NTIB Assignment

BY:
Chaitali Banabakode
CMBA2Y3/1916

Critically examine the impact of machine learning in HR processes keeping

into account the Chinese Social Credit Score System. How would this impact
the future workplace.

AI has the capacity to make decisions in real-time, based on pre-installed algorithms and
efficient computing technologies. With an HR department encompassing the human element and
AI, companies can provide an enhanced experience for their candidates and employees,
writes Khalid Durrani, Digital Marketing Manager, Cubix.

“Deep-learning will transform every single industry,” said Andrew Ng, a Chinese-American
scientist excelling in machine learning and AI. McKinsey’s forecast on machine learning backs
up his statement claiming that by 2030, AI will have a significant impact of $13 trillion on the
global economy.

The Human Resource department will also witness the influence of AI. HR professionals
understand the importance of optimizing the combination of the human mind and machine
learning for a seamless workflow and intuitive work environment.

AI has the capacity to make decisions in real-time, based on pre-installed algorithms and
efficient computing technologies. With an HR department encompassing the human element and
AI, companies can provide an enhanced experience for their candidates and employees.

Additionally, artificial intelligence can help businesses understand their target market and
promote result-oriented sales strategies.

AI is the ability of machines to imitate human intelligence. AI technology allows machines to

learn and adapt automatically based on the data analysis to provide more refined responses to the
situations. So, the question is how does AI impact Human Resource, a department that relies on
its human factor.
 Source: Getty Images

Let’s explore the influence of AI in HR:

Talent Acquisition

The most prominent use of AI in HR is seen in the talent acquisition processes. From screening
candidates, maintaining databases, scheduling interviews, and answering job seekers’ queries, it
reduces manpower spent on mundane tasks.

It reduces hiring time significantly, allowing the HR team to be more productive in other areas
like sourcing, recruitment marketing, employee management, and more. The AI-enabled
screening will help in picking out the candidates with the most suitable skill set, relevant
experience that fit the company’s requirements.

AI-based chatbots can communicate with potential candidates and match their profiles against
the position requirements. It will narrow down the list to only those aspirants that fit the job
description. The AI-enabled system will then schedule interviews and hire the top applicants.

It will save time and effort of the HR team, allowing them the opportunity to focus their energy
on other tasks. 

Onboarding

After the hiring processes, the AI-integrated system will introduce the new employee to the
company information on their first day. From job profile to company policies, the reporting
authority, team members, task assignment, and other information, will be automatically relayed
to them through an app or laptop. The entire process is defined as onboarding.

Onboarding is a vital part of improving employee retention rates and increasing HR productivity.
One study by Click Onboarding states that there is a higher probability of employees staying
with a company long-term if they experience a superior onboarding.

Artificial intelligence allows customization of the process to cater to individual employees and
their respective positions. Algorithms can be integrated within the software for:

 Explaining job profile, duties, and benefits.

 Relevant and important contacts within the company.
 Answering frequently asked questions by new employees.
 Document verifications
 Device requests, and more.

Learning and Training

AI-integrated systems can also help in teaching and training the employees in their respective
domains. The skills required by a job position are constantly changing with time. With new
innovations and software in the market, it is imperative that we learn and adapt to the new
technologies to stay on top.

AI will assess the employees’ skills and recommend videos or learning programs based on their
job requirements. It will automatically read documents or analyze an employee’s activities and
create appropriate learning programs.

AI technology can analyze the data collected from years of experience and inform the HR team
which employee needs training and in what field. With intelligent algorithms, it will also
recommend the best strategy to help people learn better and faster.

Additionally, companies can leverage AI technologies with e-learning platforms to enhance

employees’ skills. It will devise a custom training regimen for individuals based on their skills
and the company’s requirements. The e-learning platforms will help employees learn new
techniques, polish existing characteristics, and more at a pace they find comfortable.
Moreover, an AI system can be integrated with an algorithm that determines the career path for
individuals based on their training plan. The managers can use the results to turn their team into a
more cohesive workforce.

Cognitive-Supporting Decision-Making

IBM conducted a study in 2017 over how cognitive computing will influence HR. The research
revealed that artificial intelligence can help professionals make quick decisions on day-to-day
matters.

The Human Resource department is responsible for the mental, emotional well-being of an
employee apart from their work contributions. AI-enabled systems will take over the task of
observing and analyzing employees’ mood before and after a client call. The HR can then decide
if the individual needs a break or can continue.

AI can also detect anxiety in a person’s behavior and tone of voice. It will help the employers
decide if they should look into the matter and resolve it before it is harmful to the employees and
the company.

Leadership

As AI helps improve employee productivity, it can also help train leaders to excel in their
position. AI-enabled systems will ask the leaders’ team members and assess their remarks to
determine a customized coaching module for the leaders.

