Get ready for a deep dive into the intersection of AI and HR with host Brandon Laws and guest Jon Krohn, Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist of Nebula.io. No doubt, there’s been a recent surge in AI, but how effective is it when it comes to job searching, recruiting, and hiring? If you’ve been holding off on integrating AI tools into your HR strategy, you can’t afford to miss this episode. AI might just be the key to streamlining your HR operations and enhancing productivity.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
As the Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist at Nebula.io based in New York, Jon Krohn specializes in developing natural language models to automate or enhance business processes and implements tools to mitigate biases in decision-making.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
DEFINING TERMS
Recent guest Jon Krohn describes deep learning as a subset of machine learning, which is itself a subset of artificial intelligence (AI). Deep learning is inspired by the structure and functioning of our own biological brains. He explains that, in the visual cortex of the human brain, information processing starts with “basic recognition of straight lines,” which then progresses through multiple layers to recognize “increasingly complex and abstract shapes,” ultimately leading to the recognition of specific objects or faces.
Deep learning uses artificial neurons designed back in the 1950s, which function in much the same way. When first created, these artificial neurons weren’t altogether very powerful. However, their recent surge in effectiveness is due to the modern availability of vast amounts of training data and increased computing power. Deep learning uses artificial neurons “trained on huge amounts of data,” which has resulted in the recent and ongoing advancement of AI’s capabilities that we see today.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
AI and HR
“For me, it’s a no-brainer that [AI systems] are a net benefit because, with AI systems, with data, we can track things in a way that you can’t when humans are making decisions. So in the space that your listeners are probably most concerned about, in Human Resources, for thousands of years people have been making hiring decisions — probably like farm hands or cobblers or whatever it would have been — the roles you were hiring for centuries ago, […] there was no record of why you were choosing one farmer over another, one cobbler over another. But I am very much willing to bet that irrelevant biases around race or gender played a huge role in those decisions. And of course, that still does happen today, but by tracking data, by using machine learning algorithms, you can be more confident that you are not recapitulating those same biased decisions if you’re doing things carefully.”
Knowing Which Tools to Choose
“It always feels like there’s too many different kinds of things out there to try. I guess, to some extent, with how quickly things move, […] as somebody who’s deciding on what kinds of platforms are being used for HR in your company, you should have some time set aside each week for just trying out some new tools. And there’s probably going to be a fair bit of buzz around firms that have recently raised venture capital, so that’s something to potentially look out for. […] Most of these kinds of platforms have a button on the website that says, ‘I’d like to have a demo,’ and you can get a live demo with somebody, and that person can talk you through the kinds of issues like you’re describing around bias and they should have good answers.”
Nebula’s Compensation Benchmarking
“The point is that in a very flexible, dynamic way that minimizes work for you, we will […] get you that aggregated comp curve across all of the top people to come back in your search. And so you can, in this highly granular way, […] you can get a great sense of what you need to be paying people. So you can take the same search input, the same language, and try it in Kansas versus New York City versus countrywide. How does that change the shape? Or if you add in this set of skills or move this set of skills, how does that change comp? So it’s unlike all of the other comp tools that I’m aware of out there.”
A Commitment to Learning
“I think learning is a general trend for the Human Resources space. My dream is that people working in Human Resources can spend less time on tasks that can be automated, and they can focus more on the kinds of things that probably excited them about getting involved in HR or recruiting in the first place, which is building relationships with great people, finding them work that they love — and if you’re an HR head — things like building culture in your company, instead of dealing with going through all of the people that responded to a LinkedIn posting.”
Final Thoughts
“The overall arching theme that I would like to convey is that AI, for me, there is nothing to be afraid of here. […] Embrace these tools because if you don’t, you’re going to be left behind by people who do. So don’t be afraid of AI tools. Find one that works for you, works well with the systems that you have, and embrace more of them. Integrate them together. Consolidate them where you can into one system, and you can save time, you can save money, you can save headaches, and you can do more of the work that you love.”
LEARN MORE
For a firsthand experience of Nebula’s capabilities, reach out to Jon Krohn at jon@nebula.io for a personalized demo. You can also visit nebula.io to create a free account and explore Nebula’s various features such as searches, contact lookups, and job description generations.