Meet Your Newest HR Helper: A.I.

HR teams are still trying to wrap their heads around A.I. in the workplace, but they're taking some key steps forward.

A.I. is entering the workplace. But are companies ready to embrace it?

Thirty-eight percent of HR leaders in a new survey say they are "piloting, planning implementation, or have already implemented generative AI." That's up from 19 percent in June, according to the report from Gartner, and the jump indicates a growing shift from "exploring how GenAI might be used to implementing solutions," said Dion Love, vice president of advisory in the Gartner HR practice, in the press release.

Specifically, these HR leaders are looking for A.I. to help with job descriptions, document generation, and employee-facing chatbots, to name just a few use cases. Nearly half of those surveyed--46 percent--also say the productivity gains from A.I. would allow them to stop "backfilling roles arising due to natural attrition."

These changes won't happen overnight, though: 67 percent of these HR leaders said that, within their function, they don't plan on adding any generative A.I.-related roles in the next 12 months.

Still, companies are starting to make progress on a key step: training other teams to use it. More than a third of respondents said their work now includes training the broader employee base on how to implement A.I. in their roles.

As previously reported in Inc., though, introducing teams to A.I. in the right way is crucial to ease adoption and make the technology most effective. Providing applicable examples, clearly communicating the risks, and welcoming employee feedback can help.

In terms of adoption, 20 percent of the HR leaders surveyed say they're training not just employees on using A.I., but also executives. The C-suite is already seeing the competitive advantage of this, as 79 percent of executives in a survey last year said they worried that if they didn't learn how to use it, they'd be "unprepared for the future of work."

Indeed, the organizations that are best prepared to leverage A.I. will have the most to gain from its benefits, says Eser Rizaoglu, a senior director analyst also in the Gartner HR practice. And he says that requires leaders to empower HR to "pilot new programs, add new roles, and train their workforce" going forward.

This article was written by Sarah Lynch from Inc and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.