As an office manager, I used to get drawn into the occasional disciplinary hearing. I say ‘occasionally’. I used to draft workplace investigations correspondence that was reviewed by an employment lawyer before it went out. I learned a lot about writing legalese in those days.

I was sitting in one of these workplace investigations at one point, frantically scribbling notes while trying to capture every critical word exchanged.

The employee who had filed a complaint was speaking rapidly, emotions running high. My hand was cramping. I glanced at my boss, who gave me that familiar look. The one that says, “Please tell me you got all that.”

If you’ve been in this profession long enough, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

But here’s what struck me later: in a world where AI can now transcribe conversations with remarkable accuracy, why was I still handwriting notes like it was 1995?

A timely update from leading law firm Mishcon de Reya has got me thinking about how artificial intelligence is reshaping workplace investigations and by extension, redefining yet another aspect of our role as management support professionals.

The quiet revolution in workplace investigations

Workplace investigations or disciplinary hearings have always been part of the management support landscape. Whether it’s a grievance procedure, disciplinary hearing or performance review, many of us have found ourselves documenting sensitive conversations, managing confidential documents and coordinating complex processes involving multiple stakeholders.

What’s changing now is how these investigations are conducted.

AI tools can automatically transcribe interviews, review massive document repositories and even generate template letters and meeting invitations. These are all tasks that have traditionally fallen to executive assistants and administrative professionals.

When I started my career, I spent hours typing up handwritten notes from meetings, comparing versions with attendees and managing the endless back-and-forth of corrections. I once spent three days reconciling notes from a particularly contentious grievance hearing, with the complainant and respondent disagreeing about virtually every sentence.

Today, an AI transcription service could produce a verbatim record of a workplace investigations hearing in seconds. No debate about what was said. No accusations of bias in the notetaking.

Yet I’m noticing a troubling trend: many support professionals see these developments as existential threats rather than opportunities for evolution.

The question isn’t whether AI will change your job; it’s how you’ll respond

Let’s be honest. The parts of our role that involve pure transcription, document sorting and template generation will be automated. This isn’t a possibility; it’s already happening.

I recently spoke with an EA who told me she’d spent fifteen years perfecting her minute-taking skills. When I asked how she was preparing for AI transcription, she looked blank. “That will never replace what I do,” she insisted.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her executive was already experimenting with automated transcription services for board meetings.

But here’s what many management support professionals are missing: the opportunity isn’t in resisting these changes. It’s in positioning ourselves as the human architects of these new processes.

The integration specialist opportunity

Consider the legal perspective of AI and workplace investigations highlighted by Mishcon de Reya: while AI can dramatically improve efficiency in workplace investigations, it requires careful implementation, oversight and integration with existing procedures.

Automated transcription may misinterpret speech or struggle with technical jargon. Document review systems need human guidance to identify relevant materials. Template generation requires customisation and contextual understanding. Data privacy and consent issues must be carefully managed.

In all these areas, a knowledgeable management support professional can add extraordinary value, not by doing the tasks AI will handle but by becoming the integration specialist who ensures these tools work within complex human systems.

When I managed operations for a professional services firm, I wasn’t the person who knew most about our new document management system. But I understood how it needed to integrate with our existing ways of working, where the potential privacy pitfalls lay and how to modify our processes to maximise the system’s benefits.

From notetaker to workplace investigations coordinator

Let me paint a picture of how this might look in practice.

Imagine a workplace investigation where, instead of being the person frantically taking notes, you become the investigation coordinator who:

1. Sets up and manages the AI transcription system, ensuring all participants have provided proper consent and understand how their data will be used.
2. Reviews the automated transcript for errors or misinterpretations, particularly around technical terms specific to your organisation.
3. Designs the document review process, identifying which documents need human review versus which can be processed through automated systems.
4. Creates a governance framework that ensures AI tools are supplementing rather than replacing human judgement.
5. Establishes consistent processes that balance efficiency with legal compliance and human sensitivity

This isn’t a diminished role. It’s an elevated one that requires deeper organisational understanding, stronger systems thinking and more sophisticated judgment.

The critical skills for this new territory

If we’re going to thrive in this new landscape, we need to develop capabilities that transcend specific tools or tasks:

First, we must understand the legal and ethical frameworks that govern workplace investigations. Not at a lawyer’s level of detail, but enough to identify potential risks and compliance issues.

I recently attended a seminar on employment law to learn the implications of our investigation procedures. The knowledge has been invaluable in helping me design more robust processes.

Second, we need to develop true systems thinking. The ability to see how different parts of an organisation interact and where technology can enhance rather than disrupt human processes.

When my company implemented an AI-based document review system, I mapped out how information flowed during investigations (not how it was supposed to flow according to the policy manual). This revealed critical gaps the technology implementation team had missed entirely.

Third, we must position ourselves as process designers rather than process followers. The management support professional who simply executes tasks within an investigation will be increasingly automated. The one who designs how investigations unfold will become indispensable.

Moving beyond the comfort zone

I understand the resistance. For decades, many of us have derived professional satisfaction and security from being the immaculate notetaker who manages flawless documentation and perfectly executes processes.

Surrendering those familiar tasks to automation can feel like losing our professional identity. I felt that resistance myself when our company first introduced automated transcription services.

But I’ve learned something crucial over thirty years in this profession: our value has never actually come from the tasks we execute. It’s come from our understanding of how organisations work: the informal connections, unwritten rules and human dynamics that no algorithm can fully grasp.

When I looked at my own career, I realised that my most valuable contributions weren’t the perfectly formatted minutes or meticulously organised document repositories.

They were the moments when I saw patterns nobody else noticed, when I redesigned processes to make them more human and effective and when I helped bridge gaps between formal systems and messy reality.

That’s the territory we need to claim in this new landscape of AI-assisted workplace investigations.

Practical next steps for enhancing your role in workplace investigations

If you’re a management support professional who wants to stay ahead of this curve, here are three concrete actions you can take:

Familiarise yourself with the AI tools already available for workplace investigations. Many are surprisingly accessible and user-friendly. Understanding their capabilities and limitations is the first step toward integrating them effectively.

Review your organisation’s workplace investigation procedures with fresh eyes. Where are the inefficiencies and pain points that technology might address? Where are the complex human elements that will always require careful handling?

Initiate conversations with key stakeholders – HR, legal, compliance – about how these technologies might reshape workplace investigation processes. Position yourself as someone who thinks proactively about these changes rather than reacting to them after they occur.

The future of workplace investigations belongs to the integrators

I’ve lived through multiple revolutions in our profession. I’ve seen typewriters replaced by word processors, paper files replaced by digital documents and switchboards replaced by mobile phones.

Each time, the administrative professionals who merely performed tasks saw their roles diminished. Those who understood the deeper purpose behind those tasks and adapted accordingly found new ways to create value.

The AI revolution in workplace investigations is no different. The future doesn’t belong to those who can type the fastest or file the most efficiently. It belongs to those who can integrate human systems with technological capabilities, who can design processes that balance efficiency with empathy and who can bridge the gap between what technology promises and what organisations actually need.

That’s the territory we need to claim. Not as notetakers or file managers, but as the architects of effective, ethical and human-centred investigation processes.

The choice is ours: we can cling to tasks that will inevitably be automated or we can evolve into the integration specialists our organisations desperately need.

I know which path I’m choosing.