How Early-Adopter Customers Helped To Develop Visier's "Game-Changing" AI Assistant Vee
In the fall of 2023, Visier invited customers to participate in the development of its conversational AI assistant. The feedback from these early adopters was instrumental in refining and enhancing Vee, the first AI assistant for people data that Josh Bersin calls a "game-changer."
With Vee, Visier customers have:
Simplified access to workforce insights.
Freed up analyst time for more strategic tasks.
Extended people analytics to more users.
Visier launched Vee to help non-analytics experts, such as HR and business leaders, quickly and easily access reliable insights about their workforce using natural language queries. Vee’s early access program involved 80 customers who worked with Visier to refine the AI assistant through various user scenarios.
Early adopters included teams from Ascension, HD Supply, and Unisys, who helped Visier customize Vee for accurate, industry-specific insights. By incorporating valuable early adopter feedback into each product iteration, Visier successfully developed a trustworthy tool that allows users to ask questions and receive instant answers from a robust people analytics platform.
Sameer Raut
Vice President, HRIS
“The value of Vee is that you can ask a quick question and get a quick answer. I think that is amazing.”
THE BEGINNING
A new way to simplify people analytics
When Ju Wu, Visier’s VP of AI, first saw a demo of GPT-4 at a tech conference, he knew it could be a game-changer for people analytics. “It was such a mind-blowing event,” he recalls.
Visier had been using AI techniques to develop predictive analytics for years, but generative AI was a new frontier. By adding a conversational layer to its robust people analytics platform via an AI assistant, the company could help line managers, HRBPs, and senior leaders easily access data-informed answers about their workforce using natural language queries. This would open up doors for leaders who don’t “speak analytics.”
"This is really the first product that we've been so deep with our customers to really help shape the product and how we iterate on the different versions,” says Jamie Vinoya, a customer success leader at Visier.
However, getting a reliable tool ready for general availability would be impossible without the right training environment. Shortly after announcing its vision for Vee, the first AI assistant for people data, Visier invited customers to participate in shaping the tool through an early access program.
Ellen Gentile
HR Analytics Manager, Ascension
“Vee serves as a bridge between questioning and understanding, cultivating user engagement and enhancing data comprehension by providing simplified access to critical information without requiring expertise in emerging technologies.”
THE COLLABORATION
How early adopters refined Vee
Within six months of announcing its early access program, Visier had 80 customers interacting with Vee to help shape the tool.
Early adopters took different approaches to experimenting with the AI assistant. HD Supply, an industrial distributor, rolled it out to a pilot group of about 15 individuals throughout HR. Ascension, a healthcare organization, also focused on a small, targeted audience.
Unisys, an IT services and consulting company, took a broader approach, deploying Vee to an extended set of users who had been requesting information from the people analytics function. This group included not only HR personnel but also finance leaders and individuals responding to RFPs who had permission to access people data.
Ellen Gentile, manager of HR self-service analytics at Ascension, worked with Visier to ensure the tool could handle domain-specific knowledge. Her initial concerns about Vee’s ability to understand healthcare-specific and HR-specific terms were addressed through fine-tuning processes.
“Being able to customize Vee sets users up for success by interpreting common language into industrial, occupational, and technical terminology. This ensures accurate communication and understanding within their specific domain,” Gentile says.
Customers also worked with Visier to ensure the AI assistant could produce accurate answers to the same question asked in a variety of ways.
“We know the questions that we get and the questions we ask, but we don't know what the compensation leader would ask or the HR team would ask or the leaders would ask or things like that,” says Reed Olson, director of People Analytics and HR Technology at HD Supply.
Developing a flexible and reliable tool suitable for a variety of use cases was also key for Unisys.
“We’ve been with the Visier platform for three to four years, so we know our data and we’ve done all the hard work. Now it’s about extending data capabilities into the hands of those who didn’t have it before and bridging the gap,” says Sharma Mondal, director of People Analytics at Unisys.
Throughout the development process, customers’ data remained private and secure because Vee was trained using metadata and not proprietary data.
