Artificial intelligence is not the future. It is the present. AI can improve your business in many ways, which your competitors already know.

Machine learning is now used across many sectors. Companies in fields as diverse as medicine, fashion, food, and more use AI. It improves organization, stock taking, design, and customer service. In turn, that improves efficiency and, ultimately, profits.

What is AI exactly?

Artificial Intelligence is the use of computers to replace the human brain. As with human brains, it can complete a lot of different kinds of tasks. In general, it will do them very quickly — almost instantly.

Here are some examples:

In the data industry, AI can analyze vast streams of data and extract information in the blink of an eye. It won’t get bored, or tired, or need a bathroom break. It won’t miss things through lack of attention.

With online shopping, chatbots can respond to queries 24/7. They can sound exactly like a human operator, or impersonal like the robot they are. It depends on the tone needed. In other areas, such as human resources, AI can replace humans by automating routine and repetitive tasks.

How can it save me money?

As everybody knows, time is money. Using the data mining example, you could pay an employee for hundreds of hours of work. Or, an AI system can give you the answers. The outlay is a fraction. And because the answer you are looking for is relayed right away, you can move on in the task.

AI has improved productivity in an array of sectors. AI-powered contact center software has allowed companies to become incredibly efficient. In a shop, a digital SKU system is far more efficient at keeping tabs on stock levels than a manual one. It can record and analyze the demand for certain articles. More will automatically get ordered.

A fashion store can see when a garment is selling like hot cakes and get more before the trend runs its course. This maximizes profit on the item. For teleconferencing solutions or other software providers, one of the biggest problems faced is customer churn. Retention schemes try to contact as many customers as possible whose contract is due to run out.

Discounts and other enticements are offered to remain. But some of those customers would have stayed anyway. Others, who were more likely to leave, may not have been contacted. Customer services can’t get in touch with every single person whose contract is due to be up.

What the firm needs to understand are the factors influencing people to stay or go. An AI program is able to analyze the data from thousands of customers. It works out the risk factors and pulls out a list of people most likely to leave.

They can then be contacted without waiting for inbound calls. This saves money by increasing customer retention.

But surely a machine is not as good as a human?

In some ways, a human’s creative brain and ability to think outside the box will never be equaled.

Yet, in routine tasks, AI is almost always more accurate. It can make mistakes, but far fewer than most humans would. Even in scientific tasks such as breast cancer detection, people have an opinion. One doctor would judge a person cancer-free, while another might make a different call.

According to Google, their Google AI program has a 99% accuracy rate in checking for cancer.

Yet, an AI program is programmed by humans. While it doesn’t have feelings or beliefs, it can reflect the views or opinions of the data it is fed. This is called machine bias.

For example, say data was collected from a survey of readers of a particular sports clothing magazine. It turns out that 59% of the people who answered thought that a specific garment shown to them was fantastic. They would wear it every day if they could.

But this doesn’t mean that 59% of the entire world loves that particular item. It depends on the gender, location, and taste of the people answering the questions.

If a machine was fed that data, it might not be accurate in interpreting the survey answers. This happened when Amazon’s AI recruiter picked a male majority for interviews at a tech job.

You might expect a machine not to get influenced by gender. But it had observed that most people who got that job had always been male. Thus, it followed that pattern.

But at least a bias in a machine can be corrected. It will not be offended if you “point out” it is being unfair! On the whole, mistakes like this are the exception and not the rule.

With the large variety of applications it can offer, AI can bring a lot of value to your organization. If you have a task that needs completing, leveraging AI could be your ticket to greater efficiency and productivity.

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Cognitive computing typically refers to simulate human intelligence to enable computers to understand data and derive insights, all through the use of AI and machine learning. Applications of cognitive computing are enormous giving computers the human-like brain to compute data at fast. As a collection of algorithmic capabilities, the technology strengthens employee performance, automate complex workloads and create cognitive agents to mimic both human thoughts and engagement.

Cognitive computing and its applications are holding much promise for Human Resources (HR), transforming HR functions and paving ways for new possibilities. As businesses always face challenges in acquiring adequate talent, in an IBM survey of 6,000 executives, 66 percent of CEOs believe cognitive computing can drive significant value in HR, while 50 percent of HR professionals acknowledge cognitive computing to drive transformation in HR. On the other hand, almost 40 percent expect their HR function to adopt cognitive solutions.

