AI, RPA, ML and other emerging technologies : anticipating adoption in the HRM field

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and machine learning bring a profound change to the way organisations operate. The study by Frey and Osborne (2013) studied the likelihood of some 700 individual occupations being ‘lost’ to computers and robots. They found that 47% of the studied jobs were at risk of obsolescence. The phenomenon is not new – many jobs have disappeared and human labour has diminished (MGI 2011; Breshanan, 1999). This development makes the human resource management (HRM) function a nerve centre that facilitates the transformation to this new world of work. Frey and Osborne see the role of human resource managers as being in the top fifth percentile in terms of its likelihood to continue to exist. However, HRM needs to understand the emerging technologies to 1) understand what they mean for jobs across different departments, and 2) understand how HRM jobs and processes themselves will be impacted by the intrusion of these emerging technologies. This study sheds light on views held by the HRM community on the impact of novel technologies. The results indicate that the main drivers of tech intrusion to HRM are related to processing speed and reduced costs. The main obstacles are the uncertainty over the choice of technology and the cost of implementation. Different technologies have varying potential when screened against individual HR functions. The individual emerging technologies also have a varying lead time to their wide usage by HR across companies