Lots of admin, little time for people
In many small and mid-sized businesses, HR work is largely administration. Applications come in through job portals, by email and sometimes still on paper. They have to be recorded, acknowledged and passed on to the relevant department. Interviews need scheduling, paperwork has to be prepared for new staff, and the same questions about holidays, working hours or travel expenses keep coming up.
AI can take over part of this administration. At the same time, HR is one of the most sensitive areas to use it: it is about people, applicant data and decisions with far-reaching consequences. This article shows where AI helps and where clear limits apply.
Tasks that are well suited
- Capturing applications: extracting personal details, qualifications and availability from CVs and cover letters and filing them in the HR system
- Sending acknowledgements of receipt, friendly and without delay
- Coordinating interview dates and suggesting slots from the calendars of everyone involved
- Putting together onboarding documents and setting up tasks for the first working day
- Answering questions about internal policies, with a reference to the relevant section of the handbook
What all these tasks have in common is that they prepare and organise, but decide nothing about people. That is exactly what makes them good candidates for automation.
Candidate selection: high risk under the EU AI Act
The EU AI Act generally classifies AI systems used for recruiting or selecting people, for example to screen and filter applications or to evaluate candidates, as high-risk systems. Such systems are subject to considerably stricter obligations, for instance regarding human oversight, documentation and informing the people affected.
For day-to-day practice in SMEs, this leads to a clear principle: the AI captures and organises, a person always makes the selection. A comparison with the job requirements can provide an overview, but not a ranking that screens candidates out. And characteristics such as age, gender or origin have no place in such a comparison.
What this means in practice
- No automatic rejections based on an AI assessment
- No hiding or downgrading of applications without human review
- No analysis of protected characteristics, not even indirectly
- Documentation of which steps the system carries out and which it does not
Whether a specific use case falls under the high-risk rules should be assessed case by case. Our guide to the EU AI Act includes a self-assessment for initial orientation; it does not replace legal advice.
Data protection for applicant data
Application documents contain personal data, often including sensitive information. Processing them is governed by the GDPR and, in Germany, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Pay particular attention to purpose limitation, deletion periods once the process is complete, and where the data is processed. A data processing agreement with the service provider (Art. 28 GDPR), technical and organisational measures and a deletion concept should be in place before the first processing, not afterwards.
Works council and co-determination
If your company has a works council, you should involve it early. Under section 87(1) no. 6 of the German Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), the works council has a right of co-determination over technical equipment capable of monitoring employees' behaviour or performance. Many AI applications in HR can fall under this, even if monitoring is not intended at all.
Early, open coordination builds trust and avoids a finished system having to be halted later. Its use is often governed by a works agreement. You should clarify the details with qualified advice.
Onboarding and questions about policies
Preparing onboarding
As soon as a contract is signed, a series of recurring tasks begins: requesting documents, applying for system access, preparing the workstation, scheduling the first meetings. An agent can create these tasks according to your checklist, assign them to the people responsible and send reminders about open items.
An assistant for internal questions
Questions about holidays, working hours or travel expenses can often be answered from existing policies. An internal assistant can answer these questions with a reference to the relevant source. It is important that it only accesses documents intended for the person asking, and that it refers personal or sensitive matters to HR.
Conclusion
In HR, AI can take a lot of administration off your hands: capturing and acknowledging applications, coordinating interviews, preparing onboarding and answering questions. When it comes to selecting people, however, there is a clear boundary. Under the EU AI Act this is a high-risk area and belongs in human hands. If you consider data protection and the works council from the outset, you create a system that applicants and employees can trust.