3 Big Reasons Why HR Can’t Afford To Ignore AI

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Fun fact: I was part of the generation that helped build the internet. Al Gore landed in hot water for making a similar claim , so let me explain. At college back in the early 1990s, I wrote my thesis on network bulk transfer protocol, a technology for transmitting multimedia data like audio and video online. When I told colleagues and friends how the internet would change the world, they responded with disbelief.

Fast-forward to the present, and the internet is an essential service. Life without it is incomprehensible.

The same thing is happening with AI, but at lightning speed. And in few places is this more apparent than human resources.

HR departments already face pressure to adapt to sea changes in the way we work. AI adds fuel to the fire, driving a generational shift and forcing companies to rethink some roles and replace others .

But while HR leaders may see AI as a threat, it also represents a solution to the new way of work — a powerful tool to connect the dots between people and impact.???

Ultimately, HR can’t afford to ignore AI. As the founder of a company that helps businesses harness their people data, I still see HR departments sitting on the sidelines. Big mistake. Here’s why HR needs to embrace AI — and how to make the most of it.

Some sources say that recruiters spend an average of 23 hours screening resumes just to make a single hire.?

1. AI helps source talent, faster

When it comes to sourcing talent, HR departments have their work cut out for them.

The labor market remains tight, with 8.5 million jobs unfilled in the US. Despite ongoing layoffs in tech and other industries, three-quarters of employers say they have trouble filling positions. On top of that, AI has blindsided HR teams by swiftly making some workplace roles obsolete.

Luckily, AI can help here, too. One simple use case: While it may sound hard to believe, recruiters still spend much of their time screening resumes. At an organization with hundreds or even thousands of open positions, that can be a monumental task. Indeed, some sources say that recruiters spend an average of 23 hours screening resumes just to make a single hire.?

This is a perfect job for AI, which can enable HR teams to get through the slush pile faster and refocus their energy on interviewing the most promising candidates.

More broadly, AI represents a superpower for HR teams wrestling with dramatic changes to the workforce. With roles transforming nearly overnight, it’s become more critical than ever for companies to have a complete catalog of employee skills, not just titles.?

That sales associate might no longer be needed behind the cash register, for instance. But their knowledge of products and customer preferences could fill critical gaps in customer service.

AI can help assess and identify skills across the organization, matching them against unfilled roles. As a result, HR can make smarter choices about reskilling, reassigning or hiring talent.?

That shift pays off. Organizations taking a skills-based approach are about twice as likely to place talent effectively and keep high performers around.

2. Solving HR’s toil problem with AI

The grim reality: Most HR departments still function as the employee help desk.

Each day, they’re inundated with reactive questions and problems. The same things crop up again and again — salary bands, vacation days, medical and dental benefits. Typically, answering those questions calls for a manual search. With the pressure on HR to deliver business results, this isn’t an effective use of anyone’s time.?

AI offers an end to that tedium. The right platform can turn all the information that employees regularly seek into a self-service function, or put the answers at HR’s fingertips.?

This frees up HR teams to focus on the art of the profession — human relationships — rather than the mechanics of it. Less time on service requests means more time for conversations about managing change and closer attention to employees’ health and wellbeing.

Deploying AI also gives HR leaders the time and mental bandwidth to delve into strategy. Liberated from repetitive toil, they can address the real question on every CEO’s mind: Do we have the right people to drive the business??

For HR, embracing these changes can save time and money. By using AI to automate HR tasks, IBM saved 12,000 hours in 18 months. And more than nine out of 10 HR professionals using AI tools have seen or expect to see cost savings.

3. AI unlocks people insights that drive the business

But the greatest potential of AI is helping to connect the dots. HR teams are sitting on a gold mine of data about how people impact business results. Who are the top performers? Why is turnover so high? Who’s contributing to customer retention? The answers are in the data — but tapping it is another story.

For starters, even inside HR departments, data is often locked inside spreadsheets and tables, inaccessible to anyone without an analytics background. Getting HR to share data is another hurdle — only 3% of managers say they have access to the people data they need. And even if they do get their hands on the data, managers might not be equipped to analyze it.

Enter generative AI, whose natural language processing is a game changer. Drawing on HR data, an AI assistant can answer even the most complex questions in plain language.?

Take a simple but extremely important question: Are our people feeling burned out? The right AI tools can cross-reference engagement data — everything from emails sent to meetings attended — absence records and performance reports to provide clear answers.?

AI also helps HR tackle the “last-mile problem ” — getting insights into the hands of people who need them. Consider something as foundational as pay. For managers, knowing the right salary to pay an employee is actually exceptionally complex, requiring analyzing industry standards, performance reports, and company guidelines. In the end, many compensation decisions are based on gut instinct rather than analysis, and open to bias.?

But today’s smart compensation tools leverage AI to let managers make data-driven decisions that remove bias from the pay equation, while also rewarding top performers at risk of quitting.

When it comes to deploying AI, HR departments must decide what’s right for them. But make no mistake: This technology will have a bigger impact than the internet and mobile revolutions combined. For HR professionals, choosing to ignore AI means getting left behind — not tomorrow, but today. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you’re seeing in your own industry, so please share your thoughts into the comments below. For more news and ideas around people data in the workplace, be sure to subscribe .

(A version of this post originally appeared in Forbes ).