Since the global pandemic, almost every fabric of the workplace has changed. Today, remote and hybrid setups have become the norm, and employees worldwide expect better support, flexibility, and personalized experiences from their workplaces. 

In this whirlwind of change, HR teams are now tasked with meeting these growing demands and providing efficient employee support. 

Traditional AI has surely helped with the automation of mundane tasks and answering repetitive queries, and the rise of generative AI has contributed to predictive analytics for better insights and content generation. But, these systems fell short when it came to handling multi-step workflows.

AI systems could assist with tasks like onboarding, leave approvals, and payroll processing but can’t take the lead. This means HR staff are still bogged down with administrative tasks that consume time and effort that could have been better spent on spearheading strategic initiatives for employees. 

This is where AI Agents come in to take the lead in providing end-to-end solutions for complex tasks. 

In this blog, we’ll explain what an HR AI agent is, how AI Agents are different from other kinds of AI, their use cases, benefits, and future, and list the top 5 tools for building your own virtual AI agent for HR. 

At its core, an AI agent is a virtual assistant designed to act autonomously to achieve specific goals by observing its environment and reasoning based on user input. 

These agents also take a proactive approach to attaining their goals, using their reasoning capabilities to determine the next best steps when detailed instructions from the user are not provided. 

In the context of human resources, AI agents can enact multiple HR tasks like responding to employee queries, managing payrolls, scheduling interviews, and onboarding employees.

The primary goal of HR AI Agents is to reduce the burden on HR teams by performing routine and complex tasks with little to no human intervention, enhance employee experience through personalized support, and assist organizations in strategic workforce planning with actionable insights.

Legacy HR tools have fairly served their purpose in the past, but they don’t provide the edge HR teams need to meet the requirements of the modern workforce.

These tools pose multitudes of challenges that severely impact the efficiency and effectiveness of HR functions and employee experience:  

Outdated technology

Legacy HR systems are built on obsolete technology, which does not have the capability required for today’s fast-paced business. These systems slow down processes, are inefficient at handling complex workflows, and lack integration with modern applications. 

An outdated HR system can hinder organizations from making further innovations, such as implementing new features and adapting to dynamic business needs. 

Limited scalability

Legacy HR tools are built on rigid and outdated frameworks. They struggle to adopt to modern tools offering advanced capabilities like AI analytics to scale HR operations. 

This inability to adapt to digital transformation leads to companies relying on manual processes or expensive workarounds to achieve even basic interoperability. 

Increased HR workload

Legacy systems require HR teams to put extensive manual labor and time into tasks like data entry, payroll processing, and compliance training.

This administrative burden detracts HR professionals from focusing on strategic and value-driven initiatives like employee development and engagement programs. 

Steep learning curve and slower adoption 

Traditional HRSM tools were not built with user experience in mind, making them too complex for non-technical users. This posed a significant challenge for HR teams with non-technical backgrounds to navigate the tool, requiring significant time and effort to learn. 

Plus, any disruption in the tool meant heavy dependence on IT teams, compounding delays and inefficiencies in HR operations. The constant disruptions, coupled with unintuitive interfaces, discourage the adoption among HR staff.

Sub-par employee experience

Legacy tools lack real-time accessibility and personalized support features. Employees have to experience long wait times for responses to HR queries or struggle with the system’s complex interface to access even basic information like payslips and leave balances.

A little rewind to when enterprises relied on traditional AI tools for managing HR processes using chatbots that provide static responses. Then, Generative AI and LLMs came into the picture and completely changed how companies handle their HR processes. 

By generating new content, understanding query intent, and processing large data sets to provide personalized information at the fingertips, Generative AI made a big leap forward in enhancing HR operations and employee experience. 

Today, AI agents, a notable advancement in generative AI capabilities, bring a seismic shift across industries to improve many business functions through automated actions. 

Let’s understand the core difference between AI Agents and Generative AI models.

