AI and automation are big business, and according to commentators, 2018 looks set to be the year that artificial intelligence officially goes ‘mainstream’. Gartner predicts that up to 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020 and, according to PwC, artificial intelligence could add £232bn to the UK economy by 2030.  

A recent report from Forrester, meanwhile, forecasts that this year alone, 9% of US jobs will be lost to automation, partly offset by a 2% growth in jobs supporting the ‘automation economy’.

Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that AI is the buzzword of the moment in HR circles. However, it’s crucial that we don’t buy into the hype and instead take a practical and measured approach to technological implementation if we are to reap the rewards of innovation.

While anyone would be forgiven for thinking that the vast majority of HR leaders are already harnessing the power of Robotic Process automation (RPA) in their day to day processes, the figures tell a different story. Recent research by Alexander Mann Solutions found that just 25% of senior HR professionals already use robotics, while data from LinkedIn’s 2017 Global Recruitment Trends report reveal that internal recruitment teams are investing just 17% of their budget into new technologies.

When it comes to HR innovation, it seems that everyone is talking the talk, but relatively few strategists are making any meaningful changes to systems and processes. This may be because HR directors are consistently being bombarded with the message that they need to invest in new technology, but don’t know where to start, or being sold solutions that, when stripped back, are little more than smoke and mirrors. Add to that the fact that HR is often way down the internal pecking order when it comes to IT investment – and typically speaks a completely different language from the IT function – and it’s no wonder that many teams are yet to experience the benefits that today’s technology can bring. But taking your first steps on the road to automation is easier than you may think.

The truth is that we don’t necessarily need more technology – we just need to use the technology we already have more effectively. The easiest way to do this is to automate existing processes to free up resources for more meaningful, higher value, work.

First, identify which tasks are the greatest drain on your team’s time and moral. These are usually ‘swivel chair’ type processes – taking information from one system and inputting it on another, for example.   

Next, determine if there is currently any automation within the organisation which can be applied to HR processes. If there isn’t, HR leaders have an option – they can go for a big consultancy review, or get their hands dirty and experiment. And there are benefits to starting small to demonstrate the value of automation to internal stakeholders. 

It’s not scary – the underlying technology is simple. Ultimately, robots use the same user interface as a person, and can essentially be the glue between two systems. Deploying bots doesn’t need to invite the same obstacles from security or IT as complex integrations – there are no fancy data exchanges. RPA simply improves efficiency – and it’s important that this is communicated to win hearts and minds.

Our own robot, ‘Doris’, copied 70,000 documents from a system into client folders over a single weekend making zero errors. While ‘Isaac’ manages previously laborious interviewing scheduling through a retail experience, mobile-enabled, branded, interface. This process used to take five days. Now Isaac can arrange an interview, including booking a room and sending briefing notes, taking into account all of a candidate and interviewer’s requirements, in as little as 30 minutes. These aren’t tasks that anyone took great pleasure in doing. The introduction of these robots didn’t lead to job losses – it just freed up our talent to do what they enjoy and what they do best – communicating and innovating.    

Once you can equate and demonstrate the efficiency of deploying robots to pick up tasks that were previously the (tedious) responsibility of human workers, making your case for further investment should be relatively simple.

Don’t believe the scaremongering. There will always be a distinct need for humans.