Not too long ago, artificial intelligence seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. But today, AI is being used throughout every facet of the companies we buy from, sell to, and work for.
That includes the field of human resources — and it doesn’t look like AI is going anywhere any time soon. Let’s look at some statistics:
66% of CEOs believe cognitive computing can drive significant value in HR (source).
50% of HR executives recognize that cognitive computing has the power to transform key dimensions of HR (source).
54% of HR executives believe that cognitive computing will affect key roles in the HR organization (source).
For old-fashioned HR professionals, this trend may seem more nerve-wracking than exciting. Today’s blog post will explore the ways in which machine learning is changing the world of Human Resources Management (HRM). Whether your company has already embraced AI or is simply just considering adopting new software, read on to learn more about how AI has affected HR departments.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Simply put, artificial intelligence refers to technology that is capable of performing tasks that require some level of cognitive intelligence – that is, a tool capable of doing what a human can do. The human abilities that AI can replicate include (source):
Problem-solving
Planning
Learning
Reasoning
Knowledge representation
Perception
For these reasons, AI has a lot to offer HR departments. HR decision-makers believe that merging AI with HR administrative functions will benefit and improve overall employee experiences, leading to saved time, increased budget, and more accurate information for decisive people management.
How is AI being used in HR?
There are a host of different ways that AI is changing the ways of traditional HR departments. From simple data entry activity to talent acquisition, AI has a hand in nearly every function of an HR department. Below are the different areas of HR that machine learning software has impacted.
AI enables recruiters to find qualified candidates faster.
Artificial intelligence has streamlined the hiring process in a number of ways. Candidates can now submit resumes, respond to qualifying questions, and undergo preliminary screening before they ever interact with a real person.
52% of recruiters say the hardest part of recruitment is identifying the right candidates from a large applicant pool (source). AI helps recruiters save time by automatically screening and qualifying applicants, enabling HR professionals to pull from a shortlist of candidates rather than sifting through a larger pool.
AI improves engagement throughout the candidate journey.
Time-to-hire and cost-to-hire are two of the most influential recruiting metrics. It makes sense: recruiters save money by hiring good candidates as quickly and cost-effectively as they can.
Lack of communication throughout the candidate journey results in an unnecessary amount of time, money, and energy being spent on each potential hire. In fact, 50% of candidates don’t receive any type of communication or have any interaction with an employer once they apply for a role (source), and 40% lose interest in a position if they don’t hear back within a week of an interview (source). In some ways, finding talent is easier than keeping them interested and engaged. Enter, AI.
AI can be integrated into candidate automation platforms to provide feedback throughout the candidate journey — from the moment a candidate applies to the end of the decision making process.
Additionally, AI can help you nurture candidate relationships by segmenting candidates based on interest level and other factors. and can update candidate records to reflect new positions, work experiences, or skills they might have acquired since the last time they were spoken to.
AI allows for more effective onboarding.
Hiring a great candidate is just the first step — a good onboarding program can be the difference between a new hire sticking around or planning their exit after their first week.
From an administrative perspective, AI can relieve HR employees from onboarding tasks that otherwise take hours, or even days — such as distributing company policies, setting up technology, and answering common questions from new employees.
Unlike traditional onboarding, AI can provide guidance to employees around the clock, ensuring that new hires receive the help they need while minimizing calls, emails, and meetings with HR employees. This kind of remote support is increasingly important since the majority of the workforce telecommutes at least part of the week.
Chatbots can also answer questions that new hires may be nervous asking on their first day, e.g., questions about time off or working from home.
AI improves employee training.
AI can have a huge impact on the training of employees. It’s usually expensive and time-consuming to train employees each year, but nonetheless, training is incredibly important within a company.
Employees need to feel engaged in order to perform well, and AI-based training can make sure that programs are tailored to the specific needs of any given employee. AI-infused with employee training platforms provides a host of benefits, including:
Personalization
Data insights
Long-term sustainability
A future-ready workforce
Better career and professional development
In our digitally proliferated environment, AI can both identify and help close the skill gaps created by technology.
