Chloée Coelho, Frenki Qirjako, Estelle Oudin, Léa Weber

Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources Management

Introduction
As we might know, artificial intelligence is present in our everyday life. However, some
mistakes are often made when people reduce AI to robots for instance. AI represents a much
wider field than what movies or literature can present. So let’s talk about artificial intelligence
to understand what it really refers to. We will begin by giving a definition of artificial
Intelligence and give you an overview of the history of its creation. Then, we will go on to
discuss in more depth the ultimate goals of AI. Finally, we will be giving you some current
applications of AI.

First of all, let’s discuss the various definitions of Artificial Intelligence in order to get a better
understanding of what this complex notion means. Artificial intelligence is a broad branch of
computer science. Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence in
machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may
also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as
learning and problem-solving. The ideal characteristic of artificial intelligence is its ability to
rationalise and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal. Hence, this
notion is based on the principle that human intelligence can be defined in a way that a machine
can easily mimic it and execute tasks, from the most simple to those that are even more
complex. In short, Artificial Intelligence can be defined as the science of making computers do
things that human beings can do. In fact, AI is intelligence exhibited by machines. This special
machine is able to perceive its environment and the reason, act, learn and cooperate to achieve
an objective.

The creation of Artificial Intelligence roots back to classical philosophers and is intimately
linked to the development of computing. The period between 1940 and 1960 was strongly
marked by the conjunction of technological developments (of which the Second World War
was an accelerator) and the desire to understand how to bring together the functioning of
machines and organic beings. At the beginning of 1950, John Von Neumann and Alan Turing
did not create the term AI but were the founding fathers of the technology behind it: they made
the transition from computers to 19th century decimal logic and machines to binary logic. They
are the founders of what we call now “computers”. The field AI was formally founded in 1956,

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at a Conference at Darmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, where the term “artificial
intelligence” was formulated. In 1960, Herbert Simons said that “machines will be capable,
within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do”. Since 2010, the discipline has experienced
a new boom, mainly due to the considerable improvement in the computing power of
computers and access to massive quantities of data.

Secondly, let’s discuss the ultimate goals of Artificial Intelligence. The most complex system
that the nature has created is the human brain. The human brain is a network of neurone that
communicates, learn and is able to improve. In fact, AI is trying to implant deep learning in
machine to applicate what the human brain does. Artificial Intelligence aims at creating a
computer mind that can think like a human, learn, communicate and improve. To do so, the
system created needs to function intelligently and independently. It means that the system
needs to learn by itself. We can go further by saying that AI would like to build a rational agent
that can exceed human intelligence. In fact, two types of Artificial Intelligence must be
distinguished with different goals. First, there is the weak AI that executes orders someone
gives to the machine. So, it improves the way www are working. It is what Google is working
on. Then, there is the Strong AI that refers to machine learning. It means that the machine
improves by itself as it learns from previous operations to update the system and get better as
it gets more data.

Thirdly, artificial intelligence is constantly evolving. As technology advances, previous

benchmarks that defined artificial intelligence become outdated. For example, machines that
calculate basic functions or recognise text through optimal character recognition are no longer
considered to embody artificial intelligence, since this function is now taken for granted as an
inherent computer function. AI is continuously evolving to benefit many different industries.
Machines are wired using a cross-disciplinary approach based in mathematics, computer
science, linguistics, psychology, and more. The use of artificial intelligence can be classified
in three areas: science & technology, services and the gaming industry. It is for instance used
in the medical field; AI-enabled tools exist for drug development, treatment decisions, patient
care, and financial and operational decisions. It is also used in services like Siri or automated
surveillance and in technology such as smart cars or music and movie recommendations.

To put it in a nutshell, Artificial Intelligence is the area of computer science that emphasises
the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. The development of

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Artificial Intelligence has been helped by the improvement in computing. We can now say that
Artificial Intelligence is not the future but it is the present. Artificial Intelligence is present in
many fields and is used in our daily life like virtual personal assistants, smart cars and even
video games. Artificial Intelligence is our present but it will continue to evolve by itself as the
amount of data is getting larger helping the machine to learn and improve.

A. What is human resources management

Human Resources Management is a department of a business. First, we will discuss
what it refers to and why do we call it Human Resources Management. Then, we will move on
explaining the evolution of human resources management over time. Last, we will put things
into perspective by showing the importance of human resources management in today's
businesses.

