How AI is Being Used in Other Industries – Human Resources
By, Piers Lee, Managing Director, Novema Pte Ltd.
November 2025
As Novema researched the application of AI in consumer insight, it was useful to compare how AI is being used in other industries, e.g. to assess whether similar opportunities and challenges are encountered. Hence, we interviewed firms in several other industries where AI is currently being used.
All the companies interviewed for this research using AI in their own firms, and all have dedicated departments to optimize the use of AI within their organisations, although sometimes this is part of a larger ‘digital team’ looking at a range of tech applications.
They all recognize the need to have these departments for fear of being ‘left behind’, i.e. they are all acutely aware of how transformative AI will be for their industries and need to be at the forefront of these technological developments or at least try to!
Human Resources (HR)
Human Resources departments are among the leading adopters of AI technology, largely due to their need to manage extensive data on employees and job candidates.
In a typical large corporation, approximately 20% of the workforce experiences turnover annually, including employees changing roles, exiting the workforce, or being terminated. For an organization with 10,000 employees, this translates to recruiting and onboarding around 2,000 new hires each year, alongside reviewing and assessing an even larger pool of applicants.
This process is highly labour-intensive and carries significant risks of making poor hiring decisions. Consequently, HR teams have increasingly turned to AI solutions to streamline these tasks. The goal is to automate repetitive activities, such as screening resumes, thereby allowing HR professionals to concentrate on higher-value responsibilities like conducting interviews and performing in-depth candidate evaluations.
In parallel with developments in the consumer insights sector, specialised AI tools have been created to support HR functions. Consulting firms often integrate these solutions into their offerings, with platforms like Phenom focusing on candidate search, evaluation, and training, and Workday providing tools for managing internal workforce performance reviews, career progression, and development programs.
In Talent Acquisition, AI supports various functions:
- Enhancing career landing pages by improving the company’s ranking in organic search results, refining job vacancy descriptions, and simplifying the application process—ensuring that application data from diverse sources, including standardised forms and emailed CVs, can be efficiently managed.
- External candidate sourcing, such as identifying potential hires using publicly available data on platforms like LinkedIn, effectively enabling AI-driven headhunting.
- Internal talent searches: this involves pinpointing employees eligible for transfers or promotions to reduce turnover to competitors, as well as maintaining engagement with previous applicants when new opportunities arise.
A significant challenge with AI in HR, particularly in search and evaluation, is that its iterative learning may lead to autonomous decision-making beyond corporate oversight, raising ethical concerns and potential legal risks.
Beyond these applications, AI holds promise in areas like conducting applicant due diligence (e.g., detecting CV inaccuracies), optimizing organizational management structures, and minimizing bias in employee performance assessments—although AI itself can sometimes introduce bias.
In conclusion, while AI helps organisations manage large amounts of data on staff and applicants, but human judgment often needed to ensure AI does not develop any ‘bad habits’. There are also concerns about lack of control of AI algorithms, particularly from third party services that is embedded in a technology, that could potentially come into conflict with legislation.
