Jamie Field, associate professor of management at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, has always had a strong belief that Chambers students who wanted to become HR professionals have to embrace new technology and get comfortable with data analysis. The emergence of breakthrough AI technologies only strengthened his belief that it was time to bring together students, faculty, business professionals, and community members to showcase cutting-edge insights into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of Human Resource Management.
Professor Field didn’t have to convince me that his idea of an AI in Human Resource Management conference was a great one. I immediately thought about the impact of the conference as it creates a platform where scholars, industry leaders, and students can explore responsible and innovative uses of AI in human resource management.
By creating the AI in HRM conference – the first of its kind – we are equipping our communities with the tools, knowledge, and partnerships needed to thrive in the evolving workforce landscape. This event not only increases awareness about breakthrough technologies – it empowers organizations across West Virginia and beyond to use this technology to build more ethical, effective, and inclusive workplaces.
The idea of the AI in HRM conference was a “go,” and Management faculty enthusiastically embraced it. Xiaoxiao Hu, associate professor of management, joined the team, helping to organize “Scaling New Heights with AI: Mountaineers Leading the Future of HRM.”
Our conference took place in April 2025 in Reynolds Hall against the backdrop of the beautiful Monongahela River. More than 170 attendees (business practitioners, researchers/faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students) from West Virginia and other states – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and Texas – gathered to learn more about how AI is changing the future of human resource management.
Presentation highlights:
Our esteemed speakers talked about the benefits and challenges of AI technology when used in various aspects of HR management – from recruitment, to training, compensation and benefits, etc. Some of the insights included:
Dr. Evan Sinar (Senior Research Scientist at a leading technology-driven consumer platform), the conference’s keynote speaker, underscored the importance of prompt engineering, user experience design, and “human-in-the-loop” systems to avoid overreliance and automation bias. He also warned against “implementation hesitation” and deterministic expectations, promoting a balanced, collaborative approach to GenAI adoption that blends human judgment with AI augmentation.
Mariana Ford’s (Recruitment Specialist at MonHealth) presentation explored the practical integration of AI into physician recruitment, highlighting how AI tools can optimize workflows, enhance precision, and improve decision-making efficiency. She provided concrete examples of AI-generated job descriptions, community outreach messages, and candidate engagement strategies. Special focus was given to difficult-to-fill roles, such as urogynecology, illustrating the value of AI in creating targeted campaigns and analyzing market data. Ford also emphasized the importance of mindful implementation, warning against bias, data quality issues, and the risk of losing the human touch in recruitment.
Dr. John Ratzan (Accenture Senior Managing Director) provided a comprehensive roadmap for responsibly scaling generative AI within organizations. He discussed the transition from experimentation to large-scale deployment, emphasizing the need for robust governance structures, transparency, and bias mitigation. Key topics included AI hallucination control, model validation, and risk classification frameworks. Ratzan also addressed HR-specific risks—such as bias in screening and overreliance on automation—and recommended governance measures including human-in-the-loop oversight and regulatory compliance. His framework underscores the critical balance between innovation and accountability in enterprise AI adoption.
Dr. Georgi Yankov (Principal Research Scientist and Team Lead at Development Dimensions International, DDI) discussed how AI is being used to improve and speed up the creation and scoring of workplace assessments. Traditional assessments are often long, expensive to develop, and not always useful for development. Using large language models, his team at DDI can now generate realistic test scenarios, create role-relevant responses, and score open-ended answers—like in leadership simulations—more efficiently. Yankov found that fine-tuned AI models generally outperformed basic prompting methods, especially for evaluating soft skills like empathy and support. He emphasized the importance of fairness, job relevance, and keeping psychologists involved to ensure these tools are valid and helpful.
Testimonials:
“I was happy to attend the 1st AI conference in WV and am excited to attend more.” - HR professional
“Great to see AI conference popping up at WVU. Love it see it, excited to attend more in the future.” - Academic researcher
“My overall "take" was that I am less concerned now about AI taking over the practice of HR; rather, I heard about how AI can streamline HR practices, for example, recruitment and selection, but that the HUMAN component of HR management is going to continue to be critically important to the decision-making in organizations.” - Academic researcher
We've already started preparing for next year’s edition of AI in HRM conference. Please, let us know if you are interested in participating as a guest speaker, as a workshop facilitator or as an attendee.
You can also join our LinkedIn group and check out this year’s conference website to learn more about speakers and the AI-related research Management faculty are conducting at John Chambers College of Business and Economics.
Olga Bruyaka
Professor of Management
Interim Chair of the Management Department
"Let's Talk Business" is a series of guest blogs written by members of the Chambers College community. All views expressed in this post are the author's own.
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