Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Moderna has merged its HR and IT departments under a single executive, creating a new role: Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. The move is meant to align workforce planning and technology investments more closely, especially as AI continues to reshape how work gets done. The company has partnered with OpenAI and now uses more than 3,000 custom GPTs — including a “virtual HR agent” that replaces certain junior-level HR tasks. The idea is to determine what work should be done by people, what can be automated, and to evolve roles accordingly.
It’s a bold step — and a rare one. And Moderna is clearly trying to break down silos. But is this the right pairing of functions? And more importantly: what’s missing from this model?
Let’s break it down.
The Pros — and What They Get Right
1. Operational efficiency through shared services.
At a practical level, HR and IT both manage large-scale, process-heavy functions: onboarding, compliance, systems access, and service delivery. Merging them under a single leader can streamline operations, reduce duplication, and improve responsiveness — particularly for transactional support. And let's also acknowledge that a lot of companies are already doing this.
2. Tighter alignment between technology and people decisions.
If your company is rethinking how work gets done — especially in the context of automation and AI — HR and IT need to work closely. This model makes it easier to embed digital tools (like GPTs) into HR functions and to reconsider which roles should evolve, disappear, or emerge.
3. A step toward better workforce planning — but not the whole picture.
Moderna frames this as a new approach to workforce planning, and to their credit, they’re trying to be proactive. But what they’re describing is really org design in response to automation, not strategic workforce planning. Done right, workforce planning uses business strategy, scenario modeling, and outcomes-based forecasting to identify what skills are needed, when and where they’re needed, and how best to get them — whether by building, buying, or borrowing talent. It connects business plans to talent investments and ensures the right people are in the right place at the right time. So while Moderna’s approach is more integrated than most, it’s still missing some of the core disciplines that make workforce planning powerful.
The Cons — and a Missed Opportunity
1. Conflicting mindsets, skill sets, and goals.
IT is largely system- and efficiency-driven. HR is (or should be) people-, culture-, and behavior-driven. While both functions are critical, they require different skills, knowledge, outcomes and measures. Merging them under one executive creates the risk of one being overshadowed — especially if the leader is stronger in one domain over the other (as would be expected and as is the case with Moderna's chief people and digital technology officer, a lifelong HR expert.) In addition, it potentially disenfranchises an entire team of experts - in this case, Moderna's IT function, who now report to an HR leader with no background in technology.
2. Risk of over-automation in human-centered functions.
It’s easy to get caught up in the efficiency promise of AI — but that can lead to over-relying on automation for problems that require empathy, nuance, and human judgment. When you view people problems through a tech lens, you may lose sight of the human experience - which can hobble a company's ability to hire and retain their most critical talent.
3. No clear line to enterprise value.
Here’s the biggest miss: the model doesn’t clarify how investments in HR or IT are intended to drive — or are being measured to prove — that they create enterprise value. Where’s the connection to business results? What outcomes are being tracked? Without a tight link to finance and strategy, both HR and IT remain cost centers rather than value creators. HR in particular needs to be tied directly to the business — not just IT — so it can plan, act, and invest in ways that improve innovation, retention, and value. These are the metrics that drive growth — especially in today’s economy, where a company’s value is largely built on intellectual capital for which the only source is knowledge workers.
With all that said, we'd rather see HR more connected to finance than IT. Read more about what we call Talent Valuation, in our latest book.
