Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the technological marvels of the 21st century. By integrating human intelligence with the efficiency of machines, AI has achieved what was unthinkable a few decades ago and revolutionised modern life. It has enhanced the performance of not only the humans but also the machines. Little do most of us realise that we are surrounded by AI in our everyday lives. The smartphone assistants like SIRI and Cortana, chatbots on various interactive websites, voice controlled smart televisions, navigation on smartphones, smart home-appliances, social media feeds etc all are examples of AI in our day-to-day life. Self-driving cars and AI powered health care devices are some of the upcoming trends of AI that are set to improve the quality of life very soon.

Although AI finds its utility in a wide range of aspects of business and daily life, the human resources (HR) sector is one of the areas which has welcomed and adapted it with precision and efficacy faster than the others. Studies have shown that the HR departments in corporates have been the first to successfully integrate AI in their work. More than 50% of the HR practitioners across the country are having AI as their colleague. AI has not only improved the performance of the HR department but also minimised the errors and improved employee relations. AI minimises the limitations of human performance and time & place from the system.

One of the most important functions of the HR is to establish and maintain a smooth connection between the current and prospective employees of the organization. AI helps the prospective employees upload their information into the company systems quickly, easily and uniformly. AI chatbots can also be employed to conduct the initial rounds of screening as per the predefined parameters. This ensures that the most relevant prospects reach the next stages of the recruitment process. Due to the availability of AI enabled chatbots, the employees can appear for these initial rounds of interviews at any time of the day without travelling to the organization’s physical location. From the perspective of the recruiters, AI assists them by providing most relevant and comparable information about the applicants. AI eliminates human elements like fatigue, lack of concentration due to similar repetitive work, bias & prejudice and boredom from the process. Finding the most suitable candidate for the organization is perhaps the most important function of the HR department.

All organizations want to retain their best employees. Organizations with most stable teams and lowest attrition rates are the most successful ones. AI keeps tracks of employees’ performance, mental health and work-life balance by constant monitoring and regular evaluations. It provides the management with useful data which is used to take actions to keep employees motivated and satisfied with their organizations. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that content and motivated employees register highest performance and stay longer with their organizations. For the employees, AI keeps track of their performance in terms of achieving targets and meeting deadlines. It also sends them reminders when they fall short in performance and provides suggestions for time management and professional development. 

Another important area where AI finds its utility in the corporate world is employee participation. It has been noted that several employees, due to lack of confidence or trust, fail to ask questions (when in doubt), raise issues and provide suggestions & feedback to the senior management. However,with AI, employees are free to ask questions and raise their issues without any fear of being judged. Studies have revealed the most employees are more confident while speaking up their minds to AI as compared to its human counterpart. AI not only helps solve employees’ doubts and issues but it also keeps the organization aware about any feedback or suggestions.

AI has been a boon for the new millennium life. It has impacted almost all the aspects of life and business and experts believe that it has just begun. In the years to come, AI will change our life for the better in unimaginable ways. AI has eradicated the limits of human performance and the boundaries of time and place. With the help of AI, corporates are today able to shortlist and hire the finest available human resources from the market. With the further help of AI, they are able to groom, monitor and evaluate their human resource. For AI, the biases or prejudices of age, race, colour, creed, gender or religion do not exist. It judges its subjects purely on the basis of their professional abilities. Therefore, it won’t be an overstatement to say the AI has improved the performance of the corporate multi-folds and will keep on doing so in the years to come.