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TECHNOLOGY

Generative AI In Organizations' Key Entities:
Horizontal Training For Vertical Growth

By Eleni Stamoulakatou

October 31, 2024 at 20:00p.m. GR | October 31, 2024 at 1:00p.m. ET

Revised: N/A

Generative AI In Organizations Today

We have come to a point where the much used punchline  ''AI is here’', is close to turning vintage. The conversation does no longer revolve around the buzz on AI and how palpable it is; see the Covid-19 pandemic has made the need to follow the technological current very clear (btw, even the Covid19 argument is close to becoming obsolete), while it has even fast tracked us all to the next big realization;  that of how AI is already spreading beyond the technology sector to pretty much every single industry and across all facets of life, with no signs of slowing down, and certainly without anything getting on the way of its rapid and continuous advancement.

 

According to a survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2023 by Gartner, Generative AI is currently the most frequently deployed AI solution in organizations. Here are some key findings for insight:

  • 29% of the 644 respondents from organizations in the U.S., Germany and the U.K. said that they have already deployed and are using GenAI.

  • GenAI was found to be more common than other solutions like graph techniques, optimization algorithms, rule-based systems, natural language processing and other types of machine learning.

  • Utilizing GenAI embedded in existing applications (e.g., Microsoft’s Copilot for 365 or Adobe Firefly) is the top way to fulfill GenAI use cases – specifically, 34% of respondents said that this is their primary method of using GenAI which is overall more common than other options (such as customizing GenAI models with prompt engineering (25%), training or fine-tuning bespoke GenAI models (21%), or using standalone GenAI tools, like ChatGPT or Gemini (19%)).

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What Is Upskilling?
Upskilling means learning new, enhanced or advanced
skills - that relate to your current role - through additional education
and training. It entails deepening one's knowledge about their role and industry as they gain more experience. 
What Is Reskilling?
Reskilling is the process of obtaining new skills to move into a new or different role, often within the same organization, or of training people to do a different job. It entails applying new skills to real-world projects using the latest industry tools & techniques.

What Is New Skilling?
The term 'new skilling' represents all types of continuous learning to help build high-demand skills, whether an individual is trying to upskill current capabilities or they need complete reskilling to build entirely new capabilities. The demand for skilled talent will only grow, and the skills gap will continue to widen. Why? Because technology advancing and automation is impacting the way we perform our professional tasks and lead our lives.This requires an effort to stay relevant. Why? To be employable. 

Two-Tier Mentality – Corporate Loyalty’s Deal Breaker

Organizations will often choose to invest large portion of their training funds to those who generate revenues – the money-making resources. This is common knowledge, yet rarely spoken about openly. Stakeholders in key entities, such as Human Resources and Finance are often overlooked in terms of the training (or lack thereof) they receive. See, employees in the said groups are often perceived as administrators only. So even though, the body of internal processes and flow, as well as business continuity, are at a large extent, owned and managed by these distinct groups, they don’t always enjoy the same level of investment as the money-making managers.

 

This leads to the emergence of a two-tier corporate mentality. Similarly to society’s “privilege haves’’ and “have-nots’’, companies can easily end up with the ˚benefit-haves’’ and the ‘’have-nots’’, and consequently with some portion of their workforce feeling not valued and uninspired to go the extra mile. The demotivated ones, will eventually give up, lose hope and ‘check out’, first mentally and emotionally, and then physically. What is important to remember is that this is this group of people are the gatekeepers; those who ensure business continuity; they don’t go out to make the money but they certainly guard the safe from within.  

 

If we move past the obvious, which is to attribute these roles an administrative quality as part of their native nature, we will see that there is a strategic facet to these roles as they significantly contribute to creating an environment for money-making employees to achieve an organization’s goals. How? By acknowledging the value of creating and managing the processes and structures that enable effective collaboration within the ecosystem.

