'AI is one of the most exciting things that is happening in our industry'

Bianca Di Tullio, AKQA talent and culture director, APAC to speak at HR Summit in Melbourne

'AI is one of the most exciting things that is happening in our industry'

For Bianco Di Tullio, talent and culture director, APAC at AKQA, artificial intelligence is an “exciting” development.

“AI is one of the most exciting things that is happening in in our industry in terms of transforming the way that we work as HR professionals but also transforming the support that we can provide our team and the ease of providing strategic guidance to our team.”

With the prevalence of AI systems, Di Tullio believes HR teams should take a proactive approach to using them.

“The best thing you can possibly do is play around with it and see how it can add to your expertise as opposed to worry about how it could take away from your expertise,” she said.

“There's this saying that's been going around in the market for the past few months, which is ‘AI is not going to take your job, someone who understands how to how to use AI is at risk of taking our jobs’. So get comfortable with it because it's not going anywhere.”

And if you can use AI as an opportunity to improve the work you do on a daily basis, you’re going to add more value to your role, Di Tullio added.

Upcoming HR summit tackles AI

Di Tullio will be hosting a session on harnessing emerging technologies in HR to drive growth at the HR Summit in Melbourne on July 26-27.

One of the key themes she’ll be focusing on is using AI to improve the employee lifecycle.

Di Tullio will also look at what is potentially coming from an emerging technology point of view that could revolutionise HR teams and the way they operate in the future.

Also on the agenda?

  • How can HR teams effectively utilise artificial intelligence and machine learning?
  • Things to watch out for in the application of AI in the HR function
  • What’s next? – Web3, ChatGPT in HR and beyond
  • How can HR professionals future-proof their roles?

According to a survey by people analytics company Visier, employees who use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace are saving an average of 1.75 hours a day. And in HR, the benefits of using this software could be in replacing routine tasks so that HR leaders can have more time available for leading and assisting organisation change.

AKAQ takes proactive approach to AI

As a creative design company, Di Tullio said AKQA has been using AI in their work. In HR specifically, it has been used in every area of the employee lifecycle, including L&D, reporting, performance, engagement and recruitment.

One key area is looking at the company’s lagging indicators, she said, “so looking at our people, metrics and dashboards in ways that we maybe haven't cut it in the past and looking at trends and informing decisions in the future or informing areas of focus for us.”

Another important area the company finds AI useful in is “getting a jumpstart on things,” Di Tullio said.

“If you're trying to implement something new, it's a really great platform to launch from.”

With the HR Summit in Melbourne coming soon, Di Tullio emphasised how conferences are “a great way to inspire thought”.

“Often, HR teams are very lean and very small and there's only so much that you can learn within your own company,” she said. “It's an opportunity for you to understand what others are doing in industry and understand what opportunities there might be for your own company and apply those learnings.”

This theme of this year’s summit is “Bold Strategies for an Evolving Workplace,” with the conference gathering HR leaders from around Australia to share their insights.

The conference’s topics range from managing a hybrid workforce and engaging high-performers, to attracting and retaining top employees and dealing with burnout. The keynote address will be presented by former world number four tennis player Jelena Dokic, discussing how to find courage in the face of adversity. And there will be two panel discussions, a variety of workshops, and several speakers throughout the day from companies including Amazon, Oracle and LinkedIn.