AI in Human Resources: the real operational impact

Human Resources is an area in many organisations where AI can have significant operational impact. The technology is now being embedded into day-to-day operations, in activities like answering employees’ questions and supporting training. The clearest impact appears where organisations can measure the tech’s outcomes, typically in time saved and the numbers of queries successfully resolved.

Fewer tickets, more first-time answers

IBM’s internal virtual agent, AskHR, was built to handle employee queries and automate routine HR actions. IBM says AskHR automates more than 80 internal HR tasks and has engaged in over two million conversations with employees every year. It uses a two-tier approach, where AI resolves routine issues, and human advisers handle more complex cases.

The company reports some operational benefits: a 94% success rate in answering commonly-asked questions, a 75% reduction in the number of lodged support tickets since 2016, and – the headline figure – a 40% reduction in HR operational costs over four years.

But it’s important to note that AI is not used by IBM to route queries to existing materials. The automation is capable of completing...