I’ve said this publicly before but John Sumser is one of the smartest people in our space when it comes to understanding HR and TA technology, or really any part of HR and TA that starts to get beyond the normal reach of HR and TA leaders. Pick a topic that is difficult to comprehend or understand, and Sumser is usually the first one breaking it down for the rest of us!
John recently sent me his latest research on A.I., or what he thought would be his latest report on Artificial Intelligence when he started doing the research. John goes deep in this report, over 90 pages filled with information on the latest and greatest A.I. related technology in HR and TA. I say related because what John found was that ‘true’ A.I. isn’t really present yet in the HR and TA tech stack.
We have a ton of companies telling us they have A.I. to sell us, but what they are really selling us is a form of ‘Intelligent Software’, advanced intelligent automation, and a whole lot of machine learning. Don’t understand any of that? Most of don’t. John breaks it down in detail and tells you the difference in all of it.
There’s no doubt that intelligent software has made its way into every segment of the tech stack in HR and TA. It’s important that as HR and TA leaders we actually understand what that means, where it’s all going, and how you will position your organization to take advantage.
One of the piece’s I loved from the report were questions John gives for HR and TA leaders to ask “A.I.” vendors they’re considering:
1. How long does it take the machine to learn something new? Can you define that both in calendar time and the number of transactions?
2. What are the feedback loops we should use to monitor the tool’s alignment with our culture, processes, and procedures?
3. What is the process by which we inform the device that it is missing something or needs to learn something new?
4. If the machine makes a recommendation and we think it is out of date, what do we do?
5. What sort of staff do we need to ensure the performance of our intelligent software?
Those questions are brilliant! All of us fail in asking potential vendors enough of the right questions, and John truly nails this.
If you want the full report you can download it at HRExaminer – The Emergence of Intelligent Software. The full report costs $249, but if you tell John that “Tim sent me!” he’ll give it to you for $249! It’s a cheap education of a really complex issue that we are all facing right now in HR and Talent Acquisition.
T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market. None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion. There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find. If you want to be on T3 – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net Also, I advise HR and TA tech companies. Interested? Let’s talk.