S4 EP36: Using generative AI to augment our skills and transform HR - with Alex Zea, Digital HR Transformation Practice Lead, Mercer | Leapgen

“Generative AI, it's going to change the world in an incredibly positive way”, says Alex.“In the long term, I truly believe that we will elevate the role of HR because we'll be able to not only remove a lot of the friction from finding complex answers around HR policies and programs, but we'll also be able to augment our services to be able to do more.”Alex charts her career journey to falling in to consulting. “15 years ago, I'm not even sure I really understood what human resources was. How I ended up in this was focussing on how organizations manage their people and how they build relationships with their workforce. I constantly asked myself, could we make work better?”“I understood that technology and data were huge drivers in how organizations think about their people, how they make decisions about their people.”Alex gives insight in to how technology and humans can combine to make HR better. How we can use technology to deliver a more personalized experience as employee expectations continue to shift. “It's incredibly difficult to make the argument for more human resources in human resources.There are times where humans should be the main point of contact, but we should be digital first where we can so that the limited human resources we have access to can be there for those human moments like a promotion or something unfortunate, like a death in the family or even just a difficult coaching conversation.”Alex emphasizes the biggest impact embedding AI will have on business functions and the steps we can take to deploy AI effectively into our organizations. “Build off the things we're used to, things we're comfortable with things that we have already built into our spaces.My number one piece of advice would be to embrace it as an individual because it will make you feel more comfortable in the workplace setting. Use it in your personal life so that you can then better understand the applications at work and be open-minded.”Alex highlights simple AI use cases that can lead to wider organizational buy-in. "There are a number of smaller use cases that organizations can begin to embrace today. Job descriptions are a great example. Ask ChatGPT to write a job description for you, then ask it to rewrite that job description from the perspective of a cool or edgy company.”“I would never suggest that you put your internal data in any sort of open environment, but asking to write a job description for an HR Business Partner is absolutely something that you can use.”Alex discusses challenges around AI, biases and DEI. “We hear things like we've removed anything that could create any sort of bias towards one particular group or another. We know however, that, that is just beginning to scratch the surface. The real trick here is something called humans in the loop. There's no world where I would recommend using artificial intelligence that doesn't include humans in the loop.”In conclusion, Alex advises HR professionals and talent acquisition professionals to use AI to enhance our skills. “The best advice I can give is to only use generative AI to augment your area of expertise.”“We should be using the years of expertise that put us in our jobs to analyze the output from generative AI. It should never replace the areas of expertise we already have.”Connect with Alex Zea on LinkedIn or find out more about Mercer Leapgen The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of