Written by Greg Vert, leader in Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital practice and Jod Gill, Global Employer Services Partner in Deloitte’s South-East Asia Tax and Legal practice
The 2024 RES-Forum Research Report on Artificial Intelligence – and its (mis)-use in Global Mobility highlights several opportunities to use AI and outlines risks to consider along the way, but why is this important? How do you put these ideas into practice? What are successful organizations doing differently to harness the power of AI to create business outcomes? Our goal with this addendum is to provide GM professionals with additional insights to start or accelerate your journey to creating value with AI.
What is different now? Why is there so much hype around AI? AI has been around (in theory) since the 1950s, but recent breakthroughs in Generative AI and continued maturation of traditional forms of AI (e.g., Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing) have combined to create a wave of new solutions and commercial applications with direct impacts on professional, knowledge-based fields, such as Global Mobility. Additionally, the public release and rapid adoption of ChatGPT in October 20221 triggered significant public interest and a spike in capital investment in AI innovation, leading to an “arms race” between big tech firms to preserve and grow their market position and shareholder value. The result? AI is everywhere and it has become an inevitable force aimed at transforming enterprise and evolving industry for years to come. It also appears the hype is not subsiding any time soon, as 67% of organizations reported in August 2024, they are increasing investments in Generative AI (in particular) given strong value to date2.
What is the current state of AI adoption in HR and what does that mean for Global Mobility? Our research indicates approximately 75% of HR teams are in an “exploring” or “experimental” stage of AI adoption3. In other words, they’ve started to think about and play with AI in a safe environment but have not deployed production solutions in a meaningful way. The findings are consistent for Global Mobility as many teams are focused on adopting new enterprise productivity tools and co-pilots before investing in domain-specific solutions. We expect things to change and investments to increase heading into 2025 as HR organizations strive to reach a “scaling” or “innovating” level of maturity where AI is driving significant efficiencies, radically improving the digital experience, and delivering insights to improve decision-making and operational performance.
To make this transition in maturity, we are seeing an increased focus on AI “products” that offer robust capabilities to support end-to-end processes and functional areas, compared to discrete use cases and proofs-of-concept (POCs) that may be easier to deploy, but are generally limited to creating incremental value in return. Global Mobility teams can lean into the product-driven approach by identifying and prioritizing high value use cases, finding ways to leverage available enterprise and HR capabilities, and exploring the marketplace for innovative solutions.
Figure: Deloitte’s HR Automation and AI Maturity Model:
What are mature HR organizations doing to scale AI? When we conducted our research on the maturity of AI adoption in HR, we also sought to understand the underlying factors separating “exploring” and “experimenting” organizations from “scaling” and “innovating”. There were six key indicators that emerged:
- Strategic Focus – high maturity HR teams are aligned on how AI will advance their strategy and ambitions. They are intentional and coordinated with their investments and focused on creating measurable and demonstrable value with AI.
- Data Readiness – high maturity HR teams understand data is the lifeblood and fuel of any AI solution. They are focused on increasing structured and unstructured data quality, making fragmented data more integrated and accessible, and expanding available data sets to enable more sophisticated use cases.
- Enterprise Tools – high maturity HR teams recognize AI is not “one solution” and it will require an ecosystem approach to harness and embed its capabilities to the full potential. They seek to leverage and maximize the AI offerings of their core HR technology, while opportunistically extending enterprise tools into HR and exploring the marketplace for innovative and differentiated solutions.
- Agile Delivery – high maturity HR teams know the AI journey never ends, and they are focused on continuously sensing business and workforce needs to drive the ongoing enhancement of AI solutions. They apply agile, product management disciplines and principles to effectively deploy and maintain AI in strong partnership with IT. They also recognize the need for new human skills and capabilities and have created strategies to address critical talent gaps required to scale AI programs.
- Governance – high maturity HR teams understand the risks and limitations of AI and proactively implement policies, guardrails, and mechanisms to protect the enterprise and the workforce. They are invested in using AI responsibly (despite a lack of comprehensive laws and regulations) and regularly monitor AI outputs to mitigate unintended outcomes. They also understand the importance of tracking and articulating the value produced from AI investments to help secure funding and support for future initiatives.
- Workforce Enablement – high maturity HR teams recognize there is a strong correlation between end-user adoption and value creation with AI solutions. They understand adoption is dependent on the ability to foster a culture of experimentation, build trust in AI with the workforce, and increase the fluency and proficiency of AI consumers.
The journey to create value with AI is ongoing and we are in the early stages of widespread HR adoption. For Global Mobility teams, we believe creating and executing an action plan around the 6 key dimensions of maturity noted above will help accelerate the path to value. Even if “scaling” or “innovating” feels out of reach today, it is important to get started to avoid falling behind in a competitive, global talent market.
At Deloitte, we are refreshing our research on the state of Generative AI in the enterprise on a quarterly basis to track the rapid pace of change and to share helpful perspectives. Please stay tuned, ask questions, seek out learning opportunities, and share your experiences to help the Global Mobility community evolve and thrive with AI.
References:
2: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/state-of-generative-ai-in-enterprise.html
RES Forum research
This piece is taken from the RES Forum research paper AI and its (mis)use) in Global Mobility. Written by Professors Michael Dickmann and Benjamin Bader, our latest paper surfs the algorithms of Artificial Intelligence and asks how AI affects GM, and the people and companies involved with it. It is a deep dive into the practical impact of AI on Global Mobility, with a self-assessment tool that evaluates where your organisation stands on AI, and recommendations on how to get the most out of this technology.
Get your copy of AI and its (mis)use in Global Mobility, here: theresforum.com/annual-report
Deloitte
Greg Vert is a leader in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice. He works with clients to digitally transform their HR capabilities to deliver more productive, engaging, and supportive experiences to the workforce. He is focused on helping organizations holistically embed AI and other innovative technologies into the HR strategy and to architect hybrid workforces that use machines where they are better suited for the work, while simultaneously elevating human capabilities and creating more sustainable organizational performance.
Jod Gill is a Global Employer Services Partner in Deloitte’s South-East Asia Tax and Legal practice. He works with clients to help solve their most complex Global Mobility, Immigration, Workforce and Reward issues and specialises in supporting clients in the TMT sector. Jod leads the delivery of digital enablement support to mobility clients in South-East Asia.
