The term cognitive computing isn’t eccentric, it has been making the rounds for over several years now. Companies are gradually aligning corporate objectives with the promises cognitive computing can aid to.
HR, with no doubt, is the spine of an organisation. Long gone are those days where HR people were involved in just administrative or transactional work. As organisations are heading towards a more technologically advanced work process, the scope of business has expanded and so has the market for talented workers. HR now holds the responsibility to educate, train and retain the right talent and build efficient teams that can embrace the technology upsurge. Organisations are becoming amenable to new trends, be it Cloud Computing, IoT, Big Data, or People Analytics. Adaptation to these trends require carefully thought through business approaches; and when the change gets more complex, companies may need to restructure or disrupt their business workflow so as to optimise corporate evolution and deliver desirable results. This entails HR to move out of their cocoon and take up more challenging tasks that can bring about a smooth transition in change management. To restructure an organisation is not an easy chore; it involves a lot of planning, analysis and judicious thinking to be carried out. Apart from HR’s regular activities, they also need to look into business improvement and employee engagement plans; carrying more responsibilities upon their shoulders. Thus, imposing the need for cognitive computing.
Cognitive computing involves comprehensive platforms that can perform a combination of human-like activities such as speech recognition, computer vision, machine learning and rational thinking. The advancements in information and technologies have paved way for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to come up with methods to implement cognition into business processes. This indicates that physical labour is becoming automated by computers, minimising human interference.
Would this mean that eventually machines would take over the work place, eliminating the need for human activity? Well, certainly not. Cognitive computing simplifies human efforts and makes work instantaneous, resulting in a collaborative work environment between manpower and machines. HR teams can surpass set targets without the need to expand the existing workforce. Cognitive computing along with the digitally advanced systems can make work effortless and help derive at more informed decisions.
Day-to-day tasks revolving around of HR can be computerised, people analytics can be simplified and business evaluations made unprejudiced. With Cognitive computing in play, HR people can direct their efforts in developing more technical skills and know-hows and display neoteric methodologies to ensure the organisation is functioning optimally.
Cognitive computing materializes effective HR practices, prepares the workforce to excel in problematic situations and last but certainly not the least, enables HR teams to exhibit design thinking.