AI: Pervasive Or Effective?

In the new digital era, AI-led employee experience is totally changing, and so are the roles and responsibilities of HR departments and staff.

- Vikas Shirodkar

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics (including Chatbots), Machine Learning, Intelligent Screening Tools - have all moved out of the realm of mere concepts and possibilities into hard reality. The very existence of the HR function and its deliverables - already under attack from outsourcing, automation, and selfservice - and continuance, seem to be under threat. Was this an immediate development? Or was it there for long, while we failed to interpret the signs on the wall? What part of our function will get swamped by such developments? In what new avatar do we see the HR function re-emerge?

In the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes, a renowned economist, prophesied substitution of man by machines in his essay, "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren." John questioned the effects of automation on jobs, wellbeing, and happiness, seeking solutions to "technological unemployment." Speaking about the increased utilisation of robots in the workplace, Elon Musk stated, "When we react, it will be too late," and added that this would represent "a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization." Apparently, the HR challenge is a mere subset of a larger "invasion." Robotics have been in vogue in the manufacturing space for some time now, and was welcome since it meant error-free manufacturing and consistent quality, and also eliminated humans from hazards, e.g., paint shops in the Auto industry or manufacture of dangerous chemicals. Progressively, robotic equipment and machines became smarter and more capable, and have today entered all areas of human endeavour. HR departments, which were always procedural and rulebound, are subject to a major threat. Increasingly, what they did well is disappearing into machines and systems, operated by managers and employees in a self-service mode, relying less on the traditional monolithic and reactive HR departments with a large staff strength.