14% of firms write employment references with AI

An employment reference can now be partly written by AI in German companies: 14% of firms already use such systems for this purpose. A further 52% could imagine using them. That is according to a representative Bitkom survey of 602 companies with three or more employees.

The most common use is for individual employee training. 16% of companies use AI for this, compared with 12% in 2024; a further 58% are interested in doing so. For onboarding new employees, the current share is 14%, three percentage points higher than in 2024.

According to Bitkom, workload assessment has grown particularly strongly. Use there rose from 6% in 2024 to 13%. Another 13% each use AI to automatically answer internal HR questions, while 12% use it to assess work performance.

Why does usage remain limited? Bitkom Managing Director Bernhard Rohleder cites a higher threshold for adopting AI in HR tasks. Companies are concerned that handling sensitive personnel data could lead them to breach data protection requirements. There is also uncertainty about the practical implementation of the AI Act, the EU AI law that classifies certain AI applications in HR as high-risk systems.

So what does this mean in practice? AI can already be used in individual HR processes, such as preparing employment references or handling internal inquiries. However, the sector is still far from widespread adoption: in several areas, interest is greater than actual use. The trend therefore shows both developments at once — initial practical applications and broad reservations about handling personnel data.