AI in HR: how to build a first useful workflow.

An AI tool produces a proposal. The value appears when you choose a well-bounded task, use approved materials and name someone responsible for the check.

A first useful workflow has a clear purpose and a result that is easy to check. Choose a repetitive task, with materials that are already approved and a result someone can check.

A concrete case: the onboarding FAQ

An illustrative example. An approved internal procedure — access to systems, the time-recording rules, who approves leave — turns into a set of short questions and answers for new colleagues. The starting material is the approved document, not what each person remembers.

The tool proposes the wording. The owner of the procedure compares each answer with the source, fills in what is missing and approves the version that reaches colleagues.

In a company with colleagues in the office and at work sites, access to information differs: some work with e-mail and the intranet every day, others receive information from their coordinator. A short FAQ, available digitally and posted on paper, reaches both groups.

The five steps

Which data goes in and which does not

For exercises of this kind we use approved documents and fictitious examples. Candidate and employee data stay in the systems accepted by the company and are not entered into tools that have not been assessed internally.

The tool produces a proposal, and the responsible person validates it before use. Decisions about people — selection, assessment, promotion — remain decisions made by people, based on conversations and agreed criteria. The CIPD materials on artificial intelligence in the workplace emphasise responsible use and keeping human judgement in decisions that concern people.

What the instruction looks like

Three rules that make the difference between a useful proposal and a plausible text.

The source provided is the only basis for the answer.

Information missing from the source is marked “to be clarified”, without filling in by assumption.

Short answers, each with a reference to the section it comes from.

References to the source help with the check. Confirm that the section indicated exists and supports the answer.

How you measure the pilot

Total time, including the human review, not only the time in which the tool generated the text. The number of corrections needed to reach the approved version. And the usefulness for colleagues: check whether new colleagues find the correct answers and ask for help when information is missing.

Compare these three things with the situation beforehand, in your own company. Decide on the basis of the pilot results from your own company.

The practical step

Choose a single approved procedure and build the FAQ for it, with an owner and a review date. If you want to see where it connects to the rest of the processes, start with HR digitalisation; for new colleagues, see the onboarding plan for the first 90 days.

Let’s choose the first workflow.

We look at your processes and choose a task worth starting with.

Let’s choose the first workflow →