IT Departments Will Transform Into "HR for AI," Says NVIDIA CEO
"Your IT department is going to become the HR department of your digital workforce," declared Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, describing a fundamental shift in how companies will manage artificial intelligence systems in the coming years.
This striking vision of IT's evolution from technology maintenance to AI workforce management reflects a broader transformation of enterprise structure as organizations integrate increasingly sophisticated AI systems, writes End of Miles.
From Servers to Staff Management
The NVIDIA chief envisions AI systems not merely as tools but as a parallel workforce requiring similar management strategies to human employees. This shift demands new capabilities from IT departments traditionally focused on hardware and software administration.
"They're going to use these tools to onboard AIs, fine-tune AIs, guardrail them, evaluate them, continuously improve them," Huang explained. "That flywheel will be managed by the modern version of the IT department." Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
This transformation mirrors how human resources departments handle employee lifecycles—from recruitment and onboarding to training, performance evaluation, and career development. The key difference: these "employees" are AI systems requiring specialized technical management.
"Nobody's Going To Do This For You"
Huang emphasized that organizations cannot outsource this responsibility, delivering a direct message to business and government leaders alike.
"Nobody's going to do this for you. You've got to do it yourself," he stated. "That's why even though we have so many technology companies in the world, every company still has their own IT department." Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
The tech executive predicts this pattern will repeat across "every country" and "every company," regardless of size or industry. Just as organizations wouldn't outsource their entire human workforce strategy, Huang argues they shouldn't relinquish control of their AI systems to external providers.
The Customization Imperative
This new IT responsibility stems from the need to customize general-purpose AI for specific organizational contexts. Arthur Mensch, co-founder and CEO of Mistral AI, who joined Huang in the discussion, reinforced this point.
"You take a general purpose model and you ask your citizens or your employees to distill their knowledge into the systems, into the agents that are going to be working on your behalf," Mensch explained.Arthur Mensch, Mistral AI CEO
This customization process involves embedding organizational knowledge, policies, and cultural values into AI systems—tasks requiring deep understanding of both the technology and the organization itself.
A Parallel Workforce Emerges
Huang drew direct parallels between human and digital workforces, suggesting organizations will soon manage both simultaneously.
"We'll have а biological workforce and we'll have a digital workforce," he predicted. "It's fantastic."
This dual workforce model requires new management approaches. Just as companies wouldn't hire general employees without providing specific training and guidelines for their roles, organizations can't deploy general AI models without customization for specific business needs.
Huang compared this to how businesses currently hire and develop talent: "We hire general purpose employees all the time... but once they become our employees, we decide to onboard them, train them, guardrail them, evaluate them, continuously improve them."
Preparing for the Transition
For companies anticipating this shift, the NVIDIA executive acknowledged the initial challenges but emphasized the improving technology landscape.
"It's not as hard as you think it is," Huang reassured. "Could you imagine doing this five years ago? It's impossible. Could you imagine doing this five years from now? It'll be trivial. And so we're somewhere in that middle."
The technology leader emphasized that organizations must begin building these capabilities now, describing AI as "the most consequential technology of all time" and suggesting the number of excuses for delaying engagement with AI "is running out."
