Are There Legitimate Ways to Use AI in Federal Employment Law?

By Deborah J. Hopkins, September 25, 2025

Last week California’s Second District Court of Appeal fined an attorney $10,000 for filing an appeal that was full of fabricated citations. Turns out the appeal had been generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and not fact-checked before submission. This is a significant monetary fine, but certainly not the first time an attorney has been sanctioned for submitting a filing containing false information that was generated by AI.

It got me thinking, though: are there any areas of Federal employment law where AI might be helpful, and less risky? After all, the administration has released Executive Orders and action plans on incorporating this tool into government functions.

So, in the spirit of this article’s topic, rather than brainstorm ideas on my own I prompted ChatGPT to come up with some ideas for me. Below is a sample of its suggestions.

Potentially Good Ideas

Conversation and Interview Preparation

• Use case: AI helps prepare scripts or questions for:
  • Employee performance feedback sessions
  • Weingarten meetings
  • Witness interviews during investigations
• Example: AI helps draft neutral, legally sound questions for a misconduct interview while avoiding prohibited personnel practices.

Document Review and Organization

• Use case: AI can extract and organize relevant facts from:
  • Email chains
  • Performance records
  • Investigative reports (e.g., from OIG or internal factfinders)
• Example: AI scans 200 emails for references to missed deadlines or customer complaints to support a misconduct case.

And…Maybe Good Ideas?

Douglas Factor Analysis Assistant

• Use case: AI can help agencies systematically analyze and document the Douglas factors for disciplinary actions.
• Example: AI prompts the proposing official to provide input for each Douglas factor and helps generate a consistent rationale.

FELTG’s concern: This is risky if the proposing (and deciding) officials let AI do all the work and don’t make necessary modifications, or familiarize themselves with — or adopt — the AI rationale. Plus, a deciding official who does a separate AI inquiry could potentially get a completely different Douglas analysis and risk a due process violation.

Case Law and Policy Research

• Use case: AI tools (or legal-specific AI platforms like Casetext or Westlaw AI) can quickly search MSPB, FLRA, EEOC case law and agency policies relevant to conduct or performance cases.
• Example: An attorney uses AI to pull cases supporting a 14-day suspension for similar misconduct in another agency, helping ensure penalty consistency under Douglas factors.

FELTG’s concern: As well-seasoned practitioners know, agencies are not required to discipline in a similar manner as any other agency; the MSPB recently affirmed in Singh v. USPS, 2022 MSPB 15, that consistency of penalty in most cases should be limited to employees in the same work unit, with the same supervisor, who engaged in the same or similar misconduct.

AI did, of course, provide a disclaimer highlighting important cautions:

• Human oversight is required: AI suggestions must be reviewed by HR, legal, or supervisory professionals to ensure accuracy and fairness.
• Privacy and security: Federal data must be protected; AI tools used should be compliant with federal IT security standards (e.g., FedRAMP).
• Bias and equity: Ensure AI outputs are checked for implicit bias and EEO compliance. (Note: I’m not sure how to do this but maybe some tech minds can assist? Also, apparently AI is not up to date on the prohibition of the term “implicit bias” from being used in Federal agencies. Yikes.)

So what do you think? How are you using AI in your agency’s employment law actions? [email protected]

Upcoming training

• Efficient Accountability: Last Rites, Last Chances, and Other Discipline Alternatives, Oct. 21
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• Get it Right the First Time: Accepting, Dismissing, and Framing EEO Claims, Nov. 5-6
• Telework as Reasonable Accommodation for Disability, Pregnancy, and Religion, Dec. 4

The information presented here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. Contacting FELTG in any way/format does not create the existence of an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, you should contact an attorney.