Core functionality

Generative AI models excel at creating new information or insights from their training data in the form of images, texts, audio, and videos based on user input. However, they cannot perform actions or interact with the real world without additional frameworks.

AI Agents can perform tasks independently by engaging with users, systems, and their environments. They can interact using text, audio, images, and video across different communication platforms, such as chat, email, or video conferencing. 

Knowledge 

Generative AI models are trained on large sets of existing data, so their knowledge is limited to their training data. They can’t access real-time information and need data retraining to update their knowledge.

AI Agents integrate with external tools, databases, and APIs to extend their knowledge in real-time and provide updated and contextually relevant information. 

A Generative AI model can provide information on your company’s leave policies, whereas an AI agent can check current leave balances and calculate remaining PTO balances dynamically. 

Reasoning capabilities

Generative AI models lack built-in logic to handle complex tasks. If you want the model to execute a complex task or think through a problem step by step, you need to craft specific prompts guiding the model every single time.

AI Agents come with a native cognitive architecture, meaning they’re designed with a built-in logic and reasoning framework that enables them to plan, think, and act independently. These agents don’t need explicit guidance from the user.

For example, if an HR staff member wants to know which employees are eligible for a promotion, a generative AI model can answer that question, but the HR staff must describe in detail the criteria for assessing eligibility. 

On the other hand, AI Agents already know these criteria, so when HR inputs the same query, AI Agents apply the logic and generate the eligible list of employees. 

Problem-solving capabilities 

Generative AI acts only as an assistant, providing analytics and strategies to solve the problem. Then, HR agents need to interpret and execute the suggestions. 

AI Agents take a practical approach by integrating with external tools to gather real-time information, use reasoning and logic frameworks to determine the next steps, and autonomously execute actions to achieve the desired goals. 

Adaptability 

Generative AI models respond to user queries and adapt feedback primarily to improve the style or relevance of the information generated.

AI Agents dynamically adapt to changes in the environment and real-time feedback by maintaining context and reasoning. They can adjust their workflows as they receive new information.

Traditional self-service tools offer only static responses, requiring employees to navigate through FAQs or predefined menus. AI Agents bring a dynamic, goal-oriented approach to self-service, revolutionizing the way HR teams work. Let’s find out some key use cases of HR AI Agents: 

Employee onboarding and offboarding

On an enterprise level, HR teams manage employee onboarding and offboarding processes for multiple employees. Especially during mass hiring, HR staff has to oversee the entire process, even with automation.  

HR teams working with AI Agents can:

• Help new joiners get access to software and credentials

• Help set up salary account details

• Collect and log employee information in your HRIS platform

• Help new employees find HR-related information like policies, benefits, and employee handbook. 

HR teams can also create custom agents for new employees based on their roles.

Let’s say a marketer has joined the company. HR teams can deploy a custom AI agent that grants access to marketing tools such as Google Analytics, creates their profile on HRSM platforms and shares credentials, collects account details, and enters them into the payroll management platform. The AI agent does all this with minimal human intervention. 

Leave management 

AI Agents automate the entire leave management process. Enterprises can deploy AI agents to channels like Slack, MS Teams, and chat widgets. 

Employees can easily converse with AI Agents from their preferred channel to check PTOs, submit leave requests, and receive manager approval through the same channel. All without any intervention from the HR staff. 

For managers, AI Agents provide clear and real-time visibility into team schedules. This ensures adequate staff coverage and minimal disruptions in daily operations. 

Payroll management

While processing the payroll, AI Agents help HR teams save time and labor by quickly handling complex scenarios like tax adjustments, overtime calculations, loss of pay deductions, or benefits deductions with minimal HR intervention.

AI Agents enable employees to instantly download their payslips, track payments, and resolve payroll-related queries through the AI chat interface.   

