9 Key Benefits of AI in HR: How You Can Use AI in Your Role
AI leads to better decision-making, greater productivity, and increased profits for companies that adopt it. The benefits also extend to the HR function — you simply have to learn how to maximize its potential.
As artificial intelligence capabilities continue to expand and grow, there are several key benefits of using AI in HR. AI can help with data-driven decisions, reduce headcount and hiring costs, and improve employee experience.
However, while 80% of decision-makers think AI adoption is necessary to keep their companies competitive, 77% believe mitigating risks could increase its uptake.
This article discusses AI’s role, impact, risks, and benefits in HR and offers some best practices for applying AI to different aspects of the function.
Contents
AI in HR: Role and impact
AI’s use in HR
9 key benefits of AI in HR
The challenges of AI in HR
Applying AI to HR: Best practices
The future of AI in HR
AI in HR: Role and impact
AI first appeared in HR in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with simple automation tools like résumé screening via ATS (applicant tracking systems), matching keywords to job descriptions, and handling high volumes of applicants more efficiently.
Basic AI chatbots soon followed, managing candidate queries and scheduling interviews without human input. Then came predictive analytics, which used past data to forecast outcomes (e.g., how likely a candidate is to succeed in a role). As AI advanced, it moved from handling simple tasks to supporting strategic decisions like workforce planning.
Today, HR leans more on data and machine learning to automate, improve, and streamline processes, such as predicting employee turnover, identifying high-risk teams, or analyzing survey results.
AI is now used across HR — in hiring, onboarding and offboarding, workforce planning, chatbots and virtual assistants, learning and development (L&D), analytics, talent management, AI coaching, and HR business partnering. However, it’s important to remember that AI should be treated as a copilot, not a replacement. Most HR tasks still require human judgment and empathy.
AI’s use in HR
Here are some examples of the use of AI in HR, along with relevant AI tools for Human Resources that can help you integrate AI technology into your organization.
Content generation
AI helps HR teams create job descriptions, personalized candidate emails, and draft policies. It also supports training material development and simulations, and you can use it to generate welcome videos for new hires and run employer branding campaigns on social media.
Examples: Canva, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Jasper AI, Pictory, Synthesia
Data insights
AI makes it easy to analyze performance, salaries, and more. It creates clear dashboards and highlights patterns in large datasets, helping you spot trends like low team performance. Additionally, you can use machine learning to predict future HR needs.
Examples: Google Looker Studio, IBM Watson Analytics, MonkeyLearn
Information extraction and summary
You can use AI to scan and summarize large documents like legal texts or company policies, helping employees find key information as quickly as possible. It can also extract relevant insights tailored to business goals, which supports better HR decision-making.
Examples: SummarizeBot, Tableau, and Einstein Analytics
Automation and optimization
A significant use of AI in HR is automating administrative tasks like interviews, onboarding, payroll, and reviews. You can also use it to send documents for e-signing, answer employee questions via chatbots, and personalize routine messages based on staff data.
Examples: AI for Google Calendar, Calendly, Grammarly, Mail Merge for Google Sheets
Productivity enhancement
AI can flag urgent tasks, manage shifting deadlines, sync calendars, assign tasks, and send reminders. It can also schedule meetings, take notes, summarize discussions, draft documents, aid in research, and recommend tasks based on past performance.
Examples: Asana, Clockwise, Otter.ai, Perplexity
9 key benefits of AI in HR
Let’s explore some of AI’s benefits in HR, using real-life examples of AI tools and companies that use them.
1. Time-saving on repetitive tasks
AI enables HR teams to outsource low-value, time-consuming admin tasks, such as screening résumés, scheduling meetings, conducting payroll, and ensuring compliance. This increases efficiency, frees you up for more strategic, value-adding work, reduces the risk of human error, and improves overall accuracy.
Real-life examples
- Ambassador Cruise Line used Sage HR to automate its reporting, leave booking, and shift scheduling, allowing its HR team to focus on more valuable work.
- Mastercard partnered with Phenom to use AI scheduling for its interview process. This resulted in scheduling being 85% faster and 88% of interviews being scheduled within 24 hours of the request.
2. Improved quality of hire
AI can improve candidate matching, which increases quality of hire. For instance, you can use ChatGPT to generate interview questions based on role requirements and summarize résumés to speed up screening. You can also use AI-powered tools like skills tests and pre-employment assessments to dive deeper into candidates’ capabilities.
Real-life examples
- Advanced tools like HireVue use AI in video interviews to evaluate facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice to help determine a candidate’s suitability for a role.
- L’Oreal’s Mya AI bot chats with candidates before they apply for a role to see if they’re a good fit and guides them through the process. This pre-screening saves recruiters time and helps increase the quality of applicants.
