TL;DR: Four AI tools speed up specific HR jobs: Synthesia turns a script into an onboarding or training video, Microsoft Copilot Chat summarises legal jargon in plain English, Browse AI tracks job ads and market data, and Playground designs event invites and policy images. Use them on public or anonymised material, never personal information, as the OAIC advises.
Last updated 11 October 2026.
Key takeaways
- The most useful AI tools for HR target a single recurring job, such as a training video or a plain-English summary of an enterprise agreement.
- According to Synthesia, its videos can be created in more than 140 languages, which helps multilingual workforces.
- The OAIC recommends against entering personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools.
- Jobs and Skills Australia cites studies finding 21 to 27 per cent of workers use generative AI without their manager knowing, so HR needs a clear AI policy.
- AI that works on employee records belongs inside a governed HR system, not a public tool.
What makes an AI tool useful for HR professionals?
An AI tool is useful for HR when it speeds up a recurring task that does not need personal information, such as a training video, a plain-English summary, or a market scan. The test is simple: does it remove hours from a job you do every month, and can you use it without uploading employee records?
Worknice loves a good piece of technology that makes life easier for HR professionals. That is the job an HRIS does every day, but it does not mean other tools cannot help. Plenty of ad hoc HR tasks, from explaining a new policy to inviting the team to an end-of-year event, can now be finished much faster.
The opportunity is real, and so is the risk. According to Jobs and Skills Australia’s August 2025 report on generative AI, the studies it cites found 21 to 27 per cent of workers use generative AI without their manager knowing. As a result, HR is often both the team adopting AI and the team writing the policy for everyone else.
Suppose you need to explain a new leave policy to 600 people across three states, in two languages, by the end of the month. A short video, a plain-English summary, and an eye-catching intranet image would each normally take days. With the tools below, each takes an afternoon, and the policy itself never leaves your hands.
Which 4 AI tools help HR professionals do work faster?
The four tools are Synthesia for onboarding and training videos, Microsoft Copilot Chat for summarising legal and compliance documents, and Browse AI for tracking job ads and market data. The fourth is Playground, which designs event invitations and images for policies. Each targets a recurring HR job, and each offers a free or included option.
Synthesia
Best for: onboarding, orientation, and policy videos that need to be consistent across sites and languages.
What it does: creates videos from plain text. You type a script, choose an AI avatar, and Synthesia produces a presenter-led video. According to Synthesia, it supports more than 140 languages and can turn documents and prompts into video.
Try it in HR: script a three-minute welcome video for new starters, or a short explainer for a policy change, then produce it in the languages your workforce speaks.
Watch-outs: tell viewers the presenter is AI generated, and keep personal details out of scripts. Updating a video is easy, so date it and review it when the policy changes.
Free option: yes. Synthesia’s Basic plan is free and includes 10 minutes of video creation or dubbing a month.
Microsoft Copilot Chat
Best for: turning compliance-heavy or legal-heavy documents into plain English.
What it does: answers questions, summarises information from the web, generates and rewrites content, and analyses uploaded files. According to Microsoft, Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 licences. Work accounts also get enterprise data protection, so prompts and responses fall under Microsoft’s enterprise terms.
Try it in HR: upload a public enterprise agreement or a Fair Work fact sheet and ask for a plain-English summary of the leave clauses. Legal documents can be hard to understand on the first read, and the second, and the third.
Watch-outs: a summary is not legal advice, and AI can misread a clause. So check every point against the source document and the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance before you rely on it. Even with enterprise protection, follow your organisation’s AI policy before uploading anything about individuals.
Free option: included with eligible Microsoft 365 work licences, with extra capabilities on a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
Browse AI
Best for: keeping an eye on job ads, salary ranges, and other public data without copying it by hand.
What it does: extracts specific data from any website into a spreadsheet that fills itself, and monitors pages on a schedule so you are notified of changes. According to Browse AI, it offers more than 250 prebuilt robots and more than 7,000 integrations, including Google Sheets.
Try it in HR: track how competitors advertise similar roles, including titles, locations, and advertised pay, to inform your next salary review or job ad.
Watch-outs: respect each website’s terms of use, and do not scrape personal information such as candidate profiles. Public job ads show advertised pay, which is not the same as what people are actually paid.
Free option: yes. Browse AI’s free plan includes 50 credits a month.
Playground
Best for: quick graphics for HR communications, such as invitations, intranet banners, and images that support a policy.
What it does: designs graphics from a text description, with templates for cards and invites, posters, and social posts. You can also edit an image with simple instructions, such as removing an object. According to Playground, more than 13 million creators use it.
Try it in HR: describe an invitation to a team building event, such as “make it look like a party”, and adapt a template in minutes.
Watch-outs: check every design against your brand guidelines, and do not upload photos of staff without their consent. Text in AI images can still come out garbled, so proofread before sending.
Free option: yes. Playground’s free plan allows up to 10 images every 3 hours, with paid plans for more.