Gen AI_HR.png

Source: MarketResearch

Gen AI_HR (2).png

Source: MarketResearch

Gen AI_Finance.png

Source: MarketResearch

Gen AI_Finance (2).png

Source: MarketResearch

Horizontal Training Can Directly Ensure Horizontal Development and Indirectly Contribute To Vertical Growth

The term 'horizontal', should by no means be perceived as a stance in favor of a horizontal organization, yet it is essential to understand the importance of a well-equipped low and/or mid-level professional in a company's key entities, such as HR and Finance. The decision-making authority is not after all, restricted to leadership only. A well-defined leadership at the top of the entire organization whose influence filters down to middle management and department heads will continue to exist, yet by empowering agents across an organization to leverage characteristics such as autonomy and responsibility as part of their decision making process for facets of their work that pertain to their individual role as low and/or mid-level employees, can only improve the quality of a final decision as a result of a funneled approach and process. By training employees in distinct entities, such as Human Resources and Finance, companies will be getting them ready to create AI-powered teams for a future-ready workforce.

​

Upskill Human Resources And Finance Professionals To Equip Them To Reskill Others – The Gift That Keeps On Giving

According to Microsoft, 66% of leaders wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, yet, according to Accenture, only 5% of companies have rolled out reskilling at scale. According to Accenture, 94% of employees want to learn AI skills and individuals are taking the initiative. Meanwhile, Coursera’s Global Skills Report 2024 notes a 1,061% surge in GenAI enrolments on the platform over the past year. Regions like Asia-Pacific (1,270% YoY), Sub-Saharan Africa (1,500% YoY), and Latin America (882% YoY) are also witnessing significant growth, highlighting the global appetite for AI literacy.

 

What is important to remember is that those responsible to reskill (HR) will need to be upskilled first. For HR professionals to be able to undertake the task of reskilling employees or hire those that hold the 'in demand' skillset.

Generative AI In Human Resources and Finance Markets

The generative AI in:

  • Human Resources Market size globally is expected to be worth around USD 1,926.4 million by 2033 from USD 476.7 million in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 15.4%. during the forecast period from 2024 to 2033.

  • Finance Market size globally is expected to be worth around USD 27,430.7 million by 2033 from USD 1,397.9 million in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 35.7% during the forecast period from 2024 to 2033.

Buts let’s see how generative AI can be used by professional in Human Resources and Finance, to understand the benefit of training professionals in key entities, turning them to trainer agents - this is the kind of impact that can trigger a positive reaction not in terms of how it filters down and expands outwards:

​

Human Resources

  • Dashboards/Data: the use generative AI tools can help consolidate data from various sources and analyze large datasets for organizational planning, identify future skills gaps, calculate attrition rates, summarize and extract key insights from data (aggregation of  performance ratings, salary data etc.). 

  • Content: the use generative AI tools can help add value in numerous phases of the employee life cycle, spanning from writing personalized emails to candidates, creating a job description based on skill-based profiles, drafting policies all the way to developing training assets.

  • Communication: the use of AI chatbots can help create individualized learning recommendations based on one’s skillset and/or gaps and further help improve individual employee growth and development.

 

Finance

  • Consolidation and Reporting: the use of generative AI tools can help improve or achieve the consolidation process, walking away from aggregating and reprocessing financial data from different sources to simply generating  consolidation reports through predictive models that are configured to anticipate a variety of unforeseen or volatile factors such as regulatory or tax variations across different countries.

  • Internal Audit: the use of generative AI tools can help analyze AI models’ reliability and their compliance with any existing regulations but also move the auditing process past the point of internal processes and policies being in need of compliance verification, to interpreting core process algorithms.

  • Accounting: the use of generative AI tools can help automate numerous transactional tasks and facilitate the decision-making process, help accountants identify and prioritize receivables and reconcile intercompany accounts (including bank reconciliation).

Employee Loyalty And Training – How Can It Help Create The Next Generation Of Corporate Leaders

Employee loyalty is shown through a consistently outstanding performance, deep commitment and dedication to company values, and a positive attitude through day-to-day interactions. A happy employee in Human Resources and/or Finance, is essentially a happy workflow regulator. In this frame of mind, HR and Finance professionals can prevent a a potential workflow disruption and ensure stability, protect and manage continuity in terms of how internal processes are executed, and essentially 'own' the version history of the entire ecosystem. That said, these are the key stakeholders that companies should not want their competitors to get anywhere near to. These are the people who don’t make as much as companies' 'money-makers', typically enjoy less access to benefits (companies' outlook on salary will typically correspond to the financial return that is linked to the work performed rather than the amount or complexity. With that said, even though the average HR or Finance professional is required to remain productive, keep a high morale, be reliable and feel motivated to give 100% to keep the 'fortress' standing, they enjoy little to no status compare to their 'money-maker' fellow peers and even less access to benefits such as training and earnings. With all that in mind, the challenge to fuel these groups’ engagement and willingness to drive business growth and remain aligned with the company's mission and values, is definitely a challenge. So what is the least companies can do to make amends and ensure their key stakeholders don't 'check out'? 

