Stats show nine-in-ten organisations support AI for competitive advantage
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in core business operations, HR leaders are being urged not to view the transformation with trepidation but as a chance to redefine value in the workplace.
"The one thing about HR that’s important is picking the right person, and that’s something AI just can’t do, regardless of how advanced it is," Dr. Ryan Payne, senior lecturer at the University of Canberra, told HRD. "We’re also going to see a big change in the skills we need in the workplace, which is really exciting."
“We’re using AI in a much greater capacity to do menial tasks, like booking annual leave, so it means we can spend more time with key interactions,” Payne noted, “so machine learning is great in taking the burden off us.”
Whilst there are some positives to come out of AI and the use of AI agents in day-to-day workflows, there are some drawbacks to the new technology that can’t be overlooked but can be used to a business’ advantage.
“With low skilled roles and jobs potentially being replaced by AI, in a HR context it allows us to be more efficient and finetune the skills we need. Take meetings, for example – talking to people beforehand might mean you get a nugget of information or insight into how something can be tackled. AI can’t recognise and quantify that," Payne said.
By removing people, you start to remove different positions going forward – so the new skill will be focusing on thinking in different ways.
“We're going to see higher education teach more critical thinking and different ways of thinking about the same problem. Going forward, businesses need to recognise their employees and the human capital they have," he said.
Figures posted by the National University based in San Diego, suggest whilst 85 million jobs may be eliminated by AI this year, 97 million will be created – resulting in a net gain of 12 million jobs.
The global economy will benefit around USD$15.7 trillion by 2030 and almost all organisations (9-in-10) say they support AI for a competitive advantage, the findings state.
Payne agreed, highlighting that the human-machine relationship will separate businesses going forward.
“A good HR manager will recognise when they’re not developing their people who, in turn, develop other people. Relying solely on AI won’t get you to where you want to go - Successful businesses will be the businesses that develop good people. Because if you have those skills of thinking about things, from computational, entrepreneurial, creative or institutional thinking.”
New roles, such as data engineers and analysts, will become more prevalent in the next 10 years, Payne outlined, which opens up greater opportunity for career growth in the future.
AI usage at people management level also allows for creation of new “ecosystems” to better engage and educate their workforce.
Dashboards are great to quantify decision making processes and AI is great for that. It puts everything in one place and getting that automated can be really effective,” Payne emphasized.
“AI providers can license their little ecosystems and chambers for you to put data into along with its language to process what you’re saying – something employees can interact with to upskill.”
