Managing human–AI tensions in HRM: a learning approach to identify practical AI integration pathways

Purpose The study examines HRM professionals’ evaluation of AI as technology for the three key HR processes: talent acquisition/recruitment, training and development, performance evaluation and employee engagement. It also examines the key implementation learnings of HRM professionals. The motivation of our study is that despite being a game-changing technology with the potential to transform the HRM landscape substantially, AI’s use is impeded by several persistent challenges that must be continuously examined and mitigated. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a qualitative research design to understand participants’ narratives, perceptions and contextual meanings based on their lived experiences. We collected qualitative data through a two-wave study from 30 HRM professionals to operationalize this approach. These textual responses were analyzed using Gioia et al.’s (2013) approach to code their data structure comprising aggregate dimensions, second-order themes and first-order concepts. Findings Our findings broadly unpack into two parts: (1) HRM professionals’ evaluation of AI as both an enabling and alienating technology, with different impacts across the three HRM processes and (2) HRM professionals’ key implementation insights on internal contradictions and priorities, including AI-compatible HRM processes, human-in-the-loop approaches, organizational resistance and approaches to facilitate balanced integration of AI into HRM. Originality/value The study’s novel contribution lies in (1) explicit mapping of the duality of AI-HRM to the three HRM processes, (2) formulation of a practice-oriented four-phase framework for AI integration in HRM and (3) proposal of “Strategic Readiness” as a theoretical construct for examining a firm’s readiness to implement AI-HRM.