Conversational AI “speaks how employees do”, creating the feeling of human-like connection exactly when it matters. And that’s important right now.
With rising costs and widespread organizational changes like layoffs, many companies have expected employees to deliver more value than ever. At the same time, workplace relationships have shifted in the process.
Interactions are more professional and transactional, rather than personal.
Connection has become harder to maintain, particularly in teams that are geographically scattered or increasingly hybrid.
Learn how to transform HR into a people-first function that builds trust, designs better experiences, and drives real business results in this interactive, 10-minute guide. Read Now.
Here, conversational AI makes a real difference.
Take remote workers, for example. When employees speak to each other less, or only interact with a small number of people in the working week, any kind of connection is more than convenient, it’s a lifeline.
Employees in psychologically safe environments are 50% more likely to be engaged (Worldmetrics.org), and organizations with high safety see lower burnout rates (PubMed).
Feeling a sense of belonging can also improve performance and overall wellbeing. Conversational AI supports this by offering consistent, empathetic, on-demand interactions.
Think of conversational AI like a digital colleague that helps employees feel seen, heard, and supported, even from afar, even when human HR isn’t around, without feeling robotic.
According to a recent TriNet report, 59% of employees expect HR to be available around the clock, with 23% reporting exhaustion and 21% feeling constant pressure.
Employees not only expect help when they need it, they deserve it. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
As individuals, they’re carrying a lot, whether it’s something in their personal lives, or their dedication to productivity and company success.
It’s only right to show the same level of care for your employees that they show for your organization and the challenges they face while still remaining committed to your brand.
And their need for support doesn’t end with office hours.
Employees are whole individuals and things don’t just stop at the end of the working day. As organizations, when we fail to recognize that, and shut employees out when the working day comes to a close, we’re putting up an unbreakable barrier.
It’s like saying, “Come back tomorrow.” And how annoying is that?
Conversational AI provides 24/7 HR support across regions, roles, and devices, ensuring guidance is available whenever and wherever it’s needed.
Human HR teams have natural limitations: workload, personal lives, wellbeing, and competing priorities mean answers aren’t always immediate.
Conversational AI fills that gap, offering consistent, on-demand assistance while freeing HR to focus on complex or sensitive cases.
The value proposition is simple: “I’m here for you. Ask me anything.”
This always-on, always-accessible support empowers employees to get answers, complete tasks, and feel support, whenever the moment matters most.
I touched on it earlier in this blog, but it’s hard to think of the old school chatbot without saying in my head, “Robotic.”
But that’s the interpretation of them now, with hindsight, now we know the power of today’s virtual agent, driven by AI.
For years, traditional HR chatbots were positioned as the solution to employee self-service. In reality, they solved very little.
Chatbots were built on rigid, recipe-based workflows and pre-scripted decision trees that only worked if employees asked the exact question they were designed to answer.
Most of the time, they’d have even more rigid ‘conversation starters’, and whatever was there, was what you were limited to solving, or somewhat solving.
Almost 75% of customers agree that chatbots aren’t able to handle complex questions, according to Business Wire. This helps explain why employees quickly felt frustrated and disappointed.
And, if you had to click that ‘Other’ button. Let’s not go there. We all know how that turned out, every time.
The point is, anything outside the script, even slightly, caused the whole experience to unravel.
Employees felt this immediately, and it resulted in a pretty poor perception of chatbots as a whole.
The moment people saw that familiar, pre-configured welcome message pop up in the corner of a screen, they already sensed the frustration ahead.
These bolts felt cold, mechanical, and predictable.
In HR tech, many employees didn’t even bother trying.
In my personal life, I remember chatbots like this very well. Shockingly, some quite well-known, long-established companies still use them!
Whenever I ran into them, I’d cunningly attempt to bypass them with the old line, “Speak to an agent.” That was always my first message, in the hope of skipping the entire experience altogether. Sometimes it worked.
When chatbots inevitably failed, which they often did, it wasn’t because the employee’s question was too complex or unreasonable. It was because employee needs are diverse, sporadic, messy, and crucially, human.
No amount of pre-planning could ever cover every possible scenario. The moment a chatbot hit a dead end, it funneled the user into an email queue, often triggering Outlook automatically (in all the worst cases).
People would wait 5-10 working days for a response, only to then potentially receive something generic, unhelpful, or something that needed further discussion.
This inefficiency created a sense of isolation. Employees felt unheard, like their concern didn't matter enough to warrant a real solution.