Leveraging valuable feedback from its customers, Visier was able to make the necessary adjustments and create a more powerful tool.
Reed Olson
Director of People Analytics and HR Technology
“When a leader realizes how easy an HR-owned system is to use it improves how people feel about how strategic HR can be.”
THE OUTCOME
AI means people analytics for everyone
Thanks to Vee's ease of use, early access participants are experiencing numerous benefits that will pave the way for the democratization of people analytics across their organizations.
Vee provides quick and easy access to workforce data.
Customers are excited that people leaders can use plain language to inquire about a range of topics, from turnover patterns to the extent of contract labor usage.
“Vee helps with increasing user effectiveness by enabling them to ask questions and receive answers precisely on what they need and when they need it,” says Gentile.
“Sometimes they have a quick question they don't know who to ask. They can just go in real-time, easily get the information they need [using natural language] and not in an intimidating fashion, not having to build a dashboard or create a report or ask somebody to do it,” says HD Supply’s Olson.
Vee makes access to data insights easy, increasing adoption and manager effectiveness
Because Vee requires no special training to use it encourages greater adoption of people analytics—particularly among people leaders on the front lines who don't have time to learn a new software platform.
For Olson, deploying Vee to line managers will be a huge benefit. “I think [Vee] could really increase the effectiveness of our managers,” he says.
“Vee is the future and it’s a technology that we absolutely need. It’ll be a game changer for the less tech-savvy to access people insights—like frontline managers who can ask a simple question in Teams about their turnover and get back an immediate answer instead of coming to the people analytics team,” says Sameer Raut at Sunstate.
“We are excited about Vee. It has really made an impact on the perception and usage of data. I have received positive feedback from our HR, finance, and business users. They're asking questions. They want to know more,” says Dibyendu Sharma Mondal, director of People Analytics at Unisys.
Vee frees up analyst’s time for advanced strategy work
In addition to helping frontline managers, HR teams, and business leaders without advanced analytics skills quickly access insights, Vee also frees up analysts' time for more strategic tasks. By handling repetitive, low-complexity requests, Vee reduces disruptions and enhances overall productivity within the analytics team.
“If people within the organization can get information themselves, the people analytics team can spend more time on the training. We can focus on training people how to interpret those insights so they become self-sufficient,” says Reed Olson.
Early adopters have many different visions for the future of the tool. For example, Ellen Gentile envisions an ideal generative AI solution that includes predictive modeling and classification, democratizing advanced analytics. Dibyendu Sharma Mondal sees how generative AI could change HR delivery models in the future, particularly in the areas of talent acquisition and learning.
Vee provides privacy & secure access
All of these current and future benefits won’t come at the expense of data privacy and security. Visier’s underlying security model means Vee only provides answers to the right people at the level of access they are allowed. Data security is handled just as if someone were using Visier’s classic interface.
“Vee’s streamlined query framework ensures data privacy and security while harnessing the full potential of generative AI, using metadata instead of organizational data,” says Ellen Gentile.
Vee’s development, driven by customer feedback and involvement, marks a significant milestone in simplifying people analytics. This ultimately boosts strategic decision-making across organizations.
Dibyendu Sharma Mondal
Director of People Analytics, Unisys
“Vee is power in your hands. Vee, as a platform, democratizes access to information, transferring capabilities from a select few to many. Now, the power of data is in more hands, available through self-service and in conversations."
Read more about how genAI is enabling people insights throughout the business
About Visier
Visier is the recognized global leader in people analytics, workforce and compensation planning, embedded solutions, and GenAI for people answers. At the core of Visier’s innovations is a simple premise: People impact is business impact, and you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Visier gives people-powered organizations the tools and insights to drive productivity, performance, and business outcomes through people impact. Founded in 2010 by the pioneers of business intelligence, Visier has over 50,000 customers in 75 countries, including enterprises like BASF, Panasonic, Experian, Amgen, eBay, Ford Motor Company, and more. Visier is headquartered in Vancouver, BC with offices and team members worldwide.
For more information, visit visier.com