Joanna Griffin, head of people and safety at American Golf, has spent her HR career taking on challenging projects, including leading complex people initiatives and building HR functions from scratch. She has also been exploring the potential of AI to enhance HR teams’ capabilities, particularly in the retail sector.
Griffin’s interest in AI as a practical tool for HR began with experimenting with chatbots, which she used as a thinking partner to work through cases and ideas. She soon realized that AI could take on time-consuming administrative tasks, support analysis and drafting, and improve workflows.
AI in HR: Opportunities and Challenges
Griffin is most excited about AI’s creative potential, allowing HR teams to build tools tailored to their organization’s specific needs without requiring traditional software development expertise. At American Golf, she and her team turned the familiar nine-box talent grid into an interactive tool, enabling managers to complete the process with their HR business partner and receive coaching prompts from an AI agent.
They also created a case management platform for high-volume retail environments, supporting workflows for investigations and grievances, drawing on ACAS guidance and UK employment law. This platform has given Griffin the tools to turn her ideas into practical solutions that can improve HR operations.
Griffin acknowledges that HR deals with highly sensitive information, so balancing the opportunities of AI with trust, privacy, and security is essential. To address this, her team built security into the case management platform from the outset, using coded safeguards, encrypting data in transit and at rest, and conducting penetration testing.
The platform is deliberately restricted to trusted sources, such as ACAS guidance and UK government legislation, rather than searching the open internet. The human remains firmly in the loop, with AI identifying themes, flagging risks, and suggesting reasonable adjustments, but not making decisions.
Related Post: Curl Jar Founder to Speak at London Retail Tech Summit
The Future of HR: Human and Technological
Griffin believes that AI will not replace HR professionals but rather automate administrative tasks, freeing up time for strategic and human work. She thinks that the next step is for organizations to become more deliberate in their AI implementation, considering what benefits it adds, what it costs, and how time saved will be utilized.
Griffin is excited about the levelling effect of AI, making technology accessible to smaller businesses and HR teams willing to experiment. However, she also recognizes the challenge of ensuring that early-career HR professionals build judgement and experience, as AI takes over entry-level tasks.
Griffin will soon be applying her learnings from American Golf to help retailers access AI-enabled HR tools and support tailored to their organizations. She aims to provide HR teams with practical solutions to manage complex information, reduce administration, and give managers better guidance, while keeping important decisions with a person.
The work at American Golf has shown Griffin that retailers need practical HR technology designed around the realities of their businesses. She has built and tested a model in a live, high-volume retail environment, and the next step is to make that thinking and capability available more widely, which is expected to start with employee relations case management and investigations and grievances.
Expanding Access to AI-Enabled HR Tools
The model will be adapted to each retailer’s unique culture, policies, and risk profile. Griffin will provide the learning, framework, and practical experience of building something that works in retail, helping HR teams to manage complex information and reduce administration.