The Explanation Matters: Enhancing AI Adoption in Human Resource Management

Artificial intelligence (AI) has ubiquitous applications in companies, permeating multiple business divisions like human resource management (HRM). Yet, in these high-stakes domains where transparency and interpretability of results are of utmost importance, the black-box characteristic of AI is even more of a threat to AI adoption. Hence, explainable AI (XAI), which is regular AI equipped with or complemented by techniques to explain it, comes in. We present a systematic literature review of n=62 XAI in HRM papers. Further, we conducted an experiment among a German sample (n=108) of HRM personnel regarding a turnover prediction task with or without (X)AI-support. We find that AI-support leads to better task performance, self-assessment accuracy and response characteristics toward the AI, and XAI, i.e., transparent models allow for more accurate self-assessment of one’s performance. Future studies could enhance our research by employing local explanation techniques on real-world data with a larger and international sample

Machine Learning and AI in Business Intelligence: Trends and Opportunities

The integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in business intelligence has brought forth a plethora of trends and opportunities. These cutting-edge technologies have revolutionized how businesses analyze data, gain insights, and make informed decisions. One prominent trend is the rise of predictive analytics. Machine learning algorithms can sift through vast amounts of historical data to identify patterns and trends, enabling businesses to make accurate predictions about future outcomes. This empowers organizations to optimize operations, anticipate customer needs, and mitigate risks.  By leveraging business intelligence, companies can uncover hidden patterns, identify opportunities for growth and improvement, optimize business processes, and ultimately make informed decisions that drive their success. Another trend is the adoption of AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants. The opportunities presented by machine learning and AI in business intelligence are extensive. From automated data analysis and anomaly detection to demand forecasting and dynamic pricing, these technologies empower businesses to optimize processes, reduce costs, and identify new revenue streams. In conclusion, the integration of machine learning and AI in business intelligence offers promising trends and abundant opportunities. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can gain a competitive edge, drive innovation, and unlock new levels of success in the digital era

Hybrid human-AI driven open personalized education

Attaining those skills that match labor market demand is getting increasingly complicated as prerequisite knowledge, skills, and abilities are evolving dynamically through an uncontrollable and seemingly unpredictable process. Furthermore, people's interests in gaining knowledge pertaining to their personal life (e.g., hobbies and life-hacks) are also increasing dramatically in recent decades. In this situation, anticipating and addressing the learning needs are fundamental challenges to twenty-first century education. The need for such technologies has escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where online education became a key player in all types of training programs. The burgeoning availability of data, not only on the demand side but also on the supply side (in the form of open/free educational resources) coupled with smart technologies, may provide a fertile ground for addressing this challenge. Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to the literature about the utilization of (open and free-online) educational resources toward goal-driven personalized informal learning, by developing a novel Human-AI based system, called eDoer. In this thesis, we discuss all the new knowledge that was created in order to complete the system development, which includes 1) prototype development and qualitative user validation, 2) decomposing the preliminary requirements into meaningful components, 3) implementation and validation of each component, and 4) a final requirement analysis followed by combining the implemented components in order develop and validate the planned system (eDoer). All in all, our proposed system 1) derives the skill requirements for a wide range of occupations (as skills and jobs are typical goals in informal learning) through an analysis of online job vacancy announcements, 2) decomposes skills into learning topics, 3) collects a variety of open/free online educational resources that address those topics, 4) checks the quality of those resources and topic relevance using our developed intelligent prediction models, 5) helps learners to set their learning goals, 6) recommends personalized learning pathways and learning content based on individual learning goals, and 7) provides assessment services for learners to monitor their progress towards their desired learning objectives. Accordingly, we created a learning dashboard focusing on three Data Science related jobs and conducted an initial validation of eDoer through a randomized experiment. Controlling for the effects of prior knowledge as assessed by the pretest, the randomized experiment provided tentative support for the hypothesis that learners who engaged with personal eDoer recommendations attain higher scores on the posttest than those who did not. The hypothesis that learners who received personalized content in terms of format, length, level of detail, and content type, would achieve higher scores than those receiving non-personalized content was not supported as a statistically significant result

Towards labour market intelligence through topic modelling

Nowadays, the number of people and companies using the Web to search for and advertise job opportunities is growing apace, making data related to the Web labor market a rich source of information for understanding labor market dynamics and trends. In this paper, the emerging term labor market intelligence (LMI) refers to the definition of AI algorithms and frameworks that derive useful knowledge for labor market-related activities, by putting AI into the labor market. At the same time, another branch of AI is developing known as Explainable AI (XAI), whose goal is to obtain interpretable models from current (and future) AI algorithms, given that most of them actually act like black boxes, providing no interpretable explanations of their behavior, as in the case of machine learning. In this paper we connect these two approaches, using a graph model obtained through an NLP-based (Natural Language Processing) methodology for classifying job vacancies. We compare the results obtained with those from a European Project in LMI that employs machine learning for the classification task, to show that our approach is effective and promising

Towards Labour Market Intelligence through Topic Modelling

Nowadays, the number of people and companies using the Web to search for and advertise job opportunities is growing apace, making data related to the Web labor market a rich source of information for understanding labor market dynamics and trends. In this paper, the emerging term labor market intelligence (LMI) refers to the definition of AI algorithms and frameworks that derive useful knowledge for labor market-related activities, by putting AI into the labor market. At the same time, another branch of AI is developing known as Explainable AI (XAI), whose goal is to obtain interpretable models from current (and future) AI algorithms, given that most of them actually act like black boxes, providing no interpretable explanations of their behavior, as in the case of machine learning. In this paper we connect these two approaches, using a graph model obtained through an NLP-based (Natural Language Processing) methodology for classifying job vacancies. We compare the results obtained with those from a European Project in LMI that employs machine learning for the classification task, to show that our approach is effective and promising

Quale biblioteca pubblica per il XXI secolo? Modelli e valutazione in una prospettiva comparata

L’obiettivo del progetto di ricerca è stato quello di analizzare, mediante un approccio metodologico comparato, i principali modelli organizzativi e funzionali di biblioteca pubblica sviluppatisi nel panorama internazionale, nel tentativo di individuare le peculiarità della biblioteca pubblica italiana contemporanea. La prima parte del progetto ha previsto la definizione e la comparazione di alcuni dei modelli di biblioteca pubblica più noti in ambito internazionale (public library, médiathèque, biblioteca civica, dreigeteilte Bibliothek, fraktale Bibliothek, Idea Store, Four-spaces model), nati in contesti culturali e sociali storicamente determinati, che si sono evoluti nel tempo e hanno trovato, con i necessari e dovuti adattamenti, spazio e diffusione anche al di fuori dei loro confini cronologici e geografici. La seconda parte, muovendo dal dibattito più recente sull’identità della biblioteca pubblica nel XXI secolo e sulla sua evoluzione, si è concentrata su alcune delle realizzazioni di biblioteca più riuscite in Italia, per individuare tratti distintivi e comuni alle esperienze e ai modelli consolidatisi al di fuori del nostro paese e valutarne funzioni, servizi, risultati e impatto sociale nel contesto di riferimento. Ciò ha permesso di portare alla luce quei fattori contestuali che determinano le cause di successo o di insuccesso di ciascun modello, così da acquisire solidi strumenti di analisi per le biblioteche esistenti e di progettazione per nuove biblioteche