AI assistant capabilities

Last updated: June 2026

The AI assistant gives you a faster way to get answers and take action in Ciphr HR. Ask questions in plain language, get instant answers from your live data and take everyday actions - without navigating menus or running reports.

This article lists the assistant’s current capabilities by user type. For detailed questions about how it works, security and what’s coming next, see the AI assistant FAQ.

Contents

• How you can access it
• What everyone can do
• Capabilities by user type
• Data areas available
• What's not yet available
• Related articles

How you access it

Look for the Ask button in the top navigation bar of Ciphr HR. The assistant is available on both desktop and the Ciphr HR mobile front-end, with the same capabilities in both.

What everyone can do

These capabilities are available to all users with access to the AI assistant:

• Ask questions in natural language and get plain-language answers from live HR data
• Ask follow-up questions in the same conversation - the assistant keeps context
• Request charts and visualisations from query results

• Search for people by name with close-match suggestions if the spelling isn't exact

• Write in any language and receive a response in that language

• See conversations saved automatically with a generated title, which you can rename

• Get a clear "I can't answer that" and a pointer to the right resource when something is outside the assistant's scope

Capabilities by user type

What the assistant can show and do depends on each user’s existing permissions in Ciphr HR. It doesn’t create new access - if you can see it in a report, you can ask the assistant about it.

Employees

Ask about your data:

• Annual leave entitlement and balances
• Absence history
• Shift patterns and hours
• Pay records, payments and allowances
• Appraisal history
• Workplace training, certifications, skills and qualifications

Take action:

• Check your holiday balance - figures reflect approved bookings; pending requests aren't included

• Book holiday and other absence types, with a two-step confirmation before anything is submitted

• The assistant validates your entitlement, flags clashing bookings, and tells you if team members are already off the same day before you confirm

Not yet available: amending or cancelling bookings, booking absence on a CIPHRFLEXI work pattern. See the AI assistant FAQ for details.

Line managers

Ask about your team:

• Who’s off today or this week
• Overlapping team holidays (e.g. who on your team is off the same days as you)
• Team leave calendar overview
• Bradford Factor and absence rates
• Direct reports and org structure
• Performance and appraisal status, including answers from custom review questions (engagement, happiness, satisfaction)
• Probation status and review dates
• Individual employment details

Line managers can also use the employee capabilities above for their own data and absence.

Not yet available: approving or rejecting holiday requests, recording absence on behalf of a team member. These are planned for a future release.

HR professionals

Ask about your workforce:

• Headcount by department, location or cost centre
• Starters, leavers and turnover rate
• Org-wide absence rates and long-term absence
• Contract type data
• DEI data
• Turnover queries
• Org-wide performance insights
• Salary banding and gender pay gap data

HR professionals can also use the employee capabilities above for their own data and absence.

Data areas available

The assistant can currently access these data areas within HR: allowances; absence and holiday entitlements; current and historic job and pay data; development needs; employee directory; payments; personal data; skills and qualifications; and who is off (team absence visibility).

This list will grow as new data areas are added. For areas not yet included, see the AI assistant FAQ.
 

What's not yet available

A few things the assistant can't do today, all planned for future releases:

• Amending or cancelling an absence booking

• Booking absence on a CIPHRFLEXI work pattern - the assistant will direct affected employees to book through Ciphr HR in the usual way

• Approving or rejecting holiday requests as a line manager

• Recording absence on behalf of a team member

• Answering HR policy questions - refer to your policy documents in the meantime

For more on what's coming next, see the AI assistant FAQ.
 

Related articles

• AI assistant FAQ
• Get more from your AI assistant - suggested prompts
• AI assistant - how it works
• AI assistant - managing access