# AI and automation in scheduling and staffing > Bemlo’s AI agent builds schedules, covers absence, fills open shifts and pulls together figures for you, with your permissions and under your rules. How the agent and the automation work, and why the manager always has the final say. Source: https://www.bemlo.com/en/ai Bemlo’s AI agent sees what you see and can do what you can do in Bemlo: build schedules, cover absence, fill open shifts, pull together figures and answer questions about cost. You describe what you want, the agent does the work and you approve. [Read about AI scheduling](/product/ai-scheduling) - Manager: "Anna is off sick on Tuesday. Cover it without overtime." Johan takes Anna’s day shift. Rest periods and weekly hours hold, and nobody works overtime. - Scheduler: "Build week 42 from the need and the preferences." The schedule is done. The whole need is covered and 14 of 15 preferences are met. - Staffing: "Fill the open shifts on Thursday and Friday." Two shifts are filled from the pool by staff who want more hours. None went to an agency. - Finance: "Why did we go over budget this week?" Three evening shifts ran on overtime. Placing the float shifts on evenings instead would lower the cost. Fix it now: Done. The float shifts now cover the three evenings, the overtime is gone and every rule holds. ## Not a system to enter the schedule into. A system that builds it. In an ordinary scheduling system you enter the schedule and the system waits for you to click. Bemlo’s agent builds the schedule for you: it sees what you see, can do what you can do and takes the task all the way, from question to finished schedule. ### An ordinary scheduling system - You call around to find someone who can take the shift - You check rest periods and agreements yourself - You move shifts one at a time - You build the reports in Excel ### With Bemlo’s agent - The agent finds someone who can, without overtime - Laws, agreements and your rules are checked before anything changes - The whole scheduling period is built in minutes - Questions about cost and absence are answered at once, with the figures ### Four roles in one colleague. ### The scheduler Builds the schedule from need, competence and preferences. ### The staffing coordinator Covers absence and fills gaps with your own staff first. ### The lawyer Checks working-time law, collective agreements and your rules at every change. ### The economist Shows what the schedule costs and where the money goes. ## From one question to the whole job. Start with a question. Once you trust the agent it takes whole tasks, and in the end it handles the day-to-day work itself, within the limits you set. ### Level 1: Ask You ask: "Which shifts lack a nurse next week?" 1. Agent: Reads the week’s schedule and competences 2. Agent: Finds three shifts without a nurse 3. Agent: Answers with the shifts and who could take them 4. You: You decide what to do ### Level 2: Bring your data You ask: "Here is last year’s summer schedule in Excel. Make one like it for this year." 1. Agent: Reads the Excel file 2. Agent: Matches the people to today’s staff 3. Agent: Sets up the summer schedule in Bemlo 4. You: You review and adjust ### Level 3: Change You ask: "Anna is off sick on Tuesday. Cover it without overtime." 1. Agent: Finds who is free and has the right competence 2. Agent: Checks daily rest, weekly rest and agreements 3. Agent: Describes the change before making it 4. You: You approve 5. Agent: Books Johan on the shift ### Level 4: The whole task You ask: "Build the schedule for the next period." 1. Agent: Reads the need, the preferences and the rules 2. Agent: Builds a schedule that covers the need 3. Agent: Shows where staff are missing and why 4. You: You review and publish 5. Agent: Sends the gaps on to the pool ### Level 5: Runs on its own You ask: "Cover sick leave tonight under our rules." 1. Agent: Spots an open shift at 05:40 2. Agent: Offers the shift to the right people in turn 3. Agent: Checks the rules and books whoever accepts 4. You: You see what happened when you log in ## Five things Bemlo does for you. Bemlo takes the repetitive steps. The decisions are yours. ### Draft schedules A schedule that follows your rules, built from the need and the preferences. ### Vacancies from your own pools Open shifts go to your pool and to staff who want more hours, with the right skills. ### Escalation to agencies What cannot be filled internally goes to agencies in the agreement’s order. ### Rule checks Daily rest, weekly rest and agreements are checked in every schedule. ### Time and payroll data Hours and supplements go straight to payroll. ## From care need to published schedule. The optimiser is a tool in the manager’s hands. It proposes; people decide. 