5 ways HR leaders are using AI today
Contributing writer
Generative AI (GenAI) has captured the public imagination in a way not seen since the internet became broadly available in the mid-1990s. And like the internet, GenAI has already begun to change how we all live and work.
Yet, according to the Society of Human Resource Management's (SHRM) 2024 Talent Trends survey, only about one in four organizations use AI regularly to support HR-related activities. For larger, more technology-centric companies, that number edges closer to 40 percent.
What’s clear is that the uptake of AI is growing day by day. Three out of four HR professionals surveyed by SHRM believe advancements in AI will increase the importance of human intelligence in the workplace over the next five years.
Here are five ways HR leaders are using AI today to enhance their organization's ability to attract, manage, train, and retain their most valued assets: their people.
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1. AI as a force multiplier for small HR departments
Alicia Henriquez, head of people for collaboration tools startup Liveblocks, is an HR department of one. But she uses multiple AI chatbots to do the work of many.
She uses GenAI daily for content creation, collaboration, brainstorming, and when she needs to access arcane bits of knowledge — like how to handle payroll tax for people working in France. There's a GPT chatbot dedicated to that!
“Because I am a team of one, and all of my other colleagues are ruthlessly prioritizing what they need to do on the product side of things, I’m leveraging AI to be more efficient.”
Alicia Henriquez, Head of People at Liveblocks
The right chatbots can act as both a research partner and a sounding board, says Henriquez. “For example, I’m using chatbots to help me rethink how to assess performance and identify what our core competencies ought to be – to take our core values and distill that into something simple and clear.”
And as Henriquez eventually builds her department (Liveblocks currently has 12 employees), she'll be better prepared to look for people who can augment the skills and services that AI already provides.
"When I'm ready to hire for my team, I'll know exactly what I need to hire for and where I can leverage AI," she says.
2. A customized source of HR truth
One of the downsides of general interest chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini (formerly Bard) from Google is that they are not HR experts. Unless you’re extremely precise in how you write your prompts, you may get back generic answers and advice, and the sources for this information are opaque at best.
This is why many HR leaders are creating their own industry- or organization-specific chatbots, using OpenAI's Chatbot Builder and similar tools.
For example, when Theresa Fesinstine found ChatGPT wanting, she created her own HR Advisor app using source material she developed over a 25-year career. As founder of peoplepower.ai, she teaches other HR professionals how to get the most from AI tools.
Fesinstine says custom bots are especially useful when asking sensitive questions you wouldn't want to share with a public chatbot for security or privacy reasons.
Alicia Henriquez is also creating her own AI chatbot. And they're hardly alone. The PeopleGPT community has developed more than two dozen bespoke chatbots, from recruiting and mentoring tools to the different ways you can help startup CEOs build their teams.
"I'm trying to show HR leaders that AI is not a scary beast; it's an opportunity to shine," says Fesinstine. "It allows you to focus your energies on important things, not minutiae."
“You can use AI bots as real time management coaches or to enable a more personalized approach to the employee experience. I think AI can be a bridge to reach younger generations entering the job market.”
Theresa Fesinstine, Founder of peoplepower.ai
3. When there aren't enough human facilitators to go around
How do you deliver a day-long training session for 3,000 managers, broken out into hundreds of cohorts of six to eight people, when more than half are attending remotely?
That was the problem facing Joshua Clark, vice president of learning & careers for open-source software maker Red Hat. He turned to human-like AI avatars to facilitate the breakout groups and run the skill-development exercises.
"It was like having a facilitator in a box," he says. "The avatar welcomed attendees to Managers Day and then led them through each of the day's exercises. You just script it, and then the service automatically generates the video for you."
Clark says the advantage of using avatars instead of pre-recording videos with human facilitators is that you don't have to reshoot it when you need to update the learning materials or if that facilitator leaves the company. You just submit a new script.
A growing number of services offer realistic AI avatars for a wide range of uses, including Deep Brain, Soul Machines, and Synthesia. Most let you choose from hundreds of avatars with different skin tones, hair colors, voices, genders, languages, and accents.
In the future, Clark hopes to customize each avatar to match the countries where Red Hat's 24,000 employees are located and deliver content in their native languages.
4. Fostering a more diverse workforce
Multiple studies show that companies with diverse employees outperform those with more homogenous workforces. But if you want to attract a more inclusive pool of job candidates, the words you use to describe positions are critical. AI-powered tools like Textio, Ongig, and Clovers can analyze your language in job postings and suggest ways to remove unintentional bias and broaden their appeal.
For example, Textio data shows that job posts using the words "competitive" and "zero tolerance" are much more likely to attract male applicants. In contrast, words like "collaborative," "fosters," and "our team" are more attractive to female candidates, notes Textio's head of talent acquisition and diversity, Jackye Clayton. Using the right descriptors can also reduce the time it takes to fill a position.
In addition to recruiting, the language used in performance reviews can impact a company's ability to retain a diverse workforce, notes Clayton. Per Textio studies, employees who receive biased or unhelpful feedback are 63 percent more likely to leave their jobs. The company recently introduced a feedback management product, Textio Lift, which flags problematic language in manager reviews.
"Looking for the best talent is hard, and it gets even harder if you're turning people away from your job posts before they even get a chance to apply," says Clayton. "AI can both reduce bias in hiring and help managers get better at the people side of their jobs."
5. Transforming the employee learning experience
Accelerating skills development is an area ripe for help from generative AI. Chatbots can help HR pros research topics, create course content, directly teach skills, and provide real-time feedback.
In addition to enhancing content creation, GenAI tools are enabling employers to create more personalized learning experiences, notes Dieter Veldsman, chief HR scientist for the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR).
For example, Dextego delivers real-time learning in soft skills for Gen Z employees. Curation tools such as Quuu, UpContent, and Scoop.it allow L&D specialists to incorporate public domain content into their development platforms. The Narrato platform enables organizations to automate and accelerate their content-creation workflows.
"AI helps integrate learning into work," says Marna van der Merwe, an HR subject matter expert for AIHR. "By automating learning path suggestions, broadening access to highly curated learning content, and offering multiple opportunities to apply learning and new skills in real time, AI has the potential to completely transform what learning looks like in organizations. That, in turn, will lead to better and sustainable talent pools."
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