How Leading Companies Are Leveraging AI in HR

Not using AI tools on the job in your HR career yet? Chances are, by next year, you will be.

HR has been slower than many other industries to embrace the promise of AI, but the evolution is well under way: A recent Gartner study found that while just 11% of HR professionals had already implemented AI technology in their workplaces, 75% of respondents were planning or exploring ways to use it. Just 13% said that they had no plans to incorporate AI into their workplaces.

The business case for AI is clear: Employing artificial intelligence technology can help teams automate functions to reduce manual labor, driving higher efficiency while lowering costs and reducing errors. AI can also help you make the most of your workplace data, generating valuable insights that can be used to support workforce planning, compensation and benefits analysis, and other key HR functions. By strategically incorporating AI into your HR operations, you’ll be able to streamline workflows for your team, while simultaneously improving the employee experience for the workforce as a whole.

When getting started, you’ll be able to learn a lot by studying what other companies—both large enterprises and smaller businesses—are already doing in the space. We’ve built a list of companies using AI in HR in innovative ways. By looking at real-world examples of companies using AI throughout the HR organization, you’ll be able to gain inspiration and build a road map for your own AI strategy. 

How Companies Are Using AI in HR

AI in Recruitment and Hiring

Finding the right candidates and moving them through the application process traditionally takes weeks, or even months, and hiring decisions may be impacted by recruiters’ own biases. Brands that use AI in recruitment have been able to expedite their hiring process, improve the candidate experience, and reduce costs around manual recruiting labor. They’ve also enabled companies to reduce bias in the hiring process, ensuring that all candidates receive a fair assessment of their skills and experience.

• Unilever
  Unilever was an early adopter in incorporating AI-powered recruitment strategies. The 155,000-person brand hires over 30,000 employees each year, and recruiters once had to manually sort through thousands of resumes and spend many hours conducting interviews. To make the process faster and more cost-efficient, in 2016, Unilever began using an AI-enhanced recruiting platform that tested candidates’ skills through interactive games which assessed their aptitude compared to previous successful candidates. From there, the company asks candidates to film themselves responding to interview questions, then uses an algorithm to determine which candidates are likely to be good fits, based on natural language processing and body language assessment. The AI-driven process has reduced manual recruiting labor by 70,000 hours per year.

• Hilton
  The Hilton hospitality brand has embraced AI tools in streamlining the candidate experience. Hilton uses chatbots to automate initial interactions, such as responding to simple questions and scheduling interviews. They also use an AI-based video interviewing platform, which automatically assesses each candidate’s speech and body language to assess how they’d perform in customer-facing roles. These tools have enabled Hilton to shorten time-to-hire, transforming a process that once took six weeks to an average of five days.

AI in Employee Onboarding & Training

When new hires come on board, an effective onboarding program is critical for both driving engagement with your company and for helping them deliver value to your organization. Using AI in the onboarding and training process can deliver personalized experiences that help new employees hit the ground running and gain trust in the company culture.

• Walmart
  In 2023, Walmart rolled out a generative AI assistant tool to its 50,000 corporate employees called MyAssistant. In onboarding, the tool helps new hires use conversational AI to get instant answers to questions about benefits and policies. The tool also empowers all corporate employees to manage personalized training, summarize documents, draft emails, and more—helping them boost productivity and quickly gain access to information they need.

• Airbnb
  At Airbnb, technical hires use an AI-powered onboarding tool that provides tailored content recommendations and tutorials based on each new hire’s role. The tool adapts the content and training sessions based on the new employee’s behavior: For example, “if a new engineer spends significant time on a specific data set, the AI proactively offers relevant documentation and best practices, and connects them with in-house experts,” Mitesh Mangaonkar, tech lead of Software Engineering and Data, told Fast Company. The tool has helped new hires gain required skills more quickly, and supported them in building stronger ties to the Airbnb employee community.

AI in Employee Engagement & Retention

Disengaged employees are more likely to voluntarily turn over, leading to lower productivity and higher recruiting costs. In fact, disengaged employees cost the world economy $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. Using AI tools to support employee engagement can help you boost workplace morale and retention rates, and generate better insights around workforce planning.

• IBM
  IBM uses predictive analytics tools to determine employees’ risk of voluntary turnover, identify high-potential employees, and evaluate how employees will respond to new HR initiatives. HR teams can also more accurately predict the need for new hires based on predicted growth and attrition rates.

