Humu uses artificial intelligence to analyze its clients employee satisfaction, company culture, demographics, turnover and other factors, while its signature product, the nudge engine, sends personalized emails to employees suggesting small behavioral changes (those are the nudges) that address identified problems.

One key focus of the nudge engine is diversity and inclusion. Employees at inclusive organizations tend to be more engaged. Engaged employees are happier, and happier employees are more productive and a lot more likely to stay.

With Humu, if data shows that employees arent satisfied with an organizations inclusivity, for example, the engine might prompt a manager to solicit the input of a quieter colleague, while nudging a lower-level employee to speak up during a meeting. The emails are tailored to their recipients, but are coordinated so that the entire organization is gently guided toward the same goal.

Unlike Amazons hiring algorithm, the nudge engine isnt supposed to replace human decision-making. It just suggests alternatives, often so subtly that employees dont even realize theyre changing their behavior.

Jessie Wisdom, another Humu founder and former Google staff member who has a doctorate in behavioral decision research, said sometimes she would hear from people saying, Oh, this is obvious, you didnt need to tell me that.

Even when people may not feel the nudges are helping them, she said, data would show that things have gotten better. Its interesting to see how people perceive what is actually useful, and what the data actually bears out.

In part thats because the nudge doesnt focus on changing minds, said Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. It focuses on the system. The behavior is what matters, and the outcome is the same regardless of the reason people give themselves for doing the behavior in the first place.

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Algorithms Learn Our Workplace Biases. Can They Help Us Unlearn Them? - The New York Times