3. Enhanced employee experience
AI-powered chatbots can address employee queries and serve as virtual onboarding assistants for new hires. At the same time, generative AI in HR (GenAI) can analyze skills, performance data, and career goals to provide tailored L&D suggestions. Additionally, AI-based coaching tools can mimic in-person coaching and offer real-time feedback.
Real-life examples
- Leena, a virtual HR assistant, offers staff support by auto-resolving common queries and streamlining work processes. This gives employees quicker access to support and frees HR up for tasks that require human connection.
- Unilever uses AI-integrated platforms like Degreed to personalize learning paths based on employees’ roles, interests, and skills gaps.
4. Better employee engagement
AI tools can help draft clear, engaging company newsletters on new initiatives, policy updates, and reward programs, while GenAI can customize employee communications to make your messages inclusive and effective. These tools can also help you brainstorm how to improve the employee experience (e.g., by boosting engagement).
Real-life examples
- Jasper helps boost engagement by writing personalized messages, newsletters, and learning materials, ensuring consistent and motivating communication.
- Canva’s Magic Write generates clear, engaging text for HR visuals like posters, slides, and event materials, making it easy to create professional, eye-catching content that captures employee attention and promotes participation.
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5. Data-driven decisions
AI allows you to use data to make evidence-based decisions by measuring KPIs like task completion rates and peer feedback. This will enable you to plan for the future by personalizing career development plans, identifying future leaders, and reskilling and upskilling your organization’s workforce.
Real-life examples
- RingCentral partnered with Findem, combining external and internal data to streamline hiring processes, including candidate matching. Eventually, its talent pipeline increased by 40%, and its quality of hire rose by 22%.
- Platforms like Gloat and Eightfold AI can recommend internal job opportunities, training programs, and mentorship pairings based on each employee’s current skills, experience, and career goals.
6. Ability to predict workforce trends
58% of HR leaders struggle to meet talent needs, and 40% of businesses cannot fill critical roles. AI-powered forecasting can predict workforce trends and proactively align their strategy. Additionally, you can use GenAI to analyze large datasets from different sources for key insights (e.g., potential flight risks and future skills gaps).
Real-life examples
- Aura helps synchronize workforce data and integrates external labor trends, competitor hiring patterns, and economic factors into a single source of truth. This facilitates workforce trend tracking and strategy optimization.
- You can use ChatGPT to summarize trends from employee surveys, performance reviews, and exit interviews to pinpoint common reasons for turnover and suggest ways to improve.
7. Increased HR productivity
As AI takes on manual, repetitive admin tasks, you can focus on more strategic tasks and increase HR productivity where it matters. For instance, you can make your recruitment process more efficient by using AI tools to assess applicant responses and quickly draft job descriptions, offer letters, and policy updates.
Real-life examples
- By using machine learning tools to analyze its applicants’ interview responses and videos, Unilever was able to streamline its hiring process and reduce its time to hire by 75%.
- Grammarly helps HR teams work faster by improving the clarity, tone, and correctness of emails, policies, and internal documents. This reduces back-and-forth edits and ensures professional, error-free communication.
- Copy.ai speeds up content creation for HR by generating ready-to-use drafts for job posts, employee updates, onboarding guides, and more. This can save you time on writing, helping your HR team focus on higher-value tasks.
8. Stronger DEIB efforts
AI in HR supports DEIB by spotting bias in hiring, promotions, and pay through data analysis, helping HR teams take action to fix these gaps. At the same time, AI tools like chatbots can boost inclusion by giving real-time support to employees with disabilities, ensuring equal access to relevant information and help.
Real-life examples
- Diversio uses GenAI to process open-text feedback from staff surveys to detect subtle language signaling exclusion or bias. It then links those patterns to outcomes like lower engagement or slower promotion rates in certain groups.
- Textio scans text in real time to flag non-inclusive language and suggest neutral alternatives. For example, it highlights phrases that may prevent minorities from applying and offers replacements to appeal to a broader, more diverse audience.
9. Improved compliance and documentation accuracy
Tools like predictive compliance analytics use AI to analyze historical data and predict compliance trends, while compliance automation software streamlines compliance tasks. GenAI can also help you draft, create, and update policy documents and contracts in line with company policy and compliance regulations.
Real-life examples
- Compliance.ai monitors compliance updates in real time, generates accurate, updated policy drafts, and alerts HR to legal changes that may affect staff handbooks or contracts. This lowers manual research and non-compliance risk.
- ADP uses AI-driven compliance tools to keep HR teams updated on labor law changes, automate policy and document updates, and minimize legal risks. This helps businesses stay compliant, reduce manual work, and stay audit-ready.
