As AI use by organisations increases, we highlight the need for practical government guidance on its use in recruitment and for an AI skills development framework that should be informed by people professionals
The CIPD Good Work Index 2025 found that AI automation of repetitive tasks has generally been welcomed by those who had experienced it, by and large reporting that it enhanced their performance. These employees also reported better job satisfaction and mental health, demonstrating that there are positive use cases for AI.
With AI becoming a more integrated part of technology solutions in the workplace, how confident can we be with current government guidance around responsible uses of AI? Moreover, as technology in this space rapidly develops, what are the key concerns of people professionals?
Recruitment is a core activity within an HR department’s remit and is therefore relevant to many CIPD members. Areas where AI could be used in recruitment include targeted job advertising, CV screening and auto-transcriptions of interviews. As AI is being increasingly embedded in the recruitment process the pace that it’s evolving could leave people professionals behind when it comes to using it responsibly.
Furthermore, the line between advanced technology and AI can be blurry. Some might consider technology solutions that don’t have machine learning or natural language processing capabilities as unconnected with AI guidance. But instead of focusing purely on definitions, people professionals should think about the scale and severity of the impact on people when a technology solution goes wrong (AI or otherwise) and look at ways to minimise risk.
People professionals can and should play a role in reviewing government guidance on how to use AI responsibly in recruitment. As AI is used more frequently by organisations and within HR teams, it’s essential that guidance should be practical for the people who need to use it.
Adopting an AI-embedded solution responsibly in the workplace hinges on people having the right skills to make the best use of it. This covers skills such as managing sensitive data and data engineering, as well as problem-solving and project evaluation. These might sound like skills for IT engineers or project managers, but anyone who uses an AI-embedded solution (an AI worker) or has significant decision-making responsibilities (an AI leader) would also need to develop their AI skills.
The Alan Turing Institute’s AI skills for business framework outlines the skills needed for the personas of ‘AI leader’ and ‘AI worker’, as well as for the personas of ‘AI citizen’ and ‘AI professional’. Although competency frameworks alone won’t solve all of the issues that AI might bring, the people profession’s expertise and influence as a whole can have a positive impact. Particularly, its expertise in interpreting and operationalising competency frameworks would be beneficial for organisations that want to grow their people’s AI and digital expertise.
The CIPD aims to help refine existing UK Government guidance on AI in recruitment and on developing AI skills for businesses by making it more practical for people professionals. These two areas form part of a UK Government-funded project – Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme. The CIPD is partnering on this to inform guidance on the responsible use of AI, by conducting research on how it is being used in a real-world environment.
Another major aspect of the project is focused on action research on AI adoption and ways to enhance job design. A key aspiration of the action research is to directly influence the thinking around AI adoption and job design for the organisations involved. The CIPD is working in conjunction with the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) to conduct action research with organisations of different sizes, industry and digital maturity.
Informing government guidance around AI in recruitment and developing AI skills for business are two areas where the CIPD is actively looking to engage with members in the UK. Members will be able to contribute to this work by completing a survey via a link in the CIPD Member Update emails for June and July, with the survey being open until 7 August.
Hayfa joined us in 2020. Hayfa has degrees in computer science and human resources from University of York and University of Warwick respectively.
She started her career in the private sector working in IT and then HR and has been writing for the HR community since 2012. Previously she worked for another membership organisation (UCEA) where she expanded the range of pay and workforce benchmarking data available to the higher education HR community.
She is interested in how the people profession can contribute to good work through technology and has written several publications on our behalf, as well as judging our people management awards, speaking at conferences and exhibitions and providing commentary to the media on the subjects of people and technology.
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