HR nous will make or break CEOs' tech ambitions

CHIEF executives from carmakers to consumer giants sound surprisingly similar when talking about the future. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation crop up, as does the challenge of finding staff qualified to carry out such grand strategies. That gives an unlikely back-office function the power to make or break tech-driven ambitions in 2020: human resources. It's usually a department with limited scope, performing the grunt-work of hiring, setting workplace-conduct policies and policing unacceptable behaviour. At a more senior level, it also involves devising compensation packages to encourage and reward service - sometimes to excess. The focus is shifting. Over four-fifths of corporate executives and HR bosses surveyed by Randstad Sourceright expect AI and robotics to create employment opportunities. Mentions of AI rose almost fivefold between 2012 and 2017 on the earnings calls of non-tech New York-listed companies, reckons Stanford University's AI Index.