Will AI Replace HR Jobs in Des Moines? Here’s What to Do in 2025

Des Moines matters for HR in 2025 because Iowa's labor force is active but shifting: Iowa Workforce Development reports labor force participation rose to 67.2% in April as 5,000 Iowans joined the workforce, even while sector churn - gains in construction, health care and accounting alongside losses in manufacturing and parts of professional services - creates hiring and reskilling pressure for local employers (Iowa Workforce Development labor force participation report).

At the same time, PwC's 2025 AI Jobs Barometer shows AI skills deliver a meaningful premium and faster skill change - evidence that Des Moines HR should prioritize practical AI upskilling and prompt-writing for recruiters; one accessible option is the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp: practical AI skills for nontechnical professionals, which teaches AI tools and prompts for nontechnical professionals.

“April's report showed significant job growth, as well as more Iowans returning to the workforce. We saw new workers from all age groups coming back into the workforce to take jobs in construction, health care, leisure and hospitality, as well as accounting and tax services. The good news for Iowans coming back into the workforce is that there are still more than 50,000 jobs available at IowaWorks.gov.” - Beth Townsend, Executive Director, Iowa Workforce Development

National trends show AI moving from experiment to operational backbone in HR: IBM now reports 94% of routine HR tasks handled by AI, and industry research finds most organizations plan to boost AI spending and embed tools across recruitment, onboarding, performance and learning - a practical primer is available in AIHR overview of AI and automation in HR (AIHR overview of AI and automation in HR).

Candidate expectations and vendor momentum matter locally: hiring statistics predict strong demand for AI-driven hiring experiences (e.g., 75% of job seekers preferring faster, AI-assisted recruitment), and Des Moines employers in healthcare and finance are already piloting video-interview and screening platforms such as HireVue video interview intelligence platform (HireVue video interview intelligence platform).

The upshot for Des Moines HR leaders is clear: routine screening, scheduling, and templated communications will increasingly be automated, so prioritize role-specific reskilling, bias and privacy governance, and small pilots that protect candidate experience while reclaiming capacity for strategic, human-centered work - not just tool selection but redesigned roles and measurable adoption metrics are the immediate priorities (read the Forbes piece on IBM replacing HR roles with AI: Forbes: IBM replaces hundreds with AI as HR leaders rethink roles).

“Just because you can doesn't mean you should.”

In Des Moines, the highest-risk HR jobs are the high-volume, transactional roles that AI already automates - resume screening, interview scheduling, standardized video-assessments and many staffing-administrative tasks - because tools like HireVue and ATS-integrated AI are being piloted by local healthcare and finance employers and could cut screening time dramatically (HireVue AI hiring platform pilots in Des Moines healthcare and finance); national research shows AI can replace large swaths of routine work (Bersin estimates 50–75% of HR tasks) while recruitment AI reshapes sourcing and shortlisting workflows (Josh Bersin analysis on AI replacing HR tasks, MSH Talent insights: AI in recruitment and sourcing).

Roles that remain essential in Des Moines are those requiring judgment, relationship-building and ethics oversight - senior HR business partners, TA leads focused on hard-to-fill or executive roles, DEI and employee relations specialists, and the people who design and govern AI systems - because AI underperforms on cultural fit, soft skills, and complex decisions.

So what: expect mid-market hospitals and regional banks to redeploy capacity from routine TA tasks into candidate experience and governance, and plan reskilling for recruiters to become AI managers within the next 12–18 months.

“Productivity,” as you know, is a veiled way of saying “Downsizing.”

Local HR teams can learn from large-scale analogues: IBM's recent shift to an “AI-first” HR operating model shows both risk and playbook - AI has already automated routine HR processing and, according to reporting,

replaced hundreds

of HR roles while the company redeployed hiring toward programmers and sales, illustrating that automation can shrink transactional headcount even as overall business needs change (IBM automates HR with AI and shifts hiring to developers and sales).

The practical takeaway for Des Moines employers: run focused, low-risk pilots that target high-volume tasks, measure hours saved and candidate experience, then channel those saved FTEs into reskilling and governance rather than immediate layoffs - reskilling is essential to make that trade work (IBM guide to reskilling your workforce for AI).

A ready next step is a short internal pilot plan that tests screening automation on one role, tracks bias and time-to-fill, and maps two redeployment pathways (AI-manager upskilling and candidate-experience specialist) so leaders know exactly what to do with reclaimed capacity (step-by-step AI screening pilot plan for HR teams in Des Moines).

Start with a role-by-role gap map, then combine short, HR-focused AI courses with hands-on apprenticeships and local workshops so learning immediately shifts into practice: pick a nontechnical primer from the curated list such as “AI for Everyone” or the RecruitersLineUp roundup of the 10 Best AI Courses for HR Professionals in 2025, pair it with supervised shadowing or an internal apprenticeship as recommended in Harvard Business Review's reskilling playbook, and reinforce applied skills via IowaWORKS no-cost workshops and certifications that connect training to hiring outcomes (IowaWORKS workshops and resources).

For credentialing and cohort learning, consider local programs that prepare for industry exams - Drake's SHRM-CP/SCP prep (virtual evenings, $1,399) or DMACC's 150-hour Human Resources Professional program ($2,159) provide structured study and employer-recognized certification pathways (Drake SHRM programs).

The so-what: combining one targeted course, one paid internal apprenticeship, and one Iowa workshop creates a repeatable 3-step sprint that turns reclaimed recruiting hours into verifiable AI-management skills and governance capacity for Des Moines employers.

