A Battle Brewing in the C-Suite?

Frustration was mounting between the two executives. The CTO wanted to license a new AI application. But he was having trouble convincing his counterpart, who felt the tool didn’t fit into the firm’s overall AI strategy and was too clunky from a user perspective to drive widespread adoption. It wasn’t the CFO pushing back, however. It was the CHRO.

As digital and workforce transformation brings CTOs and CHROs into greater contact, the relationship between the two functions is undergoing some growing pains. According to one recent survey, two-thirds of tech leaders say they are experiencing friction with HR counterparts over issues such as talent acquisition, strategic direction, resources, tech acumen, and more. More than 40% of tech leaders reported running into pushback to change from HR leaders. CHROs have complaints of their own, however. They say CTOs don’t consider negative repercussions for existing employees or talent-acquisition strategies when making new AI investments. “As the silos between the two functions break down, the friction is becoming more visible,” says Philippe Remy, managing director in France for Korn Ferry.

Over the last few years, many firms have sought to establish a closer partnership between tech and HR leaders, believing that AI and talent must come together to drive business growth. Some firms have gone so far as to combine IT and HR into one unit. While merging the two functions is still an outlier, Remy anticipates more firms will look for ways to create strategic alignment between CHROs and CTOs. He cites the potential to formalize the partnership with performance metrics and incentives that span both domains, such as employee engagement with new systems. “The increasing integration of AI into workflows, the need for workforce grading and reskilling, and the centrality of employee experience demands it,” he says.

Emilie Petrone, a Korn Ferry vice chairman and member of the firm’s Global Human Resources and CEO Succession practices, agrees, even suggesting the two functions “could own the narrative at the enterprise level” in terms of driving growth with AI and talent. She points to a recent Korn Ferry survey that found that CHROs’ two highest business priorities—growth and cost efficiency—mirror those of CTOs. Both functions also agree that leading transformation efforts and finding talent with the right skills for the future are challenges. “They share the same objectives and problem sets,” says Petrone.

While some tension is to be expected, Petrone cautions both CHROs and CTOs not to miss the big-picture opportunity in front of them, which is to maximize AI readiness for the entire organization and position themselves as critical strategic advisors to the CEO and board. One way to do that is by creating more fluency between the two functions—to be sure, CTOs often complain that CHROs need to be more digitally literate, while CHROs say CTOs lack the soft skills needed to influence organizational direction.

Remy says rotational roles or cross-training at the executive level could help tech and HR leaders better understand and speak each other’s languages. Firms could also encourage alignment through task forces, ad hoc committees, and other governance frameworks focused on shared priorities like digital ethics, job architecture, and career planning. “A closer CHRO-CTO collaboration will be a defining feature of high-performing executive teams in the future,” Remy says. 

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