14-05-2025
The AI Advantage: How To Put More Focus On What Truly Matters
Heather Peters, CHRO, Sikich, a global company specializing in technology-enabled professional services.
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While there's plenty of speculation about what the future holds for AI, one thing is clear to me: AI is a today thing, not a tomorrow thing. As HR leaders, it's time to consider what role we want this technology to play in our field's future.
As I think back on all the chatter about AI in the past year, it seems the conversation shifted away from the theoretical to the practical. Now, there's an eagerness, especially among early adopters, to share creative and successful use cases for AI. I find this knowledge sharing and collaboration in a time of uncharted waters to be incredibly inspiring.
As a people leader, I know we must embrace AI to drive efficiency and empower HR teams to focus on what truly matters: meaningful and direct employee interaction and support. While there's no one-size-fits-all approach, here are three practical ways to unlock the power of AI and optimize your HR strategy.
Evolving to meet the needs of an ever-changing workforce is critical, and extensive research shows that teaching employees to use AI effectively has many benefits. Some key findings include:
• Productivity: When employees know how to leverage automation tools, they can see significant gains in productivity. The time saved allows them to concentrate on higher-value work that requires critical thinking and creativity.
• Better Decision-Making: AI-driven insights enable employees to access more accurate data, leading to more informed and effective decision-making.
• Employee Engagement: Reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks through AI implementation has been linked to increased job satisfaction. As employees shift toward more creative and strategic responsibilities, engagement and overall morale improve.
At my company, Sikich, we've invested in AI learning opportunities to ensure our workforce is equipped to leverage new technologies effectively. From informal lunch-and-learn programs to quarterly training workshops, as well as having an AI Awareness Pilot Team, we show employees how they can utilize AI in their roles.
Generative AI can help augment your human capital efforts by taking over routine tasks. To determine what you can automate, conduct an audit of your team's workflow to identify areas that don't necessarily need a human touch. These will typically be the easier, repetitive or time-consuming tasks that are more completion-oriented.
I frequently use the term "special sauce" when making these distinctions. Take recruiting, for example. Reviewing and vetting 200 résumés from candidates who all have accounting degrees, have two years of work experience and are authorized to work in the U.S. is a rather repetitive and time-consuming exercise. It doesn't require the special sauce—in this case, a human recruiter's ability to understand nuance, make connections, develop relationships and determine culture fit. So, ask yourself, which tasks require the special sauce, and which don't? That's how you can pinpoint opportunities for automation.
Data is critical to making sound and innovative business decisions, but only if you can make it work for you. For example, AI-powered tools automatically analyze large volumes of employee feedback from surveys, performance reviews and engagement programs. Then they can identify patterns and trends that might otherwise go unnoticed, such as shifts in engagement or satisfaction that signify turnover risk. At Sikich, we leverage AI to easily and efficiently synthesize data from our employee listening programs. The trends we see and hear then inform how we address issues proactively, thus enhancing our employee engagement efforts. AI can also assist HR teams by providing real-time insights into skill gaps and workforce performance, enabling you to make data-driven decisions on recruitment, training and development strategies.
As HR leaders, future-proofing our organization's success means embracing and advocating for AI use. To truly unlock the power of this technology, we must prioritize a workplace culture of curiosity and innovation. By doing so, we will find endless possibilities and step into uncharted territories collaboratively and positively.
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