Will there be any Impact Of AI On The HR Profession

The HR function has seen many transformations over the years but the increasing use of robotics in the workplace presents challenges and opportunities to the profession. One of the most talked about and debated trends in HR Technology has been Artificial Intelligence (AI). There are wild predictions that AI will be a game changer in productivity for HR professionals. There are also others who fear “machine” could take our jobs. The truth is, while there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic, it’s still much too early to predict the exact impact of AI in HR and Talent Acquisition.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

In layman’s terms, artificial intelligence (or, AI as it’s commonly referred to), is an area of computer science where computers are “developed” to behave much the way humans do. There are three levels when it comes to AI, depending on how advanced the computers get, and the measuring stick is “human reasoning.”

Strong AI genuinely simulates human reasoning. These systems not only think but can also “explain” how humans think and reason.

Weak AI includes systems that can “think” (computer playing chess against human chess masters, for example), but don’t tell us anything about how humans think, and the systems don’t really think themselves.

In-between AI includes systems that are informed by or inspired by human reasoning. Examples include Google’s Deep Learning (driven by big data) and IBM’s Watson a system that can answer questions by analyzing thousands of pieces of text, discerning patterns, and weighing evidence, a sort of “layered learning,” much like the way our brains learn. This in-between area is where most AI work is being done today.

 Four Ways AI Could Impact HR

1.Personalization/Onboarding

Each new employee has different learning preferences, which aren’t always supported by onboarding and training software. The customization of employee-related training and coaching is seen as one potential exciting impact of AI.  It’s not news that people have very different styles of learning, and, with the many generations now filling the workforce, embracing modern training practices has never been more important. AI is helping to personalize corporate learning, by capturing meaningful employee data relating to a wide range of learning experiences and behaviors. The same machine learning computer algorithms that “learn and recommend” by analyzing your choices of where to shop or what to eat, will “learn and recommend” when it comes to employee training. In fact, these systems will continue to parse and analyze as more and more employee interactions occur, and be able to tweak training programs accordingly, making training more efficient, and training outcomes more effective

2. Workforce Automation

 Scheduling, scheduling, and rescheduling. The bane of many of our existences, yes? Well, AI is poised to be a game-changer when it comes to workflow problems. According to a recent  article, the next few years should see software that automates hiring processes like..…interview scheduling, employee performance reviews, employee onboarding, and even the answering of basic HR questions. As Workology puts it, Imagine a world where a machine books meeting, schedules, and even orders food without you having to a do a simple thing.  If that world sounds nice to you, we invite you to meet Amy Ingram. Amy Ingram (clever AI initials) is an AI personal assistant that aims to take away the pain of scheduling.  As discussed here, she’s so human-like that many who have hired Amy haven’t realized she’s not a real person.

3. Improved Recruitment/Candidate Engagement

 HR is, by its very name, one of the most human-centric industries out there. But human beings are complicated, and it’s very difficult to get base-level data on individual people—enough to run an analysis on—especially when hiring. Enter predictive analytics using natural language. Still, in its (relative) infancy, the software driving natural language processes and predictive language analysis will help speed up recruitment by allowing you to weed people out faster, and with fewer mistakes

Not all teams are set up with enough recruiters or the right tools to engage with their talent as often as they should. AI could potentially be used to automate the sending of emails and status messages throughout the entire process. If done right, it could be an improvement in the candidate experience. However, the automation of messages isn’t always welcome by the end user, so authenticity will be the name of the game

4. Better Prediction Models

AI will get to know your company almost better than you do. Whether it’s predicting future turnover rates, reduced (or increased) employee engagement levels, concerns about internal employee communications, project completion problems, and any other unexpected hidden issues that would usually take years to surface, artificial intelligence will (most likely) be one step ahead of you. And when it comes to cost savings and overall organizational efficiencies, that’s a very good thing

Being able to assess and predict future turnover, employee engagement, training needs, and other workforce trends is a time consuming, but critical component of HR. AI and deep learning should be able to use data to predict more accurately and much quicker than ever before. The information provided could be invaluable to HR professionals to help advise the organization on change.

Conclusion

The Deloitte research also found that AI and robotics are opening exciting new capabilities for HR. Software can now recognize faces and identify gender, listen to voices and identify mood and decode video interviews to identify education level, lying and cognitive ability. Analytic tools are intelligently selecting candidates, identifying employees’ career options and coaching managers on improving their leadership skill

Organizations will need to try and identify what type of value they are adding to the organization and look at the available tools at their disposal. Some of those tools are technological; some are people in your business and it’s about combining different types of solution. It’s about considering the best technology present in the workplace and how organizations will interact with that technology and also how people will want to work and planning for that. It’s about a transition to a more automated workplace and the skills needed to facilitate that transition. The challenge to the profession is that in the next five to ten years, some individuals within the HR profession will be fulfilling tasks that we know will be automated.