Mercedes-Benz Merges HR and IT as German AI Adoption Hits New High — Unions Demand a Seat at the Table

Unions in Germany push for mandatory worker participation in AI deployment, while companies like Mercedes-Benz race to integrate generative AI, reshaping the labor market.

The dispute came into focus this week with the planned rollout of an AI language model called "LLMoin" in Brandenburg's state administration later this year. According to the DGB Berlin-Brandenburg, worker councils have not been sufficiently involved in the process, and the union is pushing for an update to the state's personnel representation law.

The broader corporate world is moving fast in the opposite direction. On June 5, Mercedes-Benz announced a restructuring of its executive board that merges the human resources and IT departments into a single unit dubbed "People & Enterprise Tech." Britta Seeger will lead the new division. Previously, IT reported directly to CEO Ola Källenius. The automaker's central goal: prepare its workforce for the age of generative AI. Every one of the company's 90,000 office desks has been equipped with Microsoft's AI Copilot, and around 60 percent of office employees now use the tool at least once a week — up sharply from 20 percent earlier. Mercedes aims to push that figure to 70 percent by year-end.

The speed of adoption is mirrored across the German economy. A study by payroll and HR firm SD Worx, also published on June 5, found that 48 percent of German HR managers now invest in artificial intelligence, compared with 38 percent the previous year. The payroll department is the most common entry point: roughly 40 percent of employers already use AI there. The same study reports that 45 percent of companies have redesigned workflows around the new capabilities, and 47 percent have introduced specific guidelines for AI use. A major driver is the EU AI Act, which imposes strict transparency and risk-management requirements on high-risk systems.

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The same compliance rigour that the EU AI Act demands applies to other workplace regulations too. UK businesses, for example, must document risk assessments and safety procedures to meet the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. A free toolkit provides ready-to-use templates, checklists, and training materials that simplify this process and help protect employees. Download the free Health & Safety Toolkit

Yet the transformation is already reshaping the labor market in ways that worry both workers and unions. Demand for junior programmers has fallen sharply, according to industry observers. Nationwide, the number of unemployed computer specialists climbed 25 percent over the past year. Skills like "prompting" — the precise formulation of instructions for an AI — are increasingly valued over traditional software coding. Professional associations and chambers of commerce urge caution, noting that the technology will not eliminate office jobs wholesale but will fundamentally change how they are performed.

For unions, the key concern is that workers are left out of decisions that determine how AI affects hiring, promotions, and daily tasks. Experts stress that explainability is critical: automated decisions must be transparent and traceable to comply with the EU AI Act, especially when algorithms influence personnel matters. Without legally binding participation rights, they warn, the technology risks eroding trust among the very people it is meant to assist.