As companies move from experimenting with artificial intelligence to redesigning everyday work, a new IBM Institute for Business Value study points to a growing disconnect between what executives expect employees to do with AI and the capabilities workers believe matter most. The research suggests that critical thinking, judgment and the ability to challenge AI outputs are becoming central workforce capabilities, even as many HR organizations remain early in their own AI adoption.
The study, conducted with Oxford Economics, surveyed 1,500 CHROs and senior executives responsible for workforce strategy, along with 8,800 full-time employees across 28 countries. The research examined how organizations are redesigning work, skills and HR practices as AI becomes more deeply embedded in business operations.
One of its clearest findings concerns judgment. IBM reports that 71% of CHROs consider the ability to supervise, validate or override AI outputs an essential workforce skill, while only 29% of employees rank judgment as important. The difference highlights a potential training and workforce-design problem: employees may be learning how to use AI without receiving enough emphasis on evaluating when its outputs should be trusted, questioned or rejected.
Skills erosion is another concern. Sixty percent of employees surveyed worry that AI is weakening their existing skills, with critical thinking among the capabilities most frequently identified as declining. CHROs also place critical thinking and problem framing near the top of the skills required in an AI-enabled workplace.
IBM’s findings suggest that the issue extends beyond training programs. Organizations are also changing how work itself is structured.
Only 26% of organizations in the study clearly define activities as human-led, AI-assisted or AI-executed. Where judgment is deliberately incorporated into workflows, 62% of CHROs report increasing employee confidence in AI-enabled decisions. Where judgment is not built into the work, 57% report declining confidence.
That distinction becomes important as AI agents begin handling more complete business processes. Employees may remain accountable for outcomes even when automated systems perform much of the underlying work. IBM found that 43% of employees say that when something goes wrong with AI, blame falls on them, while 36% of CHROs say unclear accountability makes AI deployment more difficult.
The research also identifies an organizational governance gap. Forty-six percent of organizations do not involve the CHRO when AI strategy is defined, while only 28% report having a joint AI roadmap between HR and IT supported by a shared operating cadence. Where CHROs share responsibility for determining which decisions remain human-led, 76% of employees say they feel safe questioning or overriding AI recommendations, compared with 43% when HR is only advisory.
AI can also create work that is less visible rather than simply eliminating tasks. Eighty percent of CHROs say AI adoption creates “invisible” work, including validating recommendations, correcting errors, supplying context and handling exceptions. Forty-two percent of employees say AI either increases their workload or produces work that goes unrecognized.
For HR technology leaders, perhaps the most striking finding is that HR itself has not yet broadly adopted AI. IBM reports that 72% of organizations make limited or no use of AI within the HR function. CHROs also rate HR capabilities low in areas including AI literacy, AI performance measurement and change management. Organizations with mature HR AI capabilities spanning governance, architecture and measurement are nearly twice as likely to report positive impacts across a larger number of business KPIs.
The implications extend across the HR technology stack. Workforce analytics, learning platforms, skills intelligence, employee experience systems and AI-enabled talent management tools increasingly need to support not only automation but also workforce capability development.
The IBM research ultimately frames AI adoption as a work-design challenge as much as a technology deployment exercise. For HR leaders, that means deciding where people should retain authority, how employees develop skills alongside AI systems, and how productivity gains are translated into reskilling, innovation and new forms of work.
Market Landscape
AI is pushing HR technology beyond traditional automation. Recruiting, learning, workforce planning, performance management and employee experience platforms are increasingly incorporating generative AI, predictive analytics and AI agents.
The IBM findings highlight a less visible part of that transition: organizations need systems and processes that measure whether AI is strengthening or weakening workforce capabilities. Skills intelligence and workforce analytics can help identify capability gaps, while learning platforms can support continuous reskilling. Governance mechanisms are equally important when AI influences hiring, performance, compensation or other high-impact workforce decisions.
The research also points to a widening distinction between AI adoption and AI maturity. Deploying an AI tool does not necessarily mean an organization has redesigned accountability, developed workforce skills or established effective measurement. For HR technology buyers, those capabilities are becoming part of the broader enterprise AI architecture.
Top Insights
- IBM’s global CHRO study identifies a significant gap between executive expectations for AI oversight skills and employees’ perceived importance of judgment.
- Sixty percent of employees worry about skills erosion, putting critical thinking and continuous capability development at the center of AI workforce planning.
- Organizations that explicitly distinguish human-led, AI-assisted and AI-executed work report different outcomes for decision confidence and accountability.
- HR’s strategic role in AI transformation remains uneven, with 46% of organizations excluding CHROs from AI strategy definition and 72% making limited HR AI use.
- The findings increase pressure on HR technology vendors to support governance, skills intelligence, workforce redesign and measurable employee development alongside automation.
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