AI in HR Examples: 9 Companies Successfully Using AI Innovation in Key People Processes

The machines are finally taking over. Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a thing of science fiction but rather an integral part of the modern workplace and our everyday lives. 

Chat-GPT's arrival on the scene has only accelerated the adoption of AI in HR, so much so that IBM CEO Arvind Krishna expects robots to replace many HR roles at IBM over the next five years. 

But AI can do far more than take over existing roles—it can also support HR teams and make them more effective.

Real-life examples of how companies use AI throughout the employee lifecycle are gradually emerging.

💡 This guide introduces nine main ways companies have adopted AI and machine learning into their people processes. 

We've also included expert commentary on the benefits of using AI in HR to bring you the most up-to-date insights in the industry. 

🦾 9 Concrete AI in HR examples

Artificial intelligence is a game changer for Human Resources (HR) teams. Let's dig into a range of examples showcasing how companies incorporate AI and machine learning into their key people functions.

Recruitment 

SHRM reports that at least 79% of companies already use some form of AI or automation in their recruitment and hiring processes. Jefferson McCall, Co-founder and HR Head, TechBullish explains: 

"With the help of AI-powered recruitment tools, HR leaders make candidate screening more precise and efficient by analyzing resumes, applications, and social media profiles, and identifying candidates with the right set of skills and qualifications for the job." 

We also spoke to Founder and CEO Luciano Colos to understand how AI is integral to talent acquisition processes at PitchGrade. He told us how the company implemented an AI-powered ATS to streamline its HR practices: 

"This technology allows us to scan resumes and identify the most suitable candidates for open positions. By leveraging the power of AI, we have significantly reduced the time and effort required to sift through a large number of applications. This has resulted in faster hiring decisions and improved candidate experience."

Co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Zhou shared that Fig Loans leans on employee referrals as part of its recruitment strategy, which AI assists with. He shared:

"It's very important to us that we encourage employee referrals because, in the past, they've proven to offer even higher-quality candidates that stick around longer than traditional hiring processes. We need automation to make referrals more convenient for employees to submit and speed along the process so we can move on those recommendations quickly. With an AI-based system, we're making employee referrals seamless!"

But employee referrals are only one way to encourage top talent to join your ranks. Another option is a skills-based approach, where recruiters hire someone based on skills demonstrated in aptitude tests rather than resumes, educational qualifications, or work experience with a big-brand name. This recruitment methodology has been gaining traction and is even more streamlined with the help of AI. 

🏢 Company example: Fast food company JustEat turned to HireVue to adopt a skills-based hiring approach. To do so, it moved away from traditional resume screening. Instead, they switched to using AI-powered chatbots to send screening questions and cognitive ability tests to potential candidates. 

The AI-based method has reduced the company's recruitment time by 50% from 14 days to 7. 

➡️ Looking for even more hiring strategies in the wild? Check out these stellar recruitment company examples. 

Diversity 

Recruiters also use AI to improve their diversity and inclusion initiatives. For example, AI-driven tools can assess job postings for inclusive language, anonymize resumes, and ensure that qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds progress through your hiring funnel. 

TechBullish's Jefferson McCall further explains:

"Leaders can also use AI to create an inclusive hiring process which helps to reduce human bias by evaluating candidate profiles based on objective factors. With the increasing demand for skilled talent, adopting AI in HR practices becomes an advantage for businesses to stay ahead of the competition." 

🏢 Company example: Artificial intelligence platform Pymetrics helped an unnamed leading global investment firm boost female representation by 62%.

The tool evaluates candidates using gameplay in investment, non-investment, and innovation roles, comparing their scores against previous success profiles. 

Candidates grouped into "highly recommended" and "recommended" categories automatically progress to the next stage. Before using Pymetrics, the company mainly sourced talent from nine universities. Still, after adopting the AI-based solution, the investment firm extended offers to candidates from 66+ schools. This approach also increased minority representation by 9%. 

Onboarding

The employee onboarding process can be a daunting experience for both new hires and their managers. AI-powered tools simplify routine tasks by providing automated onboarding workflow, customizing the orientation process for each employee, and ensuring each joiner has access to the specific training resources and HR documentation they need. 

You can automate repetitive tasks using conditional logic to ensure you complete the essential tasks quickly. 

But companies can simplify the onboarding process even further by using AI to: 

• Craft introductions and onboarding materials from scratch. 
• Generate quiz questions. 
• Suggest and add links to relevant training content. 
• Send automated reminders to new joiners. 
• Translate their existing onboarding content to new languages to provide personalized content for different work locations. 

🏢 Company example: Campervan company Roadsurfer turned to Zavvy to revamp its onboarding process and welcome new colleagues across eight countries and 36 locations. We designed a company-wide journey for each joiner, guiding them through their initial employee activities in their first few days. 

By incorporating AI, Roadsurfer now benefits from interactive quizzes, personal scorecards, training exercises, and auto-triggered reminders to stay on track. 

Plus, completion tracking ensures that Roadsurfer's HR team knows how fast their newcomers are progressing. 

Employee engagement

AI-based tools enable companies to understand better what drives employee engagement in the workplace. 

Companies can collect employee data using AI-powered surveys to craft a better, more inclusive workplace. AI tools also allow companies to identify areas of improvement and recommend actions that will benefit the whole team.

🏢 Company example: Panasonic North America used the people insight platform Visier to transform its Human Resource management. The company had previously struggled to glean accurate insights to drive its people strategies toward positive business outcomes. 

Panasonic now draws data, analytics, and real-time insights into an intelligent system using Visier People Organization. Lydia Wu, Director of HR Strategy and Technology, shares that this has positively impacted employee experience, learning "productivity is actually better when you encourage employees to integrate their work and their life at once."

🦾 Check our additional resource for more examples of AI applications for employee engagement. 

Company culture 

Culture is the backbone of an organization and a critical factor in employee satisfaction and motivation. In a Nectar survey on employee engagement, 93.5% of employees stated they would stay at a company for 5+ years if the culture were great.

At first glance, using robots to influence a distinctly human concept such as culture may seem counterintuitive.

 But AI tools can be instrumental in creating and reinforcing a positive culture, especially in virtual workplaces where making social connections is more challenging. 

🏢 Company example: Hypercontext uses Donut's AI-backed chatbot tool to foster a remote culture. The company had been gradually moving towards working from home before the pandemic and is now 100% remote. 

Hypercontext relies on Donut to set up one-to-one coffee chats between new pairings every two weeks, enabling team members to forge strong bonds and reinforce the culture of connection. 

Got team members that have never spoken to each other? Are you lacking alignment across departments? 

You can also use Zavvy's AI to set up intros and water cooler connections for everyone.

Talent management

We've already seen that AI can supercharge your recruitment processes and the hiring experience for applicants. 

But what happens once you hire someone from your candidate pool? 

Companies may use AI-powered insights to create a comprehensive picture of how their collective workforce functions—what it needs regarding extra support and where to focus development resources. 

🏢 As an example, Google has historically used a custom-built equation to influence intelligent decisions about promotions.

But more recently, AI in talent management enables you to: 

• Identify high-potential employees for upskilling opportunities or succession planning. 
• Develop personalized career paths to quickly map out tangible links between positions. 
• Provide fast feedback and professional coaching to encourage continuous growth. 
• Build career frameworks and competency models to ensure transparency around job requirements and promotions. 
• Conduct predictive analysis to determine turnover risks.

🏢 Company example: Administrative Manager Antreas Koutis shared with us how Financer depends on AI for anticipating future hiring needs. 

"We use an AI-based system that analyzes trends in our business cycles, employee turnover rates, and growth projections. This system then predicts the number of employees we may need in specific roles and departments over a given period. It's significantly improved our hiring process as we are now able to plan ahead and ensure we have the right number of staff with the appropriate skills when we need them. This has not only made our recruitment more efficient but also allowed us to better manage our resources. We're still learning and fine-tuning, but so far, the benefits have been substantial."

Performance management

Artificial intelligence can provide valuable insights into individual employee performance so managers and HR can see how employees are faring and which areas they must address. AI tools also help managers measure performance against objectives and determine how to craft feedback for their direct reports. 

For example, using Zavvy's AI Coach, you can: 

• Create feedback questions.
• Provide real-time feedback. 
• Obtain suggestions on how to handle difficult performance conversations. 

🏢 Company example: Online grocery store HappyFresh had previously used working sheets to capture OKR metrics, but there was no regularity or visibility to the process. The company was keen to incorporate OKR and Performance Management into a single environment, settling on Profit.co to do so. 

Their largest wins are time-saving and the convenience of auto-generated downloadable data reports. 

Training and development

AI-driven tools can provide employees with personalized learning and development paths to continuously build upon their skill sets. 

AI allows managers to track employee progress and recommends courses based on individual performance, interests, and upskilling potential. This feature greatly benefits remote teams who may not have access to the same face-to-face learning opportunities. 

Here's a look at how learners might use Zavvy's AI assistant to generate custom training program suggestions: 

🏢 Company example: Skincare company Kiehl's Since 1851 turned to Docebo to build a global learning platform with personalization at the program's core.

The solution enables learners to receive customized training content that automatically adjusts on the fly to align with individual employee needs. The idea is that as Kiehl's business grows, so do its employees, all with the support of AI.

Answering HR questions 

AI can reduce the burden on HR teams by automating specific processes and providing quick answers to common questions. 

CEO Matthew Ramirez breaks down how this works at Paraphrase Tool: 

"We have implemented an AI chatbot to answer questions about company policies and procedures. We simply fine-tuned a model so that it was aware of our specific policies and processes. This was done to improve the experience for employees and make them more efficient. Before the chatbot, employees would be bogged down with answering questions about HR policies and procedures. Now, they can focus on higher-priority tasks."

🏢 Company example: Caregiver technology platform Care.com uses MeBeBot as an intelligent system, answering employee questions about HR, IT, and Facilities. 

