With AI continuing to be a hot topic, nearly business function has had to face how this technology could revolutionize work. But HR is one department where leaders should refrain from jumping in feet first.
That’s according to HR leader Akhil Seth, who heads the Open Talent Center of Excellence for UST, building and implementing the company’s strategy to leverage freelancers across the enterprise. “I believe [generative AI] will be a threat to HR professionals who are not vigilant.” he says. “The role of generative AI bots are to consult, while the decisions are still made and enacted by an accountable person.”
Seth spoke with StrategicCHRO360 to share how he advises other HR professionals best approach this new technology.
The use of AI has been a topic of discussion and debate among HR professionals, specifically in recruitment, for a number of years. How is generative AI different and what does it mean for HR professionals?
When it comes to recruitment, AI has been used as a classification tool. It can take hundreds of thousands of resumes or other formats of “capability capture” and classify the resumes into categories such as “suitable for the job,” “unsuitable for the job” or “moderately suitable” among other designations. It is used as decision-helping tool—with much debate over its effectiveness.
Generative AI is very different. Generative AI, as its nomenclature indicates, is very good at generating new content. So, when it comes to recruitment, HR professionals may be able to use it to generate job descriptions, but the bigger issue is reviewing resumes from job seekers who have used generative AI.
HR professionals, supported by AI recruitment tools, will need to identify the clues that reveal whether a resume has been generated with AI. This will start as an artform that will eventually call for HR professionals to be formally trained.
AI, and now generative AI, can seemingly be applied to just about every business department and job function. Can you provide examples of areas and functions within HR where generative AI is not a fit?
Within every function there is absolutely some way in which generative AI can be used. While there is nowhere that it cannot be used, there are areas where HR professionals need to be extremely careful about how it is used.
When it comes to firing people for example, a generative AI bot might be useful in suggesting ways to best share the news gently. But absolutely under no circumstances should generative AI be directly informing people of such a sensitive topic. The role of generative AI bots are to consult, while the decisions are still made and enacted by an accountable person.
In thinking about AI as an evolving technology, what kinds of improvements or advancements in AI can HR executives not only expect, but begin to plan around?
I believe there are not many instances for generative AI to be wielded as a game-changing tool for HR. However, I believe it will be a threat to HR professionals who are not vigilant.
With the example mentioned earlier about job seekers using generative AI to enhance their resumes, HR teams that are not equipped with the personnel or the tools to weed those people out will fall prey to unsuitable candidates making their way too far through the hiring process. This wastes significant time and money.
HR professionals need to develop resources to combat this. This will require training current staff and potentially investing in the development of new tools.
What’s your advice for how a CHRO can effectively embed generative AI both in their department and as well as throughout the organization?
While CHROs may not necessarily need to transform their organizations with generative AI as the centerpiece, they need their staffs to become familiar with what generative AI feels like. Allowing staff to play around with the technology in their own departments and conducting training sessions will make the organization wiser to the technology and better understand how it might be used against them.
And most importantly it will help their teams understand generative AI’s limitations and therefore intelligently allocate the right amount of resources to equip their teams. Hiring PhDs in generative AI would be overkill, but ignoring the technology completely is also dangerous. So empowering their leaders and their entire department to use generative AI as a play tool will help the CHRO make informed decisions on how much investment is sensible for their organization.