Generative AI in HR: Examples & How To Successfully Start Using AI
Although a third of organizations claim to use generative AI in at least one business function, that number falls to just 3% when it comes to HR. But what if you could use generative AI to significantly increase your HR efficiency with minimal effort?
Generative AI in HR is a hot topic, particularly as HR’s function is set to evolve considerably in the future. In fact, Microsoft reported that 70% of employees were already comfortable using AI for admin tasks. The result? More time spent on meaningful face-to-face interactions will save money, increase efficiency, and help meet organizational goals.
In this article, we’ll explore what generative AI (artificial intelligence) in HR looks like, how it works, its impact on HR as a whole, generative AI tools for HR, and how to start integrating generative AI in your HR department.
Contents
What is generative AI in HR?
How generative AI is used in HR
Top 5 generative AI tools for HR
5 generative AI in HR examples
How to start using generative AI in HR
What is generative AI in HR?
First, let’s explore generative AI and, specifically, what it means for HR.
What is generative AI?
Generative AI is a subset of AI that primarily focuses on content creation, data analysis, and generating programming coding that mimics human-like creativity and output.
Traditional AI mainly analyzes and processes existing data to make evidence-based decisions or predictions. Generative AI, on the other hand, produces new content through learning patterns and structures obtained from large datasets. This data can include text, images, videos, music, and more.
What is generative AI in HR?
Generative AI’s application can have significant implications for four main areas of HR:
- Content: HR professionals can use generative AI tools to increase efficiency and value in various stages of employee life cycle — from creating engaging job descriptions based on skill profiles and writing personalized emails to job candidates to drafting HR policies and creating training content.
- Data: Generative AI tools can summarize and extract key insights from data. For example, it can help HR analyze and aggregate performance ratings, salary data, and more.
- Communication: Using generative AI chatbots, HR can improve employee engagement, increase access to the HR knowledge base, and offer individualized learning recommendations based on skills gaps. You can also use these chatbots to improve efficiency and the individual employee growth and development experience.
- Coding: You can also leverage generative AI to compile various data sources and analyze large datasets for organizational analysis and planning. Examples include determining the probability of attrition rates, identifying high-potential employees, and pinpointing future skills gaps.
How does generative AI work?
In a word, generative AI uses neural networks, which are systems inspired by the human brain. These networks are trained on large datasets to recognize patterns. They then use these patterns to generate new content.
For example, if trained on a large number of images, a generative AI can create new images that resemble the originals. Similarly, for text, it can write new paragraphs based on the style and structure of the text it has learned from.
How will generative AI impact HR?
Generative AI will have a major impact on HR as technology continues to evolve and businesses rely on it more. According to a Gartner survey, 76% of HR leaders believe their organization must adopt AI solutions within two years to ensure organizational success, while 38% have already explored or implemented such solutions to increase process efficiency.
The more technological advances arise, the more administrative tasks will be automated. However, more administrative HR roles are at higher risk of replacement compared to less repetitive and more complex specialized roles.
Generative AI holds much HR potential, including greater productivity. A LinkedIn survey suggested it could increase HR productivity by 30% while creating a more strategic and knowledgeable HR organization.
AI will reduce low-level administrative tasks, and many key roles—including HRBPs—will pivot toward storytelling and high-value insights that help drive the business forward. It will also streamline HR processes, including the use of language learning models (LLMs) to craft job descriptions, interview questions, and communication with candidates and employees.
How generative AI is used in HR
Recruitment and hiring
Some applications, such as ChatGPT, can help create accurate and compelling job postings or generate customizable screening questions tailored to specific roles and candidate profiles for a more targeted and effective interview process.
HR and talent acquisition professionals can also use generative AI to draft various types of emails in the recruitment process, for example, outreach emails and rejection letters.
What’s more, some talent intelligence platforms are now incorporating generative AI functionality that enables you to search within their databases with a question instead of a complex Boolean search string. You can also analyze candidate profiles relative to the job descriptions of your vacancies.
Onboarding
During onboarding, AI-powered chatbots can act as virtual onboarding assistants to provide new hires with real-time support, answering questions related to company policies, compensation and benefits, requesting leave, and other vital information. This support can enhance the onboarding experience and help new employees settle in more quickly.
Training and development
Combining generative AI and HR can positively impact employee growth and development. For example, generative AI can provide customized learning and development suggestions for employees by analyzing their skills, performance data, and career aspirations.
AI-based coaching is also growing in popularity. AI coaching tools can mimic the benefits of in-person, one-on-one coaching by offering employees real-time feedback, answering questions, and offering insights.