Buts let’s see how generative AI can be used by professional in Human Resources and Finance, to understand the impact that can start from within:

 

Human Resources

  • Dashboards/Data: the use generative AI tools can help consolidate data from various sources and analyze large datasets for organizational planning, identify future skills gaps, calculate attrition rates, summarize and extract key insights from data (aggregation of  performance ratings, salary data etc.). 

  • Content: the use generative AI tools can help add value in numerous phases of the employee life cycle, spanning from writing personalized emails to candidates, creating a job description based on skill-based profiles, drafting policies all the way to developing training assets.

  • Communication: the use of AI chatbots can help create individualized learning recommendations based on one’s skillset and/or gaps and further help improve individual employee growth and development.

 

Finance

  • Consolidation and Reporting: the use of generative AI tools can help improve or achieve the consolidation process, walking away from aggregating and reprocessing financial data from different sources to simply generating  consolidation reports through predictive models that are configured to anticipate a variety of unforeseen or volatile factors such as regulatory or tax variations across different countries.

  • Internal Audit: the use of generative AI tools can help analyze AI models’ reliability and their compliance with any existing regulations but also move the auditing process past the point of internal processes and policies being in need of compliance verification, to interpreting core process algorithms.

  • Accounting: the use of generative AI tools can help automate numerous transactional tasks and facilitate the decision-making process, help accountants identify and prioritize receivables and reconcile intercompany accounts (including bank reconciliation).

​

A Gartner, survey of 179 HR leaders on January 31, 2024, revealed that 38% of HR leaders are piloting, planning implementation, or have already implemented generative AI, up from 19% in June 2023.

​

In order for organization to be ready to close talent gaps and fill the organizational hierarchy with skilled human-AI resources, they need to first prepare from within. First they need to equip enterprise resources in Human Resources and Finance for the future by engaging them in continuous learning to stay competitive, agile, and innovative.   

​

Following certain unwise use cases of generative AI that I happened to come across recently, I feel compelled to say - and I cannot stress it out enough - that generative AI is here to empower the workforce, not replace the human element. Similarly to all emerging technologies throughout history, it is important to look at generative AI through the same lens you would look at the first version of Excel back when it was first released by Microsoft in 1985 for Apple Inc.'s Macintosh computer.  If seen in the context of a Finance professional's work, the idea back then was not to replace them, but empower them by adding a highly effective tool that featured strong graphics and fast processing in their toolkit, aimed at facilitating their work and helping them achieve faster and more accurate results. Now, in that same context, take Chat GPT as an example of how generative AI can facilitate an HR professional in performing an effective screening process; it would (or should) not be used to perform the actual screening in their place via some human avatar, but it could be used to help with certain facets of it such as the creation of skills assessment questions, core interview questions, and summary profiles of the best applicants, or the drafting of automated and personalized emails for unsuccessful applicants, or help monitor key HR metrics, and improve employer branding efforts, and more.  The idea is by no means to replace a human's integral and critical role in the process, but help make the process more effective for a professional to capitalize on.

 

The Right Lens

Most companies' key entities are heavily understaffed. That 'sweet spot' of 1.5-4.5 per 100 employees ratio is not really that sweet as the gap in question is a little too wide while the actual number of resources staffed to do the job will often, if not always, lean towards the lower side, making the actual workload a challenge to manage. With that in mind, generative AI can be leveraged to lighten up an HR or Finance professional's 'to-do' list, as some cumbersome manual processes can be streamlined via the use of AI or altogether managed by an AI-powered agent designed to operate as a human's personal assistant.

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