There’s a quiet shift happening inside Rwanda’s executive teams. HR leaders, once tucked under admin and finance, are getting seats at the top table. And one of the first conversations they’re having in the C-Suite is how AI can automate internal processes. It’s a moment that is full of promise, but also risk. ALSO READ: The hidden business leaders who will shape Rwanda’s future While new AI tools can help streamline work, they can’t replace the trust and shared values that make work actually work – especially in Rwanda, where personal relationships are so important. That’s why I’d offer this one reflection, from working closely with local teams: use AI to automate admin but keep trust human. In the classic Rwandan org chart of years past, a personnel officer sat inside the Department of Administration and Finance, with the accountant, procurement officer and receptionist. Their job was to get employees hired and paid. High-value people-oriented activities – like spotting talent, developing future leaders, and training staff – were the responsibility of senior company leaders, if they happened at all. In recent years, Rwanda’s top banks, NGOs and universities have started employing Chief People and Culture Officers, who stand shoulder to shoulder with the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. This makes sense. Payroll is most organisations’ biggest recurring investment. The skills and commitment of frontline staff drive work quality and customer loyalty. In this context, people and culture is not a soft topic. It is how organisations succeed. Because compensation is the most visible expense for most companies, CEOs and Boards are often tempted to keep HR leaders focused on cost-reduction. This has certainly been the experience of many US-based companies over many decades. As a consequence, minimal-service HR became the default in many companies. HR systems evolved to minimise human contact. Most hiring, onboarding, training and performance management processes were reduced to self-service forms and workflows that felt impersonal and frustrating to line-managers and their staff. If the same philosophy was transplanted into Rwandan organisations, the results would be very disappointing. People would disengage, trust between staff and leadership would fall, and poor performance would follow. A Rwanda‑first path looks different: automate admin but keep trust human. Use AI to take the friction out of routine tasks but reinvest the savings in people; train leaders to inspire; create proper onboarding and internal communication systems; make sure your HR Department has the staff it needs to counsel your business. These steps can help increase returns through better efficiency and better engagement. It doesn’t have to be a trade-off. If you’re steering this agenda in your company, here are two points worth considering: use technology to make the ‘moments that matter’ for employees smoother and more meaningful; but resist the urge to make savings in HR. Instead, redirect the time and attention of your HR leaders into talent development, culture change and succession planning. Just as Rwanda skipped over chequebooks into mobile money, it can leapfrog the dysfunctional automation of HR we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere. Many US employees associate HR not with support, but with compliance and enforcement. It has become a function designed more for control than care. If we default to imported models and treat HR as a cost to be minimised, we risk scaling errors that create impersonal processes, alienated talent, unreliable service and reputational damage. In a relationship-centric market like Rwanda, mistakes like this have consequences. Service gaps are quickly noticed, and word travels fast. Talent markets are small, and reputation matters. The cost of getting this wrong – alienating good staff, frustrating customers – can be far higher than in larger, more anonymous economies. If your organisation is wrestling with where AI fits, try a Rwanda-first lens: let technology lighten the admin load but keep trust firmly human. The author is the CEO of Transforming Engagements (TES) Ltd, a Kigali-based consultancy that helps organisations prosper by transforming leadership and culture.
