From Chatbot to Teammate
How three HR leaders are making AI part of their everyday work.
Issue #33
Sanna Lindner
Chief People Officer
Sonja Semmelmayr
Chief HR Officer
Katja Rantala
VP, People
I discussed with three senior HR leaders what they're actually doing with AI. Their answers gave me a fascinating look at how the technology is already implemented.
At Eficode, Sanna Lindner uses AI to create HR reports and save time preparing presentations. At Flovi, Sonja Semmelmayr has an assistant preparing her email and Slack replies every day, ready for her to review. And at Aiven, Katja Rantala's team is building AI agents that take on work previously done manually.
All three are finding practical ways to put AI to work, but the technology plays a very different role in each example. As AI takes on more of the work, the possibilities become much bigger.
I've been thinking about how to make that progression easier to understand, and what it means for an HR leader looking to go further. Here's how I see it.
Value × Automation
From individual tasks to work that runs across a team.
The work before the decision
An HR report is only helpful when someone can get the information out, understand it, and explain what matters. That preparation takes time, especially when the findings need to be presented to other leaders.
At Eficode, Chief People Officer Sanna Lindner pointed to two ways AI is helping her with that work: requesting reports directly from the HR system and turning material into presentation visuals. Both shorten the distance between having information and being ready to discuss it.
She put the benefit of presentation work plainly:
“Visualizing presentations saves a lot of time.”
Sanna uses AI daily and expects that use to increase. She also raised information security as a concern, even though she hasn't experienced an incident. Both observations belong in the same conversation. HR can save real time with AI while being deliberate about the information it is allowed to access.
When AI knows how you work
A well-written draft still takes work if you need to explain the audience, tone, and relevant policies every time. Sonja Semmelmayr, CHRO at Flovi, has spent time teaching her assistant those details.
Sonja and one Senior People Business Partner support five companies across four countries. Her assistant has learned how she writes and handles different situations. It prepares responses to employees and team leads in her voice, with links to relevant policies and guidelines when appropriate.
“At a set time each day, my AI assistant prepares draft replies to my emails and Slack messages. I have a dedicated slot in my calendar to review, edit and send them.”
The schedule is an important detail. Replies are ready when Sonja sits down to handle them, rather than piling up for the end of the day. She still reads every draft and presses send herself. The assistant takes care of preparation; she keeps control of the response.
Her team is also testing an AI-powered search tool for its employee handbook. The aim is for people to find answers to everyday HR questions directly, reducing the number of routine requests handled by a very small team. For now, it is being tested by a limited group.
When AI takes on the workflow
Individual tasks are only part of the opportunity. Some HR work passes through several steps, people, and software tools before anything is finished.
At Aiven, VP, People Katja Rantala describes a People team building custom agentic workflows. They are automating manual steps and, in some cases, using their own workflows in place of tasks previously handled through separate software products.
“We have a strategy at Aiven to automate all work that is easier to do with agents.”
Katja sees particular opportunity in recruiting and talent management. She also raises the problems that become more important as AI takes on more work: ethics, poor-quality output, and knowing when a person needs to step in.
A draft email has someone reviewing it before it goes out. A workflow that touches employee information or influences a recruiting process needs equally clear responsibility, even when much more of the work happens automatically. That is part of making automation dependable.
What would you hand over next?
Think of a task your HR team does repeatedly. What information goes in? What result should come out? Which parts can AI prepare, and where must a person check or decide?
Those answers will usually tell you whether you need better context for an assistant or a workflow that can take on more of the job. You can start with something small enough to test properly, then give AI more responsibility as the work proves dependable.
The next worthwhile AI project may already be on someone's calendar for next Tuesday. I'd start there.
Best,
Henry Kaerki
Founder, Wellhana
More from the three HR leaders
For readers who want to go deeper, here are more of the experiences and observations each contributor shared.
Sanna Lindner
Chief People Officer · Eficode
Where she is already saving time
Sanna uses AI every day and highlighted two applications that have surprised her positively: requesting reports from the HR system using prompts, and creating visuals for presentations. The second saves her a great deal of time.
Both have an obvious place in HR leadership. Reports help get information ready for discussion, while clear presentations make that information easier to share with colleagues and decision-makers.
Where she sees the next opportunities
She expects her own AI use to increase considerably. For the wider HR function, she sees opportunities to make operational work more efficient, improve analytics, and use AI in learning. She also wants to better understand how fundamentally AI will change the way people work.
Information security remains her main reservation. She hasn't encountered a specific incident, but she considers the risk worth taking seriously as AI becomes more common in HR work.
Sonja Semmelmayr
CHRO · Flovi
An assistant that knows how she works
Sonja and one Senior People Business Partner handle HR for five companies in four countries. To make that manageable, she has taught AI how she writes, how she responds to different people, and how she approaches difficult situations.
At a set time each day, the assistant prepares replies to email and Slack messages. Sonja has a calendar slot to review, edit, and send them. The drafts are meant to sound like her, and they can include relevant policy links so employees and managers know where to find information later.
Making answers easier to find
Her team is testing an employee handbook built with Lovable and an AI-powered search function. The goal is for employees to find answers to routine questions directly. For a small HR team, that could reduce repeated requests while making information more accessible across the business.
Sonja also uses AI to gather and organize research when comparing benefits across countries such as Sweden, Spain, and Poland. It can bring together legislation, tax rules, and market practices much faster than doing all the initial research manually. She verifies the important points before turning them into decisions.
What stays with the HR leader
Sonja is careful about AI's ability to give a confident answer that turns out to be wrong. Employment law and country-specific requirements need independent checks. She reviews every draft and sends it herself, keeping final judgment with the person responsible.
Katja Rantala
VP, People · Aiven
Building workflows around the work
At Aiven, the People team is building custom AI-powered workflows to handle work that previously required a series of manual steps. Some are built on top of existing software; others can take over jobs that were previously handled through separate tools.
The strategy is to automate work that agents can handle more easily. Better use of data and fewer repetitive tasks give the People team more room for work that needs human attention and judgment.
Where she sees the opportunity
Katja sees substantial potential in recruiting and talent management. These areas contain repeatable preparation and information work, while still requiring people to make consequential decisions.
She also points to the risks of AI-generated material that looks polished but is low quality, as well as the ethical questions surrounding AI in HR. Those considerations become more important as AI moves from supporting an individual to influencing shared processes.