“Beyond the claim on the package, it is difficult to understand what an intelligent tool does. It’s even harder to understand what more it might do and how to improve it.” - John Sumser

What Intelligent Tools Are Organizations Using

(and what’s their growth potential)?

From a user’s perspective, how a tool works rarely matters as much as that it works. Before intelligent tools, this was an almost binary question. You ask if the tool can be made to do something and it either is or isn’t possible. That’s not quite as true anymore in the broad spectrum of intelligent tools. Beyond the claim on the package, it is difficult to understand what an intelligent tool does. It’s even harder to understand what more it might do and how to improve it.

Chart: What intelligent tools are organizations using?
Click to Enlarge

When people start to use intelligent interview scheduling, they usually find that it works seamlessly. Until it doesn’t. The category itself is on the edges of intelligent tools. We included it in our analysis to make a point. Whether the tool used machine learning or not seemed to be irrelevant to the people answering the survey. The same held true with a host of other technologies we investigated.

Beyond the claim on the package, it is difficult to understand what an intelligent tool does. It’s even harder to understand what more it might do and how to improve it.

In the assessment world, very few respondents could distinguish between a tool that had embedded intelligence and one that didn’t.

That means that there is good reason to distrust our estimate that 28% of companies are using the new technology. This is basically in line with Sierra-Cedar’s Annual Systems Survey (now administered by Sapient Insights Group) which says that usage is in the mid-teens.

That makes the data in five of our top categories somewhat suspect especially since there are non-intelligent offerings in each category. The data is useful, but future surveys will be more specific and accurate. These categories include:

1. Interview Scheduling
2. Resume Filtering
3. Employment Website Automation
4. People Analytics
5. Aggregated Social Media
6. Job Ad Development

Of the organizations that are using the new tools, many are experimenting with more than one. This appears to be related to the use of pilot programs.

Growth potential for AI and Intelligent Tools

We took the data and sliced it to show market growth potential in each of the technologies over the next two years.

Chart: Growth potential for AI and Intelligent Tools
Click to Enlarge

The Survey

Survey Background: We surveyed 542 HR executives and subject matter experts about new and existing projects involving intelligent tools and AI. We covered 26 different technologies using a 28-question instrument that spanned a wide range of topics. Today we’ll look at a favorite recurring question (will machines replace people) along with the broader subject of how HR teams are evaluating new technologies in their stack.

The survey was designed to investigate three primary areas:

• Which intelligent tools and technologies are actually being used and evaluated
• How new technology is acquired and evaluated in HR Departments
• The degree to which survey participants see new technology replacing existing workers

Over the course of a 90-day period, we collected survey responses from 542 individuals using a 28-question instrument. We used email lists to target HR executives. We did not purchase any responses. The breakdown of participants was as follows:

• CHRO and Vice President of HR: 30%
• Director Talent Acquisition: 12%
• Recruiting: 17%
• L&D: 9%
• People Analytics 4%
• Other 28%

Broad Survey Findings

• It’s very early in the adoption cycle. Almost all current customers qualify as early adopters.
• Depending on the technology, between 30% and 70% of the potential market either doesn’t see the value in the tool or don’t even know what it is.
• High failure rates in some areas suggest that its prudent to move slowly and ask a lot of questions.
• There is growth already programmed into the market. That growth is dwarfed by the part of the market that doesn’t understand or can’t see the value. Massive education is required.
• Intelligent tools require new and different kinds of management including data governance. Most HR Departments are unprepared.
• The speed of market adoption and product refinement is astonishing. Most HR Tech markets grew at single digit rates in their first several years. It looks like intelligent tools are accelerating.