AI in HR: Making People Ops Easy & Effective With New Technologies

Let's clarify: AI is not here to replace HR professionals but to enable and support them.

From automating menial tasks to analyzing HR data and recruiting top talent from all over the world – there are numerous advantages to leveraging AI solutions.

This article will:

• Cover the benefits and challenges of harnessing the power of AI in HR. 
• Share expert insights on how they overcome the potential struggles of implementing AI in their HR departments.

🤖 What is AI in HR?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence.

AI applications are designed to mimic human behavior. As a result, they can be more efficient than humans at tasks that require speed or a significant level of detail.

HR departments can use AI to automate tasks they have been traditionally performing manually:

• Using algorithms to match candidates with job descriptions based on skills, experience, and other factors.
• Using machine learning to identify performance gaps between employees and suggest corrective actions.
• Using bots to automatically determine pay raises and bonuses based on performance metrics and employee performance data.
• Using virtual coaches to design better training programs and monitor employee learning performance.

🏆 5 Benefits of AI in HR management

To get an idea of the pros of using AI in human resources management, let's wind back to the traditional HR practices we've been using for so long. 

Does the following sound familiar?

You enjoy your work and the people side of it, but you hate how long specific tasks can take you. At the end of the day, you're caught up analyzing data and reports instead of doing what matters the most: Talking to your team! Not to mention you often find yourself having to review payroll and leave approvals several times to ensure you made no mistakes.

Artificial intelligence gets rid of all this pain through:

1. Increased efficiency: By automating administrative tasks (such as data entry or identifying skills gaps), AI can help streamline your HR processes faster and more accurately. As a result, you can focus more energy on high-value tasks that need more personal attention.
2. Higher accuracy: Not only will AI save you time, but it also reduces human errors. Properly-trained algorithms can quickly spot patterns and detect inaccuracies in data more efficiently than humans can.
3. Cost-effective solution: Saving on labor costs is one of the most significant benefits of using artificial intelligence in HR. It eliminates the need for manual entry and tasks that take up much time but don't add value to an organization's bottom line (such as reviewing resumes or scheduling interviews). 

💡 83% of early adopters of AI can expect an increase in return on investment.

1. Better employee experience: With AI, human resources management is no longer about paperwork and manual documentation. Instead, it's about delivering personalized employee experiences that are not only efficient but also enjoyable.
2. Loads of options for personalization: With AI applications, HR leaders have access to an incredible amount of data about their employees. They can use this to create tailored experiences for each employee — from onboarding programs to feedback sessions and personalized training plans.

🦾 4 Concrete use cases of AI in HR

For recruitment

63% of talent acquisition specialists note that AI has changed their recruiting process.

Employers can use AI tools to streamline their hiring processes, quickly scanning through large numbers of resumes and applications to find the top candidates. 

Plus, you can use AI to pre-screen applicants and assess their traits from previous job performances.

👉 Check out our list of 8 recruitment strategies with real examples to inspire your efforts.

For employee engagement

HR leaders can also use AI technology to facilitate employee engagement by providing personalized workplace experiences with recommendations on potential career paths and tailored job postings. 

With the help of AI, your employees can: 

• Stay up-to-date with all the latest industry news and developments. 
• Get access to powerful networking opportunities.
• Stay connected with other employees within their organization.

🤖 Check out 7 applications of AI in employee engagement. 

What it looks like in practice: Spotify launched Echo, an internal talent marketplace that helps employees get matched with growth opportunities based on their skills, experience, and goals. 

All this is powered by an AI-based algorithm that can speed up tasks such as finding mentorship opportunities, helping employees transition to a new or different role, and even sourcing internal talent when a job opens up.

💡 Learn more about Spotify's innovative L&D practices in our detailed case study: Employee Training and Development at Spotify: Learn From the Best Learning Organizations.

For talent management

You can also use AI for talent management purposes. For example, companies can leverage AI technologies to quickly find potential candidates that fit specific roles when they need them without having to manually search through a pool of potential applicants. This saves time in the recruitment process and ensures employers get the right candidate for each role.

What it looks like in practice: Enter AI career coaches that can help employees find their ideal career paths. The FutureLearn team introduced this by prompting their tech to provide online course recommendations to learners. Plus, they specifically use their AI-based recommender system to help people looking to make a career change.

