UNLEASH’s Top Five of 2023: HR Technology

2023: The year we got serious about artificial intelligence. Well, the year we got really excited about it at least.

UNLEASH kicked off 2023 by examining how the world’s most famous chatbot, ChatGPT, could be approached by HR – including asking the bot itself for examples.

1. Everything HR needs to know about ChatGPT

No doubt there were many in the HR world that did the same thing, wanting to either get up to speed with the new(ish) technology or at least seem like they were clued into it when the bosses asked.

Lisbeth Claus’ article also investigated the use cases for ChatGPT among HR circles, citing examples such as drafting company handbooks and guidelines, evaluate job applications and resumes, aid document workflow process, and automate repetitive HR tasks, among many others.

2. ChatGPT, the workplace and HR: Use cases and warnings

It’s always the case with emerging technologies that optimism should be garnished by caution, so among the numerous positive examples of what ChatGPT can offer HR leaders, there were also several drawbacks highlighted by HR leaders.

Any technology is only as good as the data it’s based on or draws from. HR leaders are right to be conscious of this and wary of plugging proprietary – and potentially confidential – data into chatbots.

Biases, as Claus highlights, is another factor that should be monitored closely: “It has been well documented that algorithms are not immune to the existing societal biases—including racism, sexism, agism, and Anglo-Saxon and multinational company hegemony to name a few.”

Given that ChatGPT and similar models are still far from the finished article, it’s understandable that so much interest in the subject from HR leaders has come in the form of questions throughout 2023.

Foremost among these is how this technology can, and probably will, change HR processes going forward.

Recruitment may be one such area, as UNLEASH investigated, finding that this is less of a revolution and more of an evolution for talent acquisition.

3. Has ChatGPT changed recruitment tech forever?

The other side of the recruitment coin for HR leaders is in attracting talent with the skills to properly harness the potential generative AI offers.

According to research from Udemy, training in ChatGPT skyrocketed between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, with the US leading the way - consumption increased 5,226% among US learners between launch and May this year.

There were spikes among other generative AI and machine learning skills, as hype around theses technologies reached fever pitch.

4. ChatGPT is the most in-demand workplace skill

Prospective employees will no doubt have caught on to which way the wind is blowing when considering their future career paths, but this should also be the case for HR leaders when considering where their learning and development focuses lie going forward.

Excitement around technology developments is almost always followed by a flurry of merger and acquisition activity, and 2023 was no different.

The marquee acquisition of the year was undoubtedly Silver Lake’s $12.5 billion deal for experience management giant, Qualtrics. As Drake Star’s Ralf Hofman told UNLEASH, the deal “illustrates how large private equity firms really value the sector.”

5. Silver Lake completes $12.5bn Qualtrics acquisition

However, private equity ownership can be a cruel beast.

Within months of the deal completing, around 15% of the company's workforce were made redundant as part of a restructuring exercise aimed at the "complex" rapid hiring of the past.

While Qualtrics' main focus is on customer experience, there is now acknowledgement that employee experience is a significant driver of this.

Whether or not this sparks similar acquisitions going forward remains to be seen, as will the impact of the deal itself, but more attention on the EX space can only be a positive from a HR perspective.