• PepsiCo
  PepsiCo uses AI tools to provide ongoing L&D opportunities for their workforce to promote their career progression and increase retention. Their online learning program, Pep U Degreed, uses machine learning technology to provide personalized learning opportunities based on the employee’s skills, interests, colleague connections, and learning style.

AI in Performance Management

Businesses can use AI analytics tools to streamline employee performance reviews, with automated performance assessments and 360-degree feedback collection, resulting in generative AI recommendations for performance improvement. With access to deeper insights on employee performance, managers will be better equipped to boost team productivity and provide enhanced training opportunities.

• Salesforce
  Salesforce’s Einstein Coach gives sales team members access to AI-generated coaching on their sales pitches, with simulated role-play that enables sales reps to talk to the Coach as they would a prospect. The Coach provides an assessment of the pitch and feedback on improvements they could make to strengthen its quality, helping to increase closure rates. (While Salesforce uses Einstein Coach internally, it’s also available as a product to support Salesforce customers.)

• GoCanvas
  The tech company GoCanvas moved from a manual performance review process to an automated platform that classifies top employees as “rockstars” and “superstars” based on quantitative data, eliminating the risk of bias and ensuring fair recognition, with targeted progression plans.

AI in Workforce Planning & Analytics

Businesses can use AI tools to support operational efficiency in the workplace, using analytics to support both short- and long-term planning. Such tools can help with labor forecasting needs, help lower operational costs, and support more efficient scheduling and better decision-making.

• Amazon
  Amazon uses a proprietary machine learning tool called Amazon Connect in its contact centers to enhance scheduling, capacity planning, and labor forecasting needs based on predictive analytics. The system can predict call volumes and handling times based on historic data, ensuring that hiring and scheduling is optimized to improve the customer experience.

• Johnson & Johnson
  The pharmaceutical company uses an AI process known as “skills inference” to map a group of 41 “future-ready” key skills that the organization values, and identify which existing employees already have each of the skills based on their roles and previous experiences. The tool helps them identify skill gaps for high-priority future roles, and aids in supporting personalized L&D initiatives for current employees.

AI in HR Compliance & Administration

HR teams can use AI and automation tools to reduce paperwork and significantly streamline workflows, improving efficiency, saving time, and reducing compliance risks. Here are some examples of companies using AI to support administrative work:

• Goldbelly
  Goldbelly, an online marketplace for gourmet foods, shifted to AI-driven automation tools to support its growing payroll and administrative needs. While growing the brand from 6 to 125 employees, they were able to streamline onboarding, payroll, and benefits administration, with self-service onboarding tools and automated workflows to save time and ensure compliance. Thanks to AI and automation, Goldbelly has saved 900+ hours on onboarding, administrative, and compliance-related tasks.

• American Cedar & Millwork
  This cabinetry company was struggling to manage scheduling and payroll for employees with shifting hourly schedules that often included overtime, relying on time clocks and manual reporting. After switching to an automated solution with simple, app-based time-tracking, they were able to reduce overtime by over 25%, and boost employee productivity by 25% to 30%.

Benefits of AI in HR

Now we’ve seen a range of case studies around integrating AI-based tools into HR functions at companies large and small—but what benefits do they have in common? Across the board, here are a few key outcomes that businesses see when they embrace AI tools:

• Increased Efficiency
  HR teams can use AI HR tools to streamline many common tasks, with employee self-service and automated workflows for functions including payroll management, benefits administration, scheduling, and compliance checklists. These workflows can reduce the time that HR pros spend on menial labor, freeing them up to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives.

• Better Decision-Making
  AI-driven analytics tools help HR leaders make more knowledgeable decisions with enhanced data insights. HR pros can use predictive analytics and other AI-based data analysis tools to make accurate, data-based assessments around situations including compensation determination, performance improvement plans, new office locations, and future hiring plans.

• Improved Employee Experience
  AI tools can enhance the employee experience, with access to self-service tools that help employees find answers and solve problems quickly without waiting for HR support. AI onboarding & training tools can also provide personalized training plans that are tailored to each employee, helping them gain the skills they need to succeed in their roles.

