BambooHR optimizes AI search and retrieval

Overview

Ask BambooHR is an AI-powered tool integrated into the BambooHR platform. It’s designed to streamline HR processes by offering instant, secure access to essential HR information. The tool allows employees to quickly get answers to routine questions about company policies, benefits, employee information, and more, allowing them to focus on strategic tasks.

Drawing from BambooHR's centralized data—including organizational charts, employee records, and company manuals—the tool uses the most powerful AI search and retrieval powered by Cohere Rerank and Cohere Embed to deliver accurate responses while adhering to data access permissions. This functionality frees HR teams from handling repetitive inquiries, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks, all while enhancing employee satisfaction and engagement.

According to Alan Whitaker, BambooHR’s Head of AI:

“Cohere is a pioneer in AI search and retrieval. We found Cohere Rerank and Cohere Embed to be an effective way to help us be smarter with context as we build an intelligent system.”

The Challenge

BambooHR approached Cohere as one of the earliest adopters of large language models (LLMs), due to their deep-rooted focus on AI and advanced language technology.

BambooHR's primary challenge was improving retrieval accuracy. Their goal was to maximize the successful return of relevant data in response to specific queries, an issue compounded by the need to navigate industry-specific jargon, such as differences between financial terms like “401k” and “pension.” While this challenge was standard across sectors, BambooHR’s concern was heightened by the sensitive nature of the HR data they were handling.

Additionally, security was a top priority. Given the regulated customer information they deal with, BambooHR needed assurance that the AI tools they deployed would uphold the highest levels of data security, aligning with their industry’s stringent privacy requirements.

The Solution

The new product, Ask BambooHR, is an AI-powered chat interface designed to instantly answer employees' questions about HR policies, benefits, and company details. This tool reduces the time HR teams spend on repetitive queries, allowing them to focus on strategic tasks.

BambooHR led the design and implementation of this solution, while Cohere provided guidance on building a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that leverages Cohere intelligent search with models, Cohere Embed and Cohere Rerank, for precise retrieval.

The solution embeds user queries, compares them against company policies, for example, and reranks the results based on relevance to the original query to ensure accurate, context-specific answers. It also ensures GDPR compliance and secure handling of sensitive HR data.

The Impact

BambooHR measured success through the accuracy of returned results, tracking improvements via automated evaluation systems they built in-house. Beta testing with customers provided valuable feedback, helping to refine the system before full deployment.

Now live, the Ask BambooHR product delivers precise, real-time answers, significantly improving the employee experience for their customers. Employees have already used this to answer tens of thousands of questions, saving thousands of hours for HR professionals.

BambooHR’s long-standing engagement with Cohere was crucial to the success of its AI-driven solution. Cohere offered high-performance AI search and retrieval models, seamless implementation, and expert technical support, allowing BambooHR to launch Ask BambooHR with confidence. This strong collaboration ensured that BambooHR’s solution met both accuracy and security requirements, providing employees with reliable, real-time answers while protecting sensitive HR data.