This article was written by Irina Mocanu, Senior Talent Management & Organizational Development Advisor at Workleap.

AI in HR often feels abstract or scary, with big promises but little guidance on how to apply it. That’s why we created *HR Leading the AI Way*, a department challenge designed to help HR teams experiment with AI in simple, practical, and fun ways.

We created 4 sub-teams of different sizes but with comparable scopes of work. Our approach: one week to receive the challenge, the next to complete it. The challenges are simple and take less than 1 hour to complete.

The Challenges

Here’s how the 5 challenges unfolded over a ten week period:

Challenge 1: Advanced Prompt Engineering & Custom GPTs

How to write better instructions to get faster, clearer, and more relevant outputs from GPT. You probably already know the basics: a good prompt should include "Context," "Role (who they act as)," and "Desired Output (tone, format, etc.)."

But that’s just the start. You can also add delimiters, steps, or instructions for tone and logic. Imagine getting GPT to consistently deliver polished communications in the format wanted, clear analysis of exit interviews, or building project plans on the first try...

Your Learning Resources (~15 min):

1. Personalize your GPT (2 min)
2. Build a prompt like a pro (8 min)
3. Introduction to Custom GPTs (6 min)

Pro Tip: Use the voice button to speak your prompt out loud—it’s often faster and builds more detailed prompts.

Weekly Homework

Write one powerful prompt (or share a custom GPT) and explain in two lines how it helped your work.

Points Criteria: (1) Best output quality (2) Most useful/common use case (3) Bonus (+1) for sharing additional learning.

This challenge showed teams that the difference between mediocre and excellent outputs lies in how you ask. With good prompts, GPT became a real thinking partner.

Challenge 2: Experimenting with AI for HR Use Cases

Stop getting “so-so” outputs. Learn to prompt ChatGPT like a power user, where it challenges your thinking, deepens your ideas, and helps you act smarter, faster.

Your learning resources (~15 min):

1. Know your ChatGPT models. Each model in ChatGPT has strengths and ideal use cases. Learn which one to pick and when in this short video.
2. Avoid that “ChatGPT look”.Sometimes, it’s obvious someone copied a ChatGPT response. Learn how to make your outputs seamless and natural, start by telling ChatGPT to *not sound like itself. *Watch this short on youtube.
3. Use ChatGPT to get deeper insights you would’ve have not thought about beforehand. Use ChatGPT’s research capabilities to enhance your ideas and challenge your assumptions. Watch this video (6 min).
4. Use Canvas for better collaboration and editing. Canvas helps you organize, co-edit, and even collaborate with peers using ChatGPT. Watch this video on OpenAI Academy (2 min).

Pro-tip : Tell ChatGPT to not be “your friend” but your best “thought partner”, this means adding an element in your prompt that says something around these lines “Your answer should be brutally honest”, “Always play devil’s advocate” or “Review your answer and share why it won’t work.”

Weekly Homework

➔ Complete one full chat conversation covering the elements learnt for a SPECIFIC NEED you covered in your week’s work and share it with me in DM.

➔ Explain simply and shortly how it helped you this time around and how you plan to use these learnings in the future

Points Criteria: (1) Most creative redesign (2) Most impactful use case based on team size (3) Bonus (+1) for sharing learnings with peers.

This challenge helped teams see the immediate value of AI: saving time, increasing clarity, and reducing effort on everyday HR tasks.

Challenge 3: Embedding AI in Daily Tasks

This week there’s no new lesson, instead, it’s time to reflect and plan how you’ll actually use AI in your team’s work. You’ll stay in your Challenge Teams, but also zoom in on use cases unique to your HR team.

Weekly Homework

Using your team’s whiteboard, list how a custom ChatGPT can support your daily work. For each idea (you can add as many as you want):

1. Name the Task: A concise title (e.g., “Monthly Report Draft”).
2. Describe the Task: What exactly will ChatGPT do?
3. Estimate Frequency: How often you perform it (daily, weekly, monthly)…
4. Estimate Time Saved: Rough minutes or hours saved per run.

Points Criteria: (1) Most total time saved (2) Most creative/impactful use case (3) Bonus (+1) for sharing a custom GPT with the org or making it public.

This exercise opened eyes to where AI fits seamlessly, like report drafting, feedback prep, or analytics, making AI a real capacity builder.

Challenge 4: Beyond ChatGPT – Exploring Other AI Tools

We’ve explored ChatGPT a lot… but it’s not the only AI out there! Your mission this time: Try at least one AI-powered tool that isn’t ChatGPT and show us how it could help in your work.

Heads-up: Some tools need IT access, start early if needed.

Weekly Homework

1. Pick an AI tool (see ideas below or choose your own).
2. Create as many scenarios as you want showing how it could help you at work. Videos can be a great way to demo, especially if I don’t have access to what you did!

Tool Ideas (quick to try)

That you already have access to:

• Rovo (Atlassian) – AI chatbot → [Quick Video]
• Loom AI Notetaker → [Article]

That you may require IT access request

• Zapier AI Agents – Automate workflows → [Webinar: min 10-30]
• Notion AI – Auto meeting notes → [Quick Video]

Points Criteria: (1) Most variety of tools/ideas (2) Highest-impact use case (3) Bonus (+1) for testing a tool not on the list (4) Bonus (+1) for building an AI workflow in Zapier.

This challenge sparked creativity, HR saw how automation, note-taking, or even workflow redesign could reshape the employee experience.

Challenge 5: Redesign a Workflow with AI

We’ve played with prompts, outputs, tools, and team use cases. Now it’s time to put it all together: choose one real workflow in your team and redesign it with AI built in from start to finish.

Your mission: Show us how AI could transform the way your team process runs: faster, smarter, and more impactful.

Weekly Homework

1. Pick a workflow/process/multiple steps you do often in your team or as an individual (e.g., onboarding, job posting, performance review prep, system monitoring).
2. Map the “Before” → show how the process works today (who does what, where the pain points are).
3. Redesign with AI “After"→ show how AI could step in (tools, prompts, automation, or co-pilots).
4. Highlight the Benefits → time saved, improved quality, reduced errors, better employee experience.

Points Criteria: (1) Most impactful workflow transformation (2) Most creative redesign (3) Bonus (+1) for sharing AI learnings in the channel.

The “final boss” challenge showed what true transformation looks like: HR teams reinventing processes like onboarding or performance review prep, with tangible improvements.

The Impact

By the end of the 5 challenges, teams weren’t just learning about AI, they were learning with it. They gained:

• Practical skills in using AI daily, including building tools they now use regularly.
• Reinforcing a mindset of experimentation over perfection.
• Confidence in linking AI to real business value.
• A renewed sense of fun and curiosity, exploring what’s possible while strengthening team connections.

For HR, leading the AI way doesn’t mean becoming data scientists. It means being curious, trying things, and connecting technology to the human side of work. The future of HR is not about replacing us, it’s about enabling us to work with more impact and purpose.

So let’s keep experimenting, keep questioning, and keep leading the way.