Everyone is at a different stage, wherever you are—get yourself out there and start/restart/continue to learn the possibilities of AI in HR!
2025 is already off to a fast start—significant changes on the global stage, Davos2025, DeepSeekAI, and technology moving faster than ever. One thing’s clear: AI first!
So, how is this impacting HR? I will walk you through KISS (Keep it Simple, Smart). AI in HR 101!
Every organization is at a different stage, but every leader wants solutions right away, and one of the top strategic initiatives for 2025 is ‘Responsible AI Implementation’!
I have been reading about some incredible work happening across many companies—Microsoft is one that really stands out. I have also been inspired by Rajamma Krishnamurthy, Senior Director, Leader Enterprise AI, whom I had the chance to meet last year. I have been following her work ever since! There are lots of great things to learn from their work. Here is a link to one of the recent accomplishments.
Everyone is at a different stage, wherever you are- get yourself out there and start/restart/continue to learn the possibilities of AI in HR!
Are you ahead in this journey? Share your experience; we all need to learn!
If you are getting started, then this article is for you!
If you are pretending you know it, then don’t! Let’s test and learn together!
What’s In It For You: Starting Your AI Journey in HR
This is my attempt to start from basics for the audience who is trying to understand where to begin and take away information that you can apply as well. This article will help you with:
Simple Definitions to help you understand the basics of AI
Where should HR begin?
AI HR COE (AI HR Center of Expertise/Excellence)
Detoxification of HR data
A few real-time use cases where you can begin your AI HR journey!
Definitions
What is AI?
What is Gen AI?
What are agentic workers?
What are agentic workflows?
What is AI in HR?
Do not fit an old process into a new system! AI is here to help take away manual multi-step clicks/processes/repetitive tasks and make them automated.
What is AI? AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is when we teach computers to think and solve problems like humans. People first had this idea in the 1950s, but computers weren’t very smart back then. Over the last 20 years, computers have become much faster, and we have way more data, so AI has started to do some cool things—like talking to us, helping cars drive, and even recommending videos we might like!
AI processes and analyzes information to make decisions. AI is like a super-smart robot friend (I heard this from Rajamma). It can look at a lot of information really fast, find patterns, and help people make better decisions. It plays back what we teach the tool; human intelligence is still needed to make the right decision.
Examples include Siri, Alexa, Spam filters, navigation tools, etc.
What is Gen AI? Gen AI, or Generative Artificial Intelligence, is a type of AI that creates new content—like text, images, or even ideas—by learning from patterns in data. It became more advanced in the 2010s and took a big leap forward in 2020 with tools like GPT-3. Gen AI is now helping professionals across industries by generating content, automating tasks, and supporting creative problem-solving.
Examples include ChatGPT, Smart text prediction or writing tools (emails, Google Docs, texts), Jukedeck (AI-powered music creation), and a lot more! AI-powered music creation), and many
What are agentic workers? Agentic Worker: Uses AI tools to build skills and work smarter and faster. They don’t just follow instructions; they find more tech-efficient ways to get the work done. Agentic workers use AI to improve their own work. It is like ongoing feedback and performance improvement! If AI agents can understand our needs, anticipate our requests, and automate complex workflows, why would we need clunky, siloed applications?
Examples include AI HR assistants, and IT support agents to solve complex customer queries.
What are agentic workflows? Agentic Workflow: An Agentic Workflow is when you work with AI to get things done faster and easier. You’re still the boss, but AI helps you by doing some of the hard work, like finding information or making suggestions.
What is AI in HR? AI in HR improves and automates various human resources tasks and processes. This enhances efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making within HR departments. AI in HR can take care of repetitive tasks and provide valuable information to help HR professionals make better decisions so they can focus more on the people side of their job.
All this sounds great, so how can I get started? Where does HR begin?
AI HR COE; Setting up the right team
Data Detox; clean up HR data to avoid GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out)
AI HR CoE; Setting up the right team It is a dedicated team within the HR function with specific skill sets who can cross-collaborate with the more significant AI COE of the organization to work towards the same goal but focused on HR. The COE works to identify opportunities and/or problems where AI can enhance HR processes, improve decision-making, and deliver better experiences for employees and candidates. The COE also focuses on governance, ethical considerations, and building a culture of innovation around AI within HR.
You can repurpose your existing HR, IT, people analytics, and marketing resources, or if your org is ready, then go hire!
The AI HR COE should be a cross-functional global team with expertise in AI technology, HR practices, data analytics, and ethics. Its mission is to drive AI innovation, ensure smooth integration into HR processes, and continuously measure AI’s impact on enhancing the employee experience, optimizing HR operations, and supporting business growth.
What does the team look like?
AI HR COE Lead / Head: Responsible for the overall vision, strategy, and execution of AI initiatives within HR. This person will collaborate with leadership teams across HR and IT to ensure AI projects align with the organization’s goals.
Skills: Leadership, AI strategy, HR processes, project management, change management, Passionate for the tech, knows the outside world
Potential Team members: People Analytics team members, HRBP, Talent COE leads, HR Ops, HR IT lead, CISO lead, Legal and Compliance lead, AI COE lead (for the org)
What can this team be tasked with:
Set Goals and Focus areas
Goals: Decide what HR tasks you want AI to improve, like hiring or employee onboarding. There could be a huge list focusing on priorities.