1. Inputs – Need and preferences: Care need per unit and time of day; Skills and contracted hours; Requests and absence 2. Rules – Rules and constraints: Working-time rules and collective agreements; Skill requirements per shift; Local rules for the unit 3. Optimiser – Draft schedule: Requirements are met first; Then need, fairness and preferences are weighed; Gaps are shown as vacancies 4. Human review – The manager reviews: Adjusts shifts by hand; Changes constraints and reruns; Approves the draft 5. Publish – The schedule goes out: Staff see their shifts in the app; Vacancies go to the pool; Hours flow on to payroll Not happy with the draft? Change the inputs or the rules and run it again. ### Requirements are not broken Rules you set as requirements, such as daily rest, are treated as conditions the draft must meet. If the care need cannot be covered within the rules, the shift is left vacant and clearly shown, instead of a rule being broken silently. ### A fixed order of priorities Everything else is weighed in a set order: first covering the care need and avoiding vacancies, then a fair spread of evenings, weekends and long shifts, then contracted hours and overtime, and finally preferred working hours. ### Conflicts are explained When the rules cannot all be met at once, Bemlo shows which constraints conflict and which staff they affect, so the manager can make the call. ## Built for organisations that must be able to explain their decisions. ### Data in the EU Bemlo is hosted in the EU, and personal data about your staff is handled under the GDPR. ### A human in the loop The optimiser makes proposals. A schedule is published only once a manager has reviewed and approved it, and the manager can change every shift. ### Auditability Changes to shifts, applications and agency requests are logged with who made them and when, so you can see afterwards how a schedule came about. ## What automation delivers for our customers. - [Danderyd Hospital saves SEK 13 million a year](/customers/danderyds-sjukhus) – Danderyd Hospital fills about 46,000 vacant shifts a year through its internal pool in Bemlo. The hospital has increased the share filled by its own staff by 25 percent and cut the time spent on booking by 75 percent. - [AbleCare Homes cut its reliance on staffing agencies by 90 percent in four months](/customers/ablecare) – AbleCare Homes, a UK care provider with several homes, built an organisation-wide staff bank in Bemlo. After four months, its reliance on staffing agencies had fallen by 90 percent. - [Region Örebro County rolled out Bemlo in under four weeks](/customers/region-orebro) – Region Örebro County rolled out Bemlo’s agency management system in just under four weeks, ready to work under the new national agreement. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is an AI agent? An AI agent is an AI that does things for you, not one that only answers questions. In Bemlo the agent sees what you see and can do what you can do: build schedules, move shifts, fill open shifts and pull together figures. Every change is described before it is made, and you approve. ### Does AI replace the scheduler? No. Bemlo drafts the schedule and does the repetitive work, but the scheduler or manager reviews, adjusts and publishes it. The time saved can go to what takes judgement: talking to staff, trade-offs and follow-up. ### How are staff preferences taken into account? Staff submit requests for shifts and working hours, and these are weighed in the optimisation together with the care need and the rules. Preferences weigh less than covering the need and spreading unsocial shifts fairly, so not every request can always be met, but the draft tries to meet as many as possible. ### Does the schedule follow working-time law and collective agreements? Bemlo checks the schedule against the working-time rules you set up, such as daily rest, weekly rest and consecutive working days, based on the law and the collective agreements that apply to you. Rules set as requirements are not broken in the draft. The employer remains responsible for the rule set-up and for the published schedule. ### What happens if the need cannot be covered? The shift is then left vacant in the draft instead of a rule being broken. The vacancy is visible straight away and can be published to your pool or sent to agencies. ### Can we change the schedule after the draft is ready? Yes. The manager can move, add and remove shifts by hand, or change the constraints and rerun the draft. Nothing is published until the manager approves it. ### Is this a black box? No. The optimiser follows rules and priorities you can see and change. When constraints conflict, Bemlo shows which ones and which staff they affect.