AI, HR, and FOMO. There is algorithm anxiety, but adoption remains experimental
Professionals working in human resources are immersed in a narrative that seems to leave no alternative. Every day brings new applications of artificial intelligence, success stories continue to multiply, and vendors promise to revolutionize the way organizations manage people. It is hard not to wonder whether your organization is falling behind. A form of FOMO (fear of missing out) now accompanies many HR departments.
It is in this context that a survey of 119 Italian HR professionals was conducted. AI's potential is considered very high, with an average score of 5.4 out of 7. Yet within organizations, adoption remains largely driven by individual initiatives, while strategies, roadmaps, and governance models are still far from widespread.
The findings portray a transition phase that many companies are experiencing. There is still a significant gap between the belief that AI can transform HR and the ability to integrate it consistently into organizational processes. The research shows that the pressure to "do something" with artificial intelligence is already very strong, while its adoption remains, in most cases, largely experimental.
High expectations, limited organization
The potential of artificial intelligence is viewed as very high. The average rating reaches 5.4 out of 7, and nearly one respondent in two assigns it a score of 6 or 7, while only 8% give it a rating below the neutral threshold.
However, when looking at how prepared organizations actually are, the picture changes significantly. Every indicator measuring AI adoption maturity returns modest values. Strategic vision, priority setting, budget allocation, roadmaps, and planning for future development all average around 3.6-3.7 out of 7, while the share of companies reporting that these elements are formally in place never exceeds 18%.
This weakness becomes even more evident when professionals are asked about the main challenges they face. The most frequently cited barrier is the absence of an AI strategy specifically dedicated to the HR function, identified by 51% of respondents. This is followed by implementation costs (44%) and concerns about data security (39%). The primary issue, therefore, is the ability of organizations to define a shared direction.
The same pattern emerges when examining actual adoption levels. Only 18% of companies have AI applications that have been systematically developed for HR. In 49% of cases, spontaneous use prevails: individual professionals independently experiment with AI tools without any overarching functional strategy. Another 18% report AI applications in other business functions but not in HR, while 15% have not yet introduced AI anywhere in the organization. Overall, two out of three companies coexist with some form of AI, but in half of those cases adoption remains unmanaged.
HR professionals' expectations become clear from the objectives they associate with AI. Eighty-seven percent of respondents identify process efficiency as the primary benefit, followed by business support through people data analysis and insights (67%) and reduced operating costs for the HR function (50%). Improving decision quality, by contrast, is mentioned much less frequently, suggesting that artificial intelligence is currently perceived primarily as a tool for increasing productivity rather than as a lever for rethinking HR's strategic role.
The research also provides insights into the applications considered most promising. At the top of the list are administrative process automation, workforce planning, talent acquisition, and turnover prediction. In practice, however, the applications that are already widespread mainly concern administrative activities and recruiting, while more sophisticated tools, such as predictive turnover models, remain largely unrealized, probably because they require far more advanced data foundations, capabilities, and levels of integration.
Finally, the findings offer an important indication for those developing technologies for HR. The attributes that most strongly influence adoption decisions all belong to the sphere of trust. Data security and protection, the reliability and consistency of results, the tangible value delivered, and the ability to integrate with existing systems all rank ahead of both cost-effectiveness and ease of use. In a function responsible for making decisions about people, trust in technology is a prerequisite for its widespread adoption.
Governing rather than chasing
The widespread interest in artificial intelligence provides a favorable starting point for adoption, but it is not enough to drive organizational change. Competitive advantage depends less on how quickly companies adopt new tools than on their ability to transform a collection of individual experiments into a coherent path of organizational innovation. More than the technology itself, this is where the future of AI in human resources is likely to be decided.
These topics are explored in the live online course Artificial intelligence per l’HR. Strategie e strumenti operativi per potenziare i processi HR (in Italian).
