AI in HR: 3 Trends Leaders Should Monitor in 2024

AI is empowering HR leaders to make faster, more informed decisions about people and processes. Looking ahead to 2024, it’s clear that the technology will continue to evolve and influence the ever-changing workplace of tomorrow. This article explores three related trends leaders must consider when planning for the new year. From AI in HR to the growing importance of AI ethics and compliance, it provides insight into these and similar developments to support new practices and decision making.

AI in HR: 3 trends leaders should monitor in 2024

1. Generative AI is supplementing HR’s data-driven tool belt

Generative AI is becoming a powerful everyday addition to HR technology suites. With the ability to produce thorough, conversational insights based on vast amounts of information, generative AI can help leaders make more efficient, informed decisions about everything from hiring to retention to growth and development to offboarding — the entire employee experience. Leaders can better understand their people and processes by using generative AI to obtain quick, digestible answers based on their data, a level of rapid insight that may lead to more effective and timely strategies for talent management and employee engagement, benefits administration, payroll, time and attendance and compliance.

“Generative AI has added the ability to derive conversational and digestible insights from large datasets,” says Fernando Schwartz, vice president, data science and machine learning engineering, ADP. “We’ve always had the data, but now we have the computing power and data science techniques to deliver tailored, consumable insights at the speed and scale of business.”

2. Generative AI is making reliable people data a must-have

Generative AI is increasing the weight leaders place on the reliability of people data, an essential consideration for organizations looking to make well-rounded decisions backed by accurate information. Leaders can quickly analyze workforce datasets and obtain easy-to-understand trends, patterns and insights to guide strategic decision making. The technology is empowering them to use the data more efficiently and in new and creative ways, potentially leading to better and more proactive decision making and improved organizational outcomes. But generative AI’s benefits shouldn’t overshadow the need for dependable data. Otherwise, decisions may be misguided.

“Generative AI brings new possibilities to the world of human capital management. The speed and fluency of generative AI tools need to be paired with accuracy and compliance to drive real-world decisions,” says Amin Venjara, chief data officer, ADP. “With the broad access to generative AI models today, ensuring trustworthy data to power them is paramount. Both scale and quality of data are vital to handling the nuances of human capital management and protecting against potential risks.”

Every organization should have a policy that discusses the AI ethics principles they apply, how the organization thinks about using AI and the protections the organization offers. That’s a foundational point of governance …
Jason Albert, Global Chief Privacy Officer, ADP

3. Ethics and compliance are influencing decisions about data and generative AI

Given generative AI’s ability to ingest and crunch enormous volumes of people data, organizations are increasingly considering whether their approach to the technology is ethical and compliant. Data for use with generative and other forms of AI should be collected and used transparently with appropriate safeguards for data privacy and data security. Organizations must also consider the ethical implications of using AI to make decisions. These considerations include investigating whether the tools help account for inclusion and other workforce outcomes and whether resulting leadership decisions are as transparent and explainable as possible. Organizations can potentially build more trust with employees, candidates and clients by prioritizing ethics and compliance when applying generative AI and by ensuring the technology is used responsibly and with a human touch.

“Every organization should have a policy that discusses the AI ethics principles they apply, how the organization thinks about using AI and the protections the organization offers,” says Jason Albert, global chief privacy officer, ADP. “That’s a foundational point of governance. It’s important not to bring in outside technologies without understanding their ethical implications and ensuring they meet ethical requirements.”

AI in HR: Building informed response strategies

AI is transforming the world of work in powerful ways. By staying abreast of related developments and applying its power, leaders can position their organizations for success, support more efficient HR and payroll, save time and money, and so much more.