AI is being added to everything. The useful question for an HR team is narrower: what is worth trying, and how do you try it without handing over your judgment? Six questions and one real task will tell you.
1. What work are you trying to remove?
Name one repeated burden: finding guidance, organising documents, checking records or preparing a report. “Use more AI” is not a task.
First check: Could you remove the step, simplify the process or use ordinary automation instead?
2. What are you keeping responsibility for?
Separate preparation from judgment. The tool may organise information or prepare a draft. Your assessment, decisions and sign-off stay with you.
Practical check: Name the review. Don’t just say “a human checks it.”
3. What information can it use?
Confirm three things before you start: the tool is approved for this task, the sources are current and applicable, and the use of any employee data is permitted.
Practical check: If permission is unclear, pause. Missing guidance needs an owner, not an invented answer.
4. How will you know the result is usable?
Decide what you will check before generating anything: facts and figures, current and applicable guidance, missing context or exceptions, and meaning and tone.
Practical check: If you can’t verify the result, don’t use it as the basis for a consequential decision.
5. Did it reduce the work, or move it?
Count everyone’s effort, not just the time to a first draft: preparing, generating, checking and correcting. Compare that total with the current process, and include setup, learning and upkeep.
Practical check: A faster draft is not the same as less work.
6. Who looks after it when something changes?
For a shared workflow, agree on an owner who is accountable, a backup who can cover, instructions that say what it does and how it is checked, and a fallback for stopping it and carrying on.
Practical check: Keep it proportionate. A personal draft and a shared workflow need different support.
An example: a recurring HR report.
The tool prepares a first draft from approved information. HR checks the figures, interprets exceptions and approves what is shared. The test compares total effort without lowering agreed quality. When the result can’t be verified, the existing process is the fallback.
Take this to your manager.
Fill in the blanks before you commit:
- I propose we test AI on ______ because ______ is taking time.
- It would help with ______. I remain responsible for ______.
- We would check ______ and compare the total effort with our current process.
- We would keep, change or stop it based on ______.
The goal is useful work, not more AI use.