Building an AI roadmap for HR & 6 use cases for AI in HR: Gianna Driver (CHRO, Exabeam)

Listen to our recent episode with Gianna Driver, CHRO at Exabeam.

We talked about how Exabeam’s HR team built their AI roadmap and which AI for HR use cases have been the most successful for them.

Read the highlights below. ⬇️

1. How this CHRO built their AI roadmap 🤖

A couple of years back, excited by the potential of AI, Gianna encouraged the People Team at Exabeam to “figure out AI”. She said it was a broad directive to find AI applications within HR by their next monthly meeting.

However, excitement turned to disappointment when the next month rolled around and no progress had been made.

Realizing the need for a more structured approach, the team paused their AI endeavors. This break allowed them to reconsider their strategy without the pressure of producing immediate results or deliverables.

About a year and a half ago, they picked it back up, this time with smaller, more focused experiments.

One of their first successes was using AI to craft job descriptions.

Instead of waiting for hiring managers to specify what they needed, the talent team used AI to generate robust and inclusive job descriptions proactively. This shift not only sped up the hiring process but also impressed hiring managers, opening their eyes to the practical benefits of AI in streamlining HR tasks.

🔄 Identifying More Opportunities for AI: Motivated by their early wins, the leadership team started to evaluate other tasks that could benefit from AI, focusing on those that were repetitive and time-intensive. This strategic move freed up the team to engage more in high-level, strategic work rather than getting bogged down in mundane tasks.

📚 Revamping the Employee Handbook: Traditionally, updating the employee handbook every year has been a cumbersome task, driven by changing laws and internal policies. Gianna’s team introduced AI to this process, using the technology to provide a preliminary update, which was then refined with the essential human touch.

📊 Automating the Merit Process: Their journey didn’t stop there. The team looked at automating their merit process, a task that involves considerable data analysis and decision-making based on various metrics like market deltas and performance scores. By collaborating with their AI-savvy product team, they developed a tool that automated many of the manual steps involved, encapsulating the logic in streamlined AI-driven processes.

2. Using AI for engagement surveys 🗒️

Gianna says that AI is changing the game in how we handle engagement surveys.

Historically, these surveys took weeks to synthesize and aggregate.

Now, using tools like Lattice, they're able to synthesize information about employee sentiment, key takeaways, and development areas...within minutes. There's also a suggested action plan that she says has been super helpful.

She said, “HR business partners will now be freed up to engage in meaningful, data-driven conversations with leaders, without spending countless hours on manual data analysis, like creating word clouds. It's all about maximizing time and effectiveness.”

3. What's next on the AI front for Exabeam's HR team 🛣️

Here's a glimpse into what the People Team at Exabeam have cooking up on the AI front:

1️⃣ Performance Reviews:

Exabeam is not about replacing human input with AI. Instead, they're enhancing the process.

AI steps in to synthesize feedback during performance reviews, providing managers with a preliminary analysis.

Managers then use this as a starting point, adding their personal touch and insights to the reviews.

2️⃣ Open Enrollment AI:

Imagine having a personal advisor during open enrollment.

That's what Exabeam is aiming to create—a chatbot, much like ChatGPT, tailored to help employees choose the best healthcare plan based on their personal situations, like getting married or expecting a child.

This tool aims to handle repetitive queries that flood HR every year during enrollment.

3️⃣ Bespoke Learning & Development (L&D):

Gianna also highlighted their initiative to craft personalized learning journeys for employees.

Using AI, they plan to develop unique L&D experiences that align with an individual's career aspirations and development needs.

The HR problem Gianna would fix with a magic wand 🪄

"I would want every person in an organization to operate with authentic communication. I feel like so much of what we do and so many issues and problems and conflict and misunderstandings could be resolved if we were authentically communicating. That includes listening. That includes trying to understand. Seek first to understand and then to be understood. If we were all operating from this grounded, centered place of authentically sharing and communicating and listening, I think that so much of what we do would be resolved."

The career advice Gianna would give to her 22-year-old self 🔮

"Believe in yourself and just go do it. I was pretty different than everyone else in the room, and I doubted my abilities. And I would say to that younger version of myself, believe in yourself, take your rightful spot at the table and go for it. Go for gold."

Go listen to the full episode: Apple | Spotify

See you next week!

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