The AI assistant is Applaud’s agentic HR assistant. Employees use natural language to get help, and the assistant can do more than chat.
Depending on your configuration, the AI assistant can interpret a request, retrieve information, use tools, take supported actions, hand work to a specialist agent, and start or continue workflows. Employees stay in one conversation while the assistant coordinates the work.
The AI assistant is not a generic chatbot. It works with the knowledge, agents, tools, workflows, and permissions you configure.
What the AI assistant can do
| Capability | What it means |
| Understand | Interpret the employee’s request and determine what information or action is needed. |
| Retrieve | Find relevant information from configured knowledge sources, such as published articles, uploaded documents, and synchronized SharePoint content. |
| Use tools | Call configured agent tools to retrieve live data or perform supported actions in connected systems. |
| Take action | Complete supported HR tasks when the required tools, permissions, and configuration are available. Examples include checking a leave balance, updating approved personal information, generating a document, or raising a case. |
| Hand off | Pass work to a specialist agent or another supported process, such as Case Management, when that is the appropriate next step. The employee remains in the same conversation. |
| Start or continue workflows | Start or continue a guided or agentic workflow when the request requires a designed, multistep process. |
Not every conversation uses every capability. A simple policy question might only need knowledge. A time-off request might need a tool or workflow. A sensitive or incomplete request might need clarification or a case.
How the AI assistant works
When an employee sends a message, the AI assistant follows a defined sequence.
- The conversation is created or resumed.
- The assistant interprets the request and determines what information or action is needed.
- It retrieves relevant knowledge, uses a configured tool, starts a workflow, or hands the work to a specialist agent.
- If an action is available, the assistant collects any missing information and applies the controls you configured, such as confirmation for higher-impact actions.
- The assistant returns the result in the conversation. The result can include an answer, a completed action, a visual, next steps, or a case.
Everyday conversations can use Answer and act behavior, which lets the assistant answer questions and take individual approved actions. A workflow is different. It is a designed process with a defined path, progress, and outcome.
A typical tool-based interaction follows this sequence:
AI assistant → Agent → Tool → External system → Result
Not every implementation uses every component in this sequence. An agent can only use the knowledge and tools available to it through its configuration.
Knowledge and tools
Knowledge and tools serve different purposes.
| Need | Use |
| Explain a policy, process, or guide | Configured knowledge sources |
| Retrieve live HR data or complete a transaction | A configured tool connected to a system such as Workday or SAP SuccessFactors |
| Run a longer, repeatable process | A published workflow |
| Present structured information clearly | Visuals, which change how information is presented. They do not retrieve the data themselves. |
Knowledge-grounded answers are based on approved content and can include citations. The assistant should not invent policy, numbers, or process steps when approved knowledge is unavailable. In these situations, it can ask for clarification, escalate the request, or create a case.
Tools are not available automatically. You connect a system, discover its capabilities, configure and test the tools you need, activate them, and attach them to an agent.
Configuration, permissions, and confirmation
What employees can do depends on the agents they are eligible to use and the knowledge, tools, and workflows available through those agents.
The assistant cannot:
- Access a system without a configured connection or tool.
- Create a new system action on its own.
- Bypass role, country, or other eligibility rules.
- Take unrestricted actions in HR systems.
Configure confirmation to match the risk of the action. Low-risk actions might not need an additional confirmation step. Higher-impact actions can require confirmation, escalation, channel restrictions, or step-up authentication. For more information about the governance model, see the Responsible AI FAQ.
Where employees use the AI assistant
Employees can access the same AI assistant from the channels you enable, including the employee portal, mobile app, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Microsoft Outlook.
Each channel provides a different way for employees to interact with the AI assistant. The assistant provides the capability, while the channel determines how employees interact with it. Interactive visuals are available in the employee portal and mobile app. Teams, Slack, and Outlook present the same information as static images.
Availability depends on your Applaud configuration and subscription. For information about differences between channels, see AI support across channels.