These HR AI Agents help HR teams detect discrepancies in payroll and send alerts ahead of time to address issues before they escalate. They also continuously learn and track news to update any changes in tax laws and policies, ensuring that payrolls are processed with compliance and accuracy. 

Learning and development

With AI Agents, companies can create tailored course modules for individual employees based on their career trajectories. This approach helps support the employee’s professional development while aligning with organizational growth. 

Based on the role, skills, and aspirations of each employee, AI suggests personalized L&D materials such as courses and training sessions. 

Beyond these recommendations, AI Agents track and monitor performance in real-time, send notifications and reminders to engage employees, and act like mentors to provide actionable feedback. This motivates employees to stay on track and achieve their professional goals. 

Talent acquisition

So far, HR teams have enhanced candidate sourcing by using generative AI to quickly create job descriptions and simple outreach templates. 

With AI Agents, HR teams can automate simple tasks as well as complex processes.

Tasks handled by HR AI agent include:

• Screening resumes to filter suitable candidates.

• Scheduling interviews by connecting with calendars

• Responding to candidates' queries via email

• Requesting job description approval

• Reminding hiring managers to provide feedback after interviews

Suppose your company is hiring for a product manager role, the HR team needs to fill in necessary details like experience, qualifications, contact, location, and application deadline to create a job description (JD). Based on these inputs, the AI agent will generate a JD, automatically screen applicants, compare candidates, schedule interviews with multiple candidates based on mutual availability, and remind the hiring manager to provide feedback after each interview.

The integration of AI Agents has helped HR teams significantly by enhancing employee experience, reducing operational costs, reducing the workload on HR teams, and providing data-driven insights.

Let’s discuss these benefits in detail:

Enhanced employee experience

The AI Agents improve the employee experience by providing personalized, real-time support for each employee. They are available 24/7 to answer queries about benefits, policies, training opportunities, and career development. 

For instance, an employee asking about healthcare benefits gets specific information, like how to add a dependent or join an employee wellness program. 

Similarly, the AI Agents execute end-to-end onboarding for new hires, ensuring they are guided thoroughly without feeling left out. This way, AI Agents reinforce employees’ trust in your company, enhancing employee satisfaction and experience. 

Cost savings

By automating repetitive HR tasks like screening thousands of resumes, filtering top candidates, sending emails, and scheduling interviews, AI Agents significantly reduce the manual effort.

AI Agents perform tasks like payroll processing, compliance check, and employee benefits enrollment with precision. This minimizes the errors that could lead to negative cost implications. 

Plus, AI Agents cut down the cost spent on resources and administrative tasks and reduce the need to hire additional staff. 

Reduced workload on the HR team

HR teams have long been stretched thin to manage repetitive administrative tasks like updating employee records, managing employee time-offs, and answering HR-related queries.

AI Agents lift this burden and enable organizations to scale their HR operations with unparalleled efficiency. As a result, HR teams have more bandwidth to focus on strategic and value-adding tasks to improve organizational culture.

Data-driven insights

Generative AI excels at extracting key information from survey data or complex reports to present it in a comprehensive format. While helpful for understanding the data, generative AI can’t drive action autonomously. 

AI Agents go a step further. Based on the data, they determine the best course of action for improving HR support and preventing future disruptions. For example, AI Agents can continuously monitor employee attrition rates and send timely alerts to HR leaders suggesting retention strategies.

So far, we’ve discussed what an AI agent is, its use cases, and benefits. Now, if you’re wondering how to actually build an AI agent for your HR team, we’ve got you covered.

Here are 6 steps to build an HR AI agent for automating HR operations: 

Choose a no-code platform

Choosing a no-code platform will simplify the development of your HR AI agent. Users without extensive coding knowledge can easily create AI Agents for sophisticated applications. 

Gather  and prepare knowledge 

Your AI agent’s effectiveness heavily relies on the quality of training data. So collect relevant data, including:

• Internal data: Documents outlining Company policies, employee benefits, and compliance regulations.

