Navigating the future: Ethical, Operational and technological challenges of AI integration in Human Resource Management

Abstract

The growing pace of the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the HR management (HRM) functions can be both an opportunity and a challenge. This empirical research study explores ethical, operational and technological issues that affect the adoption of AI by the HR professionals working in the Indian IT and service firms. The study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine relationships between perceived challenges and AI adoption behavior using data collected on 120 HR practitioners. Strong reliability and convergent validity (CR > 0.70; AVE > 0.50), measurement validation, and indices of model fit ( 2 /df = 1.964, CFI = 0.957, RMSEA = 0.046) showed strong fit. The results indicate that there exists an overwhelming positive correlation between obstacles and AI adoption ( = 0.398, p < 0.001), which implies that those organizations that are sensitive to the ethical, operational, and technological barriers and can deal with them proactively show greater willingness to implement AI. The technological readiness dimension had the highest impact, with the next dimension being the ethical and operational aspects. These findings highlight the importance of an organization to strike a balance between innovation and fairness, accountability, and infrastructural adequacy as an important element in determining the efficacy of AI integration. The research is empirically valuable to the field of responsible AI in HRM because it proves the hypothesis that the awareness of challenges makes people prepared and not resistant. It concludes with practical implications to the HR policymakers and practitioners, which are the promotion of ethical AI systems, lifelong learning, and open governance. The results provide a conceptual framework of future intersectoral and transnational studies on sustainable AI-powered HR change.