My company just implemented AI directly into our payroll system. Now, instead of looking up our information using the old UI interface, we have an app that’s basically just an AI chat bot that we have to ask for information. No more pages to look up…just, “how many vacation hours do I have left?”, or “show me my pay stubs for (enter date range here).”
Technically, this makes everyone at our company a part of the statistical group that’s “using AI more than ever before”, and none of us had a choice in the matter.
That’s a reasonable use of a chatbot, to my mind. Payroll systems have historically been Byzantine, so being able to ask a question and get an accurate response due to database tie-in can shed friction. That said, available vacation hours, at least historically, was often inaccurate because of data-processing time. HR or IT still needs to input correct information to spit out a correct result.
Except, consider that the user just browsed to the vacation page to find that information previously. One click. Easy peasy.
Now they must interact with it by typing commands, like they’re playing an old Infocom game: “ASK PAYROLL BOT FOR AVAILABLE VACATION HOURS.” And sometimes it’s hard for humans to know what to ask and how to ask it. It’s much more user-friendly to just have something to click.
My company just implemented AI directly into our payroll system. Now, instead of looking up our information using the old UI interface, we have an app that’s basically just an AI chat bot that we have to ask for information. No more pages to look up…just, “how many vacation hours do I have left?”, or “show me my pay stubs for (enter date range here).”
Technically, this makes everyone at our company a part of the statistical group that’s “using AI more than ever before”, and none of us had a choice in the matter.
Try to jailbreak it into giving you more time off.
That’s a reasonable use of a chatbot, to my mind. Payroll systems have historically been Byzantine, so being able to ask a question and get an accurate response due to database tie-in can shed friction. That said, available vacation hours, at least historically, was often inaccurate because of data-processing time. HR or IT still needs to input correct information to spit out a correct result.
Except, consider that the user just browsed to the vacation page to find that information previously. One click. Easy peasy.
Now they must interact with it by typing commands, like they’re playing an old Infocom game: “ASK PAYROLL BOT FOR AVAILABLE VACATION HOURS.” And sometimes it’s hard for humans to know what to ask and how to ask it. It’s much more user-friendly to just have something to click.