AI Is Changing Workplace Harm Faster Than Employers Can Respond
From manipulated images to synthetic video, deepfakes are no longer a distant or theoretical risk. They are already beginning to show up in workplace contexts, creating new forms of harassment that are harder to detect, harder to prove, and significantly more damaging for those targeted.
Our CEO and Co-founder, Gemma McCall, recently explored this issue in Personnel Today, following growing concern around the misuse of AI-generated content in professional environments. Here is a taster of what Gemma discussed:
“Deepfakes raise serious legal and compliance concerns for employers. HR should treat the risk as high where deepfakes are used to humiliate, control or punish.”
For employers, this shifts the conversation. This is no longer about whether something happened in a physical workplace or online. The distinction is disappearing, and so is any protection that distinction once offered.
Legislation is already catching up. The Online Safety Act has expanded how online harm is defined, and expectations around employer responsibility are evolving alongside it. If an organisation fails to respond appropriately to AI-enabled harassment, the consequences are not abstract. They include reputational damage, loss of trust, and the very real possibility of tribunal claims.
“How HR teams respond to the emerging threat of AI-enabled harassment will be a test of culture, not just compliance.”
This is where many organisations will be exposed. Policies written for a pre-AI world will not stand up to incidents involving synthetic content. Investigations will be more complex. Evidence will be harder to interpret. And the impact on individuals can be severe, particularly where content is designed to humiliate or undermine.
Under the Worker Protection Act, the steps an organisation takes to prevent harassment are already under scrutiny. In the context of deepfakes, those steps will be judged not just on process, but on intent. Waiting until an incident occurs is no longer a defensible position.
Read our full article in Personnel Today to understand what this shift means for your organisation and how HR leaders should be preparing now.
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