Moving Beyond the Hype: Practical Applications of AI in HR
AI is changing the face of HR, becoming a huge differentiator between those who use it and those who don’t. From Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to AI-powered workforce management solutions, AI touches nearly everything HR does. Identifying the right solutions could mean purchasing add-ons or identifying brand new tools. There are ways to build AI tech stacks for HR that prevent feature overlap and ensure you get the most out of your technology. This guide will address how HR leaders can build the right tech stack to maximize AI use.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers critical advice: Keep your HR AI tech stack as simple as possible and don’t purchase too many solutions. Everything you buy should also give you measurable data that you can use to make decisions, not dashboards that look good but mean nothing.
The Typical HR Tech Stack: Core HR, Recruiting, & Employee Experience
The Academy to Innovate HR describes the typical HR tech stack as consisting of these three categories: core HR solutions, recruiting, and employee experience. They break it down and recommend specific companies here.
A core HR solution typically includes Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) platforms, payroll software, and compensation and benefits software. Some HRIS/HCM platforms incorporate compensation and benefits, and payroll is usually accounting’s responsibility, with some HR integration.
HRIS/HCM platforms are more likely than the others to incorporate AI features and may include some recruiting and employee experience functionality. The best way to avoid tech bloat is to get an HRIS/HCM platform that provides these components.
Investing in a separate Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that integrates well with your HRIS/HCM is often valuable, but ultimately, it depends on factors like your current hiring volume, budget, and need to scale. For some organizations, applicant tracking that lives in an HCM platform is sufficient despite having fewer features.
Productivity Suites: Gemini in Google Workspace + Copilot in Microsoft 365
Google and Microsoft have robust AI technology with Gemini (Google) and Copilot (Microsoft 365). Many elements of Gemini and Copilot are already baked into Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, so you may not even be looking at an extra cost. Both will help you write candidate responses, job postings, and HR policies. They can also improve onboarding and training with personalized materials.
Be careful not to skip the critical step of reviewing anything that is automatically generated. Emails and job postings still require a quick glance to verify facts. HR policies also need that quick edit and review by a legal professional. Even with the review process, many hours can be saved with the help of AI.
Both solutions will also check the tone of your communications. As an HR professional, you know tone is everything. Candidate rejection emails and Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) implementations are just two examples of things you can refine to be more sensitive and effective.
Employee Productivity Monitoring For Valuable Workforce Analytics
While some HRIS/HCM platforms have a monitoring component, it usually provides surface-level information and doesn’t integrate with core business systems. Prodoscore is a purpose-built employee productivity monitoring solution that lets HR leaders understand how people work. What tools are they using? What makes certain people successful? Who is disengaged or at-risk of leaving? How are workers collaborating internally and externally?
Unlike other monitoring tools, Prodoscore keeps employees top of mind, focusing only on business applications, nothing personal, and offers workers insight into their individual productivity. That access allows employees to self-coach and mitigates the “big brother” feeling.
Prodoscore can enable key HR decisions, such as which employees need more training and what kind of training they need. It also lets you build templates for star performers in each department by showing exactly what those top people are doing daily to succeed. It offers AI insights that make the data easy to understand and act on.
Agentic AI Fills in the Gaps
Even with workforce analytics, productivity suites, and employee productivity monitoring solutions all in place, custom workflows could be overlooked. In many cases, these are repeatable tasks that AI agents could take care of entirely or in part.
In May 2025, HR leaders surveyed by Gartner said that 44% planned to use semiautonomous AI agents in the next 12 months. “Semiautonomous” refers to the human touch being involved at one or more stages of the process.
So, how can you start building AI agents? Gartner cautions against solutions that are simply skinned AI chatbots, and recommends looking for ones that offer advanced autonomous features. Unfortunately, there’s no “cheap” solution for this yet, and the best agentic AI providers currently are available from bigger brands like IBM, Google, and OpenAI. If you only have a few minor processes, you may consider hiring a developer to do a custom build if the ROI checks out in terms of saved workforce hours.
In summary, a robust HRIS/HCM system, an ATS system, a productivity monitoring solution, and the productivity suite (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) are what you need to round out your HR AI tech stack. For the rest, you can consider agentic AI.
