Stories make people feel safe and like they belong. Stories let people know what is expected of them. Stories make complex jobs clear. Stories explain what our organizations do. For all the
in the world of HR, stories are key.
Occasionally, and in successive periods,
massive winds of change and transformation
occur in the business structure and its
composition, and most of the time if not all the
times the knockout eventually comes, positively
or negatively, to the human element,. We have
witnessed some of these changes and suffered.
History always teaches us lessons to think
through. Good science fiction movies also give
us an idea of what the future will look like.
For instance, Coronavirus was introduced in
some movies and books 10 years before the
A consideration of the impact of AI on HR practices.
pandemic. Did you notice?
In 1973, the movie, Westworld, was released,
opening our eyes for the future to come. We
called that science fiction and laughed a lot.
Then, 28 years later, in 2001, film director,
Steven Spielberg, directed the movie, A.I.
Artificial Intelligence. The fact is, they must
have known or seen something or were probably
delivering a message to the world of what the
future would look like.
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data
Science are popular terms and hot topics in
this era, and knowing what they are and their
value in the coming years is more crucial than
ever. AI is progressing very fast with new highly
developed innovations in the present world.
The new buzz around the use of AI in
organizations has gained a lot of momentum
in the last few years. Executives are optimistic
about the role of AI in improving business
performance and improving the efficiencies
of both internal processes and the customer
service function. It has influenced everything
these days; and, subsequently, it affects the HR
department’s practices.
Some of us have understood the necessity of
revamping the integration of human knowledge
and machine learning for an effortless work
process and a predictive work environment, and
others are still wandering around.
We can now predict, or at least speculate, the
effect on the function, but the question remains
the same: Are we ready yet?
Many practitioners are reluctant to embrace
this breakthrough technology. While some feel
algorithms can never replace human empathy
and intuition, there already exists second
generation AI that is doing just that. There
are however still doubts about the availability
and quality of data and whether AI can add
something new to what we already know about
the dynamics of the workforce.
As a matter of fact, we greatly believe that
the primary impact on the function will be
in Recruitment/Talent Acquisition. Effective
recruiting is vital to a modern business. When
done right, it allows organizations to grow and
add value to their respective industries.
According to research from the International
Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology, AI integration into Human
Resources practices will make organizations
better because these applications can analyze,
predict and diagnose to help HR teams make
better decisions.
For example, The Marriott Hotel chain uses
a chatbot for initial interactions with job
candidates by responding to standard
questions, matching candidates’ interests with
vacancies and providing information on the
company’s culture and values.
Report authors Prasanna Matsa and Kusuma
Gullamajji found in their August 2019 report
that AI can be embedded in functions such as
recruitment, training, onboarding, performance
analysis, retention etc. However, they added,
the majority of organizations are still lagging in
integrating AI to their HR practices because of
cost. “AI implementation should be viewed as
an optimistic opportunity, because AI enhances
lives. AI creates a better future if it is clearly
understood and utilized in a
proper way,” stated the report.
In today’s competitive
environment, hiring and
retaining the best talent requires
a heavy lift from HR teams. HR
has to deliver great employee
and candidate experiences
across recruitment, training and
operations functions with speed,
accuracy and personalization.
While it is clear that Artificial
Intelligence will continue to
shape the field of HR in the
coming years, practitioners
should also be aware of the
challenges that they might face
The most common concerns that HR leaders
have focus primarily on making AI simpler
and safer to use. In fact, the most common
factors preventing people from using AI at work
are security and privacy concerns.
Additionally, 31 percent of respondents
in Oracle’s survey expressed that they
would rather interact with a human in the
workplace than a machine. Moving forward,
HR Professionals will need to be prepared
to address these concerns by staying on top
of trends and technology as they evolve and
change.
For instance, employees want their
organizations to respect their personal data and
ask for permission before using such technology
to gather information about them. However,
organizations also want to feel protected from
data breaches, and HR Professionals must take
the appropriate security measures into account.
To prepare for the future of Human Resources
Management, professionals should take the
necessary steps to learn about current trends in
the field, as well as lay a strong foundation of
HR knowledge that they can build upon as the
profession evolves.
On the surface, it seems a little ironic that
computers would be taking over elements of
a job that is all about human interactions, but
when you dig a little deeper, it actually makes a
lot of sense.
In fact, relying on AI for data management
and analysis enables HR to spend more
time interacting with people, meaning that
technology is helping bring people together,
not tear them apart.
The second impact will be in Training. Using
AI-enabled tools for designing learning and
development opportunities for employees
will help in enhancing job satisfaction among
employees. Designing the career development
plans according to employees’ requirements will
lead to less absenteeism and improved output.
AI can truly add value in Learning and
Development, where some of the key impact
areas of Artificial Intelligence on L&D include
personalized learning pathways augmented
to the needs of the learner, conversational
interfaces and analytics for e-learning.
At a later stage, we will see the full integration
of AI into the entire HR functions:
The future trend of AI for HRM is still the
collaboration of human and machine, with
the existence of conflict. The McKinsey
Global Institute believes that “more than 30%
of activities in 60% of occupations can be
replaced by Artificial Intelligence”.
According to a research report from the
University of Oxford, in the next 10 to 20
years, half of the jobs in the United State
will disappear as a result of the influence
of IT, and nearly 47% of US employees will
be unemployed. Based on these data, how
to elevate the competitive intelligence of
Human Resource Managers and deploy human
resources efficiently may be very difficult to
handle.
CONCLUSION
We have to wake-up from our coma, and
carefully watch and translate what those good
signals are telling us about our future. Those
movies have not come out of thin air.
In the book, The Rise of the Robots, written by
Martin Ford, depicting the near future where AI
robots take the place of humans, the fear and
anxiety are not just related to the massive job
loss, but also result from the scary scenario that
humankind is dominated by AI robots and will
eventually become extinct.
The idea that AI and robots will dominate
humankind one day was a main theme of
scientific fiction movies, but has become a
more serious topic nowadays.
From my point of view, the inclusion of AI in the
HR functions will snatch away various jobs from
the workforce by replacing them with highly
intelligent software. Despite the advantage of
AI in reducing the work pressure of employees,
it will definitely result in the enormous
reclassification and redesigning of jobs at all
the levels, but will eventually and most probably
increase unemployment. With the rapid
advancement of technology, human beings
will become extinct, unless we follow Charles
Darwin’s advice when he observed, “It is not the
strongest of the species that survives, nor the
most intelligent, but the one most responsive to
change.”.
PROF. DR M AMR SADIK is Chairman and
CEO of Quodrat Egypt. He is an HBR Advisory
Council Member, Adjunct Professor IPE
Management School, Paris, and of Middle East
Programs for, Victoria University, School of
Management, Switzerland.
