Meet your co-pilot. AI has transformed our lives on all sides, from the personal to the professional. We may not know exactly what the future holds, but the present is full of incredible opportunities for HR pros. Learn how BambooHR is turning AI into HR’s ally and how they work together.
We’ve heard the AI arguments from both sides: AI will take over the world, AI will make life easier, we’re all going to be replaced by robots, automation is the best thing since sliced bread…you get the picture. Because AI is still so new, there’s no way to know where it’ll take us.
What we can do is understand where it can help us right now. Maybe you’ve used an AI tool to find a dinner recipe for the ingredients in your fridge, or to edit a photo before posting on social media. More likely than not, you’ve interacted with AI at work—and if you haven’t yet, it’s only a matter of time.
Reality check
AI isn’t leaving the workplace anytime soon. Globally, AI adoption is at 21% as more and more companies discover the advantages of AI for managing their workforce. HR is no exception. AI can’t (and won’t) replace the human side of human relations, but it can help lighten the workload.
According to SHRM’s 2024 Talent Trends: Artificial Intelligence in HR report, organizations are already using AI to support HR-related activities like:
- recruitment, interviewing, and hiring (64%)
- learning and development (43%)
- performance management (25%)
Most HR pros (a whopping 75%) optimistically agree that human intelligence will become increasingly important over the next five years as AI continues to advance. So how will that change HR’s day-to-day life?
It all comes down to this: AI is HR’s ally. It can complement how HR teams already function by making manual processes more efficient. And with repetitive tasks out of the way, HR can get back to what it does best—people-focused work.
We teamed up with BambooHR to chat through how HR teams can use AI as support, why it can only work in tandem with people, and how to set up your org for success. Let’s get started.
Get it off your desk
Picture an ideal work day, HR pros: You’re connecting with employees across your org, interviewing new potential team members, and working on new initiatives. Not included in said ideal workday? Spending hours combing through documentation or organizing data.
Imagine how much clearer your daily schedule could be without the time-consuming, paper-pushing tasks that inevitably take over your to-do list. The right AI tools help create time and space for HR teams to prioritize strategic, people-focused work.
And speaking of being people-focused…
The human in human resources
There’s a common (and understandable!) fear of AI having the potential to replace humans in jobs. The truth is that in order for AI to be effective for HR teams, it has to work with humans.
Passing off repetitive, manual tasks to AI not only frees up time for HR pros but also helps streamline processes and reduce human errors in paperwork, data, etc. It can even help out in the hiring process by scheduling candidate interviews and sending additional information. Where AI is less effective is on the people side—things like interacting with candidates and answering questions with context.
This is where the human element remains priority #1. AI is great, but it can’t understand the context of a gap taken for health reasons in a candidate’s resume. It can’t tell personal stories about working with an organization. And it can accidentally filter out perfect-fit candidates during recruitment.
The human in human resources will always be important. AI can’t replicate what HR does best—connecting and empathizing with people. So rest easy, HR. The robots aren’t coming for your jobs…just the boring, paperwork-y tasks.
Give some time back
So, where can AI best complement that human element and help save time? Let’s go through ’em, one by one.
HR data + analytics
We mentioned before that AI can help streamline processes and reduce human error. Let’s dig into what that really means.
Think of AI as your own personal assistant, expert calculator, and data checker that rarely (if ever) makes any typos. Bye-bye searching through spreadsheets for spelling errors, hello accurate records and saved time.
Hiring + recruiting
So your team is growing. Awesome! You know what’s less awesome? Managing the entire hiring process, from recruitment and vetting to interviews and onboarding, all by yourself. AI helps take some of the pressure off. While it can’t interview candidates for you, it can help schedule their interviews across every stage of the hiring process with any number of different stakeholders.
Need an email sent to every applicant for a role that needs a supplemental work sample or additional references? No problem—automate it. And save that precious time for actually working with candidates and sending out those sweet, sweet offer letters.
Empower your people
The bottom line is that AI should empower HR, not replace it. That’s BambooHR’s approach. They’re committed to creating AI tools that boost the human element in HR so that your team can shine and do its best work. Here’s how BambooHR makes it happen:
- Augmenting human capabilities: supporting teams with AI tools that boost their abilities and free up time for more creative and strategic tasks
- Fostering growth: easing tedious administrative tasks so people pros can better focus on developing talent and nurturing a positive company culture
- Building engagement: using cutting-edge AI tools to help employees find new opportunities for engaging, meaningful work
People teams and AI are better together. Read about how BambooHR is turning AI into an ally for HR—and watch it in action here.