While August may symbolize the end of summer and the transition into Fall, it also symbolizes the kick off of business planning for the next year… starting with budgeting. This time of year is also the busiest time for HR with end of year performance reviews, talent calibration, the compensation cycle, objective setting etc., so it can be all too easy for HR budget holders to stay the course and keep budgets flat.
But, as the business world is forever changing with the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), so too must HR change. It is an imperative for HR leaders to proactively plan (and budget) for leveraging A.I. in 2025. Not in the future. Now. In particular, we see three immediate priority use cases for A.I in HR:
HR process automation – Odds are you are already looking at technologies that drive automation and are budgeting for these systems, but have you also budgeted for what it’s going to take to successfully implement? While AI brings tremendous power with robotic process automation (RPA), it requires HR to design the process and make decisions about what can be automated versus what requires human intervention. Ensure you are including in your budget the necessary resources and capability for process design.
Employee “self help” – Your workforce expects to be able to ask a question and get an answer. If your Company intranet platform requires searching and scrolling for information then you are behind the times.
Now is the time to invest in a platform that enables “employee self help” which not only improves the employee experience, but also allows HR headcount reallocation to more value added activities than answering employee queries. But, A.I. isn’t magic. It needs to be fed correct and up to date information with clear direction on audience applicability (ie different policies in different states, different eligibility rules for different employee populations, etc). Be sure to budget for the heavy lift of building and maintaining your HR knowledge base.
Predictive analytics – There is tremendous power in A.I. predictive capabilities, but the catch is that it needs accurate and up to date data. Most companies have their people related data in multiple locations and many struggle with ensuring the data is up to date and accurate. Before you continue to expand your HR Tech stack, consider HR Tech rationalization and integration that drives data integrity. Now is the time to dive into not only a “data clean up”, but more importantly building the processes and workflows that drive ongoing data integrity. Without this, your ability to leverage A.I. capabilities in the future is severely compromised. If you haven’t already, plan in your budget to address your data integrity issues once and for all.
So, as you map out your HR budget for 2025 it is critical to ensure you have incorporated the necessary investments not only in technology, but more importantly in the HR capabilities needed to keep pace with business expectations to leverage A.I. in HR. If you want to learn more about how we’re seeing Companies plan for and leverage A.I. in 2025, get in touch!
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