As of 13 August 2026, AI can prepare for a difficult performance conversation.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your organisation's performance policy and the employee's role objectives, then copy only the relevant expectations and process steps into a separate working document.
   2. Gather dated, specific examples of the performance issue, including the expected standard, what happened, the work impact and any support already offered; remove names and unnecessary personal data.
   3. Write down the reasonable outcome you want from the meeting, such as an agreed improvement, support plan or follow-up date, without deciding the employee's motives.
   4. Paste the policy extracts, expectations, examples and desired outcome into the prompt, then ask the chatbot to produce the preparation brief and conversation plan.
   5. Compare every factual statement and proposed process step in the draft with your documents, and delete anything invented, personally judgemental or unsupported.
   6. Send the checked plan to your HR contact or a trusted manager for a fairness and process check before scheduling or holding the conversation.
   7. Take the final notes into the meeting, listen to the employee's response, and record the agreed actions, support and follow-up date in line with your organisation's policy.

   Prompt

   Help me prepare for a difficult performance conversation at work in the UK. I am the manager and the conversation concerns [role or situation]. The relevant expectations or policy are: [paste them]. The factual examples, with dates and impact, are: [paste only necessary work information and remove names or identifying details]. The outcome I need is: [describe the reasonable improvement or next step].
   
   Create:
   1. A short preparation brief separating confirmed facts, reported concerns and assumptions.
   2. A calm opening that explains the purpose of the meeting without labelling the person.
   3. A clear sequence for discussing each example, its impact and the expected improvement.
   4. Open questions that give the employee a fair chance to respond.
   5. Plain, respectful wording for likely defensive, upset or unexpected responses.
   6. A closing that confirms agreed actions, support, timescales and the next check-in.
   7. A list of statements I should not make because they are speculative, personal, discriminatory or unsupported.
   
   Do not invent facts, policy, dates or legal requirements. Do not diagnose a health condition or advise me to dismiss, discipline or discriminate against anyone. Flag any point that needs checking with my HR team or an employment solicitor. Keep the tone direct, private and respectful. Make the plan suitable for a real conversation, not a scripted speech.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.