First of all, HRM is the management of human resources. It is a function in an organisation

designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer’s strategic objectives.
HR is primarily concerned with the management of people within an organisation focusing on
policies and on systems. HRM is a set of discourses of managerial methods, tools and practices.
HRM aims at balancing organisational needs like job requirements and human resources such
as employee’s skills. In fact, HRM is developed in companies to allow gaining simple,
seamless and intuitive work environment. More specifically, Human Resource Management is
the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting employees, providing orientation, imparting
training and development, appraising the performance of employees, maintaining proper
relations with employees and their trade unions, ensuring safety, welfare and healthy measures
in compliance with labour laws.

In short, Human Resource Management involves management functions like planning,

organising, directing and controlling. Human resource management is meant for proper
utilisation of available skilled workforce and also to make efficient use of existing human
resource in the organisation. Today many experts claim that machines and technology are
replacing human resource and minimizing their role or effort. However, machines and
technology are built by humans only and they need to be operated or at least monitored by
humans and this is the reason why companies are always in hunt for talented, skilled and
qualified professionals for continuous development of the organization. In short, HRM is
linked to optimisation of human and automated work.

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Secondly, it is obvious that Human Resources Management has evolved over time. Frederick
Taylor, known as the father of scientific management, played a significant role in the
development of the personnel function in the early 1900s. As Taylor was developing his ideas
about scientific management, other pioneers were working on applying the principles of
psychology to the recruitment, selection, and training of workers. Robert Owen was regarded
as creator and originator for introducing reforms for workers. He created a principle of 8 hours
day work, 8 hours rest and 8 hours sleep. Owen identified the importance of better working
conditions at the workplace and its impact on the productivity and efficiency of the workers.

Human resource management is evolved from the Personnel management. Main principle of
the Personnel management was to extract work from an employee for the remuneration paid.
Employees during the Personnel management era were not given high priority in decision
making process and weren't much allowed to interact with management. In contrast with
personal management, motivating employees is a basic feature of human resource
management. The main principle of Human resource management is to see what should be
given to an employee for extracting the desired work. Human resource managers always
encourage participation of employees in decision making and their suggestions are most
valued.

Thirdly, Human resources management is highly important in business today's business life.
Behind production of every product or service there is a human mind, effort and man hours.
Without the help of a human being, no product or service could be produced. Thus, every
organisation desire is to have skilled and competent people to make their organisation
competent and best. Among the five Ms of management - men, money, machines, materials,
and methods - HRM deals about the first M, which is men. It is believed that in the five Ms,
"men'' is not so easy to manage. In fact, every human being is different from the other and men
are totally different from the other Ms in the sense that men possess the power to manipulate
the other Ms. Whereas, the other Ms are either lifeless or abstract and as such, do not have the
power to think and decide what is good for them. Hence, Human Resources management is a
critical aspect for a business to succeed. HR managers have to identify the right person for a
particular job to achieve the company goals in the most efficient way possible.

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To conclude, Human resources management is a key element for business as it describes the
management and development of employees in an organisation. It involves developing and
administering programs that are designed to increase the effectiveness of an organisation. It
includes the entire spectrum of creating, managing, and cultivating the employer-employee
relationship. HRM has evolved over time and it is still evolving due to the rise of AI in various
fields nowadays.

II. Impact of AI on Human resources

Nowadays, it is common to see some Intelligence Artificial systems into Human
Resources’ tasks. This new trend is seen as a huge help in analysis, prediction and diagnosis
from the recruitment process to the internal mobility, progression but also within the
administrative tasks.

A. Recruitment and onboarding

1 Recruitment process

First of all, the integration of Artificial Intelligence allows a more effective and an
easier application process.
Indeed, according to the companies, recruitment is a time-consuming process that includes
many mundane tasks. Nowadays, AI can reduce the complexity of this process and even the
workforce, in being included through automation into different tasks ; job vacancy
identification, job requirement analysis, applications reviews, screening candidates, database
maintenance, interviews schedules and candidate selections…

For example, into the screening process, Artificial Intelligence can be a huge help in the choice
of the candidates. Indeed, the integrated process can help the company to choose a “talent”
with relevant experiences and suitable skills that match the most with the specific job. Chatbots
are the perfect example to assess this idea ; candidates can be tested, in addition to their
application, in order to have more information or feedback.
Follet Corp, an educational product provider, hires thousands of employees each year and
implements several AI-integrated solutions in order to boost its recruitment process and
experience. Indeed it integrated a chatbot within its career website in order to give candidates

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real-time and personalized answers to their questions and capture the best talent for a specific
position based on specific skills and location.

