Every week, another company announces a Head of AI Transformation or AI Product Lead. Job ads are everywhere. Recruiters are scrambling. HR leaders are watching closely.
It makes sense. No one wants to be left behind in the AI race. But here’s the catch: hiring someone with “AI” in their title will not fix the bigger challenge. If your organisation does not have a clear strategy for how AI fits into your business, even the smartest new hire will struggle.
That is where an AI talent strategy comes in.
Step Zero: Get Clear on the Business Strategy
Before HR posts a job ad or launches a training program, the business needs to answer some tough questions:
- What role will AI play in our growth plans?
- Which parts of the business are highest priority for AI adoption?
- Are we chasing productivity, customer experience, or risk reduction?
- How will we know if AI has been successful here?
If the executive team cannot answer these questions, HR is being set up to fail. No hire, no learning program, and no workforce plan can succeed without that foundation.
The 10 Pillars of an AI Talent Strategy
Once the business strategy is clear, HR can build the talent strategy around it. This needs to touch every part of the function: recruitment, workforce planning, org design, L&D, culture, and leadership.
We have pulled these pillars into a practical checklist you can use with your leadership team to stress test whether your organisation is really ready for AI.
1. External Hiring (Talent Acquisition)
Hiring into AI is tricky. Job titles are fuzzy, skills are emerging, and demand is exploding. Defining the role clearly matters more than ever. Is it technical, strategic, or adoption-focused? Without clarity, you risk hiring someone brilliant but in the wrong lane.
2. Workforce Planning and Org Design
You cannot hire your way out of every gap. Workforce planning and organisation design reveal which jobs will be reshaped by AI, where automation risk is highest, and how teams need to evolve. This is about balance: what to build internally, what to buy, and what to grow. Future budgets also depend on this clarity.
3. Internal Mobility
Hiring AI talent is expensive, and it is about to get more so. Redeploying your current people is faster, cheaper, and builds loyalty. Internal mobility pathways show employees how to move into new roles, reducing pressure to buy talent at a premium.
4. Learning and Development (L&D)
AI skills are changing faster than most learning functions can deliver. AI learning and upskilling are critical: core AI literacy for everyone, and targeted specialist skills for a few. L&D leaders must decide:
- Which skills to build internally vs. source externally
- What delivery models (bite-sized, just-in-time, coaching) can keep up with the pace of change
- How to separate signal from noise in a market flooded with AI courses
5. EVP and Retention
External AI talent will be scarce and competitive. Salaries will rise. Your employee value proposition (EVP) is how you stand out without relying only on pay. That means meaningful work, visible impact, growth, and experimentation. At the same time, internal employees need to see clear career paths into AI roles, or you risk losing them.
6. Change Management and Culture
Even the best hire will fail if the culture is not ready. Employees are already asking: Will AI take my job? Leaders need to talk openly, with honesty and empathy. Internal comms should position AI adoption as an opportunity to grow, not just a compliance requirement.
7. Budgeting and Investment
Too often, AI budgets get blown on external hires or shiny new tools, leaving no money for adoption. To make this work, HR needs a real budget: for reskilling, learning, change management, and governance. This is where HR shifts from support function to strategic driver.
8. AI in the Existing Tech Stack
Chances are your organisation already owns AI inside Microsoft, Salesforce, or Workday. Before buying more, you need to understand what is already available and how employees are actually using it. Shadow AI is already happening, so governance matters.
9. Leadership and Governance
Without clear ownership, AI becomes everyone’s job and no one’s accountability. A cross-functional steering group, executive sponsorship, and clear policies on responsible use are non-negotiable.
10. Measurement and Accountability
If you cannot measure impact, every AI hire or project will look like an experiment. Define what success looks like: adoption, productivity, retention, or revenue impact. Track it. Review it. Adjust as AI evolves.
Why an AI Talent Strategy Matters Now
The companies that get this right will move faster, keep talent longer, and create cultures that adapt rather than resist. The ones that do not will overspend on hires who cannot deliver, frustrate employees who feel left behind, and burn through budgets on pilots that never scale.
Hiring without a clear AI talent strategy is like buying a plane without a flight plan. You may get off the ground, but you will not know where you are headed.
Where to Start
If your organisation is hiring into AI, the smartest first step is to pause and assess:
- Where will AI hit hardest?
- What skills do we really need?
- How do we balance external hiring with internal growth?
Download our AI Talent Strategy Checklist to start the conversation in your team. And if you want a deeper, evidence-based view, our Impact of AI Diagnostic shows where AI will hit hardest, giving you a clear map of what to build, buy, and hire for.
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Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
