Explore AI use cases within the HR practice areas listed below. In addition to a basic description, each entry includes how common a use case is among HR professionals, how costly and risky HR professionals perceive the use to be, and whether it falls into one of four categories based on those factors, according to SHRM research:
Low-Hanging Fruit
(Low Risk/Low Cost)
Experimental
(High Risk/Low Cost)
Strategic Bets
(Low Risk/High Cost)
Monitor
(High Risk/High Cost)
Compliance
Strategic integration of compliance measures to limit risk exposure and advance governance objectives.
Seminar
U.S. Employment Law & Compliance
Get a practical, full-picture view of U.S. compliance across the employee lifecycle. Navigate legal risks with confidence and support a strong, compliant workplace.
AI tools can scan documents and datasets for personally identifiable information (PII) and mask it, so HR can share files without exposing private details.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.4% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — PII needs to be properly secured. Any AI tool you use will need to fulfill your security requirements or else it will present a significant risk.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — Tools that can handle this kind of work are specialized and may require significant shifts in workflows.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Complying with Employment Record Requirements toolkit to get best practices for protecting personal data in HR records.
Monitor
HR professionals can use AI tools to review HR vendors and outsourcing partners on a variety of criteria, including labor-practice or ethics concerns in the supply chain.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.4% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average/High — Vendor assessments can have significant financial and reputational impacts and require close scrutiny to avoid costly mistakes.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — AI tools can help review large amounts of data and complex documents, but data hygiene concerns, workflow issues, and the need for human judgment make this a complex implementation.
SHRM Member Resource:
SHRM's Must-Ask Questions for AI Workforce Tool Vendors checklist covers key steps for vetting HR suppliers.
Monitor
AI tools can be used to generate a company policy on AI use, as well as training materials to help staff learn to use AI tools in ways that adhere to the organization’s policy.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low — Organizations need policies to ensure employees use AI tools responsibly. Starting with a strong template can help identify issues you may not have considered.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — AI policies and training documents should not be set-and-forget affairs. Expect to dedicate time and resources to updating documentation to account for new tools and use cases.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM’s Customizable AI Governance Policy Template to help you get started.
Strategic Bets
Before HR adds AI tools into a new workflow or discipline, existing tools can help screen the proposal against an ethical and legal framework and flag any concerns.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.5% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average/High — If this review misses a significant problem, the AI use could create multiple compliance risks throughout the organization.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — The work needs a defined framework for comparison as well as expert review, all of which take time and consideration.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's AI in the Workplace resource hub to discover responsible AI adoption practices.
Monitor
AI tools can help build and update a register of every AI tool HR uses — what each does, what data it touches, and what risks it carries.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.5% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — The inventory is a record that regulators and auditors could request, so gaps or errors weaken the organization's compliance position.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — Keeping the inventory current will require a governance process and, often, a dedicated tool.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Must-Ask Questions for AI Workforce Tool Vendors checklist to uncover the details this process should capture.
Monitor
AI tools can analyze case records, reports, and related data to surface patterns that may signal fraud, harassment, or other misconduct across the organization.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.4% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average/High — A mistaken conduct flag could harm an innocent person, and a missed one leaves misconduct unchecked, both of which carry significant risks.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — The analysis needs access to sensitive case data under strict controls and significant human review.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's How to Conduct a Workplace Investigation guide to learn how to properly act on patterns of misconduct.
Monitor
AI tools can watch the application of the organization's other AI tools in HR processes and flag when their results skew across groups or drift from expected patterns.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.6% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low/Average — This monitoring supports the bias audits that some state AI laws now require, but without human engagement, issues can fester unnoticed.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — Monitoring needs access to each tool's outputs plus the analytical capabilities to test them.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use the SHRM article Is Your AI Hiring Tool Discriminating? Here's How to Find Out to learn how to validate an HR tool.
Monitor
AI tools can scan legislative feeds, agency notices, and legal updates to identify new employment rules and summarize what each change means for the organization.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low/Average — A missed or misread update carries real risks, so this process requires careful monitoring.