Generative AI technologies are also useful in updating and adapting training materials in accordance with industry requirements. This means learners have access to the latest content, and organizations remain compliant. Generative AI can also be used to create realistic, varied training simulations that operate dynamically based on user decisions. This would facilitate experiential learning and boost decision-making skills.
Employee engagement
As an HR professional, you can use generative AI to brainstorm employee engagement survey questions that will allow you to gather actionable insights into how you can improve workplace satisfaction, enhance productivity, and address specific areas of concern within your organization.
You can use the already mentioned AI-powered chatbots to engage not only new but also existing employees. They can handle routine employee queries regarding essential company information (such as benefits and policies) and enable HR to offer employees more intuitive self-service applications. This gives HR professionals more time to spend on more valuable face-to-face interactions.
Policy and document generation
Generative AI for HR solutions can be immensely helpful in creating and updating policies and documents. It can help speed up document drafting, provide foundations for contracts and agreements, and accelerate research and writing by drafting documents based on company policy. At the same time, generative AI can help accurately complete forms, reducing typically tedious administrative tasks and paperwork for HR personnel.
HR data analysis
Generative AI can analyze large datasets and uncover key patterns. It can also create visually appealing data insights and images that convey complex information in a simple and engaging way.
An example of using generative AI for analyzing HR data would be looking at anonymized salary data for any trends and anomalies or exploring unusual patterns in employee attendance or performance, which may indicate potential issues that you need to address, such as dissatisfaction or poor management. You can also create scripts for more advanced data analysis with generative AI.
Internal communications
Generative AI allows you to quickly generate content tailored to the organization’s and its employees’ needs. This includes determining a voice and tone that aligns with company values, personalizing messages to resonate with the individual, and using inclusive language. This helps HR ensure all communications across the business are consistent in tone, inclusivity, and engagement.
Gen AI can also customize messages based on factors like role, interests, location, and professional development stages. Whether you’re engaging with candidates or existing employees, generative AI can help ensure every aspect of your communication is deliberate and effective.
Speeding up tasks
If used properly, generative AI enables HR professionals to finish many tasks faster, freeing up a significant amount of time. This allows them to focus on more strategic and value-added activities such as employee development, talent management, and organizational planning. Not only does this help HR teams feel more valued and purposeful, but it also makes them more integral to business growth.
HR tip
Invest in a course or training workshop to accelerate your AI knowledge if you want to learn more about leveraging popular generative AI tools like ChatGPT to increase HR productivity and business impact.
AIHR’s ChatGPT for HR online and entirely self-paced course is a great example of a practical application course to take.
Top 5 generative AI tools for HR
HR software providers are increasingly incorporating generative AI into their solutions. Here are some AI software and tools examples.
Total rewards
Benify’s generative AI assistant, Beni, provides 24/7 personalized employee support by instantly answering questions, solving problems, and integrating with the company’s knowledge base to deliver accurate, customized responses.
DEIB
Diversio’s generative AI identifies patterns in HR data and suggests actionable changes to help businesses evaluate and improve their inclusivity efforts.
HR efficiency and productivity
This advanced AI language model designed to generate and streamline communication, content creation, and problem-solving across various organizational functions.
Talent acquisition and recruitment
Findem’s AI assistant helps talent acquisition team gain insights into data, draft emails, and conduct effective candidate searches.
Employee experience
A virtual HR assistant that delivers instant support to employees at every stage of the employee life cycle. It auto-resolves employee queries (related to onboarding, payroll, leave, insurance, etc.), streamlines work processes, and saves employees time.
5 generative AI in HR examples
Let’s look at how companies are successfully applying generative AI in HR.
Example 1: Large transport & logistics company
A large company in logistics and services struggled with the scale of HR policy documents that were often difficult to understand. They needed an effective policy retrieval system that would reduce HR’s workload and boost efficiency.
Using generative AI, it created the HR Policy Document Query Assistant. The company used an LLM model to convert text from PDFs and simplify the content of policy documents. Advanced techniques and an orchestration framework (LangChain) improved the HR assistant’s intelligence and responsiveness,
The company saw a 30% decrease in HR queries and a 20% decrease in compliance-related incidents. This led to a more positive employee experience at work, time and cost savings, and improved compliance.
Example 2: RingCentral
RingCentral — a cloud comms and collaboration software business — knew their talent search wasn’t fast enough to meet recruitment targets or DEI goals. Enter Findem’s talent search solution: a generative AI approach to deliver detailed talent insights and trends by combining external and internal data, and automating candidate matching and outreach.
