The AI already in your HR tools, and what you owe the people it decides about

How it works

1. Trace one process, the one that reaches the most people, and find every place a system ranks, scores or allocates.
2. Write each use down once, with what it feeds, who it reaches, what the supplier says it is for and what you decided about it.
3. Put a person with time and authority in front of each output, tell the people it decides about, and answer them when they ask why.

The book and the working files

• The book

  21 chapters, as PDF, EPUB and the web edition

  Where AI already decides in hiring and staff management, what the law makes of it, and how to run it so you can show what you did.

• Eight printable forms

  PDF

  The register of AI uses, one sheet per use, the supplier letter that grows into a vendor questionnaire, the oversight log, the two notices, the response to a request for an explanation and the complaints log.

• The forms to type into

  Word file and spreadsheet

  The same eight forms as a Word file you type into, and the register as a spreadsheet with a worked example beside it.

• A worked set

  PDF, with the forms

  Every form filled in for one logistics company across one year, so you can see how much goes in each box.

What is in the book

1. Where AI already decides

   1. The AI you did not decide to buy
   2. What you may never do at work
   3. What the law calls employment AI
   4. Help with writing, or a say in someone's life
   5. Two dates, and one of them has passed

2. Finding every use and writing it down

   1. Start with one process
   2. Looking inside the HR system
   3. The register of AI uses in HR
   4. One sheet per use

3. Who answers for it

   1. You are the deployer, and someone inside must answer
   2. What to ask the vendor, and what an answer looks like
   3. What your HR people and managers need to know

4. Oversight that survives a busy week

   1. The person who signs off has no time
   2. Shifts, tasks and scores
   3. Checking a ranking you cannot see inside
   4. The oversight log, and the system's own logs

5. Telling people, and answering them

   1. Telling candidates
   2. Telling employees and their representatives first
   3. When someone asks why
   4. When it gets someone wrong

6. One company, end to end

   1. One company, one year

What you'll learn

• How to find the AI in software you already use, from its settings, its release notes and its contract.
• Which of your uses are high-risk under Annex III point 4, and how to write the classification so it survives a question.
• What to ask a vendor, and how to tell a promise from a description and a description from evidence.
• How to set up oversight that a busy HR team can actually keep, and a log that shows it happened.
• What to tell candidates, staff and their representatives, and how to answer a person who asks why.
• What to do when a system gets someone wrong.

Who it's for

Evidence

Every requirement the book describes is tied to the article it comes from and checked against the current text of the regulation, including its 2026 amendment, and the GDPR where it applies to the same decisions. Each claim is listed once at the end of the book with the date it was last checked. When the regulation changes, the book is updated and the new version appears in your library.

• Under the EU AI Act, Annex III point 4, headed "Employment, workers' management and access to self-employment", lists as high-risk the AI systems intended to be used for the recruitment or selection of natural persons, in particular to place targeted job advertisements, to analyse and filter job applications, and to evaluate candidates (point (a)); and the AI systems intended to be used to make decisions affecting terms of work-related relationships, the promotion or termination of work-related contractual relationships, to allocate tasks based on individual behaviour or personal traits or characteristics, or to monitor and evaluate the performance and behaviour of persons in such relationships (point (b)).
• Under the EU AI Act, before putting into service or using a high-risk AI system at the workplace, deployers who are employers must inform workers' representatives and the affected workers that they will be subject to the use of the system, and that information is to be provided, where applicable, in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down in Union and national law and practice on information of workers and their representatives.
• Under the EU AI Act, any affected person subject to a decision taken by the deployer on the basis of the output of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, other than the systems in point 2, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects them in a way they consider to have an adverse impact on their health, safety or fundamental rights, has the right to obtain from the deployer clear and meaningful explanations of the role of the AI system in the decision-making procedure and of the main elements of the decision taken. The right does not apply where Union or national law, in compliance with Union law, provides exceptions or restrictions, and applies only to the extent it is not otherwise provided for under Union law.
• The EU AI Act applies from 2 August 2026. Chapters I and II apply from 2 February 2025, except parts of Article 5(1) which apply from 2 December 2026. Chapter III Section 4, Chapters V, VII and XII and Article 78 apply from 2 August 2025, with the exception of Article 101. Chapter III Sections 1, 2 and 3, except Article 6(5), apply from 2 December 2027 for systems classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) and Annex III, and from 2 August 2028 for systems classified as high-risk under Article 6(1) and Annex I. Articles 102 to 110 apply from 27 July 2026.

Questions

Do I need a lawyer to use it?

For most of the work, no. The book shows what each record is for and what a usable one looks like, so you can write it yourself. The few questions worth a lawyer's view are marked, so you know when to ask and what to ask.

Will it help me decide whether a tool is high-risk?

Yes. It walks you through the employment line of Annex III and the way back out of it, use by use, so you reach the decision yourself and write down why it holds.

Does it cover my country's employment law?

It covers the AI Act and the GDPR as they apply to these decisions, and it says where national law and collective agreements can ask more, such as informing or consulting your staff's representatives, so you know what to check.

Can I edit the files?

Yes. The eight forms come as a Word file you type into and the register as a spreadsheet, as well as the printable PDF.

What happens when the rules change?

You get the update at no extra cost. The book is kept current with the regulation, and your library always holds the latest version.

Is this a subscription?

No. You buy the book once.