• Employee data: Employee performance and feedback data, career development records, attendance, and employee engagement survey data

• Industry-specific external data: Gather data on HR best practices, compensation benchmarks, workforce planning strategies, talent acquisition metrics, and source reports from HR research firms and industry publications for better training. 

Ensure you clean your data by correcting errors, removing irrelevant information, flagging missing data, and formatting it in a suitable way for LLMs to understand and process. 

Build conversational dialogues

The exchange of dialogues between the user and the AI agent is important in enhancing the user experience. Map out how conversations will take place depending on the user inputs. 

Your employees may have different but repetitive queries like requesting PTO, payroll issues, or employee benefits. Use your chosen platform's tools to create branching paths that lead to appropriate responses. You can decide how the AI agent will greet the employee, provide options to select or type the issue and implement conditional logic.

Set-up automation workflows

Connect the existing tools that you use for HR functions like payroll management, leave management, and tracking applications with the AI agent to facilitate seamless data flow and task execution. 

Clearly define triggers and actions for the AI agent to automate tasks efficiently. For example, if an employee requests leave, the AI agent should be triggered to send approval notifications to the manager. 

Test the AI agent

Before deploying the HR AI agent, conduct thorough testing using different scenarios to check how the agent handles different inquiries. This will help you prevent errors and identify knowledge gaps.

Deploy and monitor

After successful testing, deploy your AI agent on your preferred platforms. Provide training sessions and resources to guide your employees in using the AI agent to its full potential. 

Once you’ve deployed the AI agent, monitor the interactions and performance of your agent. Based on the user feedback and performance data, continuously update your KB and workflows and refine your AI agents to meet the employee needs over time.

With AI being the new buzzword, many tools have emerged in the market for building AI Agents, and it could be difficult to choose from the clutter. To make it easier for you, we’ve compiled the 5 best tools available in the market that let you build AI Agents with ease. 

Workativ

Workativ is an intuitive no-code platform that empowers organizations to design, build, and deploy AI Agents to enhance HR operations. With Workativ, enterprises can transform their HR workflows by automating both routine and complex processes, allowing HR teams to focus on strategic initiatives that drive employee engagement and organizational growth.

Key features:

• No-code setup and deployment: Enterprises can easily build, deploy, and manage the HR AI Agents at scale, without writing a single line of code.

• Knowledge AI: This feature lets you connect the AI agent to your knowledge repositories like SharePoint or Google to understand user intent, pull relevant information from multiple data points, and generate personalized solutions for HR queries.

• Bot marketplace: Workativ offers curated repositories of pre-built bots and workflows specific to HR use cases like leave management, user provisioning, onboarding and offboarding.  

• App workflow automation: Workativ integrates with popular HR tools like Workday, BambooHR, and Gusto. This seamless integration allows AI Agents to execute complex, multi-step HR processes efficiently. 

• Dynamic notifications: You can configure this feature to allow AI Agents to notify employees of important announcements in policy changes, remind them to fill out survey forms, or simply wish them on birthdays/anniversaries.

• Analytics and dashboard: Monitor usage, bot sessions, user queries, live status, and more to get a complete overview of the AI agent's performance. These analytics will help you track how effectively AI Agents are helping employees and make informed decisions to provide better support. 

Pros:

• Improved employee engagement

• Increased employee satisfaction and trust

• Faster resolution of HR-related queries

• Reduced workload on HR teams

• 24/7 human-like HR support 

• Ease of implementation

Cons

• Training the chatbot with advanced configurations will take some time. 

• Users report minor issues on the platform but say they can be resolved quickly by the customer support team.  

Pricing 

Contact the sales team to know the detailed pricing plans.

Moveworks

Moveworks is an emerging platform that offers various AI-powered solutions for IT, HR, finance, and marketing teams. The platform offers various tools like creator studio, knowledge studio, and agentic automation features to build HR AI agent. 