For training

Companies can use AI tools to supplement traditional training sessions or provide onboarding experiences for new hires. 

Virtual assistant tools, for instance, can provide answers or guidance promptly even when no one else is online to reply to a query. 

This lets employees quickly get the information they need to make better decisions and become more productive in their roles.

What it looks like in practice: Using Zavvy AI, you can create micro-courses in less than five minutes. You can also enable automatic quiz steps after each training course chapter.

➡️ Check out our additional article: AI in HR Examples: 9 Companies Successfully Using AI Innovation in Key People Processes.

😟 The challenges and limitations of AI in human resources

But AI technology in HR operations also comes with its own challenges. 

Security

The reality is: Companies will always consider security issues when implementing AI-based solutions. 

Employee data is sensitive, and companies must protect it at all costs. 

On the challenges that AI tool security poses, Dmitry Shapiro, CEO & Co-Founder at YouAi, an AI solution for indexing the human mind, says:

"Whenever you're dealing with PII (Personally Identifiable Information), it's crucial to safeguard privacy. Depending on the tools being used and what data is being processed, significant risks exist."

Dmitry recommends obfuscating PII by using Differential Privacy methods and potentially synthetic data instead of actual data to address some of the risks.

Unconscious bias

Additionally, AI algorithms risk unconscious bias if trained with biased data sets. Therefore, companies must consider training techniques and auditing processes to avoid discrimination.

If the data used to train the system isn't culturally or demographically diverse, the results will reflect the bias of the data set used.

Caroline Reidy, Managing Director at The HR Suite, stresses that AI doesn't understand when it's being biased:

"Most of these programs are developed by inputting banks of content that they can learn the decision-making process from. For example, an AI that goes through a CV might learn that people from one particular college are given preference in the hiring process. The AI doesn't understand why this happens but does know that this is a favored attribute of the hiring team. This could be because the HR managers went to that college."

To prevent situations like these, Caroline recommends establishing what jobs the company is comfortable with using AI for:

"Laborious and time-consuming tasks that do not handle any sensitive company data are good options for AI to handle. Summarizing meetings, generating ideas for blog posts, and creating job descriptions are great uses for AI."  

Poor or no resources and skills

Lacking resources and skills is widely regarded as one of the most significant limitations of using AI technology.

Caroline Reidy emphasized the importance of educating employees on how to use AI to their advantage to see results:

"Providing a course for employees who wish to understand how best to use AI and empowering them to incorporate AI into work appropriately. This should focus on employees understanding what information is okay to input into AI programs and providing them with the HR systems to critically assess the information provided by the AI." 

She also notes that regular monitoring and evaluation of AI performance is necessary to make sure it delivers business value to the enterprise:

"Monitoring metrics like accuracy, efficiency, and productivity is necessary in order to decide how to enhance AI performance. It's also important to understand what jobs are being undertaken by AI and to what extent it's being used."

Subjectivity

Another ethical concern involves broadening AI's use to include grading candidates on subjective factors such as personality and culture fit. This means they'd be using it as a recruitment decision-making tool, which raises questions of fairness and privacy.

Hayley Jayne, Founder and Principal Coach at Cultsure.co, notes two causes of subjectivity through AI tools: an underbaked strategy and an imbalanced tech/human ratio. To this, she recommends taking the time to test the tools thoroughly:

"One best practice is to always ensure time to properly vet and bake your AI for HR strategy and have a healthy hands-on/human verification process or standards to reduce AI-induced risk."

Missing human oversight

Another limitation of AI and HR is that there needs to be some human oversight to ensure fairness and accuracy in decision-making and HR processes.

Machines are great at doing specific tasks quickly, but they can't do more complicated tasks that involve emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity. Briefly put, humans have abilities that no tools will ever have. (At least not for the time being. 🤓)

Tomas Ondrejka, Founder of Kickresume, has experienced this as the value of hiring individuals who may not necessarily tick all the boxes but possess high potential. 

However, he says, "AI algorithms can automatically reject candidates who fail to meet certain predefined criteria. This would lead to the exclusion of qualified candidates, despite their great potential. Because of that, I believe it's crucial to strike the right balance between leveraging AI-driven efficiency and retaining the human touch in the hiring process."

