How ServiceNow's HR Team Drives Results Using AI

AI is a core pillar of ServiceNow’s HR strategy, not just another technology.

• Industry: Information Technology
• Location: Santa Clara, California
• Website: ServiceNow
• Employees: 22,000

i4cp member company ServiceNow, a leading IT service management company, has implemented an ambitious AI strategy to enhance its HR functions. Brandon Roberts, Group Vice President of People Analytics and AI, presented their AI strategy in one of i4cp’s Next Practices Weekly sessions.

ServiceNow’s people strategy and how it affects HR decisions:

• People led: Product mindset with employees at the center
• AI powered: Easy adoption of AI and Gen AI
• Data driven: Data-driven decisions across People Team

In this context, HR leaders asked themselves these questions to shape their AI strategy:

1. How will AI change work across the organization?
2. How will AI change HR tech/analytics and how we use it?
3. How will AI change how the HR function gets work done?
4. How do we ensure ethical, moral, and legal use of AI in all our use cases?

ServiceNow reports that their strategy is paying early dividends as they operationalized the ideation, selection, and testing of AI use cases. These uses of AI in HR have already been implemented:

• Employee sentiment analysis 
  • Description: Generative AI aggregates and summarizes employee sentiment from various sources, including surveys and external feedback platforms.
  • Impact: Facilitates informed decision-making by providing clear, concise summaries of employee opinions on topics such as leadership development and compensation changes.
• HR case summarization
  • Description: AI-driven tools summarize case histories, including email and chat communications to help HR agents quickly get up to speed on ongoing cases, especially when they are transferred between agents.
  • Impact: Reduces the time service center reps need to familiarize themselves with a case, leading to 37% faster resolution and improved employee satisfaction.
• Policy knowledge base search 
  • Description: A generative AI-powered search function provides employees with precise answers by analyzing and summarizing content from the company's knowledge base, which includes policy documents and other resources.
  • Impact: Enhances employee self-service by delivering quick and accurate information, reducing the need for lengthy document reviews.

To achieve rapid and responsible implementation of AI, ServiceNow created a four-point plan:

1. Build the tech foundation: HR partners with the IT and product functions to develop AI solutions using ServiceNow's platform.
2. Implement AI operating model: Created an "AI Factory" for strategic use case development and governance.
3. Invest strategically: Investment focuses on thought leadership, talent acquisition, infrastructure, and data sources.
4. Educate & enable: ServiceNow promotes AI literacy across the organization and identifies opportunities for reskilling and upskilling.

How the AI Factory Assesses and Governs AI Use

Any HR employee can submit an AI use case to the Idea App. Use cases are assessed, prioritized, and sorted into HR product groups that correspond to the Employee Lifecycle.

Effort, value, ethics, bias, and privacy are the key factors the AI Factory considers when deciding which use cases get implemented.

ServiceNow's AI initiatives have led to significant improvements in their HR operations:

• Increased efficiency: AI-powered tools have reduced case resolution times by 37%, enhancing overall productivity.
• Enhanced decision-making: The CHRO dashboard, powered by AI, provides a comprehensive view of key HR metrics, facilitating better, faster decisions.
• Employee engagement: AI-driven insights from employee sentiment analysis have enabled HR to quickly identify trends and concerns, such as feedback on leadership development and recent compensation changes.

Expand AI usage 

ServiceNow plans to continue expanding its AI capabilities across all HR functions, scaling AI use cases in the following ways:

• Automation: Streamlining repetitive tasks to free people to focus on more strategic activities.
• Augmentation: Enhancing human capabilities to support staff in making more informed decisions and improving overall productivity.
• Extension: Expanding operational capacity, allowing HR to handle larger volumes of work without compromising quality.
• Creation: Generating new content and solutions, such as drafting policies, generating reports, and developing training materials.

Reskilling and upskilling

• AI education in four tracks:
  • Know AI and Use AI (for everyone)
  • Build AI (for technologists)
  • Sell AI (for sales professionals).
• Task analysis: Mapping roles to identify where AI can increase capacity and skill gaps that might need to be addressed.

Executive dashboards and predictive analytics

• CHRO dashboard: Consolidated view of key HR metrics.
• Forward-looking headcount predictions: Ensuring optimal staffing levels through predictive analytics.

• Watch the full webinar recording (60 minutes).
• Catch future episodes live—register for the Next Practices Weekly series.
• i4cp members can access AI-related research, tools, and real-life stories.

Not a member? Contact us to learn how enterprise membership can benefit your organization.

This article was created with the assistance of ChatGPT, then edited and fact-checked by i4cp staff.

The mention or inclusion of any specific vendor or product on the i4cp platform does not imply endorsement or recommendation by i4cp.