The results were very positive for the company with an enhancement in candidature experience
rating of 136% and over 100.000 candidates questions answered by their chatbot in 90 days.

These systems can narrow the list and keep only the candidates that fit perfectly with the job
requirements and description in a quickest and most effective approach. Beyond this choice,
an automatic process based on AI, can schedule interviews itself and show that this new
invention can be fully integrated into the whole recruitment process.
Hence, AI-enabled screening, chatbots or systems are nowadays seen as productive tools that
we cannot not use anymore.

Artificial Intelligence can also be used in order to increase application completion rate and the
candidate engagement rate for not avoiding a talent. Beyond automated answers that guide the
candidate to a category or a link, it has the capacity to personalize in real time a unique answer
to the candidate that increases a company's image.

Secondly, the recruitment process of one specific job can also be a base for the recruitment
process of another job within the same company thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence.
Indeed, the company can use an intelligent system for future job opportunities in order to

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maintain a database of past applicants. Hence, Artificial Intelligence can analyse a candidate’s
profile and match it constantly with a new job opportunity in a goal of finding the perfect
talent.
This new process allows the company to hire the best employee while saving time, cost and
manpower at the same time.

2 Onboarding process

After the recruitment process and hence, the hire of a new employee, companies do not
forget and/or neglect the onboarding process that is a huge stake and will determine the
commitment and motivation of the new talent.
The onboarding process can be defined as a “process of integrating a new employee with a
company and its culture, as well as getting a new hire the tools and information needed to
become a productive member of the team”.
The stakes are high in this step and, according to a study, the onboarding process will be a
determinant factor of employees staying and a Long-term commitment (click onboarding states
study). Hence, an effective onboarding process will be valued by the employee and its
beginnings in a new environment will be effective.

The integration of an Artificial Intelligence system here can be a smart idea in order to improve
human resource productivity and strengthen the employee retention rate. Indeed,
This integration might increase the employee retention rate and the human resources
effectiveness. Indeed, the new talent will receive all the necessary information (key contacts,
FAQ, specific and administrative documents) thanks to the automatic system. Hence, Artificial
Intelligence will again integrate personalization into this process in order to send the right
information to a specific employee with a specific position at a specific date.

B. Learning and training, internal mobility and employee engagement,

retention
Based on this idea of well-being, Artificial Intelligence can be found at an internal level
for the evolution and commitment of the employees within the company.
First of all, some processes can be used in order to boost employees’ internal mobility and
hence, their motivation, engagement and retention.

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Artificial intelligence-integrated systems can be used in order to answer, with a personalized

approach, to every question an employee might have without the need of meetings with the
Human Resources department. It can be in a virtual form ; chat, email or even online meetings
in order to be time-consuming and beneficial for each part.

Artificial intelligence can create a personalized career development program for each employee
that manager, individuals in general, cannot always provide in a successful way. An AI-
integrated system can perfectly understand employee's expectations and motivations for a
specific career evolution according to one employee.
Based on this point of view and beyond the personalized career plan, some artificial
Intelligence-systems can also be implemented in a goal of knowing employee engagement
itself and job satisfaction.

For example, the company Salesforce experiments a novel approach to recommend new job
opportunities in which one it consists in analysing the annual reviews of employees. If
employees talk about skills or interests that could interest them in the annual reviews (and that
are not really present in their current jobs), the AI can recommend them open jobs that require
those skills/interests.

To offer better and smarter career recommendations to employees, it is interesting to analyse

their previous jobs and their current one but not all companies can have access to this data in
their internal systems. These recommendations (if they are possible) can be easily and quickly
realised by an artificial intelligence. Moreover, thanks to the capacity of the AI to have access
to a lot of information (much more than humans) in a very short time, it can even recommend
positions that a human would not have thought about.

According to a report from the Human Resources Professional Association, AI can be useful
to reduce talent acquisition costs and strengthen employee retention rates by evaluating
employee success thanks to several indicators. Indeed, once these employees are identified, it
means they do a really good job (among the best ones) so they can be promoted.
However, this technology can also tell or warn managers on who can quit within the team :
hence AI can identify threats as well as opportunities. This allows the human resources to start
to look for potential new talents or just to be prepared for a resignation : it can be very strategic.

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C. The automation of administrative tasks

As we said before, Artificial Intelligence (AI), concerning employees, can increase their
productivity (hence as well as the company’s one) by improving their relationships and then
increase the employee engagement -individuals work better in a good and pleasant atmosphere,
environment. Their productivity can be improved by scheduling interviews easier and quicker,
reducing repetitive and low value tasks (this way, the company also reduces its costs : on the
long-term, AI is less expensive than employees).

