People Leaders Are the Most Skeptical of C-Suite Leaders on AI Workforce Readiness and Future AI Value, Global Survey Finds

New research finds just 5% of CHROs expect at least half of HR work to be AI-enabled within three years, suggesting HR leaders are less confident their enterprises are prepared for AI at scale. MENLO PARK, Calif. , July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As organizations race to turn artificial intelligence adoption into measurable business value, a surprising divide has emerged inside the C-suite. While nearly 80% of executives expect AI to improve bottom-line performance and drive top-line revenue growth in the next three years, CHROs stand apart as the most cautious about whether their enterprises are ready for the workforce changes required to realize that value. They are also the only C-suite leaders who do not rank business value capture as AI's primary objective by 2029. These findings come from the fifth Protiviti AI Pulse Survey , titled "The AI-People Conundrum: Learning to Lead, Not Lag, " which examines how organizations are preparing their businesses and workforces for the next period of AI transformation. Despite AI's rapid advancement, the research found that just 5% of CHROs expect at least half of HR work to be AI-enabled within the next three years, due to their perceived complexities of scaling AI in HR functions. "The survey reveals an important disconnect in the C-suite," said Fran Maxwell, global leader, People & Change, Protiviti. "Most leaders are focused on the value AI can deliver for the business. HR leaders are focused on whether their organizations and people are actually ready to deliver it. AI can create tremendous business value, but only if organizations invest appropriately in the non-technical aspects of AI transformation, including people enablement, operating model redesign, and process redesign." HR Leaders See an AI Workforce Readiness Gap The survey found that, at a high level, senior leaders express strong confidence in workforce AI readiness. However, levels of confidence are not equal across the C-suite: Only 13% of CHROs strongly agree that their organization's job designs are AI-ready , compared with 28 % overall across the C-suite. As AI continues to compress work into fewer, higher-impact roles, CHROs have a broad view of the complexity involved in redesigning positions, compensation and career paths compared to other C-suite leaders. Just 14% of CHROs strongly agree their organizations' learning capabilities are AI-ready, versus 36% overall. By comparison, IT leaders are the most confident group, with 96% positive on learning readiness and 88% positive on role design readiness. 82% of CHROs expect a human + digital workforce by 2030 , compared to 93% of most C-suite leaders Rather than signaling skepticism toward AI itself, the findings suggest CHROs may be taking a more pragmatic view on the broad workforce changes required to successfully scale AI. The Business Sees Rapid Expansion of AI Enablement While most executives broadly expect AI to become a powerful driver of business value over the next three years, CHROs are more cautious about how quickly organizations can realize that potential. About 60% of CHROs expect less than 25% of HR work to be AI-enabled within three years, even though more than 80% of HR activities are well suited for automation. By comparison, 88% of respondents expect more than 25% of IT work to be AI-enabled within three years, compared with 57% today. Expectations for AI enablement are considerably higher in other functions, as reflected in the growing percentage of leaders who anticipate at least one-quarter of work in their functions will be AI-enabled within the next three years. Finance: Expectations increase to 72%, up from 23% today Supply Chain: Expectations rise to 66%, up from 33% today Audit: Expectations grow to 56%, up from 20% today Human Resources: Expectations increase to 50%, up from 11% today AI Transformation Is Ultimately Workforce Transformation As organizations increasingly look to AI to generate a return on investment, workforce transformat...