Only 8% of HR leaders believe their managers have the skills needed to use AI effectively today, according to Gartner.
But despite the low confidence in manager use of AI, a July 2025 Gartner survey of 114 HR leaders revealed that one in three HR leaders say their organisation expects higher performance from employees when they use AI.
“When deployed correctly, AI-augmented management – automating routine tasks that don’t require human input and supporting day-to-day management decisions with timely, AI-driven insights – enables managers to focus on being more strategic, human-centric, and impactful,” says Carolina Engels, senior principal, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice.
The Gartner survey found 79% of HR leaders believe HR should focus on enabling and motivating employees to leverage technology in ways that promote organisational growth. As CHROs continue to heavily prioritise leader and manager effectiveness, it’s imperative that they help managers build necessary AI skills and capabilities and improve their effectiveness.
Gartner recommends CHROs take four key actions to help managers better utilise AI:
Set guardrails before scaling
Before employees can effectively reap the performance benefits of AI it is crucial for CHROs to first define clear rules and systems when it comes to AI augmentation.
CHROs need to partner with their Legal and Risk peers to create direct guidelines for AI use, define ethical use, data boundaries, and approval processes for AI tools.
Co-design evolving roles
When deciding what to automate, CHROs should work with managers directly to uncover which tasks are the best fit for automation and collaborate with IT about what is possible. Such tasks may include reviewing data aggregation, drafting performance reviews, or providing employees with realtime feedback on recent client deliverables.
CHROs should partner with learning and development (L&D) leaders and HR business partners (HRBPs) to audit workflows, surface quick wins, and co-design role evolution.
Prioritise human-centric leadership
CHROs should take a human-centric approach that focuses on identifying where AI can support the human element of work. This could be choosing AI that deepens human connections such as providing a manager with insights to coach more effectively, or creating a working group of managers that can discuss pain points and share where they are looking for AI support.
“By focusing on human-centric leadership, CHROs can help managers effectively communicate AI-driven insights to their teams,” says Engels. “This lays the foundation for creating a positive employee experience when it comes to AI.”
Curate specific learning paths
Only 14% of organisations reported providing support to managers on how to integrate generative AI (GenAI) into their daily tasks, according to an August 2025 Gartner survey of 114 HR Leaders.
CHROs can equip managers and employees to work effectively with AI by developing AI literacy programmes that include hands-on learning, internal guidance, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. These programmes and trainings, led by L&D and IT, should combine digital fluency with essential leadership skills and can include robust role-specific AI onboarding to help managers lead with and through AI.
“The currently available and the emerging AI tools landscape is flipping the manager role from managing information and decisions to coordinating insights and predicting the needs of employees,” says Engels. “While AI should not be used to replace managers, it can be used as a tool to empower them to spend more meaningful time with their direct reports.”