What is HR's role in supporting the organisation's use of AI?
HR has a key role to play in supporting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in an organisation, in particular in safeguarding against risks arising from its use.
The organisation should have a clear strategy on the use of AI, implemented with senior level leadership in partnership with the technology and HR functions. HR should take steps to ensure that all employees are aware of the organisation's approach to the use of AI and the rules in place to control risks.
Legal, commercial and reputational risks arising from the use of AI include:
- personal data breaches;
- discrimination and bias;
- exposure of confidential information; and
- use of inaccurate information.
As generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) are freely available for anyone to use, HR should consider introducing a policy focusing on this. The policy should set out safeguards for employees to follow, such as:
- ensuring that personal data is not fed into AI chatbots;
- ensuring that confidential information is not fed into AI chatbots;
- requiring human review of AI output, including to check for bias or discrimination;
- setting rules for what tasks AI can and cannot be used for.
See our Use of AI chatbots at work policy for an example.
HR should ensure that employees using AI are trained in the potential for discrimination arising from AI outputs, how to avoid this and how to identify and rectify it if it does occur.
If the organisation's AI strategy has a significant impact on employees' workload and processes, HR will have a role in responding to this, for example in implementing a restructure of roles and responsibilities.
