As we get comfortable with our new work lives at home, some of the pain points in the back office continue to grow. The back office has now become the home office, albeit with some new challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of AI into daily tasks, writes Ergun Ekici, principal and vice president of emerging technologies at IPsoft.
In the blink of an eye, we are faced with the reality of a new normal. Many of us are adapting to our new work lives under stay-at-home ordinances and encouraged social distancing amid the spread of COVID-19.
While we adapt to these new challenges, we are consumed by the same-old recurring and repetitive daily work chores. HR organizations, for example, are having to reinvent themselves to support and enable a globally distributed and suddenly remote workforce. This transition cannot impede the completion of core daily services, including questions posed to HR, such as, “How many PTO days are left?†as well as, “How do I pick up my paycheck?â€
With the mass migration to remote work, however, we also have an opportunity. Organizations are adopting digital channels and implementing digital-first strategies at record paces, many just to survive these difficult times. This presents an opportunity to leverage and apply cognitive artificial intelligence (AI) at unprecedented levels. When your new AI is available on your work messaging platform, such as Microsoft Teams, it is as accessible as any of your peers in today’s work environment. As a result, an increasing number of organizations are rolling out virtual agents to help HR teams handle daily responsibilities while reimagining the workforce in this new normal.
This is an important step toward the hybrid workforce, in which human and digital associates work alongside each other to help businesses scale faster with improved productivity and efficiency. Chetan Dube, CEO and founder of IPsoft, predicts that the hybrid ratio will reach 50/50 by 2025, bringing about an era in which millions of AI tools will join organizations for accelerated growth and prosperity. And what we are experiencing today could very well hasten this transition and bring cognitive AI into the workforce even sooner.
Learn More: How to Evaluate HR Technology Post COVID-19Opens a new window
Assisting HR 24/7
AI has proven to be an integral technology for HR for some reason, but one of the most exciting involves its ability to provide 24/7 assistance. From relaying information regarding healthcare and PTO to providing details on training, payroll, and career growth benefits, HR can handle many mundane but mission-critical tasks all on its own. This is especially important for international corporations that operate in multiple time zones, as well as smaller firms that may only have one office but want to achieve a global presence.
Cognitive AI also helps employees who are not currently served by the 9-to-5 structure that dominates most HR departments. If employees have questions, they typically have to make contact within that limited window, which is convenient for HR but may not be the time that is best for them. They might prefer to make contact after hours, particularly if something last-minute should come up that cannot wait until morning.
In larger firms, where there may be thousands of employees and multiple internal help desks, it can be difficult to determine which one to contact with specific questions. AI can help streamline this process by providing a central hub for fielding basic questions. For more complex inquiries, AI can transfer the call or message to the appropriate individual.
HFS Research focuses on these topics in its latest reportOpens a new window titled, “Propel Your Business Operations ‘Straight To Digital’ With Digital Associates.†Supported by KPMG, the study chronicled five principles for using digital associates, including areas of customer service and applying smart design.
Accenture, a global professional services company, is one of many taking advantage of these capabilities. The firm automated HR services for all of its Japanese employees by introducing a Skype-based virtual assistant. This allowed users to initiate a Skype chat to ask questions as if they were talking to a real human – from any device and any location. The AI will follow up with clarifying questions to properly assess employee needs. If that isn’t enough, it will hand the reins to the relevant contact, leaving no question unanswered. After seeing these impressive results, Accenture now plans to implement conversational AI-powered digital colleagues in other areas of the company.
And it’s not the only one – AI is helping many organizations overcome their biggest HR challenges, including talent acquisition. Between the search for great candidates, the time needed to conduct interviews, and the challenge in hiring top-tier employees, recruiting is very resource-intensive. Thus, many organizations – including Hilton and Unilever – are relying on AI to assist HR in the lengthy hiring process. From interviews to resume screening, AI can help limit the amount of time it takes to narrow down the pool of job seekers.
Learn More: Human Experience Management: The Next Evolution in HR TechnologyOpens a new window
Scale Faster and Be More Efficient
According to ZipRecruiter’s 2019 Future of Work report, AI createdOpens a new window three times as many jobs as it eliminated in 2018. That’s an important revelation for a world consumed by media headlines that AI is coming to take our hard-earned careers.
In reality, AI is going to fully automate the tasks that human employees would rather not do, or simply do not have enough time to complete along with other, more important objectives. This includes managers, who could find that 69% of their routine work will be automatedOpens a new window by 2024. Those tasks include but may not be limited to workflow approvals, information updating, filling in forms, and other lengthy processes.
By empowering managers to rise above the mundane, AI enables human staff to focus on the strategic tasks that will drive material impact for the organization. They will also be able to invest more time to be better leaders, which in turn allows them to shape and guide better employees.
AI will also make it easier for enterprises to reskill their employees – not to fend off worries of job displacement but to allow them to grow and advance their careers. McKinsey & Company researchersOpens a new window have called upon businesses to add reskilling as a new corporate function akin to finance or marketing. Amazon is already taking the lead on this, promising to spend more than $700 million reskilling 100,000 U.S. employees by 2025.
Not all organizations have the resources to reskill their staff on such a massive scale. However –even if it could provide a competitive advantage. With digital colleagues on board, organizations will be able to allocate more resources to various reskilling programs. This will have the added benefit of inspiring the best workers to stick around, knowing that they will be given new opportunities to achieve more rewarding and higher-paying jobs.
Back Office Relief for All
Employees are overburdened with back-office tasks, especially those who work in HR. But with AI finally eliminating the need to manually perform the most repetitive and time-consuming tasks, enterprises will have more time to put the human touch back into human resources, which is especially important during times of uncertainty. They’ll be able to focus on strategic opportunities that are both engaging and more worthy of their time. More importantly, they’ll be able to accomplish goals that will have a significant impact on their business. And as a bonus, AI can free up valuable resources to reskill talent for this evolving workforce, particularly by 2025 as human and digital associates reach parity.
Do you have tips to share on how else AI can perform back-office functions? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .