How can D&I professionals steer the ship on AI?

How can D&I professionals steer the ship on AI?

By Jo Faragher on 9 December 2025

According to research from analyst company Gartner, AI could automate up to 60% of HR tasks by 2030. With “agents” or other automation tools taking on much of the transactional work involved with managing people, experts argue, this means people-focused teams such as HR and D&I can focus on higher value activities such as building engagement, inclusion and a purposeful culture.

But to many D&I professionals working in organisations that are on the cusp of deploying AI more widely, the rapidly evolving technology still carries much potential risk. Many employees are using their own AI tools from home to support work decisions, meaning it’s widely adopted but also unregulated. Bias is often baked into AI systems or the data they use, and those jobs most at risk of automation are often lower-paid and occupied by women and people from ethnic minorities. When employees seek help from AI for mental health conditions or other supports, they can become over-reliant on these tools, amplifying social isolation and doing little to improve their circumstances.

Speaking at d&i Leaders recent webinar, Navigating DEI with an AI Lens, Jenn Barnett, people and culture director and head of EDI at accounting firm Grant Thornton, argued that the profession sits at an important inflection point where it can enhance inclusion strategies through AI and mitigate these risks. “AI can be a powerful tool to reduce bias. At Grant Thornton we use a tool called Neurosight, for example, that calibrates candidate assessments against themselves rather than others. AI can also personalise learning, for example by automating feedback or improving the feedback a human colleague can give.” For employees with physical and cognitive disabilities, she added, AI can support them through tools such as voice typing, while D&I teams can use AI tools to scour large data sets to improve their analysis of company culture.

Co-owning AI

Dan Gallagher, founder of The Intersection Network, believes D&I professionals stand at an important crossroads where they can add value to companies’ AI investments and choices. “The available budget for DEI has shrunk and is falling down the priority list,” he says. “We can either sit and do what we’ve been doing the last decade or co-own AI within the employee lifecycle, identifying bias, having challenging conversations with stakeholders and helping HR leaders unlock the marketing claims from vendors who are claiming their software is bias-free.” He quotes studies showing that roughly 48% of recruitment agencies use AI technologies, while 30% of UK employees say they have witnessed bias in recruitment – a gap that suggests risk is escalating faster than companies can mitigate it.

Rather than be bystanders to the AI conversation, he says, D&I professionals can help to avoid access and equity issues such as which employees have access to paid-for generative AI versus those who don’t. They can challenge managers on using AI for performance reviews, ensuring the data set that influences outcomes is not biased or leading to the same people getting promotions. “This is still new and in a lot of organisations they will have a responsible AI lead,” adds Gallagher. “But they can’t do everything, and need subject matter experts who can support them. DEI professionals have to have their voice in the room.”

Principles in practice

Rukasana Bhaijee, global head of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Financial Times, recently attended a Women in AI event as part of a summit hosted by the newspaper, and was shocked to hear that just 29% of women feel they have the skills to make the most of AI, while 71% of men felt that to be the case. “They’re less likely to use it at work, or to be offered upskilling, or to have access to tools,” she told d&i Leaders’ webinar. “Just from a gender perspective the statistics are shocking.” Like many employers, the organisation has developed a responsible AI policy – the key is how the contents of the policy are brought to life. She added: “It’s about how we make sure that this is more than window dressing or performative, how we implement the principles in practice.” On a practical level, this might take the shape of regular fairness audits or monitoring data sets for bias.

D&I teams have the power to shape how the workforce uses AI tools as they evolve and become more complex, she advised. “When leaders are managing “agents” as well as people, we need a new layer of intentional questioning and thinking on this. We need to ask questions such as ‘is there a human in the loop’ if the agent is making decisions?” she added. Furthermore, D&I teams can support HR functions in key decisions such as software implementation, “providing equity by design”, and “being a business partner to your HR team as this tech is deployed”.

The risk of not doing this, adds Gallagher, is that it doesn’t happen at all and the business is more open to risk. He says: “Everyone thinks someone else has ownership and no-one takes responsibility – HR thinks the vendor will sort it out, the vendor thinks the customer has a framework in place, and the manager using the tool assumes this work has been done. Then someone goes through the recruitment process and is discriminated against and there’s a tribunal case.”

Ultimately, the most inclusive perspective on AI is one that sees it augmenting the human workforce and helping foster a more inclusive and productive culture, argues Brittany Schmaling, people data analyst at Dayforce. She concludes: “In 2026, leaders will realise that AI isn’t here to replace people, it’s here to empower them. It doesn’t replace human intelligence; it amplifies it.”

Related content:

• Watch the recent d&i Leaders Webinar ‘Navigating DEI with an AI lens‘ featuring Rukasana Bhaijee and Jenn Barnett – View now