The Impact of AI on HR—Mightier than You Think!

Last Friday at CEIPAL Connect, I had the opportunity to host an all-women panel with some of the staffing industry’s foremost female leaders: Anjali Pendlebury, VP of Global HR at Capgemini; Christine Wright, SVP & National Strategic Advisor, Hays; and Manisha Singh, Global Director of Digital HR and Scheider Electric. 

The topic was of particular interest to me—“Reimagining Talent Acquisition & HR with Artificial Intelligence.” As an entrepreneur in the technology sector, I’m constantly thinking about AI and its impact on our workforce. How can AI make us better, more productive? And, on the other hand, what potential threats does AI hide? 

I’m pleased to say that all of my questions—and more—were answered in this discussion. Some of the most interesting takeaways from our panelists, in my perspective, were: 

• AI won’t replace our workforce; it augments it. 

Many people feel threatened by AI because its automation capabilities can replace jobs previously done by humans. But actually, AI will open doors to more jobs. That’s because outsourcing manual tasks to AI helps us save time & generate more business. By utilizing AI technology, we’re helping our industry work faster and smarter, propelling recruitment forward to better business in the future. 

• AI helps reduce human bias, but it can’t eliminate it. 

Artificial intelligence has a definite role to play as the workplace makes efforts to become more diverse and inclusive. But the truth is, AI can’t eliminate human biases altogether. The algorithms that form AI react to us, learn from past behavior, and therefore, they’ll respond to our implicit biases. Sometimes, they even help us act on them. So, while features like AI-powered candidate recommendations help level the playing field, ultimately it is up to us, as a society, to strive for more diversity and inclusion. 

• AI puts the “human” back in “human resources.” 

Sometimes, it seems like there’s an inherent conflict between artificial intelligence and human resources. But it turns out that the two things can co-exist, and even complement each other. As the AI picks up more “inhuman” tasks, like updating databases, recruiters have more time to dedicate to “human” tasks, like engaging with candidates and clients. By relying on AI, we’re making our workforce more human—not less. 

I’d like to thank all of the panelists for their insightful comments. It was truly an honor to listen to such thoughtful and experienced professionals discuss one of the biggest questions of our time. 

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