How AI is transforming HR’s ‘dead data’ problem
As organizations generate an avalanche of daily employee data – everything from Slack messages to Microsoft docs – people managers face an unprecedented challenge: how to transform all that so-called “dead data” into actionable insights.
“We have 300 million terabytes of data every day that is getting generated around people,” said Guillaume Roy, cofounder and chief innovation officer at Workleap, an employee engagement platform. “It can become very difficult for HR leaders and business leaders to get insights around these data.”
But recent innovations in AI offer promising solutions for resurrecting that dormant information and converting it into “companion knowledge,” enabling more personalized and effective employee experiences.
Roy emphasizes that such data is not truly dead — it’s simply trapped and waiting to be unlocked. The key lies in AI’s ability to process vast amounts of information without getting overwhelmed, particularly in traditionally challenging processes like performance reviews, which Roy describes as “painful for the employee, painful for the manager, painful for the whole business.”
Take performance reviews as an example: AI systems can now aggregate and analyze multiple data streams — from project management tools, communication platforms and collaborative documents — to create a more comprehensive picture of employee contributions. Instead of relying solely on manager observations or quarterly metrics, the technology can identify patterns in how employees collaborate, their project completion rates and their impact across teams.
However, this data collection raises important ethical considerations. “When implementing these AI systems, organizations must carefully balance insight gathering with employee privacy,” said Roy. “We establish clear boundaries around what data can be accessed — focusing on work-related interactions and outputs while explicitly excluding private conversations or personal communications. The goal is to enhance workplace effectiveness, not monitor personal exchanges,” he added.
Tim Glowa, founder and CEO of career development platform HR Brain, stresses the importance of approaching data analysis with clear objectives, however. “Effective data use starts with a clear business question, not analysis for analysis’ sake,” he said. HR leaders should first define specific problems they want to solve — whether it’s retaining high-value employees or predicting retirement trends — to ensure their data efforts remain strategic and aligned with business priorities.
AI as a workplace companion
Meanwhile, Dennis Perpetua, senior vp at the IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl, emphasizes that AI’s capabilities extend beyond mere data processing. “While data can be consumed and leveraged more effectively by AI, the promise of this really drives a behavior change which is long overdue in the modern work environment,” he said.
To fully utilize AI at work for every employee, those capabilities need adoption to help feed the AI the information it needs to be relevant, he explained. “Once that shift starts to happen, the innovation with AI starts to open up a more personalized experience.”
That paves the way for AI to become what Perpetua dubs a “side-by-side assistant,” helping employees benefit from not only intelligent answers or help with tasks but also to gain the ability to factor in attributes about the employee that help make the AI more impactful.
For example, using AI to help summarize content may require a different focus for a salesperson who needs key benefits of a solution versus an engineer who requires solution design and implementation details, he said.
As innovation in AI continues, it lends itself to focused HR use cases around coaching, personalized learning roadmaps, tips for the employee on how to leverage the corporate knowledge more effectively and developing organizational best practices around what works best for a company, as Perpetua put it.
“There is a drive to make employees more productive, with improved experience, protecting an employer’s investment in its people by reduced attrition,” he said. “AI is delivering on ways to do both and to do so at a lower cost than we’ve previously seen in providing the right tools and guidance to employees.”
Looking forward, the job of HR managers is poised to evolve right alongside advances in technology—with the human role as indispensable as ever, as Roy sees it.
In fact, he expects the role of the HR manager to become even more people-focused — giving over data chores to tech helpmates and putting people at the center of people management where they belong.