Artificial intelligence will benefit human resources professionals over the next two years, not hurt them, according to 65% of chief HR officers surveyed by The Conference Board. The survey also found 51% of CHROs expect to increase hiring over the next six months, up from 42% in the previous survey for the first quarter. Other measures are being taken to deal with the current slower-growth environment.

Among those measures: 42% are eliminating travel that is not business critical, 36% are freezing hiring for all but critical positions, 22% are reducing or delaying employee development opportunities and 15 are conducting layoffs.

“Over the past few years, acute labor shortages have taken the challenge of hiring workers to a whole new level,” said Rebecca Ray, executive VP of human capital at The Conference Board. “This may be why, despite a weakening economic environment, CHROs are thinking twice before resorting to layoffs. Indeed, our survey results reveal that CHROs are focused on shorter-term actions to address the economic downturn, which also reflects our forecast that the recession will be short and shallow.”

Overall, The Conference Board CHRO Confidence Index for the second quarter, which is based on the survey, reached a level of 58, up from the first quarter’s index reading of 57. (Readings of more than 50 points reflect more positive than negative responses.)

A total of 130 chief human resource officers participated in the survey, which took place from April 3 to April 17.

Separately, the CEO of IBM said the company plans to replace 7,800 jobs with artificial intelligence over the next five years, Fortune reported. Tasks likely to be taken over by AI include HR department functions such as employee verification or moving employees from one department to another.