Artificial Intelligence in HR – The Future of Work is Already here!

Do you believe Artificial Intelligence is the future game-changer?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not the FUTURE, it is ALREADY HERE.

According to Wikipedia, “Artificial intelligence (AI, also machine intelligence, MI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence (NI) displayed by humans and other animals”.

In a post by Josh Bersin, Founder and Principal at Bersin by Deloitte, it is mentioned that “AI is all about a wide range of machine learning tools and algorithms that quickly provide data, identify and predict patterns for informed decision making. It is possible for the systems to understand speech, identify photos, and use pattern matching to pick up signals about mood, honesty, and even personality. These algorithms are not “intuitive” like human beings, but they are fast, so they can analyze millions of pieces of information in seconds and quickly correlate them against patterns.”

AI has transformed our lives at home and at work and has become an essential part of the technology industry. Artificial intelligence is continuously evolving into a smart, intelligent assistant for people to work smartly. You may have seen people using Amazon’s Alexa to control the lights and unlock their car. Power of chatbots has helped in personalizing shopping experience. Digital personal assistants like Siri and Google Now, on iOS and Android platforms are being used to find useful information by using your voice. For example – you can ask “What’s on my Calendar today”? and your question will be answered instantly.

In a Forbes article, it’s mentioned that investments in AI have accelerated from $282 million in 2011 to $2.4 billion in 2015. A whopping 746% increase in just 5 years. In 2016, the investments continued to increase with roughly another $1.5 billion being invested in more than 200 AI-focused companies in 2016. {Source}

Need for Artificial Intelligence

People now are more inclined towards products and services that are highly responsive. It has been seen that 22% of the younger workforce, millennials, expect to get a response in less than 10 minutes after reaching to a brand.

Responsiveness is the major reason for many consumer brands to build AI into their products. These brands have chatbots that could provide services 365x24x7 and resolve customer queries. At workplace too, employees have similar expectations when it comes to having a positive work experience. HR leaders have started to pilot chatbots to transform their employees experience in the workplace.

Artificial intelligence in HR has grown exponentially in 2017 and it is going to be even bigger in 2018. It has played a significant role in Human Resource Management in 4 ways.

RECRUITMENT

Most of the hiring decisions are made on gut feeling. The interviewers usually take less than a minute to decide whether an interviewee is an ideal match for the job or not. There’s no data that support these decisions. A random decision to hire people, based on candidate’s appearance, speech, experience and the way they present themselves is made. That’s the major reason behind recruiters and hiring managers complaining about getting 30 to 40 percent of their candidates wrong.

AI algorithms simplify the task by searching resumes, finding eligible internal candidates, identifying top performers and analyzing data about shortlisted candidates who are more likely to succeed. This even eliminates interview bias.

• Attract Top Talent Attracting top talent is a tough task. LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, etc. are the popular job searching websites, which employ machine learning algorithms to offer recommendations to job seekers. Data is collected based on users’ activities – their posts, search history, page visits, clicks, connections and other criteria is monitored. The data is analyzed to offer best recommendations to the job seekers. That’s how these algorithms help recruiters to attract potential talent.

• Screen and Shortlist Resumes Recruiters in HR department are always weighed down with the time-consuming task of screening and shortlisting hundreds or thousands of resumes to fill a single job position. But now the recruitment technology has advanced immensely.Software vendors offer Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that quickly parse resumes and filter all candidatures that match with the job requirements. Through AI, recruiters can now automate repetitive, time-consuming screening tasks. Thousands of resumes can be easily auto-screened in just few minutes. Manual resume screening gives 75 to 88% of unqualified resumes, whereas AI supports in shortlisting the desired candidates who are ideal for the job. It simplifies the task of a hiring manager too, as all the candidatures are received in order of priority (starting with the one who is the best match for the job or has maximum skills to meet job requirement).

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

Training people seamlessly requires a lot of effort and time. The global Learning and Development industry is over $200 billion, and most learning professionals tell us that at least half of this investment is wasted.

Most often, managers and HR don’t know “what an employee needs to learn” for doing a job better and becoming productive. Experts look up to Artificial Intelligence to solve this problem.

It’s great that we have algorithms to quickly pull data and sort it on different parameters like age, culture, previous learning experiences, educational background, work experiences, performance, activities and behavior of individuals, and analyze data to create custom learning programs for them.

Companies that are already using AI algorithms have made learning as enjoyable as watching a movie on Netflix or playing a game on PlayStation. This has been made possible through gamification. Additionally, the integration of tools like VEED’s AI-powered Text-to-Video can revolutionize corporate training and onboarding, allowing HR teams to convert their training materials into engaging videos, thus simplifying the learning experience and catering to a diverse range of learning styles.

EMPLOYEE ATTRITION

We all know that high employee turnover is a costly and challenging problem, especially for small and midsize businesses. AI is used to accurately predict employee exit based on transactions generated by the employees and machine learning. With the data insights, AI equips the leadership and HR into employee satisfaction levels and predict future sources of turnover. This helps in identifying and addressing individual or departmental issues before the problem becomes bigger.

ENGAGEMENT & EMPLOYEE SELF-SERVICES

Poor employee performance costs too much to a company. AI finds out patterns and reasons that cause stress to employees and affect their performance adversely. They can be addressed in a timely manner.

Employee experience has become a priority for employers to keep the workforce engaged. Intelligent chatbots are used to make interactions quick and easy. By acting as virtual assistants all HR queries from employees can be addressed to meet needs of employees.

Last thought…

Expectations from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in HR are sky high now. AI offers a platform to engage employees as co-creators of a strong, smart and advanced workplace culture. This steady progress has transformed the way employees perceive their jobs, work relationships with colleagues, and their contribution towards the company’s growth.