The Case Against AI
Artificial intelligence has undoubtedly changed the world of HR for the better — when it’s used correctly. Despite the benefits of AI, recruiters and HR professionals still must show a certain amount of caution when leveraging this pervasive technology.
While AI can make life a lot easier for HR employees, it can also amplify, rather than reduce, a lot of the problems already present in HR departments. Below are some of the ways that AI can be problematic when you fail to adequately monitor its use.
1. AI can be biased too.
AI is comprised of algorithms, and algorithms are made by people, who are inherently biased. While AI technology has learning capabilities, Professor Matissa Hollister from McGill University points out that “a machine-learning system is only as unbiased as the information it learns from (source).”
For example, Amazon spent years developing a resume analysis algorithm, only for it to never be used due to the system’s discrimination towards women. Most of the previously accepted resumes it assessed were from men, so the algorithm taught itself that men were preferable to women.
Additionally, things like facial recognition software can misidentify or misread faces of color as a result of unrepresentative training data.
2. AI can raise privacy concerns.
IBM recently released a predictive attrition software that is said to have a 95% accuracy rate (source). While it may save HR departments money in terms of having to replace employees, the software raises significant concerns around privacy, consent, and boundaries.
For example, information taken off of employees’ personal social media accounts can start to feel invasive. Additionally, algorithms can become outdated, applied out of context, or rely on attributes that should remain private.
Other AI systems have been employed to monitor employee productivity, which can be harmful to morale as well as invasive to employees. Companies who use AI technology should develop policies and monitoring systems to provide regulation to machine learning capabilities, and should obviously be in line with GDPR and CCPA legislation.
3. An over-reliance on AI eliminates the human touch of human resources.
Human resources should be just that: humans who are resources for other humans. HR professionals should use AI to streamline processes and become more efficient — but they must also be mindful not to lose the human touch altogether. Leaning too heavily on AI can cause the following problems:
Loss of high-quality candidates: Yes, AI can be a valuable tool to streamline the applicant screening process. But it’s important to remember that the most advanced technology still can’t pick up on certain subtle details in a person’s resume or portfolio. If you remove human recruiters from the applicant screening process entirely, you might be disqualifying unique and promising candidates without even knowing it.
Isolated and unfulfilled employees: When employees need help from HR, they want to talk to a human being — not a chatbot or a personalized questionnaire. In these cases, face-to-face interaction is crucial to maintaining a sense of community and preventing employees from feeling isolated within your company.
Insufficient onboarding: As we stated earlier, onboarding is the most important process for acclimating new hires. An over-reliance on AI to perform onboarding tasks can make it hard for new employees to feel like a part of the team. If you do use AI in your onboarding process, make sure to balance it with a healthy dose of personal, hands-on interaction.
Lack of employee trust: Trust is established through face-to-face communication between human beings. If you tip the scales too heavily towards AI and automated messaging, you’ll diminish your employees’ trust in your company — or worse, you’ll never earn the trust of new employees in the first place.
With automation and AI software gaining popularity, it can be tempting to hand over as many tasks as possible to a machine. But HR, more so than any other business practice, is predicated on authentic, personal interaction. AI can aid in streamlining certain processes — but at the end of the day, it’s the people, not technology, that make a company what it is.
Key Takeaways on AI in Human Resources
AI has taken great leaps to bridge the gap between data and people, and it’s had a transformative impact on the field of human resources. But if you work in HR, you have no reason to fear losing your job to a machine any time soon. AI should be used in moderation — especially when human interaction is so critical to your job.
Many have adopted the phrase “augmented intelligence,” which refers to the belief that you cannot fully replicate human capabilities through technology. Rather, augmented intelligence encourages us to create and integrate technology to enhance human capability — not replace it.