UK employers tackle growing risks from AI-generated grievances

AI-generated grievances are creating growing challenges for HR teams. Increasing numbers of employees are using AI to draft workplace complaints, often producing lengthy documents containing inaccurate legal arguments and exaggerated claims. The result is grievances are becoming harder to manage and are placing additional pressure on HR resources. We’ll speak to employment lawyer Laura Kennedy about how employers can meet the challenge.
People Management reports on this, highlighting how AI-generated grievances can turn relatively straightforward workplace complaints into lengthy, legalistic disputes. Employers face the challenge of separating genuine concerns from irrelevant case law, inflated allegations and arguments that sound convincing but have little legal foundation. The result is more time spent checking claims and investigating complaints.
The concern is not simply the length of these documents, but the way AI can change the tone and direction of a dispute. Complaints can appear more serious or confrontational than the underlying facts justify, raising expectations among employees and making informal resolution more difficult. For HR, the challenge is to establish what has actually happened rather than become distracted by the language of the grievance.
The warnings are backed by research published earlier this year. A survey by The HR Dept found that 95% of HR directors questioned had encountered employees using AI in workplace disputes. Respondents reported that in 78% of cases, AI-generated grievances relied on inaccurate information or misrepresentations, adding to the burden on HR teams.
Given the widespread use of AI at work, it’s perhaps unsurprising that employees are turning to the technology when raising complaints. It can help them express their concerns more confidently and produce professional-looking documents, but that brings its own challenges for employers.
So let’s get a view on this. Laura Kennedy is one of the lawyers in our Glasgow office and earlier she joined me by phone to discuss it. So has she seen an increase in the number of AI-related grievances?
Laura Kennedy: “Yes, it’s absolutely fair to say that we have seen an increase in AI-related grievances and also the use of AI in the tribunal process and it's probably not surprising – many of us are being encouraged to use AI at work, therefore it's natural that, particularly when an individual's in a situation that's unfamiliar to them, that they use the tools at their disposal and we know that it doesn't take much effort to put information into AI and then receive back what looks like a professional sounding text which can make employees feel more confident in raising their concerns and makes them sound more articulate, incredible and, ultimately, that's what employees want when they're raising their concerns. They want to sound authoritative, and AI can help support them in doing that.”
Joe Glavina: “What’s the main challenge you’re seeing with grievances that have clearly been drafted using AI?”
Laura Kennedy: “I think the key one is that they're just much longer, they're more repetitive, they're less structured. It's becoming harder to actually isolate what are the real issues or the allegations. I also think it makes them appear more serious than potentially sometimes they actually are, and perhaps more intimidating, and that can be really difficult as well when there are legal references that AI can produce as part of these documents and all of that ultimately risks delays to the process to allow extra time for reading and triaging by HR when they get the grievance.”
Joe Glavina: “We know, of course, that AI tools get things wrong and sometimes invent case law and even make up facts. Have you come across that?”
Laura Kennedy: “Yes, I definitely have, and I’ve come across an Act that I didn't know existed and actually doesn't exist on further investigation but, again, it's back to that point where, when you see that, you're then looking into that to see if that's a credible legal risk rather than getting to what are the fundamental issues that the employee has, so it distracts attention away from the actual issues. But I do think that it does raise a very valid point, which is to check any references that you get in AI, and that's certainly something that I would absolutely recommend doing before referring to them.”
Joe Glavina: “There’s also a data protection angle here, Laura. What risks arise when employees use public AI tools to prepare their grievances?”
Laura Kennedy: “Yes, so one of the key concerns for many employers, not just in the grievance context, but just generally about employees using AI, is data protection. There are lots of public tools, and I think the concern would be uploading confidential, or commercially sensitive, information into these tools and so it's helpful if employers have guidance policies that sets, particularly for the tools that they do provide, what can and what cannot be shared on these because clearly there's a risk that if information gets into these public tools, it presents a reputational risk and trust issues if that data leaks. Aside from the data protection risks, I think there are other risks and that AI-generated grievances can appear more hostile. AI can amplify these emotions and make them appear more adversarial than potentially they are. AI can also give advice, and that can give this sense that there's a stronger claim than potentially there is and, again, all of that is just getting away from the crux, which is, what are the issues and how can an employer investigate and properly respond to these? One of the things I do notice when you use AI is that when you put information into it, it can repeat back the words that you use and so almost telling you what perhaps you'd like to hear in some scenarios and that can obviously present its challenges when you're discussing the grievance with the colleague.”
The message for employers is to focus on the genuine concerns behind AI-generated grievances, check questionable legal references and guard against data protection risks. If you would like help in this area, please do contact Laura – her details are on the screen for you.