The technology was lacking and it only resulted in emotional disconnect. Simply put, chatbots didn’t speak how employees do in any way.
When we engage in conversation in the real world, we don’t have pre-set answers to questions in our heads, ready just in case someone asks. We’re more fluid, in-the-moment, and improvisational, with knowledge to back it up. Well, that’s conversational AI.
Fundamentally, chatbots didn’t understand, or had no way of knowing nuance, stress, urgency, or context. They couldn’t adapt to the people who were navigating them, particularly in HR.
If an employee had chipped their tooth on a skiing holiday and needed urgent dental care, a chatbot might know their entitlements, but it wouldn’t be able to recommend in-the-moment next steps.
Chatbots couldn’t flex for employee contexts. They couldn’t adjust to different languages. They couldn’t meet different levels of expectations or adapt to varying levels of digital confidence.
They were, and by nature were always going to be, one-size-fits-all.
Where traditional chatbots were rigid and mechanical, conversational AI and virtual agents represent a complete shift in how employees interact with HR.
Instead of forcing people down narrow, pre-scripted pathways, conversational AI adapts to the person in front of it: how they speak, what they need, and the situation they’re in. It’s initiative and dynamic.
It’s capable of handling the real complexities of human work life:
Conversational AI surpasses chatbots by replacing the model entirely. While on the surface they may seem similar, chat tech today is leaps and bounds ahead of where it once was.
Where chatbots forced employees to adapt to the technology, conversational AI is able to adapt to the employee.
Ivan Harding explores the disconnect between how HR leaders perceive their organization's employee experience and how employees actually feel about it. Read Now
Virtual agents are a new class of intelligent digital colleagues.
The global conversational AI and virtual agents market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27.1% between 2024 and 2029, highlighting the rapid adoption of these more capable, autonomous systems (Newsroom).
Where chatbots were scripted, narrow, and often doomed for disappointment, virtual agents are autonomous, context-aware, and capable of performing meaningful end-to-end tasks.
Virtual agents take action. They connect to your existing knowledge and understand how to adapt to the unique situation of the employee in front of them through intelligent prompting.
They don’t rely on rigid decision trees; they interpret, infer, and respond in ways that feel natural and genuinely helpful.
But what are they, really?
The simplest definition is probably a specialized digital HR partner that can handle entire categories of work with accuracy, empathy, and judgement.
They’re trained for specific HR purposes and support a diverse range of needs:
Where chatbots were limited by what could be pre-scripted in advance, virtual agents, by contrast, understand how to deliver support that feels personal and intuitive: they can run with something as simple as a thoughtful framework and create incredible results.
As powerful as virtual agents are, they can’t replace the beating heart of human HR. Instead, they amplify it.
Human-in-the-loop remains essential because the most sensitive and emotionally charged moments in an employee’s journey still need human judgement, empathy, and discretion.
When it comes to virtual agents, AI and human resources are a partnership. They know when to help, and just as importantly, thy know when to step back.
If an employee raises an issue that carries emotional weight, legal complexity, or risk, such as employee relations concerns (e.g. bullying), AI identifies the situation as one where human oversight is critical.
But that only really works when you’ve got a connected and adequate employee support ecosystem that covers all bases:
When situations involving workplace conflicts arise via virtual agents, employees aren’t funnelled through rigid scripts, they’re routed to the right HR professional efficiently, with their sentiment analyzed for urgency.
When escalations are made, context is preserved, so nobody has to repeat themselves. Think back to those old chatbots that also had live agents on standby. Most of the time, you’d have to communicate your issue at least a couple of times.
This blend of AI speed and human sensitivity ensures accuracy, empathy, and trust.
Employees get instant, clear answers for routine questions, while HR is freed up to focus on the moments where people truly need people.
Far from replacing HR, virtual agents create the space for HR teams to spend more time on strategy, coaching, culture, and care: the very parts of the job that technology can support but never replace.
According to a Paychex study (WifiTalents), 78% of HR professionals say AI frees them from repetitive work so they can focus more on strategic and empathetic tasks.
Make onboarding a meaningful experience for remote and hybrid employees. With tasks, notifications and content ideas.
Download Now.
Motivation is low.
Expectations are low.
Energy is almost non-existent.
In those early weeks of being a new parent, even simple tasks like washing the dishes feel overwhelming. Trust me, with a seven week old, I’ve only recently been through it myself.
