broad enterprise view next to the CEO in the C-suite,” Warga says.
That shift is also reshaping the C-suite relationships. Enterprises CHROs spend an extra 10 hours a month working directly with CTOs on AI transformation, Warga says.
So how can today’s CHROs become enterprise CHROs? Warga recommends bringing product and engineering talent directly into HR leadership teams, then learning from those hires to develop hands-on fluency with AI tools.
“The beauty of HR is you can take a Sunday afternoon and start to play with one of the language models,” Warga says. “It actually is pretty amazing how much you can learn.”
Written by Kristin Stoller for Fortune as “The next generation of CHROs may not come from HR at all” and republished legally through syndication agreement with Reuters Connect.
