Taking minutes at meetings using artificial intelligence transcription tools has become a second nature for many workers. The reason is clear. The need to carefully graffiti of recordings is avoided, and there appears to be no scope for the infamous hallucinations and biases of the technology.
However, experts warn that the use of such software could have legal consequences that HR experts should recognize.
Gemma Dale, senior lecturer at John Moors University at Liverpool, said Human Resource Management HR teams may not “completely understand” the terms they are signed up for when using tools such as: otter.ai Or the Microsoft team to take notes.
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In particular, Dale warned about the consequences of using these platforms in disciplinary or complaints meetings. Many of these tools provide that data may be used for “machine learning purposes.” In other words, employers are risking the privacy of employees, she explained.
“If your server uses a company in the US, you are transferring your data outside of the GDPR and data protection laws,” Dale added.
Will Richmond-Coggan, a privacy issue with AI-focused partners and Freeths, said data could be retained and used to train future tools or accessible to human supervisors working with technical support. “If stored, it could also be vulnerable to hacking and other third-party attacks,” he continued.
“There's also the risk of speech misunderstanding, especially when there's someone people are talking at the same time, background noise or technical language,” said Rachel Phillips, associate at Mills & Reeve.
“Human reviews are still essential to ensure that transcripts are reliable records. If errors are unconfirmed, they can undermine the reliability of the investigation and weaken the employer's position in subsequent court cases.”
Why does HR rely on note-taking tools?
The warning comes amid the surge in AI use in HR. This is because four in five (81%) UK HR experts were open to integrating technology into workplace functions. A survey conducted by WorkBuzz earlier this year.
but, Data from ServiceNow This occupation is more hesitant about implementing the technology, indicating that 39% of workers have found a lack of trust in the HR sector that uses AI.
Although it was not necessary for the employment court to have a verbatim transcript of a disciplinary or complaint meeting, Phillips said that AI note-taking tools are increasingly being used by HR experts for these purposes. “Automatic transcription frees up management time, fewer participants and allows for faster distribution of notes,” she explained.
Memos generated by AI are perceived as “more objective and less prone to accusations of bias,” and could help reduce tensions and conflicts during the disciplinary action and complaints process, Phillips added.
However, she said that AI does not provide the right alternative to human note takers.
What precautions should be taken?
Rachel Ward, a partner at Lewis Silkin, advised employers to ensure employees involved in disciplinary actions or complaints agree to use the AI tools. Following the meeting, memos must be shared with employees for review and approval, to ensure procedural fairness and build trust in the process, she said.
“Like other AI tools, employers had to implement careful due diligence with providers, which requires access to where the servers are located, what security controls are in place, and what privacy is built into AI by design,” Richmond Corgan explained.
“The agreements that could be obtained without that and without being transparent to employees about what will happen with the information recorded could be of limited value.”
For more information, please read CIPD's Bitesize Research. Can AI change the future of HR?