Key features: 

• Creator studio: Through Creator Studio, users can build AI Agents for specific HR needs. Users can select from pre-built templates available on the platform or build from scratch. 

• Agentic automation: This feature allows the creation of complex AI-driven automations that can handle multi-step HR processes, such as onboarding, benefits enrollment, and performance management, reducing manual intervention and streamlining workflows.

• Knowledge studio: Using this feature, enterprises can connect AI Agents with their knowledge bases so agents can learn and provide context-aware solutions. 

Pros 

• The platform requires no coding

• Multi-channel support capabilities

• Resolves repetitive HR queries efficiently

Cons

• Users state difficulty in integrating Moveworks with their existing systems.

• Users express concerns about controlling data access levels and restricting queries that may expose sensitive data. 

• Potential challenges in extracting information from knowledge base articles. 

Pricing 

Contact Moveworks to know detailed pricing plans. 

Kore.ai

kore.ai enables enterprises to to build, deploy, and manage intelligent virtual assistants for various business functions, including HR. It is a low-code/no-code platform that utilizes advanced AI capabilities to enhance employee support and satisfaction. 

Kore.ai supports omnichannel deployment, integrating with popular communication tools, enterprise applications, and legacy systems to deliver unified, consistent experiences.

Key features

• Choice of LLMs: Users can either bring their custom LLMs or use out-of-the-box options with popular providers like OpenAI and Anthropic to build AI Agents. 

• Automation of HR Workflows: AI Agents can automate end-to-end HR processes, including leave management, onboarding, offboarding, and benefits administration, improving efficiency and accuracy.

• Pre-built HR Assistants: Kore.ai provides ready-to-use virtual assistants designed for HR functions, enabling rapid deployment and immediate value.

Pros

• Intuitive platform

• Integrations with other communication channels like websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms. 

• Efficient in handling routine user queries

Cons

• Users express limitations in using certain features and accessing templates from the bot marketplace. 

• Unavailability of options to create custom solutions independently.

• Users report poor product documentation. 

Pricing  

• Essential: $50 per user/month (billed annually) or $60 per user/month (billed monthly)

• Advanced: $150 per user/month (billed annually) or $180 per user/month (billed monthly)

• Enterprise: Contact the sales team.

Rezolve.ai

Rezolve.ai is an AI platform that enables organizations to reimagine HR support through AI Agents. It automates routine HR tasks, provides instant employee support, and streamlines service delivery. By utilizing this platform, organizations can scale HR operations and deliver proactive HR support.  

Key features:

• GenAI-Powered Virtual Agent: This feature enables enterprises to build virtual agents that answer common workplace queries such as leave balance, benefit policy, and salary information.

• Smart ticketing: The platform enables you to create AI Agents that automate the creation and management of support tickets for HR inquiries, ensuring efficient issue tracking and resolution.

• Integrations: The platform has over 150 integrations, including popular HR tools like Workday, BambooHR, and Gusto. 

Pros

• Efficient handling of tickets

• Offers real-time analytics

• Customizable workflows

Cons

• Limited customization features

• Users report technical glitches

• Users report that it may take a long time to fix small issues.

Pricing 

Visit Rezolve.ai for more information.

Leena.ai

Leena.ai is designed for modern enterprises looking to build AI agents with no-code setup. These agents utilize generative AI, NLP, and ML to provide context-aware responses and a seamless user experience.

Key features:

• Autonomous HR Agent: The platform allows you to build autonomous agents that can execute complex tasks across multiple applications with a single prompt. Enterprises build agents that autonomously manage tasks like answering employee queries, handling leave requests, onboarding and offboarding. 

• Multi-Channel and Multilingual Support: The AI agent integrates seamlessly with existing communication channels, such as HRIS and collaboration tools, providing on-the-spot support. It also offers support in over 100 languages, fostering collaboration across diverse teams. 

