In the day and age of technology where meals, shopping and car rides are but one click away, Millenials and the rising Generation Z have developed nothing more than impatience and a need for instant gratification. A survey has shown that nearly 69% of adults demonstrate a high willingness to spend extra to reduce wait times for services they care about. This change in new generation personalities lead market players to pour investments into artificial intelligence based chatbots.
Chatbots such as Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have been saturating websites and applications since 2016. Expanding from the extensive use of chatbots on the consumer’s end, the current trend directs chatbots to increase efficiency and employee satisfaction through company internal platforms, such as digital HR. Ironically, this event may eventually take the ‘Human’ out of Human Resources.
So, why put your bet on the bots?
No Tension, It’s 24/7
Unlike humans, bots don’t rest! Sometimes questions come across your mind when you’re tucked into bed at 2AM and it is convenient to have your questions answered anytime, anywhere by an always-friendly chatbot. This can be especially useful for expatriates on international assignments and in the growing mobile work culture today.
She Understands Natural Language
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the backbone of communication between A.I. and humans. It enables the chatbots to interpret our messages and respond appropriately through large amounts of natural language data processing. Chatbots that leverage cognitive services from Microsoft Azure technology for example, can become a great conversationalist on multiple platforms such as Skype, Facebook Messenger and Slack.
Here’s the interesting thing: What if employees make spelling or grammatical errors? With the help of advanced NLP, chatbots are intelligent enough to identify these mistakes and interpret the message as the sender intended. So, no stress if your device’s auto-correct is constantly messing with you.
Instant Answers
Live-chats with HR personnel have already significantly improved HR processes however there is a limit to how many employees you can talk to at the same time. Chatbots can automatically generate an answer to routine and frequently asked questions in seconds by identifying key-words. The reduction in duplication of labour tasks allows HR personnel to focus on more important tasks. This feature definitely feeds into Millennials’ need for instant gratification.
Schedule and Manage HR Requests
Some of you may already be familiar with Siri’s ability to organise your appointments and reminders. Good news is HR chatbots can do the same but even better. They can apply for and manage your leaves, reimbursement requests and training schedules. The chatbot’s fine attention to detail in identifying missing documents from various applications ensures a smooth HR interaction for your employees. Further integration of the chatbot with other platforms such as Google and Outlook Calendars can also simplify the manual process of scheduling office and external
Foreseeably, chatbots will continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Analytics are in favour of the bots at the moment as they are successfully overcoming some key HR challenges and sustaining talent advantages for companies. Automating labour-intensive HR processes also significantly increases the productivity of HR team and employees, making work hassle-free. As the global work culture converges to encourage mobility and convenience, there is a need for enterprises to adopt chatbots as a strategic investment to streamline HR processes.
Microimage HCM recently unveiled their HR virtual assistant named MiABot to assist with HR processes. MiA combines language understanding services (LUIS) and Microsoft Azure technology to create conversational experiences with employees. As device users are now accustomed to seamless mobile experiences, the launch of MiABot will perfectly complement existing features of the Microimage HCM mobile app, ultimately enhancing user experience.
*Fun fact: The name MiA stands for Microimage Assistant
Book a demo now to get to know MiA! Click here and a MiABot initiated demo will be setup for you with one of our sales consultants.
