No, but it's rewriting the job description. AI already drafts the policy documents, compiles the board packs, and runs the attrition models that used to eat a CPO's week. It's not whether this is happening, it's which half of the job you're in.
What's already being automated
Visier puts a generative AI assistant on top of workforce data, answering questions about attrition, skills gaps, and pay equity in plain language instead of waiting on an analytics team. Galileo, from The Josh Bersin Company, is an AI advisor trained on decades of HR research that benchmarks strategy and drafts recommendations on demand. Gloat runs AI-powered talent marketplaces that match people to projects and roles, automating the internal mobility work HR teams used to broker by hand.
What the research actually says
Gartner's 2026 HR Priorities Survey of 426 CHROs found the biggest lever on AI productivity isn't tooling or training. Evolving the HR operating model accounts for 29% of predicted gains. Meanwhile 89% of senior HR leaders told a CNBC Workforce Executive Council survey they expect AI to reshape jobs in 2026, even though Gartner found only 1% of first-half 2025 layoffs actually resulted from AI improving productivity.
Every executive is asking what AI means for their function. The Chief People Officer is the only one being asked to answer for everyone else's jobs too.
Two people. Same title. Completely different week.
Chief People Officer A runs HR as a reporting function. The week goes to assembling board decks, reviewing policy drafts, signing off on compliance updates, and reading survey summaries someone else prepared. AI now does the assembly, the drafting, the monitoring, and the summarizing. A CPO whose value is packaging information is competing directly with software that packages it faster.
Chief People Officer B runs HR as an operating system for the business. The week goes to redesigning roles around human and machine work, advising the CEO on a restructure before it leaks, deciding which AI deployments the culture can absorb, and telling the board an uncomfortable truth about attrition. AI feeds every one of those decisions. It makes none of them.
The move is to treat your own function as the pilot site. Automate HR's reporting and policy layer first, publish what it saves, and use that credibility to lead the enterprise conversation on workforce redesign. CPOs who show up with a working model get the expanded mandate. CPOs who show up with a deck get replaced by one.