To overcome this challenge, Tomas recommends adopting a hybrid approach, integrating AI to handle repetitive tasks and initial screenings while preserving human input for critical decision-making stages:

"For example, AI can be used to parse through large volumes of resumes, identifying keywords and phrases related to the job description without solely relying on specific qualifications or experiences. This allows for a broader range of candidates to be considered, including those with transferable skills or unconventional backgrounds. Plus, you can use AI for less important tasks like scheduling interviews, sending automated follow-ups, and managing candidate databases."

On the same lack of human touch, Abhishek Shah, Founder of Testlify, observes that while AI systems can automate a significant portion of the recruitment process, they cannot replace the human touch entirely for HR teams: 

"There's still a need for human involvement to interpret data, make decisions, and provide a personalized employee experience to candidates."

💡 Best practices for implementing AI in HR

Let's combine everything we've learned above and see the steps to properly implement AI technology in HR.

Selecting the right tools

HR teams have relied on HR tech for years with HCM, HRIS, surveys, and ATS systems. But the current economic shifts have also forced many organizations to get smarter about their tech-to-human ratio.

Hayley Jayne, Founder and Principal Coach at Cultsure.co, has been using AI tools throughout her entire career and estimates we're only going to see an increase in adopting such technologies. 

She also noted that most traditional HR exists in procuring assets, policy creation and adherence, program and workflow development, procedure optimization, etc. These processes primarily target keeping the company protected and compliant. 

When choosing AI tech for your HR department, Hayley recommends that HR leaders consider the following:

• Size: What size is your company, and how many people will be managing your AI tech? Some tools work for teams from 1-99. In contrast, others might require more resources than you have available to utilize the tech and process optimally.
• Your core problem: Consider the pains you're dealing with and whether the tech helps you solve them. As with all-around-athletes in recruiting, be wary of tech that promises to do everything better or boasts true autonomy.
• Risks: Many technologies today still require some form of machine learning, and the learning curve needed isn't always straightforward. AI isn't perfect and makes mistakes that can harm the company. 
• Team: Consider your team and involve them in creating the strategy, determining metrics, and encouraging feedback.

Training employees

AI is only as effective as the people using it (and all the data they input). So make sure your employees know the value of AI and understand how to use it properly.

To do this, include employee training courses on how to use AI in onboarding and ongoing employee development programs to ensure everyone is up-to-date on best practices.

Staying compliant with data privacy laws

Data privacy laws vary from country to country, so you'll want to ensure you comply with all local regulations and adhere to data privacy guidelines.

If you're collecting any personally identifiable information (PII), you need explicit consent from individuals even before adding their information to your system. That starts as early as the recruitment process and continues well into offboarding.

Upskilling your HR department

Make sure your team has the skills required to operate your existing systems and any AI-based technology you decide to implement. 

Investing in upskilling your HR staff can help them better understand how to use these new platforms and use them more effectively.

➡️ Amazing people development, but 10x smarter with Zavvy AI 

AI demands stronger HR professionals. They'll need new skills and a stronger focus on the human aspect of an organization. Otherwise, your teams simply can't scale.

Zavvy helps HR managers support and scale talent by:

• Getting the AI Learning Assistant in Slack to help employees get help writing feedback, find learning resources, and receive coaching advice.
• Putting together training and onboarding resources for any topic.
• Helping team members provide better feedback.
• Creating career paths without spending weeks.
• Defining competency models across departments and levels of seniority in just a few clicks.

👉 Book a free Zavvy demo to see how you can help your team succeed and perform better in a fraction of the time.

❓ FAQs

Will HR be taken over by AI?

No. People skills are still essential as human beings are simply better at making people-related decisions than machines. Complex decisions require human judgment and intuition that machines simply can't learn. Plus, the value of face-to-face interaction for keeping employees happy and engaged will never be replaced by technology.

What is the best use of AI in HR?

The "best" use of AI in HR depends on the specific needs and challenges of an organization. That being said, there are some areas where AI has shown exceptional promise and impact, from making informed decisions on hiring to improving employee engagement.

AI is good for recruitment, talent acquisition, employee engagement, talent management, training, learning and development, and more.

While AI can automate many HR tasks and provide valuable insights, it should be used as a tool to augment human judgment, not replace it.