Short-Term Goals:Start with low-hanging fruits, less risky, and easy to achieve success.
Mid-Term Goals: These are worth risk-taking and not year(s) long initiatives. Try them if the organization has the appetite.
Long-Term Goals:Plan for more advanced use cases down the road.
Assess Needs
Current Process Review: Identify areas in HR that need improvement.
Do-able- does not need to rip apart the ecosystem
Re-use current tech- understand the current tech roadmap
Clean up the basics- data- Gigo
Implement->Pilot->Test and Learn->Design thinking->user feedback->continuous improvement->measure
AI-powered tech makes it easy to correlate, analyze, and predict trends for employee issues, engagement, retention, and areas to address.
2. Data Detox; Clean up HR data to avoid GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out) I am not going to go into detail here, but this is a reminder!
Identify->Assess->Define->Clean Up->Update the processes->Governance (GDPR etc)
I can’t stress enough to do this before getting started.
Now that you have a team, focus, and goals identified, and the data is clean, let’s explore real use cases to help you get started and make AI work for us!
Sample Use Cases to test and learn
The AI HR COE team can begin their work by identifying key areas within HR that would benefit most from AI applications. Starting with high-impact areas allows the team to demonstrate the value of AI early on, build momentum, and create a strong foundation for future AI initiatives.
A few ideas to begin your AI journey are to measure the impact, enhance employee experience, and align with the business strategy.
Find My Policies
Pre-boarding and Onboarding
Employee Engagement
Employer Branding
Process Automation (Repetitive Tasks)
Find My Policies: One of the most frequently asked questions by employees to anyone in HR is, “Where can I find it?“ For example, vacation, Benefits, Sick leave, etc.
We have been there, bookmarking these links and sending the same links repeatedly. Pick this use case and move it to automation.
Build an inventory of all the employee-facing policies and documents
Utilize the existing technology to support the bot functionality
Governance of the content is a key step to make sure there is one source of truth and that it is updated as needed.
Pre-boarding and Onboarding: One of the most important steps is pre-boarding and onboarding new hires. In my 20 years, I have experienced amazing and horrific onboarding(s), and I would really like to fix this process in the future!
Pre-Boarding
Automated emails to ‘offer accepted’ candidates
A virtual assistant to answer any Q&As (a recruiter as a backup is available)
Upload documents and validate (human at the backend may be a need here)
Onboarding
Automated emails to new hires (addressing their onsite needs, IT needs, access, etc.)
Nudge via virtual assistant to follow the next steps
Handhold the new hire with all the following steps (based on function, role, location, etc.)
New hire onboarding program to set some basics
Team and Manager /dept details
Nudge for feedback as well
AI-powered tools can help with sentiment analysis to correlate all the available information to monitor employee feedback, manager feedback, potential issues, trainings, motivation, and red-orange-green flags!
In all of this, an HRBP/recruiter is available, but the first overview is provided by AI-empowered tech. There are a lot of tools supporting these requests, but select what works for your organization. However, make sure end-to-end works; band-aids need to be ripped later, and it doesn’t help the employee experience. Everyone should be included when you design the workflow to make it most efficient, including IT, Finance, Legal, and Facilities.
Employee Engagement: This is another area where a lot of data has been collected, and now, with AI-powered tech, it is easy to correlate, analyze, and predict the trends for employee issues, engagement, retention, and areas to address. For example, we collect a lot of data via employee surveys, check-ins, performance reviews, and pulse check-ins. Tools can help with sentiment analysis to correlate all the available information to monitor employee feedback, manager feedback, potential issues, training, motivation, and red-orange-green flags! Every organization might not be there; drill into one of the areas critical to the business based on the sentiment analysis and build a strategy to address it with the business proactively. Discuss the potential issues before they become real issues with the business, HRBP, employees, managers, etc.
Most of the People Analytics tools have these capabilities now- make sure to use them!
Employer Branding: There are a lot of AI tools in this area to help with candidate experience, customized content, social media presence, and more. Here are a few places to try this tech:
Career Page on your company website: An interactive career page helps answer FAQs, offers help, and shows a company overview based on the candidate’s interests. I have seen a few companies already doing this!
Job Descriptions: Compelling and inclusive JDs go a long way. Some tools can help with writing smart JDs that are aligned with the company culture and values.
Process Automation (Repetitive Tasks): This is one of my faves because this is the foundation of successful AI-empowered tools! When you are assessing what AI can support, make a list of repetitive tasks in every area.
What NOT to do?
Do not fit an old process into a new system!
Do not keep a multi-step process as it is!
Do not add/remove from one area and add to another!
AI is here to help take away manual multi-step clicks/processes/repetitive tasks and make them automated.
Many more areas in HR will be AI-powered, so there is a lot of work for us to get excited about! Let’s get started and make AI work for us!
What part of AI in HR excites you most?
About The Author
Ekta Lall Mittal is a seasoned Human Resources leader with over 20 years of experience spanning diverse industries and organizations. She has cultivated a robust skill set in HR Technology and Transformations within Learning & Development, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Skills Transformation, HR Operations and Shared Services, focusing on enhancing end-to-end employee experience.
As a mentor at Women Unlimitedand an advisory board member for startups, she is committed to nurturing talent and contributing strategic insights that propel business success. Ekta is also a Co-Ambassador to the Transform New York City Chapter! Feel free to contact Ekta Lall Mittal with your input, comments, and thoughts!
