Abakar Saidov is co-founder and CEO of Beamery, a leader in talent lifecycle management. In the wake of the "Great Reshuffle," companies continue to reevaluate their approach to recruitment and retention. In order to drive efficiency and remain effective at scale, business leaders are increasingly turning to new technologies for support. One of the most valuable technologies supporting talent management strategies today is artificial intelligence (AI). It has the potential to revolutionize the way in which businesses interact with the wider talent landscape, helping HR teams and recruiters fill much-needed positions and identify the skill sets in most demand.

Anand is the CEO & Product Owner at Amoeboids. The overnight changes the pandemic brought to work life over two years ago would have been a lot more difficult if not for digital tools. Employees appear to agree; according to an Oracle and Workplace Intelligence report, 82% of employees surveyed believed AI can support their careers better than humans, and a whopping 85% wanted technology to help define their future. But what is HR's role in this? Using people analytics in HR functions can bring about positive change--but only if employers cultivate the right approach for their organization.

The future of HR is both digital and human as HR leaders focus on optimizing the combination of human and automated work. This is driving a new priority for HR: one which requires leaders and teams to develop a fluency in artificial intelligence while they re-imagine HR to be more personal, human and intuitive. As we enter 2019, it's the combination of AI and human intelligence that will transform work and workers as we know it. For many companies the first pilots of artificial intelligence are in talent acquisition, as this is the area where companies see significant, measurable, and immediate results in reducing time to hire, increasing productivity for recruiters, and delivering an enhanced candidate experience that is seamless, simple, and intuitive. One company that has delivered on this is DBS Bank.

The last module of "The People Analytics Journey" – the introductory course for HR professionals that I taught in Tel Aviv – was dedicated to the future of People Analytics. We discuss the question – Will People Analysts always be human?, and I offered some practice guideline in Procurement and Ethics. As HR practitioners still lag in their understanding of analytics and AI, I think that this module illustrated the path needed to close the gap, without the math and the coding, of course. In part 1 of the article AI for HR – Five themes that you must understand, I emphasized that the realm of work changes, as every stage of the employee lifecycle is affected by AI. To face the difficulties that we encounter, I called HR leaders to start by understanding five themes: 1) What AI is – or isn't?

As remote working blurs the line between work and life, HR leaders are prioritizing employee well-being and mental health. This focus on nurturing employee well-being is critical to developing workplace resilience. The Future Workplace 2021 HR Sentiment survey found that 68% of senior HR leaders (of which 40% were CHROs) rated employee well-being and mental health as a top priority. It's no wonder this is a priority for HR leaders as the corporate well-being market is now estimated to be $20.4 Billion in the U.S. and is forecasted to grow to $87.4 Billion by 2026. In our recent Future Workplace Virtual Summit attended by senior leaders in HR, Talent, and Corporate Learning, we polled leaders on what their organization has done to focus on employee well-being.

Some call it an employee's journey in their current workplace; others describe it as uncovering the tools and culture employees need to do their work successfully. But whatever you call the employee experience, it is driving employers even harder to better understand how they can offer a much more positive work environment -- no easy task, especially in the wake of the past 16 or so months as COVID changed the workplace. "I believe the entire dynamic and what employee experience looked like shifted since the pandemic," says Sugi Venkatesh, division vice president – HR, for Global Product and Technology on ADP's Human Resources team. Venkatesh adds that during the pandemic, ensuring a positive employee experience not only meant the workforce was engaged and taking care of customers, but it also became the only way to stay in business. "Many organizations went from employee experience being a focus area to it being the top priority, with real dollar investments," he says, adding that the paradigm shift also brought with it a need to accelerate the employee experience through technology.

As HR leaders, we face a radically different landscape than we did 12 months ago. A hybrid workforce, virtual recruitment and a heightened focus on diversity and inclusion have introduced new dynamics and intensified existing ones. Increasingly, we need new platforms and technologies to stay ahead--and artificial intelligence is at the forefront. Multiple surveys show that today's Chief Human Resource Officers are aware of AI's power to improve key HR functions, including operations, talent acquisition, training and development. Many have already adopted AI and many more plan to do so in the next two to three years. As more companies integrate AI platforms into their everyday practices, the real-life tangible benefits are becoming clearer for automating transactional tasks, enhancing employee productivity and gaining valuable insights about candidates and employees.

Human resource (HR) departments have long been integral to organizational success, and they're likely to remain that way for decades to come. But the nature of HR is likely to evolve with new technologies, research, and trends. For starters, we might see HR directing the charge in remodeling the form of the ordinary workforce. Increasingly, consumers and employers alike are valuing diversity and inclusion; firms are working harder to ensure a mixture of individuals from other backgrounds are included in any way levels of the company. Later on, this will develop into a much bigger priority. However, this is a slight change when compared with another generation of labor management.

The pandemic has changed how folks operate, forcing human resources leaders to wager AI and other new technology and procedures that encourage a more flexible, adaptive, and fluid work force. There were "seismic shifts" in how organizations function, based on Sage's recent poll of 500 senior HR and individuals leaders. A third of those HR leaders said they're changing the way they employ by building greater candidate encounters for candidates, on-boarders, and new joiners and focusing on labor adventures. While 24 percent of organizations are using AI for recruiting, that amount is predicted to increase, with 56% reporting that they intend to embrace AI in the following calendar year. Sage's findings indicate a steady expansion through time, whilst Gartner's Artificial Intelligence Survey in March 2020 discovered that 17 percent of associations used AI-based talent control methods in 2019.

Companies form HR departments to handle hiring and compensation. Soon, HR leaders find themselves tackling, retention, performance management, culture and a myriad of other responsibilities. And now CEOs are asking them: What's your AI strategy? The short answer is: AI will transform HR creating a lean department that is less intrusive yet more impactful. Software has eaten the world and now AI is eating software.