#BizTrends2025: AI-assisted HR - fast-forward to business value

Caroline van der Merwe, co-founder & chief product officer, Jem HR

AI moves from hype to value

In 2024, the hype around these technologies reached fever pitch, but we expect that this year will see reality hitting in terms of what AI can actually do. HR technology specialists and employers will look beyond ChatGPT to AI that is realistic and relevant for HR, and will also start building on past digitalisation and automation of HR processes to find AI use cases that deliver real business value.

Fears of AI replacing workforces are starting to abate, and the concept of the AI assistant or ‘co-pilot’ is gaining acceptance and traction. HR practitioners and employees are beginning to see AI can make humans more effective, rather than replacing them.

In 2025, we can expect AI to take on a more prominent role as a collaborative partner rather than a job threat. AI's integration into daily life will become more pronounced, with applications ranging from automating routine tasks and interrogating spreadsheets, to providing personalised assistance with writing emails with the user’s normal turn of phrase.

#BizTrends2025: Anticipating B-BBEE transformation in South Africa in 2025

Yuneal Padayachy  2 days

AI in chat commerce and super-apps

The evolution of chat commerce and super-apps is another key trend in HR, and AI could prove transformative in this environment.

There is evidence that chat-based commerce will become a standard expectation among customers. If we go with the reasonable theory that people trust other people more than businesses, we can assume that businesses will need to adopt conversational interfaces.

This shift is evident in the increasing use of platforms like WhatsApp for business communications in South Africa. Another one would be how FlySafair lets its customers check in for flights and access boarding passes.

As employers move to meet employees on a chat basis rather than an app basis, AI offers an opportunity to enhance chat commerce and super-apps with more intelligent chatbots, deep personalisation and advanced analytics.

One of the great advantages of AI is that it allows businesses to tailor engagement, drawing on context and sentiment to enrich the experience. This personalisation at scale will redefine customer and employee engagement.

#BizTrends2025: Salary trends shaping the remuneration revolution - part 1

Chris Blair  3 days

Getting to grips with AI

For the deskless workforce - currently the least digitalised employees in all industries - AI offers huge opportunities to help these people to do their work better. Use cases could be anything from scheduling shift workers more efficiently so that they can reduce travel time and work closer to their homes, to monitoring them more effectively to ensure their safety on site.

AI and GenAI are typically user friendly technologies, but HR practitioners can maximise the benefits by exploring what tools are available, and how to get maximum use out of them, for example, the AI assistants on everyday business software. Try prompting the AI to search your mails for information you need, summarise meetings, analyse data and compose correspondence. AI prompt engineering - prompting AI to get the best results - will become an increasingly important skill to learn this year.

Embracing change

Unfortunately, change can seem scary and costly, which often prevents large organisations from adopting exciting technology. Tools like automation, AI and generative AI offer such significant opportunities to streamline and improve HR processes that they should not be ignored. 2025 is the year HR should embrace AI-powered digital innovation.