The challenges of AI in HR
While there are many benefits of using AI in HR, there are risks and challenges to be aware of. These include:
- Algorithmic bias: Biased algorithms can create inaccurate insights that may lead to discrimination and inequality in your organization.
- Data privacy and ethical concerns: AI systems may collect data without users knowing. This is a privacy breach that raises ethical concerns about consent.
- Limited transparency in AI decision-making: The lack of transparency surrounding how AI models get results can erode trust in the information provided.
- Over-reliance on automated recommendations: Over-reliance on AI is a growing concern, as it can result in decreased human oversight and poor decisions.
- Integration complexity: Organizations that use legacy systems not designed for AI integration can easily run into issues with AI adoption and scalability.
- Lack of internal AI expertise: 81% of IT professionals believe they can use AI, but only 12% have the necessary skills, which means there’s a 69% skills gap in this area.
- Resistance to change: HR teams and employees may be reluctant to embrace AI, either due to a lack of interest or competency, or a fear that it could replace their jobs.
- High upfront costs or unclear ROI: AI in HR requires significant upfront investment, and it can be difficult to demonstrate why these costs are worth it.
- Regulatory uncertainty: Increasingly robust regulation of AI technology may intimidate some organizations, preventing them from creating a formalized AI roadmap.
Applying AI to HR: Best practices
Here are some best practices for applying AI in HR:
Start small
Begin by testing AI in one HR area — like recruitment or onboarding — before rolling it out company-wide. Try a few different tools, see what works, and measure the impact. Starting small lets you learn what fits your processes, fix issues early, and build internal support before expanding into other areas like learning, performance, or workforce planning.
Choose tools that integrate with existing HR software
Select AI tools that work well with the systems already in use, such as your ATS (applicant tracking system), HRIS (HR Information System), or LMS (learning management system). This avoids duplicate work and drives smoother workflows. Integration also means less time spent on manual data transfers and more reliable insights from connected systems.
Focus on solving problems
Your company should adopt AI because it solves real business needs, not just to follow trends. Whether it’s reducing hiring time, improving employee retention, or automating admin tasks, start with a clear goal. This will help you choose the right tool, prove its value, and get the buy-in you need from relevant stakeholders.
Work with IT and data teams to ensure smooth implementation
Bringing in your organization’s IT and data teams early helps you set up your AI tools correctly and securely. These teams can help ensure system compatibility, data integration, and regulatory compliance. If you don’t have in-house expertise, consider engaging a reputable external partner to help guide the process.
Prioritize transparency
Ensure employees understand how AI will be used, what data it will collect, and how to make decisions. This builds trust and helps prevent resistance. Clear communication is especially important in areas like performance reviews or internal mobility, where AI recommendations will affect people directly.
Maintain a ‘human in the loop’ approach
AI should support HR, not replace it. Be sure to involve the relevant staff when reviewing AI-driven outputs, especially when it comes to decisions about your organization’s workforce. Thorough checks conducted by humans are essential for catching mistakes, preventing bias, and ensuring final decisions are fair and accurate.
Regularly audit AI tools for bias and performance
Monitor your tools’ performance and check for any signs of bias in results. Regular audits help you catch problems early, whether a hiring algorithm unfairly filters out specific candidates or inaccurately predicts employee turnover. Assess your tools’ data, decision-making processes, and whether outcomes are fair and reliable.
Train HR staff to use and interpret AI outputs
Invest in training staff not just on how to operate the new software, but also how to interpret and act on the results. They should understand what the data tells them, what limitations AI might have, and when to step in with human judgment. The better trained your team is, the more value you’ll get from your AI investment.
The future of AI in HR
GenAI will be used more to personalize employee communication and create content. AI tools will also help track real-time performance, provide instant feedback, and act as copilots to support strategic decisions. The HR team can also expect AI to combine with wearables to boost workplace safety and employee wellness.
More focus will likely be on explainable AI and fairness checks to build trust in how these tools work. Additionally, new, clearer regulations around AI in hiring and employment are expected, helping leaders understand what is and isn’t allowed. As AI takes over more admin work, HR’s role will shift to a more strategic one, focused on impact instead of paperwork.
To sum up
The benefits of integrating AI tools and software in HR are clear. As technology rapidly evolves and transforms the world of work, businesses that fail to adopt AI will be left behind. However, it’s important to be mindful of the challenges AI brings and the potential concerns of using widely unregulated and previously untested technology.
If you’re ready to apply AI to your organization’s HR functions, start small and focus on solving real business concerns. Be sure to test your chosen AI tools thoroughly before company-wide implementation, and regularly monitor them so you can minimize bias and make prompt changes wherever needed.
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