Which AI tools from the 2023 list have changed?
Three tools from the original 2023 list have changed. Detangle, which summarised legal documents, is no longer reachable at its old address. Brancher.ai, a no-code AI app builder, is still online but gives way to tools with a more direct HR job. Playground has grown from an image editor into a design studio.
The original list also carried five tools under a heading that promised four. Narrowing it to four, each tied to a recurring HR job, keeps the count honest and the advice practical.
Copilot Chat replaces Detangle for plain-English summaries. It has a clear advantage for many HR teams, because it sits inside the Microsoft 365 account their organisation already manages. In addition, administrators can apply the organisation’s policies and permissions to it, which a standalone summariser usually cannot offer.
For general time-savers outside HR, such as image clean-up, step-by-step guides, and research from your own documents, see the first list of little known AI tools.
Which HR information should never go into a public AI tool?
Personal information about employees and candidates should never go into a public AI tool. That covers CVs, performance notes, medical certificates, pay details, and anything that identifies a person. The OAIC’s best-practice advice is that organisations should not enter personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, privacy obligations apply to personal information entered into an AI system. They also apply to any output that contains it. So pasting a performance note into a free chatbot to “make it sound kinder” creates a privacy problem, even if the result reads well.
Use the tools above on material that is already public, such as an award or a job ad. Content stripped of names and identifying details is also fine. If a task genuinely needs employee data, use a tool your organisation has approved for that data. Then record the decision in your AI policy so managers do not improvise.
How do AI tools help HR professionals save time?
AI tools help HR professionals save time by drafting first versions, summarising long documents, producing training content, and monitoring information that would otherwise be checked by hand. The saving comes from removing the blank page and the copy-and-paste, while a person still checks the result and makes the final call.
In practice, the time savings fall into four groups. Drafting covers job ads, policy explainers, and video scripts. Summarising covers enterprise agreements, awards, and long reports. Monitoring covers job ads and market data. Finally, producing covers training videos and graphics that once needed an agency.
Where AI needs to work on employee records, it belongs inside the HR system that already holds them, under that system’s permissions. For instance, Worknice summarises completed performance review cycles in plain language, and names are never sent to the model. The AI HR software comparison sets out how six HR platforms handle that data. However, for public documents, videos, and graphics, the general tools above remain the faster route.
Frequently asked questions
What AI tools are useful for HR professionals?
Useful AI tools for HR professionals include Synthesia for onboarding and training videos, Microsoft Copilot Chat for plain-English summaries of legal documents, Browse AI for tracking job ads and market data, and Playground for invitations and policy images. Use them on public or anonymised material, and keep employee personal information out of public tools.
Can AI summarise an enterprise agreement or award?
Yes, AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot Chat can summarise an uploaded enterprise agreement or award in plain English. However, a summary is not legal advice and can misread a clause. Check every point against the source document and the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance before relying on it or sharing it with staff.
Can HR use AI to make onboarding videos?
Yes. Tools such as Synthesia turn a typed script into a presenter-led video with an AI avatar, in more than 140 languages according to the vendor. HR teams use them for welcome videos, orientation, and policy explainers. Tell viewers the presenter is AI generated, and keep personal details out of the script.
Is it legal to put employee data into ChatGPT?
The Privacy Act applies to personal information entered into AI tools, and the OAIC recommends that organisations do not enter personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools. So HR should keep employee data out of public chatbots and use tools their organisation has approved and assessed for that data.
How can HR teams use AI safely?
HR teams use AI safely by keeping personal information out of public tools, checking every output before it is used, and following a written AI policy. Use AI for public material, generic drafts, and anonymised content. Where AI needs employee records, use the governed AI inside your HR system rather than a public tool.
About the author
Graham Martin is Co-founder of Worknice, an Australian HRIS built for mid-to-large organisations. He has spent more than a decade working with Australian People and Culture teams on HR systems, compliance, and payroll integration.
Related reading
- Questions to ask HR software vendors about AI: what good answers about data, control, and models sound like.
- AI performance reviews: where AI helps in reviews, what to avoid, and the rules to set.
- AI agents for HR: what AI agents in HR software actually do, and what to insist on.
Sources
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, “Guidance on privacy and the use of commercially available AI products”. Published 21 October 2024, updated 17 January 2025. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-guidance-for-organisations-and-government-agencies/guidance-on-privacy-and-the-use-of-commercially-available-ai-products
- Jobs and Skills Australia, “Our Gen AI Transition: Implications for Work and Skills”. Published 14 August 2025. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/generative-ai-capacity-study-report
- Microsoft, “Overview of Microsoft Copilot Chat”. Microsoft Learn, 9 September 2026. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/overview
- Microsoft, “Enterprise data protection in Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat”. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/enterprise-data-protection
- Synthesia, home page and “Pricing”. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.synthesia.io/
- Browse AI, home page and “Pricing”. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.browse.ai/
- Playground, home page and “Pricing”. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://playground.com/
