HR: Why the human touch matters even more in the age of AI

Imagine HR – Human Resources – without humans at the wheel: no person-to-person contact, but instead, AI-to-person interfaces redefining HR as we know it.

Could AI be better than humans at HR?

The applications and uses of generative AI technology (OpenAI ChatGPT, DALL-E, and more) are so extensive that you may truly begin to wonder: do we need humans at the head of HR? Why not speed things up and automate our processes with AI?

These are legitimate questions, of course. So first, let’s dive into why you might want AI intervention in your HR processes.

Applications of AI in HR

1. Recruitment

It begins with recruitment, where AI goes through resumes, evaluates them, and even conducts personality assessments.

2. Onboarding and offboarding

Then, AI can even take over employee onboarding and offboarding procedures. How? By guiding employees through the onboarding and offboarding procedures through AI platforms. AI also manages exit surveys and the dutiful return of company equipment.

3. Performance tracking

Once a worker is employed, AI can even carry out performance reviews by tracking and analysing performance through established metrics such as tasks completed, feedback received and involvement in the workplace.

4. Workforce management

Need to ensure that your workforce is in line with your growth plans and industry trends? AI can carry out workforce planning for you.

5. Employee portals

And what if your employees have any questions about their remaining annual leaves? Through HR chatbots and AI assistants, AI can once again intervene.

This set of competencies is enough to make even the most proficient HR professionals shake in their boots. Not only is AI faster in most instances, it will also make fewer, or even no mistakes at all when processing data sets.

But why then are we saying that the human touch matters even more?

Why the human touch will always have its place in HR

Being a human-centric, but very much technologically inclined HR service provider, here is why we think your company will not be able to do without a human touch in its HR matters:

HR is, above all, a human experience

Even aided by AI, there is no replacing the human touch in human resources. Humans are social creatures by nature, always seeking each other out.

Besides, there is no substitute for a friendly face on an employee’s first day of work. There is no technology that could ever tell a newcomer to look out for a squeaky office chair or explain to them the very specific ways in which the coffee machine works.

Even more importantly, there is no replacement for the relief you feel when your HR contact person picks up the phone and you can finally explain the issue you are facing in detail – knowing that, by the end of that call, you will have a solution fully tailored to your very specific needs.

The human touch beyond borders

There is perhaps no situation better suited to show the importance of the human touch than the international HR scene.

In a foreign country, all the rules change. This applies to both local legislation and far less easily defined local customs and informal practices. The human touch is crucial to success during expansion efforts, as employees need to feel heard and understood. Who better to do that than a local expert who can pick up on the subtleties and particularities of the culture – and help you, in turn, to gracefully navigate them?

During expansion projects, good intercultural communication and understanding equals to far greater chances of success. And so far, AI cannot do that.

Lack of emotional intelligence  

AI shows a distinct lack of empathy and emotional intelligence.

It is easy enough to make rational decisions, to choose between a “Yes” and a “No”. But anything that requires more greyness, that goes beyond a black-and-white sense of logic is deeply problematic for AI.

That is because, as it is, AI has no EQ.

In matters of HR, emotional intelligence is particularly important to defuse emotionally-charged situations, to make employees feel heard and understood, and to instill a vital sense of belonging and community – the very one that keeps employees loyal to the company and lowers turnover rates.

Lack of fairness

New generative AI is trained on large data sets found all across the internet. As such, AI picks up on the biases and discriminatory behaviour found in its original data sets. When put to use, AI then expresses these very same biases.

Sexist biases

Consider this example provided by UNESCO:

When searching for the term “school girl”, it is very likely that you will come across a page of ladies and girls dressed in various highly sexualised outfits. Surprisingly, the majority of the results for "school boy" will be of regular, young school boys. Almost no men, if any, wear sexualised outfits.

Now, imagine this kind of bias in a hiring context, or even within your company’s work environment.

Racist and discriminatory biases

The Washington Post reported that during a research project, researchers requested specially trained robots to examine blocks with people's faces on them, after which a "criminal" would be chosen and placed in a box. The robots would regularly pick the block with a Black man's face.

The robots also repeatedly selected blocks with women and people of colour in response to terms like "homemaker" and "janitor".

These types of biases can set your company back by decades and undo all the progress your company has made when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

AI and the future of HR

It is entirely possible that future HR systems will be partly powered by AI, just like how paper-based payroll systems have now evolved into digital ones. In fact, many administrative tasks will likely be handed over to AI because of its speed and accuracy. But just as digital payroll has managed to maintain its human touch, so will AI HR and payroll systems.

As such, humans may not always be needed at the head of HR, but at its heart, humans remain irreplaceable.