01 the business
Group of veterinary clinics
12 clinics, 260 staff in two countries
The same questions reach the HR manager every week: leave balances, sick pay, parental leave, what the health plan covers. The answers are in a handbook PDF and a benefits portal nobody can find. Rules differ between the two countries the group operates in.
02 before
The problem
The same questions reach HR every week: how much leave is left, whether the dentist is covered, what the parental leave rules are. The answers sit in a handbook PDF and a benefits portal nobody can find, so one person ends up as the help desk.
- One person acts as the HR help desk.
- Staff get different answers from different managers.
- Country differences cause confusion.
03 the build
What the AI does
- Step 1: Reads your employee handbook, benefits guides and policy documents from SharePoint, Google Drive or Notion and keeps them up to date as they change.
- Step 2: Answers questions in Slack or Microsoft Teams in plain words and links to the section it used.
- Step 3: Looks up personal details such as leave balances from BambooHR or your HR system, only for the person asking.
- Step 4: Answers using the policy that applies to the employee's country or site where your rules differ between countries.
- Step 5: Hands sensitive or unclear questions to HR with the conversation attached instead of guessing.
paused: waiting for a person to approve
How it was put together
- Loaded the handbook, benefits guides and policies for each country.
- Answered in Teams in plain words, linking to the section used.
- Looked up leave balances from the HR system for the person asking only.
- Passed sensitive or unclear questions to HR with the conversation attached.
04 human in the loop
Where a person stays in charge
HR approves which documents the assistant can use and reviews a weekly list of questions it could not answer. Anything about pay disputes, health, grievances or performance goes straight to a person.
- HR approves which documents the assistant may use.
- Pay disputes, health, grievances and performance go straight to a person.
- Personal data is shown only to the person it belongs to.
05 rollout
From kickoff to live in 4 weeks
- Weeks 1–2Clean and tag policies by country; connect the HR system.
- Week 3Pilot with two clinics.
- Week 4Open to all staff and start the weekly unanswered-questions review.
06 after
What changes
Employees get answers when they need them, including on night shifts and weekends. HR spends less time repeating the handbook and more time on the conversations that need a person.
Assume 260 staff asking one routine HR question a month each, at 6 minutes of HR time per answer.
260 × 6 minutes = 26 hours a month of routine answers. If the assistant handles 70%, HR gets back about 18 hours.
What to measure
- Questions answered without HR.
- Questions it could not answer, by topic.
- HR time spent on routine queries.
- Staff satisfaction with answers.
07 evidence
What the research says
In a survey of 31,000 people in 31 markets, 75% of knowledge workers said they use AI at work, and 78% of AI users bring their own AI tools.
Knowledge workers spend roughly a fifth of their working week searching for and gathering information.
McKinsey Global Institute, Capturing business value with social technologies (opens in a new tab) · 2012
08 lessons
Mistakes to avoid
- Outdated handbooks. Fix the source before launch.
- Mixing countries. Tag every policy with where it applies.
- Answering sensitive topics. Route them to people.
09 questions
Common questions
- Can it see everyone's leave balance?
- No. It looks up data only for the person asking, using the same access rules as your HR system.
- Does it work in Slack?
- Yes. Slack and Teams both work.