How Pearson is Applying Gen AI to Elevate Candidate and Employee Experiences

At the end of 2024 SSON held its HR Transformation & Automation Digital Summit, which featured engaging and innovative presentations on developments within the HR sector. In our session ‘How Pearson is Applying Gen AI to Elevate Candidate and Employee Experiences,’ Tim Young, Senior Vice President of Human Resources Operations at Pearson, shared his insights into Pearson’s journey with AI. Especially, its integration into HR functions for the enhancement of candidate and employee experiences.

Pearson’s AI-Driven Vision for HR Automation

Pearson’s journey toward its HR Automation goal began in 2023, focusing mainly on process simplification through intelligent automation. They aimed to make AI an integral part of HR, offering employees efficient, personalized support. Young emphasizes shifting your mindset to view AI as a digital assistant, with the capability of simplifying HR interactions by centralizing them into one navigable platform: Providing personalized, swift assistance across HR, IT, finance, and more, utilizing tools such as Microsoft Teams. In fulfilling this goal, Young wanted to create a singular, access portal where employees can receive answers to queries, reset passwords, or complete transactions. The digital assistant would also be capable of identifying queries that require human intervention, in the case of sensitive or complex matters, directing them to the appropriate party for review.

Transitioning from Traditional HR Service Models to an AI-Driven Approach

Currently, employees at Pearson interact with ServiceNow. This is used for HR tasks, beginning with Tier 0 which are basic questions, escalating, if needed, to Tier 1 and 2. The shift to a new model involves, transitioning most HR interactions to a digital assistant that can be interwoven with Microsoft Teams. This would create a more personalized experience for users and have the potential to seamlessly deliver HR services more effectively. The assistant dubbed, “Jarvis”, streamlines tasks, schedules interviews, and can access HR information.  ‘Jarvis’ can be interacted with through emails, texts, or work laptops, providing a full spectrum of HR-related services without users needing to navigate different systems.

Building a Business Case for Implementing an AI-Driven Solution in HR

When trying to build a business case for implementing AI-driven solutions in HR, Young highlights a few points to consider. Firstly, improved quality of employee experience. The digital assistant despite requiring ongoing training, has the potential to provide more consistent high-quality service as it learns over time, reducing the need for human intervention, and preventing errors and bias from human interaction. Secondly, efficiency and capacity. HR is often overlooked as an area for investment, so the focus should be placed on its ability to improve user experience to highlight its benefits. Lastly, there are a few costs outside of the platform and implementation of this, to keep in mind. This includes the need for an intelligent automation team to manage and oversee the system to ensure it is developing continuously are integral to the digital assistant’s continued progress.

If you would like to find out more about this topic, please see the discussion above from our speakers on demand.  If you would like to see more great insights from SSON, join our next online event, the  Process & Continuous Improvement Virtual Summit and our  HR Shared Services and Outsourcing Week 2025 Conference.