"HR Teams Can Become Prompt Engineers In The Age Of AI"
Can you elaborate on the significance of conversational AI in the future of HR? How does it enhance the overall employee experience?
Onboarding, Training and coaching can be now effectively assisted by conversational AI as they can be the best digital buddy for every new joiner who needs support in onboarding.
When it comes to answering employee queries, conversational AI can give personalised responses as opposed to fixed responses provided by traditional FAQs.
One of the most widely acknowledged benefits of conversational AI is that HR saves time in day-to-day query management and can focus on strategic and human-centric activities which adds value, leaving the coaching and query management to conversational AI.
Consistency in responses and round-the-clock availability are also key aspects. After all, AI do not go on casual leave or sick leave!
In your opinion, what is the driving need for digital transformation in payroll and HR services, and how does it impact organizations and their employees?
Competition is the primary driver! Yes, nowadays no company can sit back and watch while others are embarking on a digital transformation journey in one form or another. If a competitor’s HR and Payroll function is smarter and provides better employee experiences, it will surely have an impact on an organization’s employee morale and retention – isn’t it! Yes, it is a threat for an organisation as its competitors move forward in digital transformation.
Another key driver is opportunity! The availability of superior and smarter technologies indeed is an opportunity for organizations. With expanding workforces, hybrid models, remote work and building-less offices, having technology in place such as global systems, cloud platforms, self-service systems and mobile applications is a boon.
Questions such as “Why should I fill up a manual form? Why can’t I do it online?” – have already become questions of the past.
“Why should I fill an online form? Why can’t I just dictate my responses through a voice assistant”, or “Why can’t the system auto-fill details from my other channels?” – these queries show the level of expectation from this generation’s employees.
Hence, continuous upgrade and adoption of technology through Digital Transformation is becoming non-negotiable for Payroll/HR teams.
Can you explain the role of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and how it works in the context of chatbots and virtual assistants like CHIA?
Chatbots and Virtual assistants are built to answer queries. Primitive versions of them request users to ‘choose option 1 for X, option 2 for Y’, and so on. However, these kinds of pre-coded inputs or formatted inputs needs extra attention from the users and if they make minor mistakes, then they must follow a long input path to correct them.
Can a chatbot/assistant understand whatever the user asks/says as it is? This is where NLP is making a breakthrough. This technology can understand what the user is intending to say instead of just sticking to the actual letters or words he/she typed.
When we add complexities like variations in accents and usage of multiple languages, NLP is a technology that can understand human communication much better, irrespective of whether it is voice or text.
With its tradition of using top-notch technologies and the habit of continuous adoption of technological advancements, Ramco’s CHIA is making the best use of NLP to understand the user commands/requests holistically and converse with them.
And to take the conversations to the next level, usage of Generative AI using GPT-4 is another natural empowerment for Ramco’s CHIA!
Now the conversations with CHIA are more human-like than machine-like. That is what users like!
In the context of digital transformation, what role do you believe AI and automation will play in improving HR processes and delivering a better employee experience?
While digital transformation is a bigger game, AI and Automation do have their major share in that journey. In the order of usage, Automation becomes the first goal. With more technology involvement and data maturity, companies can use AI too as the next big thing in their digital transformation journey.
Given that most of AI are at their best when quality data is provided and are well trained with large data sets, it becomes important to have suitable platforms and means to collect data in a digital form for all relevant processes of an HR operation.
When organizations moved from paper-based systems to online ERP platforms, the key question from stakeholders was, “How do I use the ERP data efficiently?” In those days, Reporting and Analytics were given as the answer.
Now with AI technology, the data that is captured through ERP platforms can speak even louder. Yes, any organization that has automated all its processes through online systems is sitting on a huge wealth of data. They can extract massive power out of their transactional data through AI which can bring out unexpected strategic outputs. Error detection, anomaly reasoning, pattern recognition and other such capabilities can help HR and Payroll administrators. They help them give error-free payslips and services to their employees in a timely manner.
In addition to helping the management to make strategic decisions, the AI engines can give smoother experiences to the employees too. Be it auto-filling documents/forms or predictive guidance for employees, AI can do magic for the employees. Imagine the presence of an AI which can guide an employee on how and when to plan his/her vacation based on work schedules and key personal/work milestones! Many such use cases are possible in the world of AI.
What are your views on the future of HR-shared service delivery models, and how do you ensure efficiency and excellence in service provision?
The future is all about technology. Every year there is modern technology that shakes the market. Improvements to technologies and newer releases/avatars of technology are becoming as regular as sunrise and sunset. In such cases, the HR shared service delivery model is best placed because it minimizes an organization’s effort on training/testing modern technologies. The organization only has a central HR team to cover! Most often the central teams are the ones that must go the extra mile when modern technology is rolled out and the shared services model is best suited for such challenges.
Another important thing is, that with AI and RPA taking away the mundane work, the HR teams can become prompt engineers commanding the whole gamut of technology tools given to them. This makes them much smarter in their work and gives them plenty of time to bring in the human connection with their employees/stakeholders.
One critical aspect of digital transformation is that you must re-think or re-imagine your processes! The more quality focus HR Teams spend on this, the more miracles they can create out of the AI technology that is present to them.
AI will be ready. RPA will be ready. ChatGPT will be ready. NLP will be ready. But are we the HR Community ready to command these Armed Forces? That is the big question which will drive every HR fraternity.
Equipping the self to learn how to use technologies, aligning with IT teams and experts in brainstorming and providing critical requirements, and converting every bottleneck in the HR operations as a use case for AI/Tech rollout are some of the key aspects HR Community should spend their time on.
Technology can make HR folks superheroes if they are smart enough to adapt to it, no doubt!
