AI in HR
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What is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science of simulating human intelligence at a processing power and speed of machines. It is the ability to imitate cognitive abilities of human minds – to gain knowledge and understand things through experience, thought, and the senses.
It includes the elements of deep learning, machine learning. These essentially help in creating smart algorithms which can imitate the functionalities of the human brain using a huge amount of data collected over time.
How does it work?
AI learns from previous processes and continues to become ‘smarter’. It makes its prediction better as it widens its data and knowledge. It leverages large data sets using highly complex algorithms. Its objective is to identify patterns and features of the data to give the best predictable answer. AI is continuously improving itself. It processes the huge data set to make instant conclusions, reach decisions and generate insights.
How should it be perceived?
AI is surely expected to increase productivity, but the extent of it is debatable. Some fear that it will eliminate jobs - tasks done by humans will be replaced by machines. This would cause unemployment, making AI a threat rather than a boom for the future.
We believe that it is upon us. We could consider it as a foe and eliminate it or consider it as an enabler and make it our ally.
What are its benefits?
AI is expected to change our lives in more ways than we can imagine. From using smart devices like Alexa at home to its application in driverless cars, AI has its disruptive application in almost all industries. In fact, one of the biggest applications is in the healthcare industry where AI helps doctors in tasks such cancer research.
Although, it may sound uncanny at first, AI has huge applications in the Human Resources (HR) industry as well.
It transforms HR to a strategic function from a transactional function.
It increases interpersonal and creative aspects of work.
It also enhances employee experiences for improved quality of life.
Experts say that AI has the potential to add true value to the human manpower by augmenting human strengths and eliminating mechanical tasks.
According to a Gartner study, if AI is implemented properly, it leads to an increase in jobs by 2.3 million while eliminating the jobs by 1.8 million. This leads to a net gain in jobs by 0.5 million.
Figure 1: Increase in jobs leading from AI
How will AI impact the HR industry?
More and more HR professionals are recognizing the importance of data and analytics to make informed decisions and reduce risk. AI is impacting HR industry in processes around talent management and organizational performance. Meghan M. Biro in the journal “The New Wave of Technology” has identified four ways in which AI will impact the HR industry:
Personalization: AI can be used to personalize the learning and development programs based on the user data. For instance, corporate training can be tweaked by analysing the employee interaction behaviours. This AI usage in trainings allow HR leaders to achieve more effective and efficient training results.
Workflow Automation: We have been through the pain of scheduling and ineffective communication during the recruitment processes. According to a recent article, AI would automate hiring processes like “…interview scheduling, employee performance reviews, employee onboarding, and even the answering of basic HR questions.”
Improved Recruitment: HR is one of the most human-centric industries, but it is difficult to collect and analyse data of individuals for effective hiring. With the intervention of AI, predictive language analysis and natural language processes will help speed up recruitment and reduce errors in the process.
Better prediction models: With the aggregation of an organisational level data, AI will better predict turnover rates, employee engagement levels, internal employee complaints, and other hidden issues.
What are the real-time applications of AI in HR?
To start with, AI helps in automating redundant tasks done by HR professionals. For instance, AI could be in the form of a tool which helps in screening job seekers based on the data they submitted on job portals. The burden of HR professionals can be eliminated as they would not have to screen every profile. AI would instead provide them with the best profiles, benchmarked based on the data stack of profiles.
AI virtual assistants or chat bots provide answers to simple to moderate queries that employees might have for HR professionals in-person. Another application is identifying the technical and functional skills required by employees and giving clarity to HR professionals on the development programs they should focus on.
The possibilities of AI applicability in Human Resources function are endless. Some of the use cases are:
Recruitment & Selection:
Candidate sourcing
Video interviews
Hiring process automation
Predictive new hire performance
Post-hiring & Onboarding:
Payroll and benefits automation
Engagement monitoring
Learning & Development:
Onboarding
Personal coaching
Reference Information
Performance Management:
Capacity prediction
Performance prediction
People Analytics:
Retention and attrition analytics
How could we use these capabilities?
Seek to understand how AI-powered tools and smart technology can transform the way you manage talent. It is critical to understand the applicability of the tool before implementing it.
Develop an agile and realistic HR digital transformation roadmap. This will help in building a phased implementation plan.
Make smarter buying decisions when it comes to HR technology.
What are AI Tools which empower HR functions?
Many companies have ventured into the HR Tech space to build AI tools which can be deployed easily and effectively to transform organisations. A few examples of such companies include:
IBM Watson: AI in HR for IBM is a package called ‘Watson Talent’ that introduces cognitive technology to HR, addressing the critical areas around recruitment, career coaching, talent development, workforce analytics and employee HR support.
impress.ai: Their AI chatbot is employed in the recruitment process. It helps in making the recruitment process more interactive, guiding candidates on the next steps and answering simple queries on a proactive basis.
Rumarocket: AI technology is leveraged to provide predictive analytics which help determine employee performance in advance. It identifies too prospective employees who would stay with the organisation for a longer time.
For more developments in the HR Tech space, stay tuned in to dcHR.tech.
[Article migrated from dcHR.tech]