• Cost Savings
  Through optimized planning and scheduling, AI tools can help your company cut costs and boost productivity immediately. And by making decisions based on better data insights, you’ll be able to reduce future costs associated with workforce planning.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Before jumping on board with AI tools, it’s important to be aware of the associated risks, too. These are some ethical considerations to address in your AI strategy:

• AI Bias and Fairness in Hiring
  Machine learning algorithms are informed by the data that’s used to train them, so it’s important to take a hard look at your AI tools’ recommendations when it comes to hiring to make sure that they’re not reinforcing discriminatory practices. By setting up diversity goals within your hiring practice, you can regularly audit your tools to ensure that they’re delivering a well-balanced candidate pool.

• Data Privacy & Security
  As with any third party tool, it’s important to understand how your AI solutions are safeguarding the data that you share with them, which may involve information that’s protected under GDPR, HIPAA, or other compliance regulations. Make sure that your vendors have security certificates that demonstrate their commitment to cybersecurity best practices, and limit the information you provide to what’s necessary to complete the tasks at hand.

• Employee Trust & Adoption
  Many industries are seeing some friction from employees in regards to AI tools, due to unfamiliarity or fear of losing their roles to AI. To overcome resistance, it’s important to educate your employees on how they can effectively use AI in the workplace to make themselves more valuable to the organization. You can also identify AI evangelists within your organization, and set them up with colleagues to support training initiatives.

How Companies Can Successfully Integrate AI in HR

These examples of companies using AI in HR have demonstrated many ways that you can incorporate AI tools into your own organization.

Are you ready to get rolling with AI-driven initiatives? However you plan to integrate AI tools into your organization, here are some tips for making the transition go smoothly.

• Start Small
  Pilot smaller AI initiatives in recruitment or onboarding before scaling up. For example, encourage team members to try out an AI-driven calendar tool to optimize meeting times. Once they’re comfortable with that technology, introduce them to a generative AI virtual assistant that they can use to draft letters and summarize documents.

• Choose the Right AI Tools
  Evaluate AI software based on company needs and compliance requirements. If you’re a small business, focus on tools that offer the right features at the right price point, ensuring they meet your security and compliance standards. For larger businesses, it may be valuable to seek out a more robust platform with a range of applications, and ensure that it integrates with all the tools they already use.

• Train HR Teams – Educate your team to ensure that they understand how to use AI effectively. That could include online training courses and certification programs, as well as in-person, interactive workshops where they can test out different tools, ask questions, and troubleshoot issues in a controlled environment.

• Monitor & Optimize AI Usage
  As you integrate AI tools into your team’s workflows, it’s important to regularly audit them for performance and bias. Come up with a set of key metrics to report against (i.e., % of underrepresented groups in candidate pool, time-to-hire), regularly monitor your metrics for improved outcomes, and optimize your AI strategy if you’re not meeting your goals.

The Future of AI in HR

As we look towards the future, we’re seeing great promise for AI tools to enhance other HR programs in the workplace. Some key developments could include:

• AI-Powered Employee Well-being & Mental Health Support
  Some businesses are already utilizing AI-driven chatbots to support employee mental health, providing cognitive behavioral therapy and other therapeutic support. However, it’s important to tread carefully and ensure that such tools are grounded upon ethical, evidence-based treatment models.

• AI in Hybrid & Remote Workforces
  As many workplaces have increasingly shifted to a hybrid or remote-first model, it’s becoming increasingly important to improve transparency throughout the workforce. We will likely see a rise in AI tools designed to facilitate improved collaboration and performance tracking, with the ability to collect and integrate data from diverse sources in multiple locations to provide enhanced insights and strategic recommendations on driving engagement and workforce planning initiatives.

• AI for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)
  AI tools can be used to inform hiring and promotion decisions to eliminate bias. By using machine learning models that seek to foster improved workplace equity, businesses will be able to meet their diversity goals and reduce compliance risks.

As these case studies illustrate, AI is fundamentally changing HR processes across industries. It’s not a flash in the pan—AI is here to stay, and its usage will continue to grow and evolve based on organizational priorities and increasing comfort with the technology.

As an HR professional, it’s important for you to embrace AI technology and become an evangelist in your own organization. By becoming an internal thought leader around AI in HR, you’ll be positioned to lead your HR team’s growth and evolution, and will help your business maintain a competitive edge in talent management, compliance, and the employee experience.