- Perceived cost rating: Low/Average — Most widely available AI tools can summarize public legal sources, though broad, reliably updated coverage may require a paid offering.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Using AI for Employment Purposes toolkit to get an overview of the compliance duties that AI tracking should support.
Experimental
AI tools can assign each employee the compliance training required by their role and location and even adjust the learning path as rules or job duties change.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.9% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — An incorrect training assignment can leave someone without a legally required course, so completion records need human oversight.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case will require a dedicated learning platform and a current map of which rules apply to which roles.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Comprehensive Guide to Development and Training toolkit to get tips for building targeted training.
Monitor
AI tools can be trained to apply retention rules across HR records, thus handling tasks such as archiving files at the right time and flagging those due for deletion to ensure compliance.
- Prevalence: Used by 0.7% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — A premature deletion or a missed archive can create regulatory headaches, business challenges, or both.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires records-management tools and an accurate retention schedule.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Complying with Employment Record Requirements toolkit to better understand the retention rules that your system should enforce.
Monitor
Credential
SHRM AI+HI Specialty Credential
Many workers today are using AI as part of their work, rather than fully automating tasks, a signal that points to augmentation, not just replacement. This credential helps you pair artificial intelligence with human intelligence to shape how work gets done.
C-Suite & Board Relations
Fostering effective communication and strategic alignment between HR, executives, and board members to enhance governance and decision-making.
AI tools can help HR leaders assess the organization’s ability to fill future executive openings with internal candidates by analyzing information such as employee performance reviews.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Filling executive roles with the right candidates is critical to organizational success, and the consequences of failing to find the right person for a pivotal position can be severe.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — AI tools can assist with analyzing the status of an organization’s talent pipeline, but executive recruiting still requires a high level of human engagement.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use the SHRM toolkit Modernize Succession Planning for Better Results to understand current best practices for managing your executive talent pipeline.
Monitor
AI tools can help busy HR executives stay abreast of important updates by condensing lengthy documents into concise summaries.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low — Generative AI tools excel at rephrasing existing texts. A quick human review of the summary can ensure it reflects the source documents and has the right tone.
- Perceived cost rating: Low — Summaries are easy to generate with many off-the-shelf AI tools and require very little training.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use the SHRM how-to guide Strategic AI Prompts to Transform HR Summarization Tasks to streamline your summarization process.
Low-Hanging Fruit
AI tools can create presentation assets for board members on the organization's talent challenges.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — HR leaders need their board to trust the department’s strategic analysis. Even small errors in an AI-generated briefing can lower the board’s confidence in the department and reduce their willingness to support needed transformations.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — AI tools can develop draft copy or visual assets, but human workers will need to ensure the presentation strikes the right tone, which can require many rounds of revision.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM’s Customizable HR Metrics Board Presentation as a template to ensure consistency in your board communications.
Monitor
Future of Work
Adapting work models and transforming workplace dynamics to enhance organizational agility and innovation.
AI tools can analyze workplace data to identify shifts in work patterns across teams, such as meeting loads, worker focus time, and after-hours work.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Work data analysis can feel like surveillance, so it poses a risk to morale, while poor analysis can overlook workload issues until they reach a critical level.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — Calendar analytics are generally inexpensive to run, but may require integration with specialized tools.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's 6 Ways Employers Can Reduce Workplace Stress and Build Resilience Q&A to get advice for acting on what your analysis finds.
Monitor
AI tools can use attendance, collaboration, and preference data to suggest employee in-office days, team-specific office days, and physical space plans that fit how people prefer to work.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Hybrid policies touch daily life and there is sensitivity around attendance data, so changes need clear communication.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires several data sources and space-planning tools.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Managing Flexible Work Arrangements toolkit to better understand hybrid policy design.
Monitor
AI tools can build shift schedules from demand forecasts while honoring worker preferences, availability, and scheduling rules.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Schedules shape workers' lives and several cities regulate predictive scheduling, so a human must approve the final schedule.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires a workforce-management platform, which carries its own licensing costs.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Managing Flexible Work Arrangements toolkit to better understand scheduling that works for both sides.
