The power and potential of ChatGPT, Bard and other AI tools have stunned many across the globe and have lead to discussions about the future of work, all the way to the future of mankind itself. Let us leave speculation about that latter topic for what it is and talk about the impact on work, pay and human resources in general.

Last week the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore concluded a seminar with the ominous title “Revisiting Our Social Compact” in which giving future generations an outlook on meaningful work and the opportunity to upskill (whatever that may be) were key points of consideration and discussion.

This was in Singapore but for sure similar thoughts have been voiced, seminars held and opinions written down in other countries in SE Asia about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on work and human resources. So let us add our humble view from a more technical perspective and share as well what we see in the projects that we’re entertaining with our customers.

First and foremost: most of the companies that we work with have not automated the basics. Time attendance, leave management, overtime, calculating salaries and producing payslips are in many companies not automated processes. From our point of view we don’t see an immediate impact of AI in these processes, most important for all companies out there that have not digitalised these functions is to take the plunge, contact us and make a start with that long overdue payroll, overtime, time attendance or leave management implementation.

Of course the impact of AI will likely be most profound in jobs with a high knowledge content and most of our customers have many employees doing manual work; in cleaning, security, manufacturing, logistics, retail, F&B, services or hospitality. In many of these verticals or industries the impact of AI is perhaps not imminent.

Where we do see potential for AI is in recruiting or better in making a first selection of candidates from CVs or online (LinkedIn) profiles. To give just a simple example, let’s assume you are a company with 500 staff and have a 20% attrition. That means you need to replace 100 people every year, which in turn implies a multiple number of interviews and countless profiles to review and select. AI could definitely make this selection process less cumbersome and improve the quality of the candidates invited for an interview. If you want to know more about this – don’t hesitate to contact us, we’d be happy to share our thoughts and experiences.

Also in other more sophisticated HRM features – and of course in the execution of many jobs but that’s beyond the scope of our field of expertise – we will see the impact of artificial intelligence. In performance evaluations, 360 reviews and career planning we’re exploring ideas with some of our clients and some of our ecosystem partners are also thinking about and experimenting with AI driven improvements in their solutions.

Exiting times and lots of things happening. All for the good we hope. If you’re interested in happy to discuss, share our ideas and plans and hear yours.