From chatbot to teammate

Where the value begins

At Eficode, Chief People Officer Sanna Lindner uses AI every day. She has found it especially valuable in the preparation around HR leadership: gathering information and turning it into something other people can quickly understand. That frees up more time to focus on what the information means.

“What surprised me is how much time AI can save on everyday HR work. I can request reports directly from our HR system and use AI to visualize presentations much faster.”

I like this example because it shows what a good AI use case looks like: a real task becomes noticeably easier, while the person doing it remains responsible for the decisions. You don't need a complicated setup to start seeing meaningful results.

Sanna expects to use AI even more in the future. She also identifies information security as a concern. She hasn't experienced a specific incident, but HR information calls for care over what data reaches which systems.

When AI knows how you work

Having to explain your tone, audience, and relevant policies every time you ask AI for help takes effort of its own. Sonja Semmelmayr, CHRO at Flovi, has taught her assistant those details so it can prepare work in a way that suits her.

Sonja and one colleague support five companies across four countries. Her assistant has learned how she writes and handles different situations. Its drafts can include links to relevant policies and guidelines, so employees and managers can find the information themselves next time.

“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.”

What stands out to me is the routine. Sonja doesn't have to stop and ask AI to draft every response. The work is already prepared when she sits down to handle it. She reads every draft, edits where needed, and sends it herself.

That's an important step forward: AI can prepare work on a schedule, while a person remains responsible for the result.

Her team is also testing an AI-powered search tool for its employee handbook. The aim is to help people find answers to routine HR questions directly. For now, a limited group is testing it before wider use.

When AI takes on the workflow

Some HR work is a chain of steps rather than a single task. That opens up a different opportunity: AI agents that can take on parts of a process without waiting for a new instruction at every step.

At Aiven, VP, People Katja Rantala describes a People team building custom agentic workflows. They're automating manual steps and, in some cases, using their own solutions for work previously handled through separate software tools.

“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 recognizes the ethical questions and poor-quality output AI can introduce.

I agree with the direction of automating work that agents can handle well. But as more steps become automated, I would pay increasing attention to what agents can access, what actions they're allowed to take, and how their results are checked.

For work involving employee information or recruiting decisions, those checks need to be part of the workflow from the beginning. The more responsibility we give AI, the more important it becomes to make sure we can rely on the results.