AI is changing the equation for the future of enterprise

Business used to be so easy; so easy, in fact, Southpark’s Eric Cartman once boiled the business basics down to three steps. Step one: collect gnome underpants; step two: ?; then, finally, step three: profit.

HR Brew does not endorse Cartman’s business plan, but as AI emerges as the go-to workplace enabler of the future (well…we’ll see), it’s introducing a new paradigm when it comes to how businesses function.

The emerging picture as companies adopt more and more AI tools is an equation that balances the work that needs to be done, the workforce capable of doing that work, and the technology that enables the work to happen.

Draup co-founder and CCO Vamsee Tirukkala and his colleagues at the data intelligence platform are betting on the hypothesis that CIOs and IT pros will deliver on the technology, and HR’s role managing the workforce won’t disappear anytime soon. But who oversees the “work”?

HR teams will also play a critical role in understanding the work that needs to be done within the business.

“You need to imagine the work,” Tirukkala said. “The work has to happen. Now what can be done by a person or can be done by a machine, or it could be done by a machine and a human.”

As companies reimagine and redefine work, the question becomes: Can this work be done by technology? And then the business must assess if AI can do the work, if doing so is compliant with relevant regulations and laws, if the budget allows for it, if it fits in the company’s approach to AI or existing processes, and if it’s even possible to actually develop and/or deploy it.

“It’s not all HR, but I’m saying that HR has a big role to play in it,” he said.

Da…da…data. Data is how HR teams and businesses will “earn” their seat at the table in the age of AI enablement.

Tirukkala and his co-founder, Vijay Swaminathan, founded the early talent planning and intelligence solution TalentNeuron (then Talent Neuron) in 2011. What the pair learned since was that more data was needed to better address actual HR issues.

“What we realized is supply-demand and understanding your people doesn’t help you in solving a lot of HR problems. Of course, it’s very important…but unless you understand that entire talent ecosystem, you are only solving bits and pieces of the puzzle.”

For many decisions in HR, more data is required to make informed "multidimensional" decisions. Recruitment strategy decisions, for example, involve the available skills in the market, the talent’s location, the talent’s industry, what competitors are doing, cost to hire the talent, and much more, he said.

Draup’s data reach goes even beyond that, surfacing data and insights on skills strategy, workforce planning, and recruitment intelligence, he said, focusing on offering people teams multidimensional data in real time to help them make more comprehensively informed decisions.

“Companies have realized that perception and experience alone is not preparing for the future,” he said. “Even the guidance that they are getting from the consultants are getting so outdated so fast, that they need to have their hand on the pulse to make the right decision.”