The Need For Women Human Resource Professionals To Upskill During The Age of AI

Building AI fluency and peer networks is the next frontier for women shaping the future of HR.

In the age of AI, reaching leadership positions is possible only for those who learn to utilize emerging technologies. Women face a double jeopardy, having to break the glass ceiling and now adapt to AI as well. Historically, Human Resources has been a corporate domain that has had the highest rates of women's participation, with a 2020 study showing that women comprise 74% of HR professionals in the United States. However, a lack of visibility in recent years has affected women, who are increasingly lacking role models in the field. Aspiring women HR professionals must be able to see their counterparts solving the problems they face on a daily basis.

Thus, the need of the hour is to build a peer-led community where women can connect with others to share their experiences of building products that solve particular problems. For instance, designing custom GPTs and automating processes by deploying AI agents requires technical expertise. Without a thorough understanding gained by hands-on experimentation, an HR executive cannot make decisions efficiently. In this manner, an open-source repository of what works and what does not through trial and experimentation will allow teams to innovate on HR tech and share the dividends with the community at large. Creating an HR workforce that is technically proficient requires employees to build muscle memory by using new tools until they feel second nature.

Moreover, there is a need to amplify the existing work being done by women in building with AI. For instance, someone creating a prompt chain to automate onboarding communications can inspire others to go a step further and apply it in performance review cycles. This, in turn, can generate a novel idea for using a prompt chain to handle employee relations. Hence, considering the enormous potential of AI in streaming business operations, it is imperative for HR to undergo a paradigm shift to narrow the skills gap.