Limitations Of AI In Job Profiling And Why Human Expertise Still Matters

From Overwritten to Underpaid:

Limitations of AI in Job Profiling and why Human Expertise still matters

Insights by Chimone Zaayman

“AI is all the rage in HR these days, and for good reason. With the help of AI, businesses are streamlining and transforming HR processes from recruitment all the way through to performance reviews, and even workforce planning. But when it comes to job profiling, we’ve got to pump the brakes a bit. While AI can certainly analyse large datasets, crunch numbers and generate suggestions, it struggles to adhere to the detailed rules that govern job profiling and job evaluation and doesn’t always get it right. In fact, relying too much solely on AI for job profiles leads to big problems that result in profiles that are underwritten or overwritten, leading to inaccurate job evaluations and a snowball effect on remuneration and all the other HR processes.

“Here’s why AI cannot replace human expertise in job profiling and why this is crucial for maintaining a healthy balance in HR systems:

1. AI Fails to Use Job Profiling and Job Evaluation Rules Correctly

“Job profiling follows specific language rules and frameworks to ensure that roles are clearly defined and aligned with organisational standards. AI, however, lacks the contextual understanding needed to apply these frameworks accurately.

“When AI generates job profiles, it often fails to capture the appropriate level of detail. This, in turn, leads to underwritten profiles, where key accountabilities are confused with responsibilities. Conversely, AI can also produce overwritten profiles, which exaggerate the role's complexity or mistakes responsibilities for accountabilities.

“The result? Mismatches in job evaluations. These errors can cause roles to be over-graded or under-graded, distorting their value within the organisation.

2. The Snowball Effect on Job Evaluations and Remuneration

“Inaccurate job profiles affect more than just the description of a role - they can have a ripple effect across the entire organisation, especially in areas like job evaluation and remuneration.

“Underwritten profiles may lead to under-evaluated roles. Since salary benchmarking is linked to the base pay or Total Package of employees in most organisations, it causes employees to be placed in a lower pay scale than what they should be. This not only affects remuneration but also damages morale and retention, as employees may feel undervalued.

“Overwritten profiles, on the other hand, can lead to inflated job evaluations, where roles are over-graded, and employees are compensated more than their actual responsibilities justify. Over time, this distorts the company’s pay structure, creating inconsistencies that are hard to rectify and can lead to financial inefficiencies.

“Both cases can result in a snowball effect. Poor job evaluations affect base remuneration, which in turn impacts employee satisfaction, promotion paths, and succession planning. Inaccurate grading can also disrupt performance appraisals, as employees are assessed against incorrect job standards.

3. AI Struggles with Contextual Understanding

“Another major flaw of AI in job profiling is its inability to understand organisational context and the nuanced requirements of a role. Job profiles are not just about technical skills—they often need to incorporate the need for scarce skills, special working conditions, and the role’s contribution to the organisation’s strategic goals.

“AI might be able to list typical qualifications or technical requirements, but it cannot truly understand the context in which a role operates. For example, a managerial position may require the ability to lead in a specific corporate culture, or a specialist role might need unique problem-solving skills that aren’t easily captured by AI-generated profiles. Furthermore, AI also does not understand certain critical rules that are of paramount importance in terms of typical qualifications and experience and how they get used. For example, job evaluation rules only use minimum qualifications and experience, whereas for recruitment and selection, one would perhaps want to use the ideal/preferred qualifications and experience. These factors have a direct influence on job grade/evaluation results and, in turn, affect other HR processes.

“Human insight is critical in these cases to ensure that the job profile reflects the actual needs of the business and the responsibilities/accountabilities of the role.

4. Language Precision and Clarity Matter

“Job profiles require precise language to convey the role's responsibilities clearly. AI can produce generic or unclear descriptions, leading to confusion during recruitment, job evaluations, and even performance reviews.

