Though much of the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its machine learning and computer vision bedfellows involves muted hysteria that foresees The End of the World as We Know it, for now the reality is far different.
“Spoiler alert: Robots have not taken over the world just yet,” Matthew Bragstad, usability and innovation architect with Human Capital Management development at Infor, said at the software maker’s annual Inforum conference in Washington, D.C.
Instead, AI is shaping up to be a complement to the capabilities of human workers. Bragstad describes the most recent SourceCon Grandmaster challenge that invites America’s top recruiters to evaluate 5,000 resumes and decide which candidates not only should get called in for an interview but who ultimately deserves to be hired for the job. It’s the first year that an algorithm was invited to compete, Bragstad said, in an IBM Watson-style Jeopardy! Scenario. Though many companies employ AI-based technologies to sort through the raft of resumes they receive as a first step in whittling down the oft-crowded candidate pool, many hours of human insight and analysis are needed to move from phone screening the lucky few to extending a final job offer.
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It’s tempting to assume that the algorithm beat the pants off its flesh-and-blood competitors, but it actually took fourth place—not even good enough for a trophy. The winner turned out to be Randy Bailey, a talent insights consultant for Walmart. But the real story, according to Bragstad, is the full picture of how Bailey achieved his top-place outcome.
“He took 40 hours to win the event where the algorithm took two seconds to get fourth,” Bragstad explained.
AI can reduce the tedium of overwhelming workloads and free up workers to flex their intelligence, analysis and insights in a way that only humans can. “Randy’s famous insight coming out of that was: ‘If I could’ve worked with AI to sort through the vast majority of those 5,000 resumes so I only had to make 50 or 60 decisions, imagine how many more people I could have placed into roles if I were given back 39 hours in my day?’” Bragstad recounted.
In addition to helping humans work more efficiently, technology also can be an enabler of choice. Infor CEO Charles Phillips described one of the company’s dual kiosk systems that can function as a point of sale software when facing an employee or act as a customer-facing kiosk as needed. Describing that sort of flexible functionality as a “metaphor” for the future of work, Phillips said intelligent software and systems need to accommodate different roles and employees without introducing complexity.
Complexity is one reason some companies are slow to embrace diversity in the workforce; it’s easier to work with people similar to you, the thinking goes, which can make hiring different kinds of people an “out-of-my-comfort-zone” exercise. But even as many businesses struggle to make meaningful progress on diversity and inclusion, the business case for diversity is getting stronger and stronger, Van Jones, host of the eponymous show on CNN, said. “When you’re trying to solve a complex problem, having different kind of brains and world views around that problem get you to a better answer faster.”
Jones added, “Diverse teams actually outperform non-diverse teams.”
Soon, companies that figure out how best to manage diversity could gain an advantage over competitors. Hiring women, minorities and other underrepresented groups should not be just a corporate box to check but a strategic decision, according to Jones, whose Yes We Code non-profit is working to get 100,000 underrepresented young men and women into successful careers in tech.
“Some of these success stories around inclusion are so jaw-dropping that people are starting to say, ‘you know what? Actually this is probably going to be worth it,” Jones explained. “We see cases where just adding two women to a team increases profitability by 30 percent to 120 percent because the products and services unconsciously are being done for one part of the population.”
