If you really want to see how artificial intelligence will upend the staffing world, look no further than the companies on this year’s Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms list. They can show us where the industry is now — and where it’s going. Topping the list is Nomad Health, just one of many firms seeking to hire senior machine engineers. Medical Solutions (No. 22 on the list) launched a platform in August that uses generative AI to automate tasks such as candidate searches. And Aya (No. 7) has tapped AI to help facilities create better staffing patterns.
“We’ve made aggressive investments in technology,” April Hansen, Aya’s group president of workforce solutions, says in the company’s profile. She’s quick to add, however, that “it’s important that this is a tech-mediated process with a human touch.”
It’s that human touch that will be key over the next few years. Sure, Goldman Sachs predicts that generative AI could boost global labor productivity by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period, but everyone with whom I’ve spoken insists meaningful growth isn’t possible without smart, dedicated people to manage and overcome AI’s algorithmic bias, privacy risk and potential for malicious use.
Like many of its peers, Lead Health (No. 4) is prioritizing personal relationships even as it explores using automation and AI to drive growth.
“When you bring in people who have passion and a common purpose, magic starts happening,” says Lead Health founder Laban Pattanaik in the company’s profile. The company’s rapid growth started with “getting the right people on the bus, showing them a vision of what is possible and then getting out of the way.”
Bookmark this year’s list. Watch how these companies are innovating with AI as well as how they integrate the human touch into what they develop. Can you predict which ones will show up again on future Fastest-Growing lists? Share your thoughts with me in person in Dallas at September’s tech-focused Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference. You can get more information about the conference at www.collaborationgigeconomy.com. Or feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or any other social media platform.
