Harriet raises £1.2m to rework HR with AI – Investorempires.com

Harriet, the primary full-stack AI answer designed to get firms’ inside knowledge prepared for the AI revolution, relieve Folks groups of their day by day admin burden, and provides each employees member their very own HR assistant, has raised a £1.2m pre-seed spherical led by Idea Ventures and joined by Frontline Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, and Notion Capital.

Poor knowledge administration is a significant blocker to the adoption of AI instruments, significantly these designed to drive efficiencies for firms and their employees. Harriet is the primary HR-focused AI answer created to beat this hurdle and get firms and their knowledge prepared for AI.

Harriet begins by scanning all present organisational insurance policies and paperwork to construct an image of what’s at present in place, what’s lacking, and the place duplicate or conflicting info exists. It then signposts firms in the direction of points and helps them clear up their knowledge – creating the correct foundations for the deployment of extra AI.

Harriet then sits on high of this clear knowledge and data to turn out to be a private HR assistant for each worker.

Accessed by way of Slack and plugged into different HR instruments (reminiscent of ticketing methods, HRIS’ and payroll), Harriet can e-book employees depart, replace them on firm insurance policies, discover related paperwork, supply payslips, and signpost them to help companies, with solutions tailor-made to the placement of a selected worker. As well as, Harriet might help with individuals administration questions, reminiscent of offering tips about methods to encourage a direct report or average a workshop.

This removes a day by day friction level for workers, who can now obtain instantaneous help based mostly on streamlined and correct documentation, unlocking workforce efficiencies.

As well as, Harriet supplies an nameless route for employees searching for firm info that could be delicate, such parental depart insurance policies for these eager about household planning, or details about reserving bereavement depart.

Harriet additionally removes a big quantity of distracting “micro requests” from overstretched Folks groups, enabling them to give attention to higher-value, extra significant actions round tradition, compensation and coaching. That is making it doable for lean Folks groups (who themselves have been the topic to intensive cuts throughout the downturn) to proceed delivering prime quality worker experiences.

HR groups report that, at present, 20% of their time is spent on small, admin-based requests.

Harriet has been launched by two former startup founders; Cecily Motley, beforehand founder and CEO of Motley, and David Buxton, former founder and CEO of danger profile SaaS firm Arachnys.

Cecily Motley, CEO of Harriet, feedback: “The world is heading towards a future where every employee has an AI-powered assistant – with all the major tech players racing to build one. But companies aren’t currently set-up to reap the rewards of these advancements. And one of the main blockers to AI adoption for companies is the state of their knowledge bank. It’s a familiar story – multiple versions of policies saved in different places which are forgotten about until someone needs them. As organisations look to take advantage of AI solutions, and as teams begin to expect instant access to information and support, it’s vital to ensure tools lay the right foundations as well as unlock efficiencies. That’s why Harriet has been designed to clean up data, get companies onto the right track, and then offer the daily assistance staff and People teams are looking for.”

“HR and People teams are responsible for so many vital things – from culture to compensation. But too many colleagues see them as just a route to key information, like their payslips and P60s. This means HR teams are drowning in fiddly, low-value admin tasks. Harriet AI is freeing them from this burden; allowing HR teams to focus on their real purpose and show how valuable their role in a company really is.”

Harriet connects with a spread of interfaces in an organization tech stack together with Google Drive, Notion, Xero, HiBob, BambooHR and Zapier, amongst others. This implies, no matter the place info is saved, employees could make HR requests and supply the knowledge they want with out leaving Slack.

The know-how is powered by a Giant Language Mannequin, with a number of interlocking and cross-checking AIs constructed into the system to safeguard privateness, truthfulness and accuracy. Harriet at all times makes positive there’s a supply hyperlink for each reply, to supply assurance to staff, and all firm and worker knowledge is protected.

A staff of extremely skilled HR trade leaders are becoming a member of Harriet as advisors, together with Jessica Zwaan, COO at Whereby, and future of labor advocate Johannes Sundlo.

Oliver Kicks, Accomplice at Idea Ventures, who led the spherical, feedback: “Cecily and David are serial entrepreneurs who know how to build products people want to buy. They’re a tenacious, creative duo who have built something that truly adds value. We’re excited to be joining them on this journey and can’t wait to see their innovation make the world of work better for thousands.”