Cognitive computing consists of a wide range of capabilities that help augment human skills and HR abilities, from hiring through on-boarding and HR operations to employee engagement and performance. It delivers new tools that create a more efficient HR function and workplace and can be leveraged to enhance and customize the employee experience.

Already, the evolution of technologies over the last few years such as AI, cloud computing, mobile and IoT, among others are transforming the way HR services are delivered and experienced. But with the advent of cognitive computing, HR professionals are able to make effective decisions, improve expertise and shape the culture of their organizations for the long-term.

As cognitive systems can derive and process unstructured information in similar ways that humans can, they have the potential to change how HR provides the strategic value to their organizations. Cognitive systems comprehend language patterns and sensory inputs, such as video and audio, text, pictures, and can understand, recognize and extract contextual elements involving sense, syntax, time, location, domain, goals, and others.

Talent acquisition is one of the significant areas of HR functions where cognitive technologies can deliver an enhanced experience. Since this specific area requires a lot of optimization in terms of operational efficiency, according to the IBM survey, nearly 46 percent of HR executives consider that cognitive computing can positively impact talent acquisition and on-boarding capabilities. On the other side, as the digital talent gap has always been a major challenge for all-sized companies, 40 percent of HR professionals believe that cognitive computing can help address this challenge effectively.

The technology can also help human resource managers to analyze social media activities of candidates to suggest the best cultural fit while hiring. This is vital because this process infers whether the aspirant is fit for the company, based on their behaviors.

Applications of cognitive computing have also the capabilities to empower HR advisors with more streamlined and accurate information that will help improve overall decision-making and reinventing core processes. They could even answer employee questions and requests by learning and improving through every data point, interaction and outcome.

Therefore, in the world of HR, cognitive computing holds immense promise looking at a wide range of various data sources, including a candidate’s experience and performance, to further analyze his/her skills and behaviors and help managers to hire talent that can fit their organizations.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most progressive technologies that the world has witnessed in the past decade. It has completely changed the way organizations conduct their business and people live, interact and transact. An increasing number of companies are strengthening their AI capabilities to automate their business functions, gain meaningful information from data and engage deeply with both customers and employees. 

While AI has certainly emerged as a competitive tool in sales and marketing, business analytics, manufacturing, customer service and many other domains of business, its implications in Human Resources (HR) function has been one of the most debated subjects in the business circles. There is a strong reason why. A report highlights that AI will displace 1.8 million jobs worldwide this year, but at the same time, it will generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity by 2021 and create 2.3 million jobs by 2025. On one hand, AI is perceived as a job killer and on the other hand, it is touted that it will reinvent HR and makes a strong business case of HR. 

On a closer analysis, the benefits of AI outweigh its drawbacks and more so, when it is supported with other technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, Internet of Things and blockchain. As far as India Inc. is concerned, a report states that around 70% of the companies have automated half of their HR functions by integrating AI into their technological capabilities. Many companies have incorporated HR chatbots and virtual assistants to take over certain responsibilities of the role.

Let’s take a look at how AI is transforming HR: 

Automates Repetitive Tasks

HR spends several hours a day in routine administrative tasks such as payroll, employee data management, employee queries, report generation, etc. This consumes a lot of time and energy and reduces the productivity of the HR staff. AI can automate all these repetitive jobs and enable HR to focus on strategy and business intelligence. 

Streamlines Recruitment

Recruiters spend 14 hours on an average every week in hiring activities, 72.8% of employers struggle to find the right fit, and 44% of job seekers believe that the hiring process is biased. AI takes away all these hassles. 

AI can help HR automate pre-screening of resumes and background verification of candidates. Some advanced tools can even schedule telephonic interviews with candidates, send them personalized messages and assess their behavioural traits to determine the right fit. This not only saves time and efforts of pre-hiring/initial hiring process but also eliminates human bias that the HR may harbour due to some pre-conceived notions. AI powers recruitment through data-driven decision making.

