As artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities accelerate, organizations face a pivotal question — how can we harness AI’s power while keeping human ingenuity at the forefront? At Microsoft, Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Hogan and Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro are pioneering an approach they call “AI plus HI” — leveraging AI to augment and uplift human intelligence.
The key, according to Hogan, is tight partnership across functions.
“From an HR perspective, the partnership with IT, the product groups, and with marketing is very, very tight,” she said. This collaboration ensures AI is implemented thoughtfully to enhance employee workflows rather than replace roles wholesale.
A prime example is Microsoft’s HR service centers, where agents now use AI copilots to consolidate information across systems.
“Time to first response rate has improved 27 percent,” Hogan shared, “so there are a lot of benefits that we’re seeing. We talk a lot about more joy, less toil.”
However, employee anxiety around AI cannot be ignored. Hogan stressed transparency is crucial to building trust.
“If you’re not transparent and if you’re not honest, then you lose trust and that becomes really challenging,” she said.
Spataro outlined Microsoft’s vision for deploying three types of “AI agents” — personal assistants, process assistants focused on workflows, and company-wide assistants suggesting cross-functional synergies.
“We anticipate with these process assistants that over time finance won’t be as many people but we’ll be managers overseeing both people and AI agents to get the job done,” he explained.
But he made clear Microsoft’s aim is not full automation.
“I should first state that is not Microsoft’s objective nor is it our purpose to replace all people,” Spataro said. “We do have a perspective though. We expect that every employee over time, regardless of what their job is, including frontline employees will end up having a personal assistant who helps them get their job done.”
Empowering this human-AI collaboration will require a mindset shift for leaders. As Spataro advised: “I would encourage you to think of this like the backhoe coming to replace the shovel. It’s coming…I would say you have to embrace that.”
Microsoft is pioneering new frontiers by positioning AI not as a replacement for humans, but as an intelligence amplifier when coupled with human ingenuity. As Hogan and Spataro’s insights reveal, the true power of AI may lie in its potential to free humans to invest more in the uniquely human elements of problem-solving, creativity and emotional intelligence. It’s an inspiring vision of AI not superseding humans but lifting us to new heights.
Featured image: Credit: Microsoft
