According to The Economic Times, layoffs continue in 2024, especially at major internet companies such as GoogleGOOG -0.8% and AmazonAMZN -0.9%. These employment losses are taking place as businesses improve their financial discipline by simplifying processes and prioritizing critical business sectors. They also coincide with companies such as Google researching the many unexplored benefits of artificial intelligence, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The continual restructure indicates that things are far from stable. This instability is expected to continue to influence HR teams in particular for some time, resulting in a requirement for the function’s evolution as a whole.
Over the last decade, several firms have transformed human resources into a strategic function. However, the picture is evolving again as cutbacks affect HR personnel. Talent acquisition teams have been drastically downsized as a result of lower hiring targets, and the rest of the HR departments have undergone equivalent headcount reductions to meet organizational demands.
This move shows a troubling trend for the HR function to potentially regress and lose their hard-earned seat at the table, which has taken a long time to accomplish.
AI’s role in reshaping HR functions
According to Fortune, the rise of AI has played a significant role in recent layoffs at companies such as Amazon, and it continues to revolutionize HR responsibilities and how we collaborate with businesses. HR teams must dramatically upskill, not just in training others but also in improving our own capabilities, to ensure that we can adapt to the effects of AI on organizational architecture, work methods, and overall employee engagement and productivity.