Will artificial intelligence become a regular part of human resources?
Posted June 16, 2017
Artificial intelligence and automation will have a major impact on human resources and employment over the next few years, according to new CareerBuilder research. Thirteen percent of human resource managers are already seeing evidence of artificial intelligence (AI) becoming a regular part of HR, and 55 percent say it will be the norm in the next five years.
While the majority of HR managers said the thought of AI in HR does not make them nervous, 35 percent said it does. Still, only 7 percent of HR managers say they think a robot could do their job.
Manual data input causes wasted time and productivity, errors
HR managers who do not fully automate say they lose an average of 14 hours a week manually completing tasks that could be automated; 28 percent waste 20 hours or more, 11 percent spend 30 hours or more.
Below is a breakdown of the HR functions that HR managers say are currently fully automated, partially automated or not automated at all.
| HR function | Fully automated | Partially automated | Not automated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll | 50 percent | 42 percent | 7 percent |
| Background checks/drug testing | 39 percent | 35 percent | 21 percent |
| Applicant tracking | 38 percent | 35 percent | 21 percent |
| Benefits administration | 34 percent | 49 percent | 13 percent |
| Distributing job postings to different websites | 30 percent | 36 percent | 28 percent |
| Compliance | 25 percent | 45 percent | 27 percent |
| Performance management | 24 percent | 38 percent | 33 percent |
| Sourcing job candidates | 20 percent | 47 percent | 25 percent |
| Predictive assessments | 20 percent | 24 percent | 25 percent |
| Training/learning | 18 percent | 47 percent | 28 percent |
| Employee referrals | 16 percent | 29 percent | 45 percent |
| Onboarding | 15 percent | 56 percent | 26 percent |
The survey found that a lack of HR automation can have a negative ripple effect on a business. HR managers who do not fully automate say manual processes have led to:
- Lower productivity: 41 percent
- More errors: 40 percent
- Higher costs: 35 percent
- Poor candidate experience: 18 percent
- Poor employee experience: 17 percent
- Less engagement: 17 percent
- Poor hiring manager experience: 11 percent
Survey methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 231 human resource managers (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between February 16 and March 9, 2017. Percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions. With a pure probability sample of 231, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling errors of +/- 6.45 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.
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