Rome - In a landmark step towards its digitalization journey, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched its first ever HR Avatar, powered by an Artificial Intelligence "chatbot" to serve as a virtual HR colleague for employees around the world - Ms FAO AI.
"This is not only a technological advancement, but also a reflection of our collective attitude, our willingness to learn, to change, and to lead," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
"Ms FAO AI," the new virtual HR colleague's moniker, "was not designed as a robot, but as a companion," he added.
The multilingual service, available worldwide and around the clock, supports FAO employees in making informed decisions and answering questions, and makes the Organization's existing portfolio of services more reliable, inclusive and accessible, ultimately enabling the delivery of better results for Members and the people FAO serves.
Earlier this year, FAO launched HR CertusCare, its first AI-powered chatbot, designed to transform how colleagues access and interact with Human Resource topics. Operating in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish, CertusCare offers rapid responses to queries regarding social security, health insurance, performance management, learning and career development resources, HR policies and recruitment.
Both the 'Ms FAO AI' Avatar and the CertusCare AI chatbot learn from interaction, so the Director-General invited colleagues to connect with them and explore, experiment and engage them with simple or even unexpected questions.
"To do a good job, one must first sharpen the tools," Qu said, citing a proverbial Chinese saying.
The new applications represent the spirit of a modern and dynamic FAO, one based on openness, evolution, iteration, resilience, bold action and deliverables. They lay the foundation for further integration and ultimately a one-stop shop allowing for greater staff support, streamlining of HR processes and reduced routine workloads.
"Innovation and application are key to FAO," the Director-General said. "But no innovation can succeed without human values - we need to always put people first. Technology must serve humanity, not replace it."
He called the new virtual tools an important milestone in his campaign since taking office in 2019 to "modernize systems and to modernize thinking."
