UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll and workforce management solutions, made a strong move this week with the introduction of generative AI-powered conversational experiences for its UKG Pro and UKG Ready HCM suites.
“We’re reshaping how people will access information, analyze insights and complete important processes at work,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG.
Generative AI has the potential to transform work, but new Brandon Hall Group™ research shows that many employers are taking a cautious approach. Only 38% of HR organizations are actively involved in shaping the GenAI strategy for their organizations and only 33% say GenAI has a potentially positive impact.
That gives HR suite providers like UKG an opportunity to show these companies — their customers — the value of GenAI and how it can be implemented responsibly and ethically in the service of people. This can build deeper provider-customer connections.
Here are just a few examples of how GenAI can be leveraged for HR:
- Rather than navigating complex menus and forms, employees can have conversations with a virtual assistant to complete tasks like requesting time off, enrolling in benefits or updating personal information.
- Unlike traditional chatbots, GenAI can understand and interpret context and nuance, and has the potential to provide personalized responses based on a person’s role and situation.
- An AI assistant can ask clarifying questions and guide the user through processes in a more intuitive way. An employee could simply say, “I need to take next Monday off” and the AI could confirm the date, check available vacation time and submit the request seamlessly, without the user needing to locate the right forms or remember policy details.
- For new employee onboarding, an AI assistant could proactively reach out and have friendly dialogues to collect paperwork, introduce company resources and training programs and answer common questions in a personalized way. This takes a task that employees often find tedious and overwhelming and makes it more approachable and helpful.
UKG will showcase its generative AI enhancements at its annual conference, UKG Aspire 2023, Nov. 6-9 in Las Vegas.
This is just the latest move in UKG’s ongoing effort to build a culture around GenAI, which has been used in some form since 2015. For example, UKG has now hosted three hackathons, each involving more than 1,000 employees, experimenting with all types of innovation around AI with a thematic focus on “building great workplace experiences.” UKG then took specific use cases and tried them out on customers.
UKG understands that the natural language processing and conversational capabilities of AI can humanize and personalize HR technology. We look forward to hearing and seeing the details of their plans at UKG Aspire 2023.
