Zoe Willis is the national Leader for data, digital and Analytics and Silvia Gonzalez-Zamora is the national leader for equity, diversity and inclusion practice at KPMG in Canada.
Yet, when asked about those very needs, our latest global survey of CEOs shows Canadian leaders named strengthening their employee value proposition to attract and retain top talent as their top priority to achieve their growth objectives. AI can play a key role in delivering on this goal – and add value in a host of other areas along the way.
A clear cause is bias in the way organizations recruit, retain and reward people. A bias that needs to be weeded out – and AI is a critical tool to understanding that bias and eliminating it. The reality is, people are biased in favour of hiring people who are similar to themselves or the organization they belong to. This bias not only robs the organization of the talent needed to grow, it also entrenches historical thinking, further disconnecting the company from its customer base. If talent is the key to growing a business, then AI is the key to finding the right talent - but only if the data that underpins AI algorithms is bias-free.
But AI is not just a recruitment or job evaluation tool for finding the best and most diverse people - it’s an employee value proposition, especially, if it’s integrated across an organization. AI provides the ability to be more agile, more competitive, more productive and efficient – things that top performers find attractive.