AI versus Automation: What’s the difference for HR? 

AI is all the rage right now in HR technology. And it’s no surprise—as more organizations look to optimize their operations and build more efficiencies into their benefits strategy, having the right technology and tools in place will be key. So how are AI and automation set to help drive meaningful change? And how are they different?  

AI is becoming a main stay in HR technology, bringing forward more efficiencies, data, and innovation in near real time. But AI is more than just automating manual tasks. In fact, AI and automation are two separate but valuable, tools to help you drive more ROI, efficiencies, and lasting results for your organization.  

Where automation simply reduces the need for human intervention or makes a manual, paper-based task more efficient, AI completely transforms your strategy. Think of AI as HR’s co-pilot, helping you pull forward critical insights, powering data-driven decision-making, support employee self-service… we could go on and on with examples.  

Benefits AI can drive meaningful, scalable efficiencies. 

Answering benefits questions. Pulling reports. Filing case notes. Benefits office hours. Annual enrollment. HR has a LOT of work on their plate. Having the right technology in place, including AI tools, can mean the difference between navigating a mountain of paperwork and scrambling to show ROI versus having critical insights at your fingertips and efficient processes in place. 

In fact, in the last year, our scalable AI-driven technology has helped our clients realize significant efficiency gains like:  

• Reduced manual processes and increased automation have helped some clients save up to $3,000,000 per year 
• Pulling forward insights and trends from your benefits data in the platform has saved many of our clients over 12 hours per week in manual workload (hello extended coffee break…) 
• AI-powered in-platform personalization has helped improve overall employee engagement with benefits by steering employees towards right-fit benefits at the right time. 

HR teams can focus more on strategic initiatives with AI tools in place 

Where automation simply reduces manual tasks, artificial intelligence supercharges HR’s capabilities to drive meaningful results and support their workforce at scale. AI is helping redefine how HR works. By handing routine tasks and crunching numbers from large sets of your data, AI can help HR focus on more strategic initiatives and drive better service, both for your workforce and your team. Here’s what that looks like for our clients in Benefitsolver: 

• Intelligent listening so that we can keep a constant pulse on service delivery, and you can ensure end-to-end member experience quality right alongside us. 
• AI-generated case and client meeting notes so we can focus on you and your needs instead of jotting down notes and takeaways.  
• In-platform benefit nudges for employees to encourage right benefit, right time usage.  
• Over 4,000 hours of your time saved by not having to answer benefits questions, source resources or plan documents, verify dependent documentation, and more. 
• Benefits and service forecasting so you can anticipate peak “hot spots” during your plan year with your workforce, looking beyond just enrollment windows. 

At the end of the day, the future of HR rests in the evolution of technology that powers you forward. As AI becomes a main stay in the HR and benefits industry, automation will certainly play a supporting role. But AI is much more than reducing manual workload—it’s a powerful service that can charge your HR strategy and empower you with more data, more insights, and more efficiencies to focus on meaningful initiatives.