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When AI Joins the Team: What HR Needs to Rethink from the Inside Out

Updated: Aug 14


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I’ve always been drawn to transformation.


There’s something deeply energizing about helping an organization reimagine itself, shedding what no longer serves and building something sharper, clearer, and more aligned. It’s what I’ve spent much of my career doing: designing the people infrastructure that makes bold growth possible.


But I’ll admit this current wave of change feels different.


Lately, I’ve been sitting with a quiet discomfort. Not fear exactly, but unease. A recognition that we are entering a profound shift, not just in what we do, but in how we relate to one another, to technology, and to the very idea of work.


And with that shift come questions that have been keeping me up at night.



What Happens to HR When the Workforce Isn’t Fully Human?


I keep coming back to this.


As AI enters the room, the relationships we once designed around—manager and direct report, HR and employee, team and function—are being redefined.


So what happens when the relationship isn’t just between people, but between people and machines?


  • What does it mean to build trust with an entity that has no empathy?

  • What does accountability look like when decisions are co-authored by humans and machines?

  • What rituals, boundaries, and signals do we need when AI starts to shape decisions that touch real human lives?


These aren’t implementation questions; they’re relational ones. They’re questions about design, relationships, and responsibility. We’re not just building systems, but shaping how we relate to one another inside them.



Designing for What Can’t Be Automated


At Andes, we work with organizations to build people infrastructure for bold, scalable growth. That work has always required a blend of structure and soul. Think org charts and values, incentives and culture.


Now, it also requires a new kind of discernment.


AI will replace the administrative and predictive layers of HR. This is inevitable. What’s not inevitable is how we respond.

Our opportunity is to move beyond process—to become guides, curators, and sense-makers.


We have to ask ourselves:


  • What belongs in the human domain?

  • Where can AI truly enhance the people experience?

  • What do we do when automation creates efficiency, but erodes trust?



Holding the Tension


This is the real work: holding the tension between what’s scalable and what’s downright sacred.


Not everything should be handed off. For instance, AI can simulate care, but it can’t offer it. It can recommend a salary adjustment, but it can’t understand what that number represents to someone carrying the invisible weight of being underestimated.


So as we help companies adopt AI, we also help them get clear about their underpinning values. We architect governance, not just workflows. We build in ethical pause points. We ask what success looks like beyond the metrics dashboard.



What Comes Next


I don’t have all the answers by any stretch, but I’m learning to hold the discomfort a little longer and let it sharpen the questions.


At Andes, we’re helping companies navigate the overlap between people and tech. We’re not just advising on AI integration, but guiding the human conversations that need to happen around it: What do we hand off? What do we hold onto? How do we preserve meaning, dignity, and trust as the pace of change continues to accelerate?


The future of work is being built in real time, and it’s asking us to think bigger and lead deeper.


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