‘There’s huge opportunity for AI to lift HR up,’ says Google Cloud’s Head of HR

Google has long been a household name, whilst also being one of the most recognizable, influential and technologically advanced brands on the planet. 

Tracey Arnish, Vice President and Head of HR at Google Cloud

As a result, the business and its subsidiaries has emerged as a clear leader in the tech space, driving advancements in AI, while also paying great attention to the importance of its responsible use. 

But here at UNLEASH, we wanted to really get under the hood, to understand what AI means to such an ubiquitous business. 

To do so, we spoke exclusively to Tracey Arnish, who leads the HR function at the Google Cloud division, to find out more.

Enhancing efficiency, creativity, and responsible practices at Google with AI

For over a decade, Google has been at the forefront of AI, leveraging its innovative talent pool to gain a competitive market advantage.

And so far, the company’s journey with AI has been long but rewarding, both for employees, and for the business as a whole. But this also means that there’s been a lot of trial and error.

For Arnish, this process has been crucial to gaining a deep understanding of AI. And, she highlights that from her experience, that employees gain the best insights through hands-on experience – experimenting, exploring, and engaging with AI tools and resources.

“I really do feel that it is so important that HR teams are focused on embedding and getting comfortable with AI themselves,” she begins.

Often, what happens in HR is that we tend to focus on supporting the business and delivering what the business needs, so much so that we actually forget to take care of ourselves. 

“But there’s a huge opportunity here to allow AI to lift us, to do our jobs so much better, because we’ve been able to automate processes and take things off the table. It gives us a space to be more creative and be more impactful for the business.”

One way her team has practiced this, is by looking into the recruiting and onboarding processes, to see how AI tools, such as Gemini, can be used for Google Workspace. 

“We’re seeing great use cases that are helping us to streamline the recruiting process, making it much more smooth for both the candidate and the recruiter,” she says. 

“We use tools like Gemini to help us derive insights from interviews and we’re able to look at interview feedback from a number of individuals and leverage the tools to be able to summarize trends or areas that we might want to dig into further. 

“We’re able to use the solution to help us write job descriptions; things that used to take hours to get done can now be done with an assistant sitting right beside you, and to take some of the administrative burden off of your plate.”

Arnish also highlights how Google is using tools such as NotebookLM as a vessel to help employees think differently about processing content in a more efficient manner. 

She explains how recently, she listened to a 15-minute podcast that was created specifically for her to help her understand a multitude of survey feedback that had been sent in. 

This provided a much quicker and simpler way to digest the information, rather than sitting down and having to read through 1,000s of comments to understand the key insights which would have been arduous and time consuming.

“This is how we’re actually putting the technology into practice,” she explains. “The other big thing I’ve asked my team and is to all commit to is for everybody to certify themselves in AI. 

“So we’re all in the process of taking the Google AI Essentials program that’s available, and we actually have built a center of excellence in our own HR team, where we have people who are deepening their expertise in AI and then going out and teaching their peers.”

But for this growth to be effective, Arnish insists that it must be safe. Which is why responsible AI is a topic she’s incredibly passionate about.

As HR professionals, we have this unique understanding and view in terms of what it means to be really responsible with confidential data and sensitive information,” Arnish explains.

“This fits neatly into our wheelhouse, and we make sure that we continue to bring this lens to the way that we think about AI. Certainly, from a Google perspective, everything from data security and ethical considerations – like making sure we’re mitigating bias coming into the system – is top of mind for us. 

“In the Cloud, we’ve built the mechanisms right into our solutions. So building in things like data governance, data security, managing IP indemnity – which is extremely important – and really leveraging Google’s responsible AI practices overall to ensure that they are front and center in all of our work.”

Preparing leaders for the future of AI

Having worked at Google Cloud for more than four years, Arnish has, of course, gained invaluable insights.

When asked what she could share with other HR leaders, she had two key comments: Having a deep business understanding and leaders who personalize AI experiences.

“Firstly, as I’m thinking about the business, there is a need for every single person in my HR organization to have a deep understanding of the business,” she highlights. 

“This is probably more poignant than before because the business is changing, and in order to be able to make sure we have the right talent strategies in place, we need to understand how the business is going to evolve as a result of AI.”

She expands by explaining that a lot of time is spent understanding strategy, priorities, and where the gaps are in today’s talent – but for this to be achieved successfully, employees need to have a deep understanding of where the business is headed. 

Secondly, Arnish believes that leaders need to look internally and ask: Are we still fit for purpose? 

Expanding upon this, she explains that the model of HR for many organizations was established 30 years ago – the three pillar model. And although this is a fairly standard model, it’s a siloed way of delivering HR services to an organization.

After coming out of COVID, Arnish believes that HR leaders need to look at the personalization AI can bring and the ways it will solve problems for users. 

Now, she advises that HR leaders should ask: Are we delivering services and programs in a similar fashion as to what our customers and end users are expecting? 

This means we have to have a deep understanding of AI and technology to make sure we can scale ourselves in such a way that we remain very human centered, and that we leverage AI to allow us to do that, because it will allow us to take things off of our plate.”

Sharing her concluding thoughts, Arnish reiterates that now is the time to invest in learning and to get comfortable with what is available.

For example Google Gemini found that 70% of people that interact with the tool say they use the suggestions that are given to them – helping them write emails, create slide decks more quickly. 

“How many hours have we all spent creating slides or presentations for leaders, where they will flip through them in five minutes – but it’s taken us hours to get that done?,” she asks. 

“You have these tools and solutions available for you today, so not only will they free up the time, but they will drastically improve the quality of the work that you’re able to produce. 

“So I say embrace AI.”