Meet ‘Harriet’: The New AI Human Resources Assistant

Have you met Harriet?

Co-founders Cecily Motley and David Buxton have recently created ‘Harriet’, an AI tool that is designed to automate human resources processes. It has been specifically created to be smoothly integrated into a company’s Slack channels so to provide certain HR-related services.

AI assistants are not necessarily new – especially if Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have something to say about it. But what sets Harriet apart from these helpers is that it is able to scan users’ data – as well as the organizations policies and best practices recommendations – to answer HR-related questions and complete admin-based tasks. For example, she can pull up a specific payslip or book time off on behalf of an employee.

What is even more interesting is that all messages to Harriet from employees are kept anonymous, and the tool does not store any employee data for training. If Harriet deems that it cannot sufficiently deal with a situation, it will loop in a human HR worker (if granted permission by the employee).

Virtual assistants are continuing to increase in popularity, especially in the working world. With generative AI becoming more and more common in the workplace, and many employers eager to incorporate it into their business practices, it is no surprise to see tools like Harriet begin to make their way into HR’s territory. And considering it is very likely that the next generation of workers (Generation Alpha) will expect to have a virtual assistant, ‘Harriet’ may be the beginning of the era of AI helpers.

However, before companies can unlock all the potential of an AI assistant, they first have to ensure that they are offering appropriate learning and development opportunities to their teams around AI so that its use can be effectively optimized.

Whilst it can seem relatively straightforward to interact with a chatbot and with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, knowing how to create content that evades potential biases will help to generate the strongest materials.

If you would like to discuss how we can help with developing your company’s knowledge surrounding generative AI and virtual assistants, please get in touch with us.