AI in HR: 5 Common Mistakes That Could Cost You Your People

AI is everywhere – there’s no escaping it. It’s a part of both our work and personal lives, and it shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon. Chatbots and AI-driven software claim to be able to do almost anything, speeding up processes and saving everyone valuable time across all industries. 

So what about HR? 

There are lots of ways that AI can help HR professionals with day-to-day tasks, freeing up time to spend on strategic and people-focused work. According to research by The Access Group, AI saves HR professionals an average of 3 hours per week. 

But along with the success stories, we’re also seeing bad uses of AI in HR that could result in loss of great employees, a damaged reputation and even tribunal cases.

We’ll go through the best ways to use AI in HR along with the top 5 most common mistakes we’re seeing businesses make, and offer advice from our very own Fitzgerald Employee Relations Specialist Mark Burridge on how to mitigate them.   

Best ways to use AI in HR

AI is best used to support HR professionals with time-consuming administrative tasks rather than to make people-related decisions or offer detailed analysis. There are lots of valid uses for AI in HR, such as:

Summarising documents and information

When you’re dealing with complex cases such as grievances or disciplinary investigations, there can be a huge amount of written evidence to review. 

AI tools can help summarise long documents, identify key themes and flag relevant information, helping you prepare reports or case summaries more efficiently. This saves time without replacing the need for human judgement, and it’s still important to review documents to ensure nothing has been missed.

Creating letter templates

From contracts and job offers to disciplinary outcomes and policy updates, HR teams generate a large number of letters. AI can help produce professional, consistent templates that comply with legal and organisational standards. 

It’s still important for an HR specialist to review and tailor the letters before sending them to ensure the tone is appropriate for the situation and the information is accurate.

Drafting emails

AI writing tools are great for helping draft clear and empathetic emails quickly, particularly for routine communications like interview confirmations, onboarding information or policy reminders. 

As long as you proofread the emails before sending, using AI can enhance communication efficiency while maintaining a consistent organisational voice.

Gathering information on process

AI chatbots and assistants can be useful for simple HR queries, such as explaining a company policy or guiding a manager through a process like conducting a return-to-work interview. 

They can also help HR teams quickly locate relevant parts of employment legislation and other legal frameworks, as long as the prompts include instructions to only use information from reputable sources. 

Job descriptions and interview questions

AI can provide a starting point for writing job descriptions by generating content based on role titles or industry benchmarks. It can also suggest competency-based interview questions aligned with the required skills from a job description. 

However, you should always review any job descriptions or interview questions for accuracy and fairness to ensure they reflect the true requirements of the role and don’t inadvertently discriminate.

5 common mistakes to be aware of when using AI in HR

Now that we’ve gone through how AI in HR can be useful, let’s explore some of the pitfalls of using it. The key is to be aware of these common errors – when you know what to watch out for, you won’t fall into the trap of making these mistakes.

1. Over-automating candidate experience

Chatbots and scheduling tools can save so much time when you’re recruiting. But if you use them for every interaction with a candidate, it’s hard to build a relationship with them. 

You want candidates to understand your business and get a feel for who you are, so they know what to expect if they join your organisation. A study by Science Direct found that 67% of job applicants think that AI tools lack the nuances of human judgement or the human touch, so don’t forget to actually communicate with your candidates to ensure they get to know the people behind your business.

When you get a large number of applicants for a job, it can feel overwhelming to have to sift through hundreds (or even thousands) of CVs. But using AI to automatically reject applicants is a huge mistake.

AI can filter CVs according to set criteria, but it should never replace human judgement. You could miss out on great candidates that an AI tool automatically rejects, or even reinforce bias.

A Cambridge University study found that using AI to reduce bias is counter-productive, and Amazon even had to stop developing its AI-powered recruitment engine because it discriminated against female applicants.

AI can’t consider the nuances of hiring for culture ‘adds’, not culture ‘fits’, which can reduce diversity in your workforce. Unless a human reviews CVs and interviews candidates, it will be difficult for you to decide who has something valuable to add to your workplace culture.  

2. Misusing AI for performance monitoring

AI tools can track employee activity and productivity, but that doesn’t mean it should. AI tools can track everything from keystrokes and time spent in applications to the number of emails sent or meetings attended.

Using AI to monitor performance risks creating a ‘surveillance culture’, which can seriously damage trust. Most employees are more productive and work better when they are empowered and supported to do their best work, not micro-managed. 

There’s also a risk of discrimination if AI monitoring tools are poorly designed or trained on biased data. For instance, an AI system that penalises time away from the keyboard might unfairly impact employees who take regular breaks for health reasons, or those with caring responsibilities who work flexibly.

3. Using AI metrics without context

AI tools can provide useful dashboards for things like performance reviews, displaying data such as completed tasks, time spent on projects or engagement with internal systems. But if we rely solely on this data, we can miss the bigger picture.

What about achievements like mentoring colleagues, leading training sessions or supporting new employees? While you can’t capture these efforts in data, they’re vital for a healthy workplace culture and should be taken into account when measuring employee performance. Someone who spends more time helping others might appear less productive on paper than someone who focuses purely on their own output. 

If you don’t recognise these achievements, employees may feel undervalued or ignored, which can be demotivating and can lead to staff turnover. One study found that 57% of employees left their job because they felt undervalued and disrespected at work. 

4. Neglecting GDPR

Using AI in HR relies on sensitive personal data, such as employee and payroll information, performance notes and even health details. 

Unless you are using a paid or enterprise account with strict data privacy guarantees, everything you put into a generative AI tool can be stored, analysed and potentially used to train future models, meaning that you could be breaching GDPR.

But there’s not just legal risk – you could also damage employee trust. Research published in collaboration with KPMG found that 35% of employees say the use of AI tools in their workplace has increased privacy and compliance risks.

Your staff want to know that their information is being handled responsibly, so if you can demonstrate that, they are more likely to see AI as a useful tool rather than a threat.  

5. Forgetting that HR is about people

AI is the new, exciting thing that we all can’t wait to try to see how it can speed up our processes and make our working lives easier. But in the rush to adopt the latest technology, it’s easy to forget what HR is really about: people.

If HR becomes too data-driven and process-led, employees may start to feel like numbers rather than valued members of the organisation. That can quickly lead to disengagement, poor morale, and ultimately, higher staff turnover.

When HR teams focus too heavily on tech efficiency, they risk losing the empathy and human connection that make great workplaces thrive. While AI can automate admin tasks and highlight common themes, it can’t understand the nuance of a difficult conversation, pick up on emotional cues, or build a high-performing and loyal team.

So, AI in HR is certainly not something to shy away from – but we need to use it responsibly. Technology should empower HR professionals to spend more time connecting with people, not less. When you use it well, AI enhances human judgement and helps you build a stronger, high-performance workplace culture.

How we can help with AI in HR

As the AI moves the goalposts, our team at Fitzgerald can advise you on how to use AI in your people strategy effectively while still taking a human-centred approach. Contact our team on 0330 223 5253 or office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk.