In recent years, artificial intelligence has made significant strides in the field of human resources, promising to revolutionize nearly every facet of our field and function. From advanced language models to integrated AI assistants, these technologies hope to reshape HR with the promise of unleashing true strategic power. But as organizations continue to embrace these innovations, it’s crucial to understand both the opportunities and limitations of AI in HR, as well as how to effectively harness its potential for successful organizational transformation.
The capabilities of AI in HR
When I wrote about the potential pros and cons of AI last year, we were still in the early days of exploring its potential for business. It was this fun thing that we could use to write bad poetry or generate questionable images. It’s astonishing how quickly we’ve seen AI openly embraced to enhance business processes in such a short period of time.
Let’s be clear, though: AI has been working behind the scenes for a while now. Integrating capabilities isn’t something that happens overnight. But we’ve certainly seen a perfect storm of technology and business embracing what it can do. AI is proving increasingly valuable in several HR domains, including:
- Recruitment and hiring: AI excels at processing vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently. In recruitment, AI can screen resumes and applications at scale, match candidate profiles with job requirements, automate initial communication with applicants, and even predict candidate success based on historical data. These capabilities can significantly reduce time-to-hire and improve the quality of candidates reaching the interview stage.
- Employee onboarding: AI-powered chatbots can provide 24/7 support to new hires, answering common questions and guiding them through onboarding processes. This ensures consistent information delivery and frees up HR staff for more complex tasks.
- Performance management: Real-time feedback mechanisms and objective performance metrics analysis can make performance management more continuous and data-driven. For managers who struggle to write effective feedback, AI offers writing support to ensure clarity.
- Workforce planning: This domain has emerged as a key area for AI application, with organizations struggling to control labor costs and enhance customer experience. AI can analyze workforce data, market trends and business forecasts to provide insights into strategic workforce planning. This includes predicting future skill needs, identifying retention risks and optimizing resource allocation.
In addition to behind-the-scenes automation, AI shows promise in helping organizations move toward more self-service for employees and managers. AI assistants, such as Bersin’s recently announced Galileo tool, can help navigate the complexities of HR processes and documentation, which, in theory, should lower shared services ticket volumes and escalations.
The perils of AI in HR
Despite its rapidly expanding capabilities, it’s naïve to assume that AI is the solution to all that ails us. We know there are still challenges with bias and potential legal implications to using AI for anything impacting hiring, pay decisions and potentiallyperformance management. Beyond those compliance concerns, AI still displays important limitations in the world of HR transformation. Not surprisingly, many of them focus on the human side of the equation:
- Human judgment and empathy: While there is an argument to be made to take the emotion out of decisions, the reality is that there are still human beings impacted by those decisions. AI cannot replicate the nuanced understanding of human emotions and complex interpersonal situations that experienced HR professionals bring.
- Ethical decision-making: In a video for his popular Tested YouTube channel, former Mythbuster Adam Savage said, “AI has no point of view.” While AI can flag potential issues, it cannot make contextual ethical judgments in sensitive HR matters because it does not yet fully understand the complexity of unwritten rules and human behavior.
- Understanding organizational culture: AI struggles to fully grasp the intangible elements of organizational culture that develop through human interactions. AI can define organizational culture and even provide a breakdown of what factors impact culture, but when it comes to transformation, it doesn’t “know” your people.
- Change enablement and adoption: Ray Bradbury once said, “While science may explain how, it cannot explain why.” While AI excels at data analysis and process automation, it struggles to comprehend the emotional responses to change, adapt to unique organizational contexts and build the trust necessary for successful transitions. Moreover, AI cannot easily handle the ambiguity often present in change processes or create the sense of urgency needed to drive transformations forward.
The promise and potential of AI
It’s crucial to understand that AI, much like Excel or Tableau, is fundamentally a tool. Its value lies not in its mere existence but in how it’s applied to solve real-world problems and drive organizational outcomes.
AI holds immense potential to transform HR functions, from streamlining operations to providing data-driven insights for strategic decision-making. However, it’s crucial to recognize that AI is a tool to augment human capabilities, not replace them. The most effective HR transformations will leverage AI’s strengths while preserving the irreplaceable human elements of empathy, judgment and creativity.
As we navigate this AI-driven transformation, the future of HR lies not in choosing between human and artificial intelligence but in finding the optimal balance between the two. By approaching AI as a powerful tool to be mastered and applied judiciously, HR professionals can drive significant value for their organizations, enhancing decision-making, improving employee experiences and contributing more strategically to business success.
