Artificial Socialization? How Artificial Intelligence Applications Can Shape A New Era of Employee Onboarding Practices

Abstract

Onboarding has always emphasized personal contact with new employees. Excellent onboarding can, for instance, extend an employee's stay, and improve loyalty. Even in a physical setting, the onboarding process is demanding for the newcomer and the onboarding organization. However, COVID-19 has made this process even more challenging by forcing a rapid shift from offline to online organizational onboarding practices. Organizations are adopting new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to support work processes during the pandemic, which could shape a new era of work practices. However, it has not been studied how AI applications can or should support onboarding. Therefore, our research conducts a literature review on current onboarding practices and uses expert interviews to evaluate AI's potential and pitfalls for each action. We contribute to the literature by presenting a holistic state-of-the-art picture of onboarding practices and evaluating potential application areas of AI in the onboarding process.