Applying artificial intelligence and automation tactics has played a large role in talent strategy conversations in the past few years. While many organizations initially focused on experimenting with tools and driving adoption to create efficiencies, leading employers are now asking deeper questions.
What tools have you tried? How hard were they to set up? Questions about automation tools to create workflow efficiencies, particularly around talent acquisition (TA), abounded at LEAP HR: Life Sciences conferences in recent years. Now, employers are thinking more philosophically and holistically about the role artificial intelligence (AI) will play in people and workforce strategies.
Successful AI strategies and implementation that support the people function begin with a clearly defined business challenge.
“The most important starting point is the business problem we are trying to solve, along with how TA creates value by enabling better, faster talent decisions,” wrote Grace Niwa, vice president, global talent acquisition, talent intelligence and early career at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, in an email to BioSpace.
Kosta Kleitsas, head of people at Dyno Therapeutics, supported a similar approach.
“Start with the work problem and desired outcome, then rethink the workflow from first principles,” he said. “Don’t simply insert AI into a process designed before these capabilities existed.”
Transforming recruiting from tactics to strategy
“The greatest opportunity AI presents to TA at Vertex is to eliminate administrative work and transform recruiting from a reactive process-driven function into a talent intelligence–led talent strategy,” Niwa said.
AI can indeed support execution across many key aspects of human resources: sourcing, talent mapping, screening and candidate matching, scheduling and candidate engagement. It reshapes what recruiting looks like, Niwa noted.
The loss of the human touch in hiring is feared both on the employer and candidate sides. However, the approaches in discussion these days focus far less on automation and efficiencies and more on how to most effectively leverage the human element. The hoped-for result is that recruiters spend less time managing processes and more time influencing talent decisions and building relationships. The future recruiter becomes a strategic advisor rather than a transactional coordinator.
“AI brings the intelligence and scale, while people bring judgment and relationships,” Niwa said.
Shaping the biopharma workforce
Given the intelligence it provides, AI is encouraging employers to rethink workforce structuring itself.
“It is fundamentally an organizational design question,” Kleitsas said. Organizations are considering which tasks should remain human-led and which can be more effectively managed by AI; if, and where, AI can operate autonomously and how decisions rights are distributed; and how teams work alongside AI systems, he noted.
These considerations are enabling a more forward-thinking approach to talent planning.
“Instead of only asking, ‘Who can fill this job?’ we can start asking, ‘What capabilities will the business or function need next?’” Niwa said.
AI could support internal and external talent movement tracking and monitoring of labor markets, anticipate future capabilities or requirements and, overall, connect workforce planning more directly to business strategy. Human resources functions are now often working more broadly with leadership to evaluate and design work around desired outcomes, rather than retrofitting AI tactics onto existing processes.
Expanding scope of people-focused roles
The nature of these assessments is blurring the boundaries between traditional HR and other business functions, particularly IT or technology functions.
“We’re seeing more CPOs and CHROs play a leading role in AI transformation,” Kleitsas noted, referring to chief people officers and chief human resources officers.
Both Niwa and Kleitsas advocate that AI enhances human capability rather than replaces it. With the potential for AI to automate routine work, it provides opportunities for human resources to partner with broader leadership to make better talent (and therefore business) decisions.
Kleitsas believes the scope of people-focused roles is expanding because its capabilities are driving a major shift in how organizations operate.
“I also see a major opportunity for the HRBP role,” he added regarding HR business partners. “HRBPs can truly partner with business leaders to drive higher performance, not only through their traditional focus on skills and change management but by helping redesign roles and workflows.”
Kleitsas recommends designing for where AI is heading, not only what it can do today. Capabilities are advancing so quickly that it can make sense to define the ideal workflow first and phase it in as the technology catches up.
“Have fun and treat implementation as iterative,” Kleitsas said. “Involve the people closest to the work, test new approaches, measure whether performance improves and adapt based on what you learn.”
BioSpace is a LEAP HR: Life Sciences East media partner. The 2026 edition of this event will be in Boston Oct. 5–7. Register for the event. Use code BIOSPACE10 for a discount.
