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HR Professionals Confident AI Won’t Replace Them, Australian Survey Finds

HR Tech

Business Honor
16 January, 2025

Survey reveals HR leaders’ optimism about AI, despite concerns over job automation in other sectors.

A recent survey conducted by the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) has discovered that most of the HR professionals in Australia are confident that artificial intelligence (AI) will not replace their jobs. The survey, which collected responses from 236 HR leaders, found that 82.1% of participants disagreed with the notion that AI adoption could lead to job loss. Only 8.5% agreed that their roles might be at risk.

On the contrary, while concerns about job displacement are rampant within the global discourse on AI- especially in vulnerable sectors- it seems that this is not on the minds of HR professionals at all. Interestingly, the respondents also revealed that 64.7% do not believe AI will displace jobs for others. Only 21.8% agreed with the fact that AI would trigger layoffs in their organization.

The strong sense of job security among HR leaders may be attributed to the current use of AI in the workplace. According to the AHRI report, AI is largely employed for low-level administrative tasks such as drafting job descriptions, writing emails, and generating reports—functions that are not perceived as a threat to senior HR roles. For its part, the report established an important knowledge gap on the implications of AI, specifically among those who are laggards in the adoption of this technology.

Despite the general optimism, there are still concerns about AI: data security, the potential for bias, and reliance on poor-quality data. More than 80% of respondents believe AI will boost productivity (86%) and improve job performance (81%). But HR professionals are also wary, with 66% naming data and security risks as the top concerns.

AHRI CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett said that HR professionals need to be up skilled and complementary HR practices adopted to unlock the full potential of AI in the workplace.