Redesign HR roles in Des Moines by starting from task-level data rather than job titles: use work-mapping to split each HR role into automatable tasks and human-judgment tasks, then set metrics that tie automation to outcomes (task-level automability, hours reclaimed, FTEs redeployed, and bias/quality incident rates) so leaders can prove whether pilots free capacity for higher-value work like DEI, complex employee relations, and AI governance; tools that deliver this visibility - such as Reejig's Work Ontology powering Galileo - give teams the clarity to identify exactly which tasks to automate and which to preserve as human (see Reejig task-level approach in Galileo for HR Reejig task-level approach in Galileo article), and local pilots should follow a simple playbook: map tasks, run a single-role pilot, measure hours and candidate experience, then redeploy saved capacity into certified reskilling and governance pathways (sample pilot plan for Des Moines HR teams is available in the local guide Complete Guide to Using AI as an HR Professional in Des Moines).

The so‑what: task-level metrics turn abstract AI risk into a budgetable, auditable plan for redeployment rather than surprise cuts.

“You can't lead an AI transformation if you can't see the work itself. Too many organizations are making AI decisions based on incomplete or outdated data, risking wasted investment and misaligned priorities.” - Siobhan Savage, CEO & Co-Founder, Reejig

Des Moines employers should translate statewide momentum into concrete AI governance: join or consult the Technology Association of Iowa AI policy subcommittee to align local hiring practices with emerging state guidance, require vendor transparency and model‑training consent in contracts, and publish an internal registry of HR systems (the Wichita city registry is a ready model) so leaders can track which tools touch interviews, payroll, or benefits (Technology Association of Iowa AI policy subcommittee announcement, Midwest Newsroom coverage of cities tackling AI).

Ground policies in clear harms to avoid - privacy breaches and biased decisions - by adopting ACTEC's recommended regulatory aims (protect private data, prevent discrimination, and create an actionable framework for vendors and vendors' training data) and naming a human reviewer for any automated hiring decision so cultural fit and legal risk aren't ceded to a black box (ACTEC podcast on government regulation of AI).

The so‑what: a public registry plus vendor clauses turns abstract risk into auditable controls that preserve trust with candidates and prevent surprise governance costs tied to infrastructure and resource disputes highlighted in recent Midwest cases.

“The biggest thing, I think, when it comes to AI is just, it's about transparency.” - Rasheen Aldridge, St. Louis Alderman

Immediate checklist for this quarter: (1) run a focused HR audit to find high-volume, automatable tasks - use the HR Audit Checklist 2025 to capture compliance, recruitment, payroll, and tech gaps (HR Audit Checklist 2025); (2) shortlist vendors with transparent training-data and ethics criteria, prioritizing user-friendly, financially sound platforms per the Vendor Selection Checklist: AI 2025 (Vendor Selection Checklist: AI 2025); (3) run one low-risk screening pilot from the local step‑by‑step plan to measure hours reclaimed and candidate‑experience impact, then map saved capacity into certified reskilling and an AI‑governance role (Step-by-step AI screening pilot plan for Des Moines HR teams).

So what: completing these three actions converts abstract AI risk into auditable decisions - clear buy/no‑buy criteria, measured time savings, and a redeployment pathway that protects candidates and preserves local HR jobs.

Short answers HR teams in Des Moines need now: AI will automate high‑volume, routine HR tasks (resume screening, scheduling, templated policy Q&A) while strategic roles - senior HRBPs, DEI leads, and AI‑governance owners - remain essential; IBM's internal work shows AI already handles roughly 94% of routine HR questions and analysts like Josh Bersin argue HR will be partially replaced but largely redesigned, not erased (Josh Bersin on AI reshaping HR organizations).

Which jobs are most at risk locally? Expect entry‑level recruiting coordinators and transactional benefits admins to face the greatest pressure - national reporting ties weaker entry‑level hiring and recent tech layoffs to AI‑driven efficiency moves, a pattern likely to show up in Des Moines healthcare and finance pilots (AP report on tech layoffs and entry‑level hiring impacts).

What to do this quarter: document task‑level work, run one low‑risk screening pilot, and trade reclaimed hours for certified reskilling so recruiters become AI‑operators/AI‑managers - one measured pilot that frees even 10 hours/week can justify a retooled role and protect local HR headcount.

“What we're likely seeing is AI‑driven workforce reshaping, without the public acknowledgment.” - Christine Inge

Long-term, Des Moines HR will see AI absorb many high-volume, transactional tasks while expanding demand for strategic, tech-savvy HR roles - AIHR's 2025 analysis notes a bright job outlook as HR shifts from admin to strategic work (AIHR job outlook for human resources 2025 analysis); the practical opportunity for local leaders is to convert hours reclaimed by automation into certified reskilling, governance capacity, and measurable role redesigns rather than abrupt cuts.

Immediate next steps that pay off over the next 12–24 months: task‑level audits and a single low‑risk screening pilot that tracks hours reclaimed and candidate experience; trade even small wins (for example, a pilot freeing 10 hours/week) into a funded apprenticeship and one governance role; and build a local training pathway using DMACC's continuing education offerings alongside cohort bootcamps like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work to teach prompt‑writing and AI tool use for nontechnical HR staff (DMACC continuing education courses and programs, Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration and bootcamp details).

The long‑term so‑what is simple: measure the work, pilot with clear ROI metrics, and redeploy people into higher‑value HR work to preserve jobs and drive competitive advantage in Des Moines.

“You can't lead an AI transformation if you can't see the work itself. Too many organizations are making AI decisions based on incomplete or outdated data, risking wasted investment and misaligned priorities.” - Siobhan Savage