The advanced talent data cloud with attribute-based search enables RingCentral to find and hire the right talent and create highly targeted and diverse talent pools. They’re also able to gain insight into what could motivate each candidate to consider taking the job, then create targeted outreach campaigns based on their findings.
RingCentral increased their pipeline by 40%, their pipeline quality by 22%, and increased interest in their vacancies from underrepresented groups by 40%.
Example 3: Manipal Health Enterprises
Manipal Health Enterprises wanted a solution that could provide 24/7 support to nurses, doctors and other employees for all their HR queries. Using Leena, MiPAL was born — a virtual assistant that automatically answers all queries relating to payroll, taxes, leave management, benefits, and more.
This has saved the HR team over 60,000 hours in time manually replying to repetitive questions, reduced the average response time for employees to 24 hours, and reduced the annual new hire attrition rate by up to 5%.
Example 4: Straits Interactive
Straits Interactive is an organization that creates data governance solutions. The company wanted to improve data privacy and governance. Before partnering with Foundry for AI by Rackspace (FAIR), their software helped users to access information relating to data privacy and summarize legal texts. However, trained data privacy experts were needed to interpret the output.
Using GenAI, FAIR created an AI-driven Data Protection Officer assistant to guide global data governance and compliance. Now, anytime anyone has a law-related question, the DPO assistant is available 24/7 to help, no matter how complex it may be.
Example 5: Heluna Health
Heluna Health — a champion of public health and innovation — was struggling to communicate, collaborate, and engage with a workforce spread across a vast range of projects. By implementing CloudApper’s hrGPT, a personalized communication tool, Heluna Health could deliver targeted, customized messages and updates to specific groups of employees.
hrGPT is able to mimic human interactions and engage in natural conversations with employees, which retains the quality of human touch without the need for actual human input. This helped improve communication and engagement across the company and create a stronger sense of belonging. Additionally, many HR tasks have been automated and the company has seen improved information consistency, and minimized delays.
How to start using generative AI in HR
Here are some best practices to familiarize yourself with before you begin using generative AI in your HR operations:
Step 1: Start small and experiment
ChatGPT is one of the amazing free tools you can use to dip your toes into the world of generative AI. Try using it to brainstorm employee survey questions or interview questions, draft emails to candidates, or update a job description. This is a solid way to test the waters of gen AI and get familiar with it before making a significant investment into a generative AI tool.
Step 2: Learn how to prompt effectively
There are three key elements to keep in mind when creating a prompt for ChatGPT:
- Objective: The purpose of the prompt. It clarifies what you want to achieve with your query.
- Context: Any relevant background information that provides a framework for your query. This might involve specifying the topic or including necessary details that can guide the response.
- Format: Specifying any particular formatting requirements (e.g., list, essay, summary).
An example of a prompt would be “Draft a job description for the role of HR Administrator at Mastercard covering responsibilities and what we offer”. Enter different types of prompts for the same purpose to see which prompts result in the most suitable results.
Step 3: Evaluate and refine based on the AI outputs
It’s important to remember that generative AI is always evolving. Review the AI-generated responses, gain insights into the effectiveness of your queries, and identify areas for improvement in prompt crafting to get more accurate and relevant information.
Also, when using AI-generated content, lean on your own knowledge, expertise, and industry standards to assess the correctness of the outputs.
Step 4: Integrate AI gradually
Integrate AI into your workflow at a slow and steady pace. For example, you can start by using it to draft policy documents, then for a simple data analysis a week later. This approach will soften the learning curve for the whole HR team.
Step 5: Always keep data privacy in mind
As discussed, data privacy is one of the primary concerns when sharing data with gen AI tools. HR professionals have a huge responsibility here, as they frequently deal with sensitive employee information. Ensure that you comply with data protection regulations and maintain confidentiality at all times.
As GenAI becomes more widely used within your HR department and the organization, consider developing a generative AI policy to guide how you work with technology.
Step 6: Collaborate with IT
The final step is to work with your IT team to better understand the technical aspects of GenAI tools. Not only will this help you integrate them properly into your existing HR software and systems, it will minimize technical issues and facilitate smooth operation.
To sum up
As generative AI continues to evolve, it will become an even more integral part of the work landscape. Stay ahead of the curve by implementing generative AI tools and software in your HR operations to help you reduce your team’s admin workload so they can spend more time on work that truly matters.
Weekly update
Stay up-to-date with the latest news, trends, and resources in HR
Learn more
Related articles
Are you ready for the future of HR?
Learn modern and relevant HR skills, online
