HR, AI and Digitalization

 "Artificial intelligence will not replace employees. Rather, it makes our work more enjoyable. Artificial intelligence can take care of boring and repetitive tasks, such as sorting documents or identifying a defective product from a picture. A person can focus on their own strengths, i.e. tasks that require creative and critical thinking," explains Tuomas Tikkanen, the founder and CEO of Artific Intelligence Oy, which produces machine learning solutions, in Duunitori's 2018 interview about artificial intelligence and future HR.

 

The HR field has always been at the forefront of organizational development, and its task is to manage an increasingly diverse workforce. In today's fast-paced digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalization are changing HR practices. These technologies say to streamline HR operations, enhance decision-making, and allow HR professionals to focus on the more strategic aspect of their role. HR is a special field because a large part of the work requires not only strategic understanding and literacy (law, salaries, etc.), but also empathy, sympathy and human-centered values. Although artificial intelligence and digitalization can potentially make it easier to automate some tasks, humans are always needed.

As a good example of this, just this week I participated in an interview with one of our employees. He applied to be a waiter in a hotel. On paper, he looked like a good match for the position, but in the actual interview I quickly realized that this was not the case. Although he had experience and know-how, he didn't exactly fit into that work community. Although various personality tests have been in use for years, no test can predict how the chemistry between people will meet. For me, this visit to the customer during this interview was really eye-opening. In that moment, I understood in a completely different way how important it is to meet people and how little understanding is given by any kind of check-the-box qualifiers or personality tests.

 

Artificial intelligence and digitalization will certainly change all industries. They offer more efficient ways to maintain personal and company data, and data interpretation and predictions improve and speed up. In personnel administration, this has already been seen, for example, in better HR platforms, where you can maintain GDPR-compliant personal data, enter salary data, store tax and training data and, on the other hand, search for information about people and their education and goals. Match a talent to a task, so to say. Just a few years ago, there was a reform, thanks to which the tax card no longer needs to be sent for salary payment, but the tax card information is retrieved every month by the payer directly from the Tax Administration (Verohallinto 2021). When different digital platforms talk to each other, work becomes more efficient. Some HR software has long included built-in development surveys, evaluations and resourcing tools. Now they are also offered by independent companies with API plugins (for example, Webropol and Asana). When independent companies start to specialize in matters, they tend to become phenomenal on it.

 

Although artificial intelligence and digitalization have many benefits, they also bring challenges. For example, the EU regulation regarding personal data has brought its own complications to how information flows and what can be shared and where. I feel that many companies are still trying to understand for what personal data is and how well it should be protected. In the HR field, the laws are often well under control, and I have not come across companies in the HR field where personal data is not particularly well protected, but I can quickly name several companies in other fields that blatantly violate regulations related to the protection of personal data, for example by storing job applications endlessly in e-mail platforms.

 

I see that in the future, artificial intelligence and digitalization will become more and more a part of human resources management, but never in such a way that people would not be still needed to interpret, help and develop. Strategies, plans, creative work (such as resolving disputes and showing gratitude), encounters. They are at the heart of HR and they always require people.

 

 

Sources

Farland A. 2023. 10 ”parasta” markkinointityökalua. Unite AI. 1 October 2023. URL: https://www.unite.ai/fi/10-parasta-AI-markkinoinnin-ty%C3%B6kalua/. Accessed 6 October 2023.

Tikkanen T. 2018. Kymmenen tapaa, joilla tekoäly muuttaa tulevaisuuden työn. Duunitori. Johannes Roviomaa. 1 October 2018. URL: https://duunitori.fi/tyoelama/kymmenen-tapaa-joilla-tekoaly-muuttaa-tulevaisuuden-tyon. Accessed: 3 October 2023.

Verohallinto 2021. Jo puolen miljoonan henkilön verokortti siirtyy työnantajalle automaattisesti

Information from the Tax Administration. 22 September 2021. URL: https://www.vero.fi/tietoa-verohallinnosta/uutishuone/lehdist%C3%B6tiedotteet/2021/jo-puolen-miljoonan-henkilon-verokortti-siirtyy-tyonantajalle-automaattisesti/. Accessed: 5 October 2023.