HR Agent: controlled HR Agentic Automation for the HR mailbox
Within HR, the number of emails and inquiries is increasing, while the complexity and variety of requests remains high. Many of these questions are repetitive and policy-based in nature, but still require manual processing. With the HR Agent, we are taking a first step toward Agentic Automation: an intelligent HR assistant that independently understands emails, processes them, and where necessary, collaborates with humans.
The urgency is high. HR Service Centers are under pressure from growing volumes and limited capacity. Many HR questions are predictable and repeatable, but still take time. At the same time, employees expect quick, consistent answers. On top of that, laws and regulations demand careful handling of personal data. Without support, HR continues to spend a lot of time on low-value, repetitive tasks.
The problem statement is therefore clear: HR processes many emails manually every day, while much of it is within set frameworks and policies and can be handled automatically. The HR Agent is an AI-driven solution that automatically reads, understands and handles incoming HR emails. The agent combines AI, RPA and policy knowledge and engages a human only when truly needed.
What applications?
Outlook, SuccessFactors (SAP), SharePoint
Which department?
HR
Result of the solution:
Faster response time to employees, consistent and policy-compliant responses, less workload for HR.
Reason
HR receives daily questions on topics such as parental leave, expense reports, the bike plan, pro forma paychecks and employer statements. These types of questions often require consulting policies, recur regularly and sometimes require combining information from multiple systems. At the same time, these requests must carefully manage privacy and personal data.
Manual processing makes this process error-prone, time-consuming and poorly scalable. After all, each e-mail must be read and interpreted, the right policy information found, and a response formulated neatly and consistently. When volumes increase, the workload on HR increases disproportionately.
Approach
The HR Agent has been developed from a thoughtful and controlled approach that focuses on reusability, security and scalability.
The first step was to analyze the incoming HR questions that occur most frequently. This involved looking at what types of questions structurally come in, what applications, systems and documents HR uses to answer these questions, and what steps HR employees perform to arrive at an answer or document. This analysis formed the basis for the agent’s initial scope.
Manual actions were then translated into reusable tools. Instead of building a separate automation for each question, actions and information sources that are used repeatedly and operations that can be set up generically and reusable were examined. Based on this, generic tools (RPA processes) were developed, such as retrieving employee information and generating an employer statement. These tools can be reused by the agent in different scenarios and provide a stable basis for further expansion.
To ensure reliability and control, a hybrid approach was chosen. Agentic AI is used for interpretation of emails, intent recognition and formulating responses. Rule-based logic is used for critical decisions, data access and privacy protection. This allows agent flexibility with language and variation, while keeping sensitive actions strictly controlled.
Security and privacy were included as a design principle from the beginning. The agent may only use personal data from the sender himself. Queries about other employees are limited to policy responses or escalated. In addition, not every request automatically leads to an action; only when explicitly authorized and necessary is a tool or action performed. This separation prevents personal data from being shared inadvertently.
Human-in-the-Loop is set up as a safety net. For situations where the question is out of scope, information is missing or the answer may pose risks, an escalation is automatically created in the Action Center. Here, an HR employee can add additional information, cancel the action or gain insight into where the agent gets stuck. This feedback is used to further improve the agent.
Finally, iterative live and ongoing development was chosen. The HR Agent was deliberately brought live in a limited, controlled setting, with a defined set of questions, tools and policy documents, active use by a small group and gathering feedback from escalations and checks. Thereafter, the solution can be incrementally expanded with new tools and functionality to keep it manageable and future-proof.
The process
How does it work?
An e-mail is placed manually or automatically in the #AI Input folder of the HR mailbox. As soon as an e-mail appears in this folder, an UiPath Maestro flow is automatically started. This flow acts as a director of the entire process and determines which steps are performed and in what order.
The Maestro flow always performs a number of rule-based checks before the agent is deployed. These checks are deliberately not agent-driven and provide security and predictability. For example, it validates whether the sender is an agent, looks up and captures the corresponding agent, and fixes the context so that only data from this agent may be used in the further process. This prevents the agent from inadvertently accessing or using data from other employees.
Only after these checks have been successfully completed is the HR Agent activated. The agent reads the email, recognizes the intent(s) and determines whether the query is within scope, what tools and policy resources are needed, and whether human validation is required. If necessary, the agent uses one or more tools, for example, to retrieve employee information or generate a document, with the pinned employee context leading the way.
Then the agent generates a draft answer. For a standard question, the answer is prepared in the HRSC Control folder. In case of doubt, missing information or risk, an escalation is created in the Action Center. In the Action Center, a human validator can see where the agent gets stuck, add additional information or cancel execution when manual handling is required. Based on this decision, the Maestro flow continues or stops the process and the email is moved to the appropriate follow-up folder or continued manually by HR.
The flow
Comparison with the original situation
In the original situation, HR staff had to manually read through and categorize emails and then search the appropriate policy documents themselves. Responses were typed manually, with variation in tone and structure and the risk of unnecessary (spelling) errors. In addition, the approach had limited scalability: higher volumes immediately meant more pressure on HR.
With the HR Agent, this shifts to automatic intent recognition and quick consultation of policy information, where relevant paragraphs can be found quickly. Instead of a completely manual response, a draft response in the appropriate tone is created automatically. Combining this with Human-in-the-Loop maintains control where needed, while making the process as a whole more scalable.
How can you apply this in your organization?
Want to get started with Agentic Automation within your organization yourself? Then start small and in a controlled way. Start by mapping out processes or questions that occur frequently, have clear frameworks and policies, and currently take a lot of manual work. Then determine which decisions should remain rule-based, where an agent can help with interpretation, context and communication, and which existing automations or scripts can serve as reusable tools.
From the beginning, ensure clear scope and boundaries, built-in controls and Human-in-the-Loop, and an iterative approach where you learn from exceptions. Agentic Automation is not an all-or-nothing solution. By starting step by step, you build experience safely and create space to combine intelligence and automation more and more.