Additionally, the leaders can access online dashboards and view a comparison of their
management against their peers. It will help them understand the effectiveness of their methods
and how to improve.

Administrative Tasks

AI-based software can automate repetitive, administrative tasks. It can play a role in HR strategy,
employee management, analysis of company policies and practices, manage payrolls, and more.
It can automate the workforce, investigate corporate compliance, and litigation strategies.

From screening to interview scheduling, AI can speed up hiring processes. Additionally, it can
also allocate office space and equipment allowing HR staff to direct their time to more valuable
tasks.
Smart chatbots are another AI-based technology that can help in HR’s decision-making. It can
relieve the HR staff of relaying company-related information to employees, simultaneously
providing them with an overall view of the organization. With proper algorithms, AI-enabled
systems can give prompt responses to employees’ queries, doubts, and manage the submission
and processing of leave forms.

Wrapping Up!

Artificial intelligence requires a lot of data to work efficiently for which it needs proper storage
and management. Companies would need extra personnel to operate and maintain the advanced
software. Additionally, with the rising preference of SaaS solutions, the low datasets for AI will
also pose difficulty in the worldwide adaptation of the technology.

The ideal strategy to employ AI in HR management would be to use AI software to analyze the
data collected and leave the decision-making to the human staff. Before implementing AI within
HR operations, examine the areas where AI could be useful. If the primary reason is to improve
the overall employee experience, it could increase productivity and decrease operational costs.

What is China’s social credit system?

China’s social credit system is an ambitious initiative to build a database that monitors
individual, corporate, and government behaviour across the country in real time.

According to the Chinese government, the system will use big data to build a high-trust society
where individuals and organizations follow the law. It will do so by assigning social credit scores
to each entity based on their behaviour, which are translated into a variety of rewards and
punishments.

Since it was formally announced in 2014, the plan has received considerable attention in
international media for its potentially dystopian capability to monitor and control individual
behaviour.

While these concerns are valid, they do not represent the full scope of the system and its more
benign aspects, particularly as it relates to business. Moreover, a number of myths and
misconceptions have arisen about what the social credit system is, how it works, and what its
implications will be.

With this confusion in mind, we offer an introduction to China’s social credit system and how
foreign businesses should prepare for its implementation.
Although most reporting on the social credit system has focused on its relationship with
individual citizens, it applies to two other groups as well. There is one social credit system for
citizens, one for businesses and other organizations, and one for government officials.

Broadly speaking, the main purpose of the social credit system is to monitor and assess each
group’s trustworthiness, particularly as it relates to following laws and other rules.

For citizens, this mostly relates to creditworthiness in a similar way to how credit scores work in
Western countries. While the system has the potential to be abused, its main purpose is to
address the problem of China being a low trust society with limited credit information on each
citizen.

For example, because most citizens lack credit history, it is difficult for entities such as banks to
assess who can be trusted to repay a loan that they might issue. The system goes beyond
financial trustworthiness, though, and keeps track of individuals’ legal infringements and, in the
future, potentially other types of behaviour as well.

For businesses, the system focuses on ensuring that they follow laws and regulations and pay
taxes in an appropriate and timely manner, though product and service quality will also be
measured. The goal, according to the government, is to create a fair, transparent, and predictable
business environment.

The social credit system is slightly different for government officials, who are assessed on
criteria such as the extent to which they carry out orders from the central government.

Discrepancies between central instructions and local implementation have long characterized
Chinese politics, and in recent years the centre has made it a higher priority to restore top-down
control. More generally, the government social credit system seeks to ensure that officials are
politically loyal, well performing, and corruption-free.
 Source: Getty Images

Impact of AI/ML on the Future Workplace:

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionize the workplace, thanks to its potential to
slash overhead costs, enhance productivity and help drive innovation. Staffing is another area
where AI technology is poised to make a big impact. From vetting candidates more thoroughly to
helping employees strengthen their skills, AI technology has a vital role to play in how workers
are hired and managed in the future.

Several of the tech and business experts interviewed for Robert Half’s report, Jobs and AI
Anxiety, say they expect AI to impact companies’ ability to build and maintain a highly skilled
workforce — and that includes right now. For example, Dan Schawbel, research director
at Future Workplace, says employers need to recognize AI’s power as a recruiting and retention
tool. “Top talent doesn’t want to work for a company that isn’t modern and focused on
innovation,” he says. “Talented people, even if they aren’t in a tech-focused job, want access to
leading-edge tools.”

