Businesses are no longer cautious in exploring generative AI. Instead, the use of generative AI within business processes is skyrocketing; adoption increased by an astonishing 400% in 2023.
For HR leaders, AI has huge potential to unlock business benefits. It empowers teams to streamline processes, make data-driven decisions, and enhance the overall employee experience by improving productivity. In the last year, more HR teams have recognised the potential of intelligent automation to transform tasks and responsibilities ranging from recruitment automation to referrals, onboarding, and wellness applications.
Adopting generative AI with speed and at scale is not without its challenges though, and HR teams not only have to consider the success of its implementations but also the impact on the business from an HR perspective.
Whilst experimenting with technology may have traditionally been the responsibility of the IT team, the accessibility of generative AI means that a variety of employees across departments can adopt automation processes independently.
This creates a complex challenge for HR leaders who must now navigate between embracing the automation momentum and considering how it impacts the broader business policies and processes.
Automation for all: Generative AI is being adopted company-wide
Workato’s Work Automation Index 2024 reveals an unprecedented ‘democratisation’ of generative AI within businesses. Put simply, the hype around generative AI has prompted employees to automate their work processes themselves.
Consequentially, the number of different applications and processes within companies is rapidly increasing. There is a simultaneous rise in both the number and variety of automation tools available.
Each new tool pledges to minimise fragmentation and revolutionise the enterprise but this ‘patchwork’ approach has exacerbated fragmentation. Instead of dismantling existing silos, businesses are inadvertently constructing new ones.
Managing democratisation with the risk of disharmony
The democratisation of generative AI is a result of accessibility; the emergence of low-code, no-code technology means technical expertise is no longer a prerequisite for automating processes at work. In fact, the Work Automation Index found that a significant 44% of all automated processes are now built outside of the IT department.
For example, the HR team can automate aspects of recruitment with generative AI without waiting for the assistance of an IT specialist to write lines of code.
This increase in automation requires businesses to address an evolving set of challenges and HR has an important role to play. If a company lacks a strong system of governance, scaling automation with generative AI can quickly become anarchy instead of a democracy. As generative AI automation becomes more complex, processes are stretched over more steps.
From an HR perspective, the use of generative AI impacts the employee experience, which in turn opens up the need to consider how its usage affects the individual as well as the company.
There are also variations in generative AI sophistication across departments. For example, some teams will likely not have the technical expertise of programmers for the majority of implementations they manage independently. This leads to discrepancies in security, scalability, change controls, and compliance across the company and increases business risk.
Over half (56%) of automations are still built by IT teams, and IT also needs to handle the governance and guidance for the other 44% built by other departments.
How HR can support the successful rollout of Generative AI
For an organisation to maximise generative AI’s potential – and for HR to support the business in using it effectively – there must be governance and a guiding voice. That should sit with the CIO and IT team. However, if the HR team has a level of oversight of the various stages of generative AI being built across departments, the necessary guidance around HR considerations can be provided.
Whilst IT perimeters may not seem like a natural part of HR’s scope, the HR team can play an important role in joining the dots and helping the business to map out how the technology impacts employees, especially when it comes to using generative AI in projects where the risk around sensitive employee data is very high.
There will be a growing need for HR alignment on generative AI policies as well as long-term considerations around areas such as the utilisation of generative AI within employees’ job descriptions.
The savvy HR leaders will not only be implementing generative AI within the business, but actively finding ways to guide its roll-out for the company.
Carter Busse is the CIO of the #1 iPaaS, Workato. Carter is an IT executive with a proven track record of success in both private and public companies including 3 IPOs.