According to a McKinsey’s study, secretarial jobs (in general) have a probability of automation
of 97%. Let’s see how.

AI is quite useful to weigh costs and benefits in particular situations, it is a tool to monitor
effectiveness and measure productivity and performance (concerning employees but also the
company in general). Moreover, this way, it facilitates capability building within colleagues
and within the company.

The key point is about the success of the company : artificial intelligence is most of the time
used to interpret data and improve performances to make predictions, reduce or even remove
human errors as well as equipment anomalies (or at least detect them).

By automating administration tasks, it frees up employees to work on more complex and

involved tasks. For several employees, their main function in the job is to find and analyse
information. This administrative task can easily be done by the AI : it could even do it better
by cleaning and structuring the data automatically -in a shorter time- so it allows the employee
to just focus on pulling meaningful insights from the previous research.

Another administrative task that could be realised by an artificial intelligence could be tasks
relative to interactions between customers and workers. Indeed, discussing with several clients
all long days to take into account their complaints can be quite time consuming. For example,
the company Init.ai’s platform uses AI to talk to customers via Internet thanks to natural
language processing. It allows workers to free this time to work on other important tasks,
knowing that if a customer is having a problem on the platform, a worker is still available.

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This minimal human interaction will allow the AI to focus on what customers need or expect
and then share information to the right audience while a human would take more time to
understand the needs and would maybe propose information not appropriated to the person or
not corresponding to the issue.

The main goal of AI is to make employee’s time effective and make things easier for customers.
By automation, businesses will reduce the amount of manual required data entry. We all know
that manual data collection can be slow and hence, it can slow down all processes that rely on
it. Moreover, these manual and repetitive tasks (most of the time customer/supplier information
we want to collect from e-mails, faxes… to save them into databases) can lead to errors which
can cost a lot to the company. These tasks could easily be done by an AI.

Automated line recognition, automated matching and booking of invoices, generate reports
effortlessly… are other administrative tasks that can be automated.

Even if AI can lead to some job losses, it is important to notice that not everything can be
automated and some others can just be partially automated. There are still tasks that need a
human presence to be realised whereas others will remain out of range for automation such as
negotiating or providing original solutions. Those ones require different ways of thinking
according to situations and AI could not perform successfully all the time.

Tim COOK, the CEO of Apple said that “what all of us have to do is make sure we are using
AI in a way that is for the benefit of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity”.

III. Limits of Artificial Intelligence

“It’s one effort to try to capture the complexities and intricacies that compose the fabric of
a human life in data and models,” Goode says. “But, it is compulsory to take the next step and
contextualize models in terms of how they are going to be applied in order to better reason
about expected uncertainties and limitations of a prediction. That’s a very difficult problem to
grapple with, and I think the Fragile Families Challenge shows that we need more research
support in this area, particularly as machine learning has a greater impact on our everyday
lives.”

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A. No one-size-fits-all solution
The first concern that AI represents it’s not being a “one size fits all solution. For now, AI has
to rely on individual solutions to perform tasks. Nowadays you have an endless variety of AI
tools, from ones optimising marketing tasks, to one's performing HR missions.. but they only
know how to perform an assigned mission. This is time consuming and costly.

B. Can't Think for Itself

Another inconvenience that AI has is the fact that it has a mechanical way of acting. An AI
only does and acts based on how it is programmed, it is not able to make “last minute
judgments” like a person. Take for example this: If an AI was in charge of Apple’s social media
communication, during the suicidal scandal happening with their subsidiaries in China, the AI
wouldn’t stop promoting and communicating the brand online, it would have ignored the
tragedy that happened and continue promoting Apple, while giving a horrendous message to
the audience. fortunately, it was not. A machine does not have the ability to feel nor show
empathy nor emotions during a crisis, so it can get the company in big trouble, if it is not
managed well. This shows that for now, AI is meaningful only to operational level management
and not to the strategic one.

C. Cost and Maintenance

Why AI it’s very revolutionazing, it is very costly in terms of purchasing and maintenance. Let
alone the fact of buying the software which in 2020 is considered to cost from 6’000 USD to
300’000 USD, you will also have to set up third party AI software and maintenance, that costs
up to 40’000 per year. As the icing on the cake, you would need training and your staff would
need that too. This training is provided by AI consultants that bill from 200 USD to 3500 USD
per hour, on an average. The return on investment needs to be carefully considered by your
company before implementing AI systems.

D. Lack of Creativity
To illustrate this, let’s move to the marketing department of the company. For a successful
marketing campaign, the key component is creativity, innovation and bringing a breath of fresh
air. THis is something that AI cannot help with. While it can make predictions about what
colour will the customer be more responsive to, it cannot produce originality and authenticity.
AI cannot think or feel, as a consequence they lack the ability of being creative and bringing
something new to the table.

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E. Lack of Common Sense

AI lacks common sense. AI may be able to recognize that within a photo, there’s a man on a
horse. But it probably won’t appreciate that the figures are actually a bronze sculpture of a man
on a horse, not an actual man on an actual horse. Based on this the tasks assigned to AI systems
would be just that, tasks. For now, AI cannot perform on missions and strategic decisions.

F. Doesn’t improve with experience

One of the most amazing characteristics of human cognitive power is its ability to develop with
age and experience. However, the same can’t be said about AIs as they are machines that can’t
improve with experience, rather it starts to wear and tear with time.
You need to understand one thing that machines can’t alter their responses to changing
environments. That is the basic premise on which AIs are built – repetitive nature of work
where the input doesn’t change. So, whenever there is some change in the input, the AIs need
to be re-assessed, re-trained and re-build.
Machines can’t judge what is right or what is wrong because they are incapable of
understanding the concept of ethical or legal. They are programmed for certain situations and
as such can’t take decisions in cases where they encounter an unfamiliar (not programmed for)
situation.

IV. Conclusion :
Hence, nowadays we cannot deny the importance and usefulness of Artificial Intelligence in
Human Resources Management. From the recruitment process to the onboarding step and the
automation of administrative task, this new trend has a huge positive impact and allow a better
management, as well as a better use of the time and the workforce.
However, it is important to no forgot that Artificial Intelligence remains a disruptive tool that
need to be adapted according the company and its strategy. Companies need also to understand
that this concept is new and have many limits such as the lack of common sense, of creativity
or the important costs.
Hence, Artificial Intelligence needs to be seen as a complementary tool to human and company
need to understand that it will never replace the characteristics and traits of human beings.

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V. Sources
Part I:

Artifical Intelligence (AI) – Jake frankenfield (March, 13 2020). Investopedia. Retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/artificial-intelligence-ai.asp

Artifical Intelligence – Prezi. Retrieved fromhttps://prezi.com/lio2afvqa490/artificial-

intelligence/?frame=e86a2e2bd8469ef47ba2ff38b8758045d1ea3296

History of Artificial Intelligence – Council of Europe. Retrieved from

https://www.coe.int/en/web/artificial-intelligence/history-of-ai

Human Resources Management – What is human resources, website for student. Retrieved
from http://www.whatishumanresource.com/human-resource-management

Part II :

“64% of People Trust a Robot More Than Their Manager”, Redwood Shores, Calif (Oct 15,
2019) - Oracle. Retrieved from https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/robots-at-
work-101519.html

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Changing Human Resources – Randstad RiseSmart.

Retrieved from https://www.randstadrisesmart.com/blog/how-artificial-intelligence-ai-
changing-human-resources

Artificial intelligence in human resource management (January 2019) – Northeastern

University, Graduate Programs, Scott W. O'Connor (January 2, 2020). Retrieved from
https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-human-resource-
management/

“A New Age of Opportunities :What does Artificial Intelligence mean for HR Professionals?”,
Human Resources Professional Association – Hrpa. Retrieved from
https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/Thought-Leadership/HRPA-Report-Artificial-
Intelligence-20171031.PDF

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Part III :

Understanding the Limits of AI, Alex Woodie (April, 6 2020) – Datanami. Retrieved from
https://www.datanami.com/2020/04/06/understanding-the-limits-of-ai/

AI Pricing: How Much Does Artificial Intelligence Cost? – WebFX. Retrieved from
https://www.webfx.com/internet-marketing/ai-pricing.html

5 current limitations of Artificial Intelligence to Marketers, Emma Mullan (December, 20

2018) – Huree. Retrieved from https://blog.hurree.co/blog/limitations-of-artificial-
intelligence-mobile-marketing

The limits of artificial intelligence, Marc Botha (February 11, 2019) – Toward dada science.
Retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/the-limits-of-artificial-intelligence-
fdcc78bf263b

An understanding of AI’s limitations is starting to sink in (June 2020) – The economist.

Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2020/06/11/an-
understanding-of-ais-limitations-is-starting-to-sink-in

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