6 MIN READ
AI Solutions for Streamlined HR Operations
At MetroStar, our internship program gives interns hands-on experience across the organization. Every year, we present them with a real-world challenge to tackle. This summer, our interns took on a project to enhance the employee experience at MetroStar using the power of Artificial intelligence (AI).
Transforming HR Operations with AI
Human Resource (HR) teams, known at MetroStar as the People and Culture Team (P&C) have a lot on their plates, constantly fielding questions about everything from PTO policies to maternity leave. To lend a helping hand, our interns created Navigator—an AI-powered chatbot that brings much-needed relief to the P&C team. Instead of contacting HR directly for answers, employees can chat with Navigator to get quick responses. This platform provides employees with immediate information and allows the P&C team to focus on more important tasks, promoting employee well-being and a positive workplace vibe.
Our interns took a human-centered design approach to develop Navigator, enhancing the MetroStar employee experience through AI. Navigator answers questions about benefits using data from MetroStar’s employee handbook and policies, creating a single, trustworthy source of information. This AI-driven tool cuts down on response time and ensures consistent responses, minimizing the chance of misinformation and freeing P&C to tackle strategic initiatives. Plus, by integrating Navigator into Microsoft Teams, employees can easily access the chatbot, making our P&C support more accessible and efficient.
“The internship project provided an opportunity to create an AI-driven chat experience focused on our Human Resource policies, ensuring that employees can tap into the benefits of AI integration,” said MetroStar's Chief Information Officer Jorge Vasquez. “The resulting partnership of seasoned experts and a new generation of talent reflects the essence of continuous development and teamwork that we aim to promote through our program.”
Meet the Interns
MetroStar had the pleasure of working with a dynamic team of interns who significantly contributed to the development of the Navigator project. Akiva Berkowitz, a Computer and Information Science major at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on API and architecture, bringing his expertise in software development to the forefront.
"I definitely want to work in software," Berkowitz said. "This summer gave me a chance to interact with AI, which is a huge upcoming field that I hadn't really interacted with on a day-to-day basis in classes.”
Neha Ravinutala, a junior majoring in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, played a pivotal role in integrating AI functionalities into the chatbot. Her concentration in AI and media was instrumental in ensuring that the chatbot could efficiently respond to HR-related queries.
"I really like working with AI and working on very innovative, very new technologies," Ravinutala said. "During this internship, I've gotten the chance to do that, and I've gotten a chance to really work in an industry environment."
Simon Tao, who is double majoring in Applied Statistics and Cognitive Science at the University of Virginia, was crucial in the initial research and data indexing process. His work ensured that Navigator had accurate and easily accessible information, enhancing the user experience for all MetroStar employees.
"I think the thing that I'm most proud of is being able to demo a product that is actually usable," Tao said. "When we started, I didn't know how far we could even get into the project."
Goals and Overview of Navigator
The main goal of the Navigator project was to develop an AI-powered chatbot that can easily answer questions about MetroStar's P&C policies and benefits. By bringing various resources together into one user-friendly platform, Navigator is set to make P&C information more accessible for everyone and streamline processes. The MetroStar team expects this will boost efficiency in handling P&C inquiries, lighten the load for the P&C team, and provide a consistent, reliable source of information for all MetroStar employees.
Tools Used to Develop Navigator
Azure AI Studio: Enabled our interns to build, test, and launch the Navigator chatbot, handling a wide range of HR-related inquiries efficiently.
Microsoft Entra ID: Managed user identities and access, ensuring secure and smooth authentication for employees.
Azure Blob Storage: Used to store large amounts of unstructured data, efficiently managing the project's data needs.
Azure API Management: Streamlined the creation, deployment, and management of APIs, enhancing the chatbot's functionality.
Azure Container Apps: Supported containerized application deployment, simplifying infrastructure management and increasing efficiency.
Overcoming Challenges and Improving the System
The development of Navigator wasn't without its challenges. One of the main hurdles was the need for a unified source of information, which often led to employees receiving inconsistent answers to their HR-related queries. Another significant challenge was ensuring accurate and consistent answers, which was tackled by improving data indexing and enhancing the user interface for better accessibility. Continuous testing and refinement were crucial to ensuring the system's reliability.
The Technology Driving Navigator
The technical foundation of the Navigator project was robust and sophisticated. The team converted raw data into vectorized format for easier searching, utilizing embedding models to translate text into numerical representations. This approach facilitated efficient data retrieval and comparison. An API was built with Azure AI Tools, orchestrating the interaction between user requests and large language models (LLMs), ensuring the responses are grounded in accurate and relevant data. Developing a React-based user interface ensured a smooth and intuitive user experience. Future plans include integrating Navigator into Microsoft Teams for enhanced usability, making it even more accessible for MetroStar employees.
MetroStar Internship Program
MetroStar's Internship Program is designed to be a launchpad for aspiring professionals. Emphasizing the significance of starting a career, the program offers real-world, integrated experience, providing interns with access to every facet of the organization. Each intern class works on real use cases with strict deadlines, supported by passionate mentors dedicated to impactful IT. Interns graduate from the program with experience working on cross-functional teams, mimicking the scrum teams and customers they’ll support throughout their careers. This hands-on approach fosters innovation and leadership at all levels of the company.
The MetroStar 2024 Summer Internship team spends time with MetroStar's CEO and Co-Founder Ali Reza Manouchehri (front), Senior People Operations Manager Karen Laury (left), and Intern Mentors Chief Information Officer Jorge Vasquez (right) and Principal Software Engineer Jonathan Bouder (back).
“The interns this past summer were distinctively different than past years. Not so much in how they act or work, but more so about how much they already knew about AI/ML/Data Science,” said Principal Software Engineer Johnny Bouder. “We tend to focus on these topics for the internship. However, this was the first year that the group really had a great base understanding of the concepts.”
Curious about additional AI/ML technology and MetroStar's Digital Solutions? Visit our Innovation Lab.