The good news is that professionals who are eager to work with AI technology won’t likely need
to wait long for it be used widely in their workplace. A global research study from consulting
firm Protiviti, a Robert Half subsidiary, and research firm ESI ThoughtLab notes that while
“most companies are still at the starting gate” with AI technology, a “sizable majority of
companies are fast tracking AI applications and expecting to see significant gains in profitability,
productivity, revenue and shareholder value in as little as two years.” The research suggests that
most businesses soon will be applying advanced AI to almost every function, including human
resources and talent management.

It's not surprising that tech teams are ahead of the pack when it comes to AI technology:
According to a new survey by Robert Half, 39% of tech managers are currently using AI and
machine learning; an additional 52% expect to adopt these technologies within the next 5 years. 

AI technology as a workplace helper

While AI technology is increasing in sophistication rapidly, there’s still plenty of speculation

about how, exactly, it will change the workplace. Will we see a robot revolution where most
workers are replaced by smart machines? Or will it be the dawn of a new relationship between
people and technology, where AI takes over mundane tasks, freeing people to focus on more
creative work?

Technology futurist and disruptive innovation expert Daniel Burrus, who was interviewed for the
Jobs and AI Anxiety report, expects we’ll see more of the latter — and something else, too: the
rise of symbiotic computing. After the initial wave of disruption that AI will cause in the
workplace, people will eventually settle into a close working relationship with AI technology,
says Burrus. “We will have a symbiotic computing relationship to AI. That means humans will
increasingly use AI to augment their thinking, as AI increasingly learns from humans,” Burrus
adds.

For many workers, their relationship with AI technology will likely look a lot like this, according
to the Jobs and AI Anxiety report: AI helpers will quietly handle routine processes, like data
entry, in the background. And workers, using their voice and gestures, will instruct their AI
helpers to perform tasks such as taking notes, conducting web searches or logging on to their
computer in the morning.

Of course, as AI technology matures and takes on more human tasks, employees will need to
adapt accordingly to stay relevant in the workforce. Robert Half’s research for the Jobs and AI
Anxiety report shows that many employers already understand this: Nearly half (47%) of the
more than 1,200 U.S. managers surveyed said they expect the rise of technological advancements
such as AI and robotics in the workplace will require their team members to learn new skills.

Here’s a look at how AI technology is already having an impact on how employees are trained
and hired, along with more insight into what the human-AI partnership might look like in the
future workplace:

Improving the hiring process

Protiviti and ESI ThoughtLab’s research found that only a small fraction of companies (about
4%) globally are seeing a notable impact from using advanced AI in their staffing and talent
management operations. However, that percentage is expected to rise to 30% in just two years,
according to the study.

That projection is not surprising, given AI’s potential to improve the hiring process, which can
be time-consuming for hiring managers (and job candidates, too). AI technology can make the
resume review and candidate evaluation process less burdensome by identifying the most
suitable candidates, using machine-learning techniques that go well beyond simple keyword
matching. Responding to common questions from job candidates is another area where AI
technology can help companies.

AI will also allow hiring managers to devote more time to the vital “human” aspects of
recruitment, including assessing a candidate’s organizational culture fit. (Robert Half knows the
value of using AI in the hiring process firsthand: We leverage AI technology, machine learning
and big data to help us make better job matches. We are both high-tech and high-touch.)

Developing and retaining employees

Every company benefits from having a well-trained workforce, and AI technology can help
ensure that they can build and maintain one. The future of professional development may include
AI-powered adaptive learning programs that modify training courses, on the fly, to suit different
learning styles. The AI could also analyze which modules have the highest and lowest levels of
engagement and test different variations. And it could help a company to measure its return on
investment from training, based on outcomes such as productivity, profitability and turnover.

AI is already being used to help people work smarter and become more engaged in their jobs.
U.S. company Humanize, as an example, has developed “smart” badges that use sensors, AI
software, and data analytics to track employees’ interactions in the office. The technology has
proven useful in helping companies better understand the relationship between team-building
and productivity — in one case, discovering that close-knit sales teams perform better than teams
split across different locations.

Also, AI technology could help to reduce employee attrition. In 2016, IBM’s Watson AI
platform showed that it could analyse a collection of data points about a company’s past and
current employees, and generate a score for each based on how likely they are to quit their job.
Predictive models such as these could soon become critical in alleviating the turnover headaches
that many organizations face.
AI technology is here to stay

No company, big or small, can afford to ignore the benefits that AI technology can deliver when
it comes to finding and recruiting talent in the future. However, while AI can be a powerful tool
in the hiring process, there are still many steps where the human element remains essential.

Assessing a candidate’s interpersonal skills, negotiating compensation and persuading candidates

to accept a job offer are all examples where human interaction and judgment are crucial — and
where AI technology has yet to crack the surface. Over time, well-trained AI may be able to take
on some of these tasks, but it is hard to imagine completely automating the very human process
of hiring humans.

Source: Getty Images