• Integration with HR Systems: Leena AI integrates smoothly with existing HR systems like SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle, and Workday, ensuring a unified and efficient experience.

Pros

• Intuitive platform

• Integrations with other communication channels like websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms. 

• Efficient in handling routine user queries

Cons

• Users express limitations in using certain features and accessing templates from the bot marketplace. 

• Unavailability of options to create custom solutions independently.

• Users report poor product documentation. 

Pricing  

• Essential: $50 per user/month (billed annually) or $60 per user/month (billed monthly)

• Advanced: $150 per user/month (billed annually) or $180 per user/month (billed monthly)

• Enterprise: Contact the sales team.

AI Agents are set to reshape every aspect of HR operations including recruiting, onboarding, payroll processing, managing leave requests, and performance monitoring. These agents will autonomously handle tasks throughout the employee lifecycle. 

One thing is certain: AI Agents will not replace HR staff. Instead, they will be instrumental in establishing dedicated HR support to enhance employee satisfaction. 

AI Agents excel at handling tasks that are too complex or time-consuming for employees but too repetitive to justify a dedicated team. For large organizations, the ability to scale HR operations and support thousands of employees with minimal human intervention translates to significant productivity gains, cost savings, and better risk management for every team.

This explains why many enterprises are adopting AI Agents in their HR functions. The demand for autonomous AI Agents is set to rise significantly. According to a report, the global AI Agents market size was valued at USD 3.86 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 45.1% from 2024 to 2030.

Organizations employing AI Agents in their HR functions will be able to adapt to future workforce demands and build thriving workplaces for their employees, which will help them stay ahead of the competition.

Workativ is an intuitive no-code platform that offers tools to build and deploy AI Agents tailored to HR operations. Enterprises can quickly build AI Agents to automate various HR processes, including leave management, onboarding and offboarding, and payroll management.

Here’s how enterprises can benefit by employing AI Agents built on Workativ: 

Simplified AI agent creation: Workativ offers drag-and-drop tools, pre-built templates, and step-by-step guidance to your HR teams to build AI Agents. 

Easily execute multi-step workflows: Enterprises can configure triggers and actions to execute complex workflows using Workativ. You can set workflows for HR processes like leave request, approvals, creating employee profiles, granting access, handling tax adjustments, etc. 

Multichannel HR support: Enterprises can deploy the AI Agents across multiple communication channels. This provides better accessibility to employee support as employees can get help from their preferred channels. 

Integration with popular HR tools: The platform offers robust integration with tools like Workday, BambooHR, and PeopleHR. This connectivity helps AI Agents perform tasks better, such as updating employee records and ensures minimal human intervention. 

Intelligent decision-making: Our platform implements the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approach to enhance the reasoning capabilities of AI Agents and help them continuously update to determine the best course of action and provide more accurate, context-aware, and reliable HR support. 

Want to see how Workativ helps you build AI Agents to scale HR operations? Book a demo now

What does an AI agent for HR do?

An AI agent automates tasks like employee onboarding, payroll processing, and leave management and provides personalized answers to HR-related queries. 

Is ChatGPT an AI agent?

No, ChatGPT cannot be considered an actual AI agent. It is a powerful LLM designed to serve as a co-pilot or assistant, excelling in interactions and supporting various tasks.

ChatGPT operates within the boundaries of the user prompts and lacks the autonomy to execute any task independently. 

What are the benefits of using AI agents for HR department?

Here are the benefits of using HR AI agents:

• Enhanced employee satisfaction

• Cost savings

• Reduced workload on HR teams

• Data-driven insights

What is the difference between AI agents and generative AI?

AI agents are autonomous systems that execute tasks and workflows without manual intervention and Generative AI excels at generating content or insights based on prompts given by humans. 

Are AI agents replacing HR?

No, AI agents will not be replacing human HR staff. These agents will instead become powerful allies of HR teams by automating repetitive but complex tasks and free HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives for better employee engagement and organizational culture.