“Human professionals/job profiling specialists understand how to write profiles that are clear, concise, and aligned with organisational values. They can ensure that the profile accurately reflects both the technical and interpersonal skills required for the role, which AI often fails to do. For example: Making use of the words: ‘Develop strategy, policies and processes’ VS ‘Provide input into developing strategy, policies and procedures’ can have a major impact into the potential outcome of evaluation results, as it is the difference between being accountable VS responsible for something.

5. The Broader HR Impact: Performance, Succession, and Equity

“The implications of underwritten or overwritten job profiles extend beyond pay grades and immediate evaluations. Inaccurate profiles can also distort performance appraisals, succession planning, and even equity and fairness in the workplace.

Performance Management:

“If a role is over-evaluated due to an overwritten profile, employees may be expected to perform at a level that isn’t aligned with their actual job responsibilities. This leads to skewed performance appraisals, with employees either being judged too harshly or leniently based on incorrect standards.

Succession Planning:

“Inaccurate job profiles make it difficult to identify the right talent for future leadership positions. When roles are poorly defined, the development/career paths for employees become unclear, leading to gaps in succession planning.

Fairness and Equity:

“If some roles are consistently over-graded due to inaccurate AI profiles, it can lead to inequitable compensation structures, where certain employees are unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged. This can have long-term implications for workplace equity and inclusion.

6. AI as a Tool, Not a Solution

“AI certainly has the potential to support HR processes, such as analysing market trends or suggesting relevant skills for certain roles. However, it is important to remember that AI is just a tool—it cannot replace the human expertise required to create job profiles that accurately reflect the position in real life and align with an organisation’s strategic goals.

“HR professionals should continue to own the job profiling process, using AI only where appropriate through prompt engineering but ensuring that final profiles are reviewed and refined by human experts who understand the specific profiling and evaluation rules, business context and the legal, cultural, and organisational rules governing each role.

Conclusion: Human Expertise Is Indispensable

“AI might be revolutionising parts of HR, but when it comes to job profiling, it’s clear that human expertise is indispensable. I’m not saying we should throw out AI altogether, as AI definitely has its place, especially when it comes to providing insights or suggesting keywords to optimise your job descriptions. However, AI should be seen as a tool, not the whole solution. While AI offers exciting possibilities in HR, it still falls short when it comes to creating clear, accurate and compliant job profiles. The risks of underwritten or overwritten profiles go beyond mere wording - they can lead to misaligned job evaluations, distort remuneration, and disrupt performance management and succession planning processes.

“AI can assist with data analysis and trend identification, but human insight remains essential to ensure job profiles are clear, comprehensive, compliant, and effective. Businesses must remain cautious in adopting AI for job profiling and ensure that human oversight remains a key component in the process to avoid the snowball effect on other critical HR functions.”

Written by: Chimoné Zaayman, Executive Job Evaluation and Job Profiling Expert

[email protected]

About 21^st Century:

21st Century, a level 2 BBBEE company, is one of the largest Business and People Solutions consultancies in Africa, specialising in sustainable business solutions and underpinned by exceptional Analytics and Research capabilities, with a team of more than 60 skilled specialists, servicing over 1700 clients – including non-profit organisations, unlisted companies, government, parastatals and over two-thirds of the companies listed on the JSE. 21st Century offers bespoke business and strategy planning services, operating model and organisational design, creative reward practice modelling and market data, change, stakeholder and culture management, training courses and comprehensive human capital and talent plans. 21st Century continues to offer solutions via a combination of virtual channels and on-site presence. 

21st Century has five business areas: Remuneration and Reward, Organisational Design, Change Management, People & Talent and Analytics.

21st Century has both national and international capabilities. We offer full-spectrum Human Capital services to sub-Saharan Africa & Middle East clients, and as the African representative of the GECN group (www.gecn.com)  have access to expertise on every continent around the world.

For more information visit: www.21century.co.za or contact us at (011) 447 0306

Or contact Craig Raath Executive Director at [email protected]

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