New HR research from Gartner has found that CEOs ranked workforce as their third most important business priority for the next year. This falls behind growth and technology as business focuses.
Alongside this, the research found that general workplace investments are shifting. Plans to increase investment in people and working culture are only at 57%. This has dropped from 69% last year. Less than half of CEOs also plan to increase hiring investments.
“86% of surveyed CEOs reported that they will use AI to help maintain or grow company revenue.” says Alexander Kirss, senior principal in the Gartner HR practice.
A further 56% estimate that productivity will increase from utilising GenAI over the next two years.
“CEOs’ emphasis on growth strategy, and the role of technology – particularly AI – in supporting that growth, is causing workforce-related attention to wane,” Kirss continues. “CEOs often have sweeping views on talent but struggle to distill those views into an actionable set of talent priorities,”
This research highlights the shift away from the workforce and recruitment translating into a tech-based, AI-driven environment instead. With workers falling into a third place priority for those at the top, this indicates a concern for what the workplace will look like, and if we will see automation on the rise again.