By: Joshua Finley

Revolutions tend to conjure up mental images of guillotines and flag-carrying mobs, but not all revolutions are bloody. The Industrial Revolution, which took place during the late 18th to the early 19th century, was marked by a series of groundbreaking inventions that transformed manufacturing, transportation, and communication. It saw the invention of the steam engine, the Power Loom, the Spinning Jenny, and the telegraph. These inventions would change the world.

There’s a new (and bloodless) revolution underway in the U.S. and across the globe. It’s a revolution that is upending the status quo, promising increased access to information, productivity, efficiency, automation of repetitive tasks, and improved business decision-making. This revolution is AI, which is transforming how organizations achieve competitive dominance, including in the field of human resources.

One expert familiar with the challenges at the intersection of AI and HR is Transformative Human Capital Expert Janice Robinson Burns. She serves as a Strategic Advisor to Skill Collective, an HR transformation firm, and leads Janice Robinson Burns LLC.

According to Robinson Burns, as businesses navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape, they face a host of challenges. She notes, “The AI landscape is full of potential and complexity. Success depends on senior management and team leaders answering key questions around business objectives, technical capabilities, talent management, and security concerns.”

Questions, Challenges, and Finding the Right Path Forward

Robinson Burns has quickly become a leading figure in the AI/HR field, earning a strong reputation for improving employee performance through advanced technologies. She advises organizations to be cautious about viewing AI as a one-size-fits-all solution to HR challenges and urges business leaders to carefully evaluate their advisory partners when aiming to optimize HR efficiency.

For successful HR-related AI implementation, organizations often require an innovation partner rather than a large, impersonal consulting firm. Robinson Burns emphasizes this need, particularly for startups facing explosive growth, limited resources, and a rapidly changing market. Larger organizations also struggle with complexity, making tailored support essential for effective AI integration.

“When faced with the increasing complexity of both tech and markets, leadership needs to develop their AI strategy in partnership with a trusted and experienced external advisor who gets under the skin of their organization, and can provide an actionable framework to develop an effective HR/AI strategy,” says Robinson Burns. 

According to Robinson Burns, as organizations embark on their AI journey, they must address key questions, such as optimizing operational efficiency (including HR), enhancing customer and employee experiences, driving innovation, and staying competitive. Additionally, businesses need to consider AI’s broader impact—its integration with existing systems, the need for talent upskilling or hiring, and ensuring data privacy and governance.

A successful AI strategy requires a cohesive, cross-departmental approach that aligns with overall business goals. Collaboration across HR, IT, operations, legal, and leadership is essential to building a comprehensive roadmap. With the right AI advisor, companies can align their AI implementation to meet current needs while remaining flexible enough to adapt to future challenges, securing a competitive edge. 

Choosing the Right Innovation Partner

As businesses increasingly embrace AI, the sheer complexity of the landscape can feel overwhelming. With a myriad of solutions and rapidly evolving technologies, many companies seek external advisors to help them navigate this terrain. However, choosing the right AI consulting partner is critical to ensuring the success of your AI initiative. The wrong partner can lead to missed opportunities and inefficient use of resources.

In recent years, many smaller U.S. companies have begun adopting AI, alongside a significant number of larger companies with more than 5,000 employees. Enterprise businesses with over 1,000 employees are also increasingly utilizing AI, suggesting that large-scale organizations are becoming key players in AI integration.

According to Robinson Burns, although smaller companies seem most keen to leverage the power of AI and have the agility to embed AI into their infrastructure more quickly due to minimal bureaucracy, they often lack the resources to fully integrate AI into their business and people processes. 

Says Robinson Burns, “Larger companies have a different set of challenges. They’re typically more fragmented in their processes and technology, exhibiting greater risk aversion and a bureaucratic culture that clings to the status quo. These organizations often require more assistance when transforming and incorporating AI into their practices and technological frameworks.”

Ticking the Boxes

Robinson Burns has developed a structured approach to help executives choose the right AI partners. By following her guidelines, organizations can select their chosen advisory firm that will add real value to AI implementation and lay the groundwork for strategic success. According to Robinson Burns, a suitable advisor adds value by:

• Providing Tailored Solutions: Advisors should understand your specific challenges, not apply generic solutions. A deep dive into your organization’s needs—whether improving processes, experiences, or data—should drive AI strategy.

• Ensuring Technology Ecosystem Compatibility: AI must integrate with existing systems. A good advisor assesses your tech infrastructure, identifies untapped capabilities, and recommends updates for measurable outcomes.

• Offering Unbiased Vendor Recommendations: Look for an advisor who provides objective insights into AI vendors, focusing on reliability, scalability, cost, and compliance, rather than prioritizing vendor relationships.

• Taking a Collaborative Approach: The right AI advisor works as a partner, co-creating strategies, managing implementation, and ensuring scalability as your business evolves.

Robinson Burns notes that by focusing on these areas, businesses can confidently select an AI advisor that will not only address their immediate challenges but also support sustainable, long-term growth in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.

“Navigating the evolving AI landscape is about more than selecting the right technology; it requires aligning it with your business strategy, talent, and operations. My experience leading HR transformations and working with EdTech solutions has shown how challenging it is to balance technology and people.”

In her advisory roles, Janice Robinson Burns provides strategic advisory, executive coaching, career support, thought leadership, and HR strategy services to organizations from startups to multinationals. For insights into enhancing employee performance through innovative technologies, visit her LinkedIn page, or explore a unique HR transformation approach on the Skill Collective webpage.

Published by: Khy Talara