AI for government human resources practitioners

The Partnership for Public Service AI Center for Government™ recently participated in the GovHR Conference to discuss AI fundamentals, prompt engineering and the responsible use of artificial intelligence to help public sector human resources practitioners effectively use AI for better decision-making and data processing.  

AI has the potential to enhance how government serves the public, and public sector HR professionals have unique responsibilities, given the sensitive and often confidential nature of their work. 

AI fundamentals  

At its core, artificial intelligence, which has been studied seriously since the 1950s, is a machine or computer-based system that uses pattern recognition and statistical analysis to generate things like predictions, recommendations, decisions or content.  

AI encompasses a large breadth of capabilities and technologies that can be applied in many ways. Some common uses of AI include:  

• Content creation 
• Decision-making 
• Performance improvement 
• Personalization 
• Recommendations 

The more recent development of generative AI has opened new doors for how public sector teams can use the technology to accomplish their mission. 

Exploring generative AI for government HR 

Generative AI tools rely on user-generated prompts to produce outputs like text, images, audio or video. While they can seem magical, generative AI’s capabilities are reliant on a large amount of training data and statistical pattern recognition. Examples of its uses for government HR teams include: 

• Creating plain-language job descriptions 
• Tailoring candidate outreach 
• Personalizing onboarding guides  
• Simulating focus groups 
• Brainstorming and breaking through writer’s block 
• Building meeting agendas 
• Summarizing documents 
• Making recruitment flyers 
• Generating scripts for slide decks 
• Editing language to be more concise 
• Developing spreadsheet formulas 

Prompt engineering 

When a user inputs a request to generative AI, they are prompting it to produce a result. Careful prompt engineering can effectively frame and structure instructions for generative AI tools to create outputs aligned to expectations. According to the InnovateUS Prompt Engineering Worksheet, the most effective prompts include the following: 

• Instruction: Describe the basic task. 
• Role: Explain the tone and style. 
• Format: Define the shape of the output. 
• Context: Give background and detail needed for the task. 
• Example: Provide any relevant sources, such as prior work products or other documents. 

Responsible use of AI  

While AI tools have many uses, they have limitations as well. 

Human capital teams must thoroughly consider fairness, privacy and accuracy expectations, as well as any other agency- or office-level policies, as they develop AI use cases. 

It’s also important to take a human-in-the-loop approach that ensures people are curating the data used to train a model and are monitoring the accuracy of generated outputs to reduce potential harm.  

 
Our parting note to HR professionals: It can be easy to feel intimidated by generative AI, but don’t forget you already have the most important skill you need: the ability to evaluate the outputs of a generative AI tool. Start with small, low-risk use cases, and if you need help getting started, you can always prompt the tool by describing your role and asking for potential uses that are relevant to it.   

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