Monitor
AI tools can run shift bidding by collecting preferences, applying seniority rules, and filling coverage without a supervisor having to juggle spreadsheets.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Allocation errors can violate contract or seniority rules and may change people's pay.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — The complexities of workforce-management bidding processes typically require a specialized tool.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM’s Smart Strategies for Overtime Management toolkit to ensure that your shift practices are effective.
Monitor
AI tools can spot patterns in time and attendance data that go beyond identifying individual infractions. Finding predictable fluctuations in availability, tardiness, or missed shifts across an organization can improve workforce planning and scheduling.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Workforce planning decisions should be based on reliable, reviewable data. If an organization’s time and attendance data is inconsistent, poorly formatted, or limited in scope, an AI tool could identify false patterns.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — A specialized tool may be necessary to perform this kind of analysis in a secure, reliable fashion.
SHRM Member Resource:
Check out SHRM’s Managing Employee Attendance toolkit to dig deeper into the complexities of attendance patterns as they relate to workforce planning.
Monitor
Organizational Design & Change Management
Aligning organizational structures and processes with strategic goals to enhance adaptability and performance.
Seminar
Managing Change
Navigate organizational transformation with confidence through SHRM’s Managing Change program.
During a change effort, AI tools can read survey responses, comments, and aggregate questions to show how employees are reacting and where resistance is building.
- Prevalence: Used by 3% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low/Average — The analysis guides communication choices and aggregation protects individual respondents, though a misread can point leaders the wrong way.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires text analysis tools and a feedback channel to draw from.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Change Management Checklist to learn how to plan for and respond to employee reactions.
Low-Hanging Fruit
AI tools can be used to develop and refine a communications plan to support organizational change. They can evaluate a plan, draft copy, and help keep the project on track.
- Prevalence: Used by 4% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low – AI tools can identify potential communications challenges and spot flaws in the current approach, but the plan is finalized and executed by humans.
- Perceived cost rating: Low/Average – The cost varies with the level of support required. Uses such as project management or automation may require specialized tools.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM’s Change Management Checklist for HR to spot areas where you need support.
Low-Hanging Fruit
After mergers or growth, AI tools can compare competing job structures and suggest one harmonized architecture of levels, titles, and families.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Harmonization touches pay ranges and status for many people at once, so errors carry legal implications and demand human review.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires job-architecture tools and detailed role data from each side.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Organizational Structure Explained toolkit to learn how to build coherent job structures.
Experimental
AI tools can group similar roles into job families and draft consistent descriptions for each, bringing order to a scattered set of titles.
- Prevalence: Used by 4% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Low/Average — Job structures inform pay and leveling decisions, so HR should review the groupings before they take effect.
- Perceived cost rating: Low/Average — General AI tools draft descriptions well; larger role libraries may need a job-architecture tool.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Master AI Prompts for Writing Effective Job Postings guide to support consistent role documentation.
Low-Hanging Fruit
AI tools can map how people actually work together and use that picture to suggest team boundaries and roles that fit real collaboration.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Network maps expose individual working relationships, so design changes based on them need privacy safeguards and human judgment.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires network-analysis tools and communication metadata handled under clear rules.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Organizational Structure Explained toolkit to get the design context for network findings.
Monitor
AI tools can model how different organizational structures would perform under a restructuring or a growth plan, comparing cost, spans, and reporting lines.
- Prevalence: Used by 2% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Leaders make major structural decisions from these models, so treating an assumption-based output as certainty can reshape the organization on weak grounds.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires modeling tools plus clean structure and cost data.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Managing Organizational Change toolkit to plan structural change.
Experimental
AI tools can analyze reporting structures to flag managers with too many or too few reports as well as reporting layers that add little value.
- Prevalence: Used by 1% of HR professionals.
- Perceived risk rating: Average — Recommendations can point toward role changes or cuts, so leaders should weigh any context that the model cannot see before acting.
- Perceived cost rating: Average — This use case requires an organizational analytics tool and accurate reporting data.
SHRM Member Resource:
Use SHRM's Organization Design & Change Management resource hub to better understand how to optimize reporting structures.