Will AI make HR less human? 

When we chat about AI, it’s often in the context of replacing people, right? Especially in HR, where AI has been a buzz for data crunching, spotting trends, and taking over routine tasks. Think about sorting through job candidates, giving them scores, and handling those repetitive onboarding jobs. AI has definitely made HR processes more streamlined, which is awesome – it is making things faster and smarter.

But what about the parts of HR that are very specifically human? Is there a practical application of AI that will actually make the process more human?

We think so and wanted to show you a behind the scenes look at how we have applied AI to performance reviews to make the process more human.

AI can help us overcome some of the things humans struggle with in a review process – synthesizing a lot of data, remembering what happened 6 months ago, prompting hard conversations, iterating on language quickly and just making enough time to do it thoughtfully. AI can do the heavy lifting for managers, and create more in-depth, insightful performance reviews. 

Think less effort, more insight, and an even more efficient way to analyze talent.

In this post, I want to cover three core ideas:

1. Batch Evaluations
2. AI written performance feedback
3. Super-high fidelity performance data

By the end I hope you’ll start to see how our AI can transform HR to be more human, not less. Allowing everyone to do their best work and organizations to perform better, together.

Let’s jump into it.

(Batch) Performance Evaluations

Tell the AI what it needs to know (in a way that gets HR what it wants to know)

Let’s start by making performance evaluations simpler, faster, and more efficient. 

Instead of individual performance evaluations, the focus is on being able to evaluate everyone- including self, peers, and direct reports, all at the same time. It’s a broader, holistic and incredibly efficient approach. It’s less burden on your brain, more spotlight on efficient evaluation processes. And it can quickly give the AI all the information it otherwise can’t gather by itself.

If we make providing feedback simple, we can ask for it, more frequently, from more people. Get the full picture.

For HR teams, you have the opportunity to tell the AI what it needs to know through assessment questions. Adding context and detail to the questions that help your managers, will also prompt the AI to write answers in the context of your company. Include competencies, values and standards that apply to roles and the company overall. The better direction you give the evaluator, the more data is available for AI.

AI-Powered Performance Feedback

A Paradigm Shift in Employee Evaluation

Innovation isn’t batching evaluations – that’s just how we’re efficiently calibrating the AI. Now we have everything we need: notes from 1:1 meetings, goals (and their progressions) over the performance period, and the relative opinions of peers, managers, and self-evaluation.

Now the AI can draft performance feedback. Yes, you heard that right.

Spinach AI uses every single data point to create valuable performance feedback. It offers an extremely well informed first draft. In addition, it acts as a coach in the writing process. Imagine giving every manager access to an HR business partner while they are writing their review.

The Modernized 9-Box in Talent Reviews

Unveiling AI’s Potential in HR Analytics

The application of AI doesn’t stop there. We’re using this tech to adapt and enhance conventional HR tools, like the 9-box grid in talent reviews. The AI-enhanced 9-box grid allows you an alternate lens to view talent distribution and transformation over time. You can ask more questions, more quickly to consider your talent pool across multiple dimensions.

It’s not a snapshot; it’s an evolving, dynamic story of your team’s growth.

What does all of this mean?

AI in HR means more humanity in HR

AI at Spinach AI today means more humanity in performance reviews. 

AI in HR isn’t a stand-in for human effort, but a catalyst to amplify it. It’s about strategically using technology to make workplaces more productive, efficient, and emotionally intelligent. It’s not just about numbers and data; it’s about helping managers be better bosses and team leaders.

By taking away the effort of gathering, compiling, refreshing and re-reading, we can spend more time understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our team relative to each-other. Come up with individualized plans to coach each person towards a common standard, but in a unique way. And deliver data to HR in an effortless fashion so there is still energy to do something with it, instead of the whole org being so burnt out by the process.

This is real. It’s time to transform, now. 

So what’s next for AI?

It won’t be long before we stop thinking of AI as a flashy add-on; it will become the backbone of HR processes. From data entry and management to insightful analysis and coaching. Adoption will move as fast as we trust it to do a task. The tech is already there for small tasks, but the trust is not.

Beyond, there are two major shifts are on the horizon.

First, AI will seamlessly integrate HR concepts into the daily workflow, empowering managers with real-time insights and support. Forget clunky HR software; AI will collaborate with managers where they already excel. Imagine AI autocomplete in 1:1 notes that reference career ladders, or goal suggestions that compliment performance reviews – these will be in the tools managers use not locked away in HRIS tools that they avoid.

Second, AI will unleash unparalleled value from data. Imagine an AI that’s both a data-scientist and an HR expert, distilling complex data into personalized coaching plans and concise summaries. It will be granting small businesses the HR workforce of the corporate giants. Giving the masses the exposure to training, coaching, development that was historically only available to the privileged.

This isn’t about replacing humans; it’s about helping them.

AI-powered HR will make workplaces smarter, more efficient, and ultimately more human.

What to do next

Next, here are some things you can do now that you've read this article:

1. Our YouTube channel is full of tips on management skills and team building.
2. Learn more about Spinach and how it can help you run a high performing org.
3. If you found this article helpful, please share it with others on Linkedin or X (Twitter)