The Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Human Resource Management (CIHRM), Dr. Francis Eduku, has urged his colleagues to position themselves to meet the demands of a 21st-century human resources practitioner.

He asserted that failure to improve on their skills to enable them to align with emerging trends and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), would make them redundant and risk losing their jobs.

He made these comments on the sideline of the inaugural Global Conference on Human Resources in Africa (GCHRA), being held in Accra.

Dr. Eduku underscored the imperative need to adapt to the use of AI, as it would augment efforts to effectively manage human workforces in the future.
 
“Whether we like it or not, AI will always play a critical role in people management and what we need to do is to try to understand it, shape it up because it is going to show a significant shift in the work that we do.
 
“It is going to replace some workers and we need to be upfront with it. We need to begin to train them so that they learn the AI and its effects because when you understand the effect of something whether positive or negative, you can take advantage of it. But if we don’t understand it all then what do we know.
 
“We need to continue to do an assessment of jobs that will be affected by AI and what are we going to do to upscale our employees so that they don’t become redundant but very useful”, Dr Eduku said.

The Global HR Executive at BBC News (U.K. and Ghana), Irene Asare explained that AI could have positive, or negative impacts depending on how it is put to use, describing it as double-edged sword.
 
"I believe that some jobs will be taken over by robots, while new jobs will also be created. It's about human adaptability and curiosity. We need to embrace AI, look forward to it, and engage with the technology. This requires a curious mindset and strong problem-solving skills," Madam Asare explained.
 
The theme of this year's Conference on Human Resources in Africa (GCHRA) was "A Global Discourse on Exploring the Emergence and Dynamics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Resource Technologies in Africa."
 
The conference, headlined by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr., provided valuable insights on how AI and HR technologies can be utilized to promote growth and innovation in African industries.
 
It provided a platform for insightful keynotes, panel discussions, networking opportunities, practical workshops, and SHRM recertification credits.