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The AI Disruptor: How AI is Transforming HR – Top 5 Trends

As we enter a new decade, the pace of technology continues to advance at a supersonic pace. Constant change is the new normal and to adapt and survive organizations will be forced to evaluate and integrate new business models that will allow them to thrive in a new business landscape.

While not new to the HR world, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to be used as a way to improve the customer and employee experience. Although traditionally HR wasn’t the first to integrate leading edge technology, today the proliferation of AI technology provides amazing opportunities to streamline processes and integrate large volumes of data.

Here’s a glimpse of the Top 5 HR trends that will continue to transform the industry:

1. AI Will Complement Human Input Not Devalue It

According to an article in Forbes magazine, research conducted by Accenture and the World Economic Forum shows that 87% of workers believe new technologies will improve their work experience.

They are also willing to learn new skills over the next few years to supplement their current ones. While automation promises to help streamline processes as well as data, it will also serve to help make the decisions of HR professionals more strategic and focused. The challenge will be how to take advantage of the benefits of AI while maintaining an engaging and personal experience for both employees and candidates.

2. The Creation of New Jobs and Titles

As more and more companies adopt AI, the creation of new jobs needed to manage the processes will be a priority of C-Suite executives. Not only is the business landscape being re-imagined, jobs too will be changing in profound ways. To execute on their vision of “Optimizing HR for speed, personalization, and democratization to deliver irresistible employee experiences,” IBM has created a new HR role called Vice-President, Data, AI and Offering Strategy. This person leads a team of data scientists, analytics experts and engineers who use data to transform the employee experience. Other titles that have been created as a result of AI include Data Scientist and Cloud Architect.

3. Increase in Investment for Training and Re-Skilling Programs

As AI continues to proliferate organizations, employees will need training on how to interact with their AI team members.  

Training also becomes more important as one in five workers engaged in non-routine tasks will rely on AI to do their jobs. E-learning platforms are one way for companies to leverage AI technology by facilitating career training and planning.

A survey by Accenture says that over the next three years, only 3% of executives plan to significantly increase investment in training and reskilling programs. More investment is clearly needed for companies to be able to take full advantage of the benefits of AI.

While much of the skills demand will be technological, there will also be an increased demand for human skills such as emotional intelligence as companies learn how to leverage AI in the workplace.

4. Increased Automation of Administrative Tasks

AI based software will increasingly be used to improve HR operations and speed up the recruitment process. A study by Eightfold found that HR employees using AI software performed administrative tasks 19% more effectively than HR departments that used no form of AI.

Smart chatbots will be used by employees to gain access to massive amounts of company information. They can also be used to submit and process forms allowing more time to focus on other tasks. HR professionals will now be able to focus on activities that help strengthen workplace relationships and build employee engagement rather than spend time on lower value routine tasks.

5. The Decision to Use AI Will be Experience Based

The decision whether or not to implement AI will focus on how to improve both the employee and candidate experience. Along with human intelligence, the key benefit in using AI to enhance the HR process lies in the value it can provide in making people’s lives more productive, effective and a little easier.

In the HR world, AI algorithms can be used to enhance the recruitment, retention, onboarding and administrative processes. AI also helps to remove human bias from the recruitment process leading to a more inclusive workplace.

As AI tools move towards more mainstream usage in HR, the development of increasingly user-centric designs that are able to help employees at work can only serve to heighten the human experience within an increasingly technological workplace.