Don't depend on it a thousand percent. And just remember that the human side can never be replaced with AI.
Don't depend on it a thousand percent. And just remember that the human side can never be replaced with AI.
HR professionals reach for AI when work piles up, like when a spreadsheet is due before a meeting or employees keep asking policy questions while the boss is out of the office. Those are also the moments when sensitive details slip into a prompt and a wrong number goes unchecked. The limits a team sets ahead of those moments decide how much of the work AI can safely take on.
Maria Delgado-Carroll, an HR professional at the nonprofit Shelterhouse, was previously a Human Resources Manager at SP+ and an HR Generalist at Gates Corporation and Lyons Magnus. She's the author of Do You Have a Sec?, a book that helps employees and HR professionals see both sides of the desk. She uses AI herself, for checking reports and drafting email replies, and she lays out the habits that keep it useful.
"AI can clarify some of the steps and I double check the logic. Of course, I didn't feed in any type of sensitive information, but it's there to help," Delgado-Carroll says. She says people assume AI is taking over because they don't see how much it can help, and her habits keep it in a helping role.
Keep sensitive information out of the prompt
Security comes first when she's asked how a small team should handle AI. "How much faith do you have in the security at your employer or the AI system that they're using that it's not going to go anywhere?" she asks. BambooHR's Redesigning Work report shows how real the concern is, with 71% of employees who use personal AI accounts for work having entered sensitive company information into tools their employer can't see. She says some tools she's used remember what was entered the week before and offer to merge it with new input, which is one more reason to keep that information out in the first place.
Client case files at her workplace can include details such as a mental health or substance use history, and she says that information can't go into an AI tool because what's entered may be saved. That makes keeping sensitive details out of the prompt a firm rule.
Check the numbers before they go anywhere
Delgado-Carroll calls it HR math, the turnover rates and other KPIs. In her experience, some people who are nervous about spreadsheets put the data into an AI tool and let it run without checking, even though the tool at her workplace carries a reminder at the bottom of the screen: "AI isn't perfect. Please check your work." She describes someone running behind when the boss asks for a spreadsheet before a meeting. "If you're off by one digit, off by one decimal, or you didn't put in the right cell number, your whole spreadsheet is off," she says.
When supervisors come through orientation or training, she tells them to keep a folder of the formulas they use. "Make a little cheat sheet folder if you have to," she says, so every new formula or report has a reference they trust. Her final step is a read-through. "Just check the information and make sure everything's right before you submit it," she says.
Leave recruiting to people
Recruiting is where she draws the firmest line. She wants the people who make hiring decisions to stay in the process. "Recruiting should still be with the human side of it," she says. Her concern is keyword screening, which she says a lot of companies use to check resumes.
"A lot of applicants don't know those keywords. So they're going to be missing out on so many people," she says. A friend at a former employer told her the team tested it and then reviewed every applicant. By her estimate, the filter would have missed about 20 people the team would at least have phoned.
BambooHR's report points to a related risk in AI-assisted hiring, with 36% of HR professionals saying they've seen AI favor resumes and cover letters drafted by the same model. A screen that rewards a model's own style can pass over strong candidates, which is the same blind spot she describes with keywords.
Her organization wrote AI into its policies
At her organization, the HR director recently revisited every policy, found much of it outdated, and added one on AI. The organization is still adjusting how AI can be used. Many organizations haven't gotten that far, with over half lacking a clear, documented AI usage policy, the report finds. Without clear policies, each manager decides alone what's safe to enter.
For a one-person HR team, Delgado-Carroll's advice is short. "Just be careful and remember not to enter any type of sensitive information," she says. When her boss was out of the office and policy questions kept coming in, she had a tool draft the email replies and got something helpful. "Don't depend on it a thousand percent. And just remember that the human side can never be replaced with AI," she adds.
In this story
Maria Delgado-Carroll
Human Resources · Shelterhouse
Maria Delgado-Carroll works in Human Resources at Shelterhouse. Her experience includes employee relations, HR operations, compliance, payroll processing, benefits administration, and HRIS management. She has worked in both manufacturing and nonprofit environments and supports leadership in applying policies and procedures to meet workforce needs.
