The world of AI is still fairly new – especially when it comes to generative AI and to its applications in the business or even HR context. Since I posted my last piece, also Josh Bersin has published a Whitepaper on AI in HR which is worth a read. Interesting assessment as well as explanation of what AI is and why it is different from previous ways of working with data and analytics.
With this tone and direction, meaning that this is my personal view and definitely not a complete list, let me share my view on the most interesting and impactful use-cases I can see currently in the HR space. Some of them are already in use or in test – some of them are currently still in the ideation stage. Maybe not all will be a success in the end, but I believe that all are worth exploring. To structure, I am turning towards the outcome and experience lens as I wrote in my last post: Which use case provides a good outcome for whom with what kind of experience? How can AI transform the way we operate today for which persona?
AI for your HR Services
Let’s start with the HR Operations persona. Usually you have a fantastic foundation to utilize AI in that space. By now many companies have standardized processes and tools, standardized and documented procedures and knowledge. This is great because this is what AI will need and can utilize to power-charge this persona. For this persona there are mainly two aspects to focus on: efficiency and correctness.
The regular day-to-day activities in HR Services are focused around getting transactions/ getting cases done as well as answering employee questions or requests. Both is highly structured and repetitive – and based on clear guidelines. This is actually an easy task for (Gen) AI. And the main use-cases I see here are (1) Query handling and (2) transaction processing.
The holy grail of Shared Services is to reduce or completely avoid employee queries that require a human to intervene. In the past we have tried to tackle this problem with a great knowledge base and a simple user interface for employees to “self-serve” their answer. To improve, we have focused on employee centricity, clear and simple knowledge articles as well as a consumer grade UI/ UX. This has brought us far – but there are still sufficient cases where either an employee doesn’t want to search for him-/herself or just can’t find what they need. In such cases, employees approached the Service Desk . We have tried to mitigate that and reduce this number of contacts further by utilizing chatbots which – let’s be honest here – mostly annoyed our employees more than that they helped. Generative AI is the deal-maker here. The capability of having a true 2-way interaction and conversation with the fact that the required answer is for sure somewhere in you knowledge base will make THE difference here. And once successfully implemented, it will open up a whole new way of interacting with employees.
But this is not where I see it stopping. Looking further up the value chain of HR Services, we arrive at the transaction layer, which has been reduced in the past significantly via self-services. But (a) not everything can be done as self-service and (b) not all self-services are zero-touch and last but not least (c) not every employee is actually making use of self-services. The introduction of (Gen) AI in this space can help deliver significant value and unlock the true potential of our Services employees. (Gen) AI can further automate transaction delivery than RPA was able to do so far. Having a native AI engine in our transactional system can take the burden of mostly repetitive, non-value-added work away from your Services employees and free them up for true value adding tasks and human employee interactions. This could even mean that we turn back the trend from being a less human-to-human connected service delivery to a more human-to-human connected service delivery as suddenly there is capacity for such interaction.
(Gen) AI in HR Services has the potential to completely revolutionise the Shared Services model. Many past “not possibles” are now thinkable – and with it you can restart shaping your HR Services structure, set-up and WoW from the ground up. In fact, I suggest you start completely fresh and not from any current set-up, structure or reality. The same that is true for (HR) Technology is true for Shared Services Organization – you can bold on AI to your existing Services and improve them slightly as well as gain efficiency or you can model a new way of HR Service Delivery based on and with AI at its core. The latter will be more difficult, but will also bring more value.
AI for Business Partnering
This is one of my favourite topics as I see so much value in getting this right. In many companies I have seen, HR Business Partnering had and has significant room for improvement. Often, it is not even clear what it truly means – and then there is a misperception between expectations on the stakeholder or client side and on the HR side. And this is before companies have identified HR Business Partners or more personal HR support as too expensive and a regular ground for savings.
AI has the chance to roll the wheel back while jumping forward multiple steps.
Let me explain my thinking. I strongly believe that Business Partnering is important and needed while at the same time I am a strong supporter and believer that team and employee accountability sits with the Line Manager (which is why I love to call that role People Manager). People Managers need to do a great job in People Management to make sure their teams are performing as best as possible and we have least voluntary attrition as possible while still ensuring growth opportunities. In many companies despite the fact that People Managers need to lead, guide, develop and overall manage their team, they have further accountabilities. And often these further accountabilities are deemed more important and their “true job” than being a People Manager to their teams. I think we all in HR had this conversation and discussion point more than once. If anyone has found a settling answer that makes all parties happy, please let me know.
(Gen) AI now can make a big difference here. I see two main solution vectors. Very closely interrelated with the use case for HR Services, let’s have a look at transactional activities.
AI as advanced admin or foundational HR support for Managers
We ask People Managers to initiate any team related change/ transaction via self-service before it is then handled by HR (either by a person or via automation). This often takes time away from the People Manager without adding much value – I think we can agree on that. Now, with the help of an AI powered business partner co-pilot, such transactions can be initiated faster and in plain language vs. the need to fill out a form which can be complex if you do it only once or twice a year. And (and I will elaborate more on this in one of my next posts) even more than that it can help bridge the gap that we have today between what a People Manager wants to do (e.g. I have a maternity leaver coming back and want to place her into a new position as well as make sure the salary is properly adjusted) and the way our beloved HR systems need it. People Managers don’t think in business processes or HR workflows or transactions. They think about their employees as a whole and want to achieve ONE outcome (e.g. the leaver being back at work with correct compensation). Today we ask People Managers to submit the wanted outcome in multiple transactions – tomorrow, a Gen AI powered business partnering co-pilot can analyse the wanted outcome in plain language and break it down into transactions the HR systems need to achieve that wanted outcome. This is amazing!
AI as foundational people coach
But this is not where I see the Gen AI Business Partner stopping. It could be a proactive co-pilot that helps and coaches the People Manager daily through the “HR” tasks of being a People Manager. It has full access to Team and individual data if it is based out of your HR system, and you could add calendars, emails and whatever else you have available to provide a wider understanding of what work the People Manager and its team are actually doing. And with that data it can nudge, propose, coach certain reviews, activities or even performance evaluations. It can provide these nudges or suggestions timely and then also help “getting it done”. Let’s go back to my above example of the return from maternity leave and let’s say that the People Manager did not review the salary. The AI would do that in the background anyway and compare with the rest of the team, similar positions or jobs as well as experience and would propose that the People Manager initiates a pay increase – and how much that should be. This will not only be a great experience for the People Manager, but will also help significantly keeping your organization compliant – in this case on pay.
The abilities and use-cases for the People Manager are significant and it all could address multiple issues we face today: (a) human business partners are expensive and so not every Line Leader will have one, (b) Line Leaders feel overwhelmed by the level of self-service that is expected from them, (c) not all line leaders are good People Managers and need coaching on this. The value add of (Gen) AI are amazing and could not only improve your efficiency, but could lead to better team outcomes with intelligent coaching.
AI for HR
I have already above entered HR territory when it comes to coaching as well as wider Talent & Performance Management. And there is so much more. I will explore this in more detail in my next post. I think this was already a lot of food for thought. And as I said, some of the above is already in test & learn – some is a great idea – some but not all of above will make it into real environments and add value. I don‘t know what this will be, but if you don‘t experiment now, you will never know.
Chief HR Officer 