Ensures Smooth Onboarding Process 

Statistics suggest that organizations with a strong onboarding process can improve new employee retention by 82% and productivity by over 70% whereas a negative onboarding experience leads to new hires being two times more likely to search for other job opportunities. AI can help HR to structure the onboarding process by automatically generating the employment offer, processing documents and handling both job-specific and administrative queries. AI can reduce HR’s burden significantly while ensuring smooth onboarding for new employees and settle them into their new job.

Powers Efficient Communication and Collaboration

These days, HR has to manage diverse and inclusive teams spread across vast  geographical area and different time zones. Flexible, work-from-home, remote and freelancing teams are also adding to human capital management challenges of HR. AI can streamline workplace communication and collaboration as well as maximize its efficiency. AI can schedule meetings, manage employee schedules, record timeline of conversations, translate communication for employees who speak different languages. 

Aids in Personalized Learning and Development (L&D) Programs

AI is turning out to be a game-changer in the L&D strategy of HR. It helps HR to customize L&D programs for employees based on their individual skill gaps, competencies and training needs instead of providing generic training. Moreover, when coupled with other technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and gamification, L&D can become really interesting and interactive to engage employees with deep learning and maximize learning outcomes.

Applications of AI can be found in various other functions of HR such as performance management, succession planning, people analytics and more. Now, while there is absolutely no doubt that AI can modernize HR and put it ahead of curve, it is pertinent for HR folks to understand that AI is a powerful tool to manage talent and improve employee experience and must not be construed as  a replacement of human connection which is at the core of all HR functions.

If you are planning to pursue HR profession, knowledge of AI and its implications in HR can go a long way in putting your career on a fast-track growth.

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Sending your resume to a firm through a generic HR inbox tends not to be the best way to get noticed, particularly if there isn’t a current opening that’s a perfect fit for your background. It’s therefore in your best interest to know the person who acts as the gatekeeper one step beyond human resources. If you want a data science role at Point72, that person just revealed themselves.

The new senior recruiter for Point72’s market intelligence group – made up of data scientists and engineers – is veteran recruiter Andy Legg. What should be particularly helpful is that Legg has spent the last decade specializing in tech recruiting at hedge funds with a recent focus on data scientists and quants. He recently worked at rival AQR Capital Management after a long stint at GQR Capital Markets. His experience suggests he’ll know much more than just the buzz words that are often used in data science job descriptions.

One of the more interesting aspects of Point72’s market intelligence group is the end goal that the fund has for new hires. Speaking at the AI and Data Science and Trading Conference earlier this year, Matthew Granade, Point72’s chief market intelligence officer, said the firm hopes to eventually transition its data scientists toward the front-office. “Over time, we look to move them to revenue-generating roles,” he said. “We find that’s a really important part of the pitch [to candidates] as well.”

Point72 also utilizes a different organizational strategy when it comes to the hires that Legg will be working on. Granade said that Point72 has built a separate team just for its group of data scientists, siloing them from the firm’s general technology division – a move that likely cuts down on the bureaucracy that can accompany larger organizational structures.

While compensation for data scientists is discretionary, particularly for those connected to the front-office, Point72 told eFinancialCareers last month that interns within its market intelligence group earn a prorated salary of $80k plus a $5k signing bonus. Take that for what it’s worth.

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Brandon Wirtz was supposed to be a fifth-generation teacher. Indeed, the founder and CEO of artificial intelligence engine developer Recognant is a teacher — of robots, not people — and not the factory floor variety of bots, either. Instead, Wirtz sees AI changing a very human process: human resources.

To reach the place where artificial intelligence and HR meet, Wirtz spends his days educating his various AIs about everything from how to order pizza to what an appropriate pickup line might be. His bots — “Loki,” “Lobby” and “Molly” — are at different stages of independence and aptitude. Loki, who identifies as female, is perhaps Wirtz’s favorite bot — and the most likely to drive him crazy with questions.

The games Wirtz plays with Loki — “I Spy” is a particular favorite — might seem frivolous, but they serve as the basis for the bot’s education in how humans think and communicate. And though it may seem unimportant that Loki understands Santa Claus, zombies and Instagram, all of that matters when it comes to artificial intelligence and human resources if she — or a bot like her — is going to work in HR dealing with prospective employees. “I know this seems creepy, but it isn’t,” Wirtz laughed.

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