The AI-powered HR tool connects to the company's Slack channel; within a month of integrating, MeBeBot had answered 897 questions accurately, instantly, and within the flow of work, so employees don't need to waste time hunting down answers.

💡 5 Best practices for incorporating AI into your HR practices 

With Chat-GPT now in the mainstream and causing widespread disruption, the advice on adopting AI into your HR strategies is constantly evolving.

Nevertheless, you can follow these best practices to protect your business as society adapts to the bots. 

Train your HR team

If the concept of AI is new to your HR team, prepare them for the transition to a more digital approach to people management. This includes teaching them the basics of AI, identifying potential risks and opportunities, and conveying the best practices for working with bots.

As machine learning and natural language processing constantly evolve, regular employee training will ensure your people keep up with the latest developments. 

Achieve buy-in from major stakeholders 

Cultivate an understanding of AI among key stakeholders by introducing clear use cases for how AI can help your HR practices.

Present them with: 

• research on relevant AI projects in your industry; 
• which AI and communication tools are available, and how you plan to use them; 
• how the software integrates with your current systems;
• risk assessments to identify any vulnerabilities in using AI in your HR processes and how you plan to overcome them.

Create robust AI policies 

There are some significant compliance considerations linked with using AI in HR, as explained by HR consultant Sommer Ketron in a "While We Were Working" podcast episode, 

"When you think about tools such as Chat GPT, you run into issues with your employees taking something that may be confidential information of the company or one of your clients and putting it into the search. And now, that information becomes part of the database. There is very much a concern: What's going to happen to that information, and do your employees even know that this is a concern and that they shouldn't be doing it?"  

There's no getting around the fact that AI is a relatively new technology, and there will be many lawsuits and regulatory implications for us to learn from in the coming months and years.

But in the meantime, your company must create robust policies for using technologies like Chat-GPT in HR and ensure that sensitive information remains secure.

Build a prompt library 

Getting the most out of AI depends on knowing what to ask from your tool of choice. 

Create a prompt library with the most common questions, phrases, and best practices to ensure your team uses the tool correctly and efficiently.

For example, if you use AI to answer questions about employee benefits or policies, you must create a library of prompts that cover the most asked questions and any exceptional circumstances. 

Remember the human touch 

Your people are the most valuable asset in your organization. 

No matter how advanced the technology, human interactions must still be at the heart of HR. 

As your team implements AI into their processes, make sure they️ understand the limitations of the technology and: 

• Are aware of any bias in their AI tools. 
• Use machine learning to augment and support human work, not replace it. 
• Recognize when️ and how to override AI using human intelligence. 
• Inject creativity and knowledge of company culture into the AI output. 

➡️ Achieve 10x smarter people processes with Zavvy AI 

We're delighted to present Zavvy AI, designed using the latest groundbreaking technology to run your people processes at lightning speed. 

Get your key processes at 90% in 90 minutes, then use your skilled HR teams to bring them across the finish line by injecting much-needed human spirit. Use Zavvy AI to:

• 🔀 Map career paths: create job descriptions and competencies for every role and level. 
• 📝 Write onboarding and training materials: ditch the blank page forever using Zavvy to create quizzes, journeys, courses, and more. 
• 🔄 Deliver feedback: give Zavvy the essential details, .and we'll do the rest. 
• 💡Generate actionable advice: add our AI Coach to Slack and quickly draft messages, communicate with employees, and perform speedy research.

Ready to solve your people development problems in just a few clicks? Take a demo of Zavvy today.

❓ FAQs

Which companies are using AI in HR? 

Companies as varied as Care.com, Panasonic, Kiehl's, and Hypercontext already incorporate AI into their HR processes. 

Why? To improve the speed and accuracy of their people processes, from recruitment to performance management. Regardless of your industry, there's an AI solution that could work for you.

What is the role of AI in HR? 

HR teams are already exploring the use of AI for routine tasks such as recruitment, talent management, performance management, and L&D. Benefits include:

• improved speed & accuracy;
• faster decisions;
• automated responses to common queries;
• personalized training and development plans. 

What do companies need to consider using AI in HR? 

While AI has the potential to revolutionize HR practices, there are several important considerations that organizations must keep in mind when implementing AI in HR:

1. Data privacy and security:  Companies need to ensure they adhere to data protection regulations, like GDPR, and use secure data storage and processing methods.
2. Ethics and fairness: AI models can unintentionally perpetuate biases in their training data, leading to unfair outcomes. To mitigate this challenge, companies must regularly use diverse, representative data and audit AI systems for bias.
3. Transparency and explainability: Employees should understand if their companies use AI in HR processes, especially when it affects decisions like hiring or promotions. 
4. Integration with existing systems: Companies must consider how AI tools integrate with their existing HR systems. Poor integration can lead to data silos and reduced effectiveness of AI solutions.
5. New skill requirements: The introduction of AI in HR may require upskilling of the HR team to understand and effectively use the technology. Additionally, it's essential to have a plan for managing the potential impact of AI on jobs and job design.