As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, it is increasingly being recognized as a powerful tool that can revolutionize the way we approach wellbeing in the workplace. By harnessing the power of AI, organizations can gain valuable insights into employee needs, preferences, and behaviors, and develop personalized strategies that promote employee health, happiness, and productivity. In this way, AI has the potential to transform workplace culture, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately lead to greater business success.
As the Founder of FitPros, a global wellbeing service provider for corporations, healthcare, and human resources is where I spend most of my days. We offer physical, social, and mental health classes, virtually and in-person to make wellbeing tools accessible to employees around the world.
With AI rapidly evolving our Leadership Team has regular discussions about what’s around the corner for the wellbeing space and how we will stay in front of what’s to come. In my research, I discovered healthcare and recruiting are already up to fascinating use cases.
RECRUITING
On March 14, OptumHire announced its new AI-Powered ATS, which it said is a revolutionary system to step forward in the hiring industry that will take hiring efforts to the next level.
The system can:
Focus on employer branding by highlighting a business with OptumHire’s career page site.
Connect with more suitable candidates with the Job Integration URL.
Gain free access to a pre-screened database of 2 million + candidates.
Save thousands of dollars by posting unlimited job posts.
Reduce back-and-forth time and schedule interviews instantly with a self-scheduling feature.
There are definite risks associated with using AI to recruit. Take a recent lawsuit against Workday, for example. On February 21, a class action lawsuit was filed against Workday, alleging the company engaged in illegal discrimination by offering its customers applicant-screening tools that use biased AI algorithms.
Derek Mobley alleges Workday provides screening tools to its customers, which allows them to use “discriminatory and subjective judgments” when evaluating applicants and even allows for “preselection” of applicants not within certain protected categories. Mobley alleges the administration and dissemination of this screening tool constituted a “pattern or practice” of discrimination.
Workday believes the lawsuit is without merit. It is “committed to trustworthy AI” and acts “responsibly and transparently in the design and delivery” of its AI solutions, it added.
“We engage in a risk-based review process throughout our product lifecycle to help mitigate any unintended consequences, as well as extensive legal reviews to help ensure compliance with regulations.”
This case is one of the first to allege discrimination cases based on an employer’s use of AI tools in hiring, and employers must be aware of the legal implications. It’s pretty clear that as a society we still have so much to learn about AI. Should we be concerned that it’s being implemented and executed so rapidly? Should there be further testing behind closed doors before it hits the general public or is getting mass use of the tool the most efficient way to learn quickly?
HUMAN RESOURCES
An article by HEC Paris explains AI can relieve HR of its repetitive, time-consuming tasks, which allows HR and People Teams to focus on more complex assignments. It can assist, not replace.
Companies are turning to AI to respond automatically to questions asked by employees – "Where is my training application?" or "How many days off am I entitled to?" – in real-time and regardless of where staff is based. AI refers questioners to the correct legal documentation or the right expert.
An article by Phenom dives deeper into this idea of supporting HR Teams, noting AI can even support diversity initiatives by connecting companies with diverse, skilled candidates when the tool is trained to do so.
Research says AI when used correctly, can help companies remove any biased language from their job posts and send alerts when the language may be biased. It can generate new suggestions for hiring and drive leaders to reflect on their own beliefs.
A recent LinkedIn post by Daniel Calciano claims AI can improve business efficiency by up to 40% and reduce operational costs by up to 30%.
MEDICAL USE CASES
WebMD has released several articles about the benefits of AI in healthcare. They say the full potential of AI in the area of healthcare is still being explored, but doctors are already utilizing it to read medical scans, help diagnose diseases, assist in treatment decisions, and help discover new drugs. Doctors and researchers are even using AI in the fight against Covid-19.
WebMD used diabetic retinopathy; stroke; heart disease and colon cancer as examples of health problems where AI is benefiting research and treatment.
An AI-assisted device called GI Genius can be a second pair of eyes to help doctors detect suspicious growths that may otherwise get overlooked during a colonoscopy. Caption Guidance creates high-quality ultrasound images of the heart. These are just some of the devices. That’s pretty fascinating in my opinion!
WebMD even wrote about a survey that asked patients their thoughts on AI in healthcare. The survey, done by Yale University's Sanjay Aneja, MD, and colleagues, surveyed a nationally representative group of 926 patients about their comfort with the use of the technology.
The survey found patient comfort with AI ultimately depends on the issue, but overall, most people had a positive overall opinion of AI in healthcare.
The survey revealed that 56% believe AI will make healthcare better in the next five years, compared to 6% who say it will make healthcare worse. It also said some people may not fully be aware of what AI is and does.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
AI can be used in terms of electronic health records, as evidenced by an article by HBR.
Electronic health record systems are often viewed as monolithic, inflexible, difficult to use, and costly to configure. They are almost always obtained from commercial vendors and require considerable time, money, and consulting assistance to implement, support and optimize.
The most popular systems are often built around older underlying technologies, and it often shows in their ease of use. Many healthcare providers find these systems complex and difficult to navigate.
Healthcare providers are using data extraction from free text, diagnostic and/or predictive algorithms, clinical documentation, data entry, and clinical decision support to make health record systems more user-friendly.
Machine-learning solutions in decision support, which recommends strategies for treatment, are emerging that learn based on new data and enable personalized care. Could this help find treatments before they reach terminal stages? As someone who has lost friends and family to cancer, I am all about understanding how AI can save lives.
From my initial learnings, AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare and human resources by streamlining communication and synthesizing data to provide a calculated solution but not a personal one. I do not believe that AI will be a replacement for human interaction but I am eager to watch and participate in the evolution of this exciting (and scary) technology.
Stay tuned for what FitPros has in store utilizing Artificial Intelligence.
WHAT DID ChatGPT HAVE TO SAY?
For kicks, I asked ChatGPT “How will AI revolutionize the healthcare, wellbeing, and human resources”? Here’s what it said:
What do you think, did I nail it in this blog? Hey, wait, why did I spend hours writing this if AI can do it?
Lindsay Johnson
Founder & CEO, FitPros
FitPros is a turn-key wellness provider empowering people to take charge of their personal health.
Contact FitPros to diversify your company’s wellbeing offerings and help employees meet their health & fitness goals.