Four topic areas
AI in the HR team is not a tool question but four topics that belong together. Anyone who works on only one of them ends up with either a routine without a framework or a framework without any benefit.
Co-determination first
Works council AI agreement, Section 87 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), GDPR and the EU AI Act in the HR context, before a tool goes live.
Routines in daily work
Job ads, screening criteria, reference letters, onboarding and employee questions, with the tools your company already pays for.
An AI policy as an interim step
Where no works council agreement exists yet, an AI policy governs the transition without replacing the co-determination right.
The fourth area is the cost logic: how many hours your HR routines currently tie up, what clean automation realistically costs, and what stays with the team after the project. More on that below, and under What AI in HR costs.
Why co-determination comes first
Many HR teams start with AI without involving the works council (Betriebsrat, the elected employee representation in German companies), because "it only produces a text draft". A system that sorts applications, suggests wording for reference letters or summarises performance data is, under the settled case law of the Federal Labour Court, a technical device suited to monitoring employees. That triggers Section 87 (1) no. 6 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), and the works council has an enforceable co-determination right. If it is bypassed, the works council can stop the use of the tool, and everything created with it up to that point stands on shaky legal ground.
That is why every AI project starts with the works council, not with the tool. It costs weeks at the beginning and saves months at the end. The compliance topics in detail:
The Works Council AI Agreement · An AI Policy for HR Teams · Co-Determination and AI Under German Law · GDPR and AI in HR · The EU AI Act for HR
AI routines in daily work
Five routines that pay off first in most HR teams, each with its own prompt approaches and the matching legal framework. Ordered by benefit and risk: what saves a lot of time and triggers little co-determination comes first.
A first draft in minutes instead of hours. No screening involved, so usually possible without a works council agreement.
The manager's keywords become a draft in the coded language of German reference letters. A human checks and signs.
Welcome emails, checklists, FAQs per role. Relieves HR, does not replace the personal welcome.
Both subject to co-determination, screening classed as high-risk under the EU AI Act. Live only with an agreement in place.
AI for Job Ads · AI Screening Criteria · AI for Reference Letters · AI for Onboarding · AI for Employee Questions
The tools
I build routines in the tools your company already pays for and whose data processing agreements have already been reviewed. A new specialist tool is a new contract, a new data processing agreement and a new item in the works council agreement. That is rarely worth it.
Nine tools, one project page each: what your HR team builds with them.
Which one fits depends on what already runs in your company and which data processing agreements exist for it. Each card leads to the four-week project with three routines and a sample to try.
Ask about an AI project
Microsoft CopilotIn Outlook, Teams and Word, where your team already works.
ChatGPT EnterpriseWhen your company already runs on it.
ClaudeFor text and document routines with long templates.
GeminiAI inside Google Workspace: Gmail, Docs, Drive.
n8nSelf-hosted workflows, data stays in-house.
MakeConnects Personio, Outlook and Slack without code.
Power AutomateApprovals and onboarding inside Microsoft 365.
PersonioThe HRIS as the data backbone for every routine.
DATEVPayroll, references and interfaces in the Mittelstand.How an AI project runs
An AI project begins with a use-case inventory: which routines should get AI, which deliberately should not. Together with the works council, as a list, not a slide deck. After that, two strands run in parallel: the works council agreement is negotiated, and the first routines are built as drafts and tested with the HR team. They go live once the framework stands. A good entry point is the HR Project Sprint: half a day, one routine, one prompt set.
Within an interim or fractional engagement, an AI rollout is one building block among several. As a standalone project it has its own scope and timeline. Both follow the same principle: works council first, tool second, a human decides.
Cost and time calculator
The cost of an AI rollout in HR is made up of licence fees (usually low if an existing tool is used), the one-off effort for prompt development and training, and the time for the works council agreement. This is compared with the time a routine has tied up manually until now. The logic is under What AI in HR costs, the estimate for your team in the time calculator on the home page.
AI routines and works council agreements delivered with the works council Roles in corporate groups, mid-sized companies and scale-ups. More about me
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a separate works council agreement for every AI tool?
Not necessarily one per tool, but every use case subject to co-determination has to be covered. A framework agreement can bundle several use cases if it is structured by use case rather than by product.
What if we already use AI without having involved the works council?
That can be put in order retrospectively, but it is more urgent than a new project. On the first call we discuss what a retrospective agreement realistically looks like without having to stop current use immediately.
Is this part of an interim or fractional engagement, or a standalone project?
Both are possible. Within a running engagement, an AI rollout is one building block among several. As a standalone project it has its own scope and timeline, often starting with a project sprint.
Which tool should we choose?
The one your company already pays for. Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise and Claude cover the five routines. A specialist tool is rarely needed and always means an extra contract with its own data protection review.
How quickly do we see results?
The first routines run within days, such as job ads or reference letter drafts. What takes longer is the framework: a works council agreement takes two to four months. Both run in parallel, and the routine goes live once the framework stands.
Does the AI end up making people decisions?
No, and that is written into every agreement I negotiate. The AI prepares, a human decides. Automated rejections, performance rankings and emotion recognition are excluded.