The Benefits of AI in HR: Our Experts Weigh In

Matt Stannard, Chief Technical Officer | The Benefits (& Challenges) of AI

With AI in HR it is easy to be alarmist and jump straight to job losses. However, AI (particularly) generative AI can be used to replace repetitive tasks and enable HR professionals to focus on high-impact work.

AI can help drive areas like accessibility and inclusion. For example, it can act as an avatar, translate existing material to different languages, read it to visually impaired employees and sign policies to those who are hard of hearing.

Whatever your viewpoint, AI is here to stay. However, we must remember that any Machine Learning is only as good as the information it is trained on. It's easy to introduce bias or overly optimise to the 'perfect' answer - which does not necessarily equal success!

I believe the real winners will be those who introduce AI to help their existing talent, recruit new talent and improve the employee experience and happiness of employees.

Laura Page, People & Happiness Expert | The Future of AI in HR

ChatGPT has been the buzzword in all the HR press since the launch of V4 in March this year. Although it raises huge ethical debates about the future relationship between people and AI, my main engagement with it so far has been limited (note to the reader: when writing a pub quiz for an all-company social, check the answers it gives you are correct!).

However, I recently listened to a podcast episode that discussed both the terrifying potential threats AI poses and the hopeful benefits and possibilities if guided by the right people with the right intentions. As an HR professional who whole-heartedly believes in THI's vision of freedom to be human and the immense importance of human-centric leadership, it really highlighted the huge responsibility of not just HR but all CEOs, decision-makers, and leaders of the business world to put people, humanity and the planet at the centre of all decision making and business behaviours. The future is in our hands.

Jackie Dyal, Customer Experience Director | AI in CX

In my view, CX Excellence can be achieved with an effective mix of AI and human relationships. There will always be a need to bring in feelings and energetic flows to amazing meaningful and powerful content that AI can provide (depending on the circumstance).

In the same way, we can analyse people data to create a holistic view of employee insights, we can do the same for our customer experience to help us understand Employer Listening needs and specific HR role requirements better. AI gives more immediate real-time insights to help us ‘know’ our customers and ‘get’ what HR professionals need as they hear from their people daily.

Tony Latter, Co-Founder & Head of Happiness Innovation | AI in HR Tech

AI is a tool to be used just like any other technology humans use. These tools are there to help us and we shouldn’t over-rely on them. The best use of AI is when humans use it to complement their own knowledge and experience.

Matt Phelan, Co-Founder | AI & 'Freedom to be Human'

AI is a mirror to our souls, working lives and wider society. The data and learning AI uses comes from the world around us that we had a huge part in shaping.

Every bias, every success, every failure and all our quirks directly or indirectly came from the world in which AI was born.

All our fears and hopes for AI are completely natural and very human.

As a business owner who sees employees as the foundation of success this subject is really important to me. Most of the discourse related to AI in HR is about job losses. My thoughts are the opposite and I often wonder what if employees use AI to make organisations redundant!?

For me, it’s important to flip the script and work out how AI can be used to make your organisation the destination of choice for top talent to join, stay and grow.

We are working hard on that at The Happiness Index via our platform but also through our own employee experience.

Want to Prepare Your Company Culture For AI?

There is no right or wrong with AI in HR - and whether you’re terrified, excited or both, your feelings are valid! The only certainty is it is here to stay, so can’t be ignored. If you’re looking for more information about how to get ahead of the curve, why not download our latest eBook? Employee Happiness and AI is a complete guide to getting your company culture AI ready.