The Alignment Paradox: A Theory of AI ‐Driven Misalignment in HR Systems

ABSTRACT The core principle in strategic human resource management (SHRM) holds that organizations gain competitive advantage from HR systems with practices that work well together (horizontal alignment) and that support overall strategy (vertical alignment). This paper develops a theory explaining how artificial intelligence integration, a tool intended to improve alignment, can unintentionally cause alignment breakdown. Drawing on SHRM theory and the process‐based model of HRM system strength, we build four propositions. We argue that AI's operational requirements weaken horizontal alignment by creating logic conflicts within HR systems, cause employee skill development to drift from strategic needs, cause employees to default to metric‐aligned behaviors, and diminish workforce value as a competitive resource. We synthesize these dynamics in a framework of four organizational states, Strategic Synergy, Contested Alignment, Strategic Fragmentation, and Algorithmic Capture that characterize firms at different stages of AI‐driven misalignment. This paper contributes a process‐based theory explaining organizational risks of AI adoption in management systems.