Conversational AI steps in with clarity. It’s like a friend, even if you’re asking a question in the middle of the night, right after a feed.
A quick question like “How do I add my baby to my healthcare?” gets a simple, clear answer in seconds, in a tone that feels familiar and comforting.
It’s a calm companion during one of the most chaotic life experiences, helping employees get what they need without navigating clunky tools or complex processes.
Someone on sabbatical leave may still be entitled to certain benefits, but accessing support from a remote location, especially if volunteering, can be difficult.
Connectivity is limited, time zones are different, and they are relying on a mobile device for everything.
Conversational AI and virtual agents make the exchange effortless.
It considers the employee’s context, on sabbatical leave so likely using a mobile phone, and gives simple answers to simple questions. No fussing around.
AI provides support that travels with them, ensuring they stay informed and confident even when they’re thousands of miles away.
Support technology today is situationally aware. It understands that no two employees experience work in the same way, and adapts the delivery of knowledge to match the context they’re in, the moment they’re in it.
This is context-based knowledge delivery: information that shapes itself around the employee, not the other way around like it was before.
Think about the diversity of contexts in a modern enterprise:
With AI, HR continues to expand and evolve, and sometimes it takes time for organizations to catch up.
Right now, AI Assistants and the conversational approach are in full swing, but agentic intelligence is on the horizon, and is already making waves in HR tech.
HR chat is undergoing an evolution. Still conversational, yes, but something more:
According to PagerDuty’s 2025 survey, 32% of business and IT executives expect HR to benefit from agentic AI, putting it in the top three functions that leaders think will be transformed.
In my personal life, one of my hobbies is creative writing. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, I wrote two screenplays. So, it’s fair to say I’m an ideas person, I thrive when my creativity is allowed to present itself.
Being creative, I now also like to apply that same mindset to HR tech and imagine where conversational AI and virtual agents might be in five or ten years from now:
I see the next evolution of conversational AI as deeply personal, fully understanding the employee behind every question.
Think of it as an AI concierge.
Concierges will learn in the same way a trusted colleague would, recognizing patterns in emotion, behavior, productivity, and preferences to offer support that feels natural and comes at the right time, without being asked.
Instead of reacting to queries, these systems will always anticipate needs. They’ll notice when an employee is overwhelmed, either by observing their hectic schedule or noticing dips in productivity, or deadlines piling up.
Concierges will gently offer the right nudge, resource, or intervention, remembering personal working styles, preferred communication patterns, and moments where support historically matters most.
Crucially, this new generation of AI works for the employee first, not the employer. Its goal is to help people perform, stay well, and grow their careers.
Because, when an employee feels psychologically safe and emotionally connected to their organization, they show significantly higher levels of engagement, resulting in better outcomes.
It’s a firm shift from “Ask me anything!” to “I’ve got your back, always.”
As AI becomes more embedded in the flow of work, it’ll actively help shape culture, not just contribute to it.
Future AI systems will lead and empower people by creating new roles and new ways HR can influence the organization:
The agentic nature of future HR virtual agents means they will work in the background with real-time awareness of accessibility needs, compliance changes, languages, and cultural nuances.
If it existed today it could decode the “6 7” craze without anyone lifting a finger, or explain why anyone would want a Labubu.
As your HR companion it is always looking out for you, constantly learning from culture, trends, and updates so you never miss a beat.
The Applaud HR Service Delivery suite (HR Case Management, Knowledge Management, Journeys, Employee Portal, and AI Assistant) work together to create an intelligent and rounded employee support system:
Every tool is designed to work together without losing the human touch, all with a people-first lens.
The Applaud approach is designed to feel warm, intuitive, and genuinely helpful for your employees, recognizing that need for conversational AI enterprise-wide:
With Applaud, conversational HR support becomes frictionless, personalized, and cohesive, without taking human HR professionals away from the work that means the most to them.
And it’s a win win. Employees get guidance and answers when and where they need them, in a format that finally feels personable.
With a robust suite like Applaud’s, you can finally live up to that employee expectation to help tend to their wellbeing, giving them workplace self-service tech that reflects what they see in their everyday lives.
Scott Oakes is a Senior Technical Communications Specialist with a background in advertising, communication, creative writing, and video production. He plays a key role in shaping Applaud's YouTube channel, combining creativity and clarity to make technical how-to videos more engaging, ensuring that complex concepts are easy to understand.