How AI is changing the world of HR
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Your human resources officers are probably using AI for a lot of jobs — and they're also finding that human resources is one of the riskiest ways to use it.
Why it matters: Managing employees at work is becoming another space where machines may be making sensitive determinations previously left up to professionals.
What they're saying: Experts tell Axios AI is a great tool for HR professionals to experiment with, but they must remember AI still hallucinates and can be unreliable.
- "If you're doing anything consequential, like drawing conclusions about performance, or God forbid anything about salaries or things like that, you would absolutely want to make sure you go in and check that the AI is correct," said Helen Toner, interim executive director of Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
- For compensation and promotion decisions using solely AI, "You're seeing many organizations saying, 'OK, let's put a pause on that. It should at least have a human in the loop,'" said Alex Alonso, chief knowledge officer at the Society for Human Resource Management.
By the numbers: Per research from SHRM shared with Axios, recruiting is the top HR area where organizations are using AI.
- According to SHRM data, 65% of HR professionals surveyed use AI at work, compared with 45% of the general workforce.
- Of those who use it, 9 in 10 HR professionals say they're relying on it to generate job descriptions or screen applicants.
- HR AI tools are most effective for performance management and skills assessments, Alonso said.
Threat level: Using AI for recruiting can be time-saving, but it has its drawbacks.
- A recent Business Insider story found that while AI helps recruiters screen candidates, it also means people are applying to jobs en masse, since AI makes it easier for them to apply to a lot of jobs quickly.
- That leads to an avalanche of resumes, overloading HR departments and creating a glut where the right candidates can be hard to find.
Beyond recruiting, companies are finding that one of the best uses of AI is to gather intelligence "to know how to manage your workforce and how it operates," said Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice, an AI-enabled HR platform. "That is a whole new way to work."
- Lattice recently rolled out AI agents that can join meetings and take notes, coach employees based on conversations they're having, bring up their past work and incorporate their data from other workplace platforms like Workday and Slack.
- With all of that information, the agent can nudge managers, track progress toward goals, and flag deviations from progress.
It may sound invasive to have an AI agent reading your Slack messages, calendar meetings and goals, but clients decide what the AI gets access to, Franklin said.
- "So when the AI has all this context about you, the company, your work stream ... it's not about judgment. It's about helping you be effective."
The bottom line: AI is already being widely used in HR departments — but they're still learning how to manage the risks.
