The HR industry is evolving in unprecedented ways, and one of the biggest changes occurring today is the merging of HR and IT. Human Resources and Information Technology, the two fields operate with different bases of resources in mind. At first glance, the two may appear to have no common grounds of operation, but a closer look suggests many overlapping ties between them. In 2025, AI is driving an HR-IT merger, bringing the two departments under a single leader to guide the way forward.
Companies that are merging HR and IT believe there is room for unified operations, with the technological expertise of IT aiding in the management of the overall workforce. Is this shift sustainable? We’ll have to look to the businesses experimenting with this ideology to better understand its efficacy.
The merging of HR and IT will not be without its challenges, but there are considerable benefits of adopting a unified approach. (Image: Pexels)
Is There A New Trend of Businesses Merging HR and IT?
A new report on The Science of Productivity by Nexthink found that 64% of senior IT decision makers believe that HR and IT will merge within the next 5 years. For 93% of the surveyed leaders, the HR and IT merger predicted to take shape by 2030 will aid in improving the productivity of its employees, while also enhancing their experience at the organization. From higher employee engagement to better rates of retention, there are many predicted benefits of switching to combined departmental operations.
Additionally, 94% of the respondents also felt that the merging of HR and IT could speed up the pace of digital transformations at the organization, initiating a new era of work with brand new teams powering the organization. Advancements in AI have already begun reshaping how we operate within the workforce, and while some roles have begun their transformation in the presence of such tech, many expect that the change is only getting started.
The emergence of new departments is a natural part of the evolution of any organization, but the advent of AI will likely speed things up in the coming months. This change will not be without its challenges, but workers who keep an eye on this evolution should be able to quickly reorient their own skillsets to take advantage of the new roles that are created.
Moderna’s HR and IT Integration Leads the Way for Change
While IT leaders expect the HR merge to occur in the coming years, businesses like Moderna have already gotten a head start. The company created a new Chief People and Digital Technology Officer role last year, moving its HR lead, Tracey Franklin. into the role. Since then, Franklin has begun to oversee the company’s labor force operations while also analyzing the work that can be performed by tech instead.
“Traditionally, HR departments would say, ‘we’re going to do workforce planning, so we’re going to count how many humans we need to get tasks done’. And then the IT team would take requests [for] the systems that we need,” Franklin told BBC. “It’s [about] how work flows through the organization, and what should be done with technology—whether that’s hardware or software or AI—and where you complement human skills around that.”
Moderna’s HR and IT integration didn’t occur as an impulsive change—it was a result of considerable planning and evaluation of departmental needs and investigations into methods to enhance efficiency. Following the change, Moderna employees do not have to make a sudden pivot into mastering both industries to accommodate the change.
Instead, employees still operate in their own field, but the combined forces allow leaders to manage their needs and share their expertise with each other better. Of course, changes at Moderna have also come with job cuts in recent months, but the company appears optimistic about the strength of the business and the ability of its employees to pull through for continued success.
As AI Adoption Spurs the IT and HR Merger, Organizations Will Need to Plan Carefully
In the coming years, we will likely see new, niche roles emerge where employees will have to become experts in a combination of fields in order to build careers in these industries. Before we get to that point, however, organizations will need to study the needs of their existing departments and evaluate where overlapping or adjacent functions can be merged. HR departments already use a considerable amount of technology to conduct their operations, and with improved communications to IT, they might be able to perform their roles better.
Establishing these communication channels and creating systems for these merged departments will be an essential consideration before an organization begins merging HR and IT. With the arrival of “digital” AI employees, matters of management will grow more complex, requiring both departments to understand the extent of their role in the management and function of these abstract employees.
Initial multidisciplinary teams may be key to kick-starting this integration and understanding AI’s role in driving the HR and IT merger before the rest of the teams are introduced to this new era of work. A slow and steady adoption is the best way forward, with careful planning and re-evaluation every step of the way.
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