AI Shifts generates a draft schedule for the displayed week using the location's labor forecast, employee availability, and historical labor and scheduling data. After generation, shift suggestions appear on the Schedule Calendar as pending cards for managers to review. A manager can approve, edit, or delete suggested shifts individually or in bulk before publishing the schedule.
In Beta
This feature is in beta. Contact your CSM to learn more.
Security
Users must have the following permission to generate and review AI shifts:
Labor → Scheduling → Schedule → Add/Edit/Delete Shifts
These permissions can be added to custom user roles or individual users. The Permission Access report can be used to determine which user roles or users already have these permissions assigned. For more information, see User Setup and Security.
Generate an AI-suggested schedule
Follow these steps to generate AI-suggested shifts:
Click steps to expand for additional information and images.
1) Navigate to the Schedule Calendar page and click the AI Shifts button.
Open to the Workforce application.
Click Schedule from the Scheduling dropdown to open the Schedule Calendar.
Select the week to generate shifts for.
Click AI Shifts in the toolbar.
The AI Shifts button is only available for current and upcoming fiscal weeks. It does not appear when viewing a historical week.
When a new blank week is selected, the Add Shifts window includes an option to click the AI Shifts button.
2) Select which days to include.
Choose between:
Full week — Generates shifts for all remaining days in the current week.
Specific days — Select individual days from the day picker.
Past days in the current week will not be included and cannot be selected.
Click Generate week to continue.
If AI-suggested shifts from a previous run are still pending, the dialog opens in regenerate mode. Learn more about how to Regenerate AI Shifts below.
3) The AI schedule panel appears below the toolbar and tracks the progress while the system builds suggestions
The progress bar sequences through: Checking availability → Validating time off → Checking role coverage → Optimizing assignments → Checking compliance.
Generation may take several minutes to complete depending on the number of shifts being generated and the labor rules that must be evaluated. The progress bar indicates that generation is still in progress.
4) AI-suggested shifts appear on the timeline as pending shift cards as each suggestion arrives. Review can begin as soon as the first card appears.
The schedule grid is editable during generation. Shifts can be added or adjusted manually while AI suggestions are being generated.
Review AI-suggested shifts
After generation completes, the AI schedule panel shows how many pending shifts are ready to review. Each pending shift appears on the timeline with a star badge. A shift that violates a labor rule shows a warning triangle beside its duration; pointing to the triangle shows the violated labor rule, and an overtime violation also shows the added hours. A shift that could not be matched to an employee appears as a distinct warning-toned card. Pending suggested shift cards cannot be moved.
To review AI-suggested shifts, managers have the following options:
Approve, Edit, or Delete an individual shift
Delete all pending suggested shifts
Regenerate all pending suggested shifts
Hover over a pending shift card to see the actions for that shift:
Approve a suggested shift
Click the Approve (checkmark) icon.
What happens next depends on the shift:
A shift with no labor rule violation is approved immediately, and a "Shift created" confirmation appears.
A shift with a labor rule violation opens a confirmation dialog showing the labor rule cost, with an option to confirm the approval despite the violation.
If the shift is no longer eligible for approval, an error appears and the shift stays pending.
If approval otherwise fails, a generic error appears and the shift stays pending.
Approved shifts are added as unpublished. Publish the schedule to notify employees when ready.
Edit and approve a suggested shift
Double-click the shift to open the shift details, with the AI-suggested employee, job, and times filled in.
Edit the shift as needed and click Save.
Edited shifts are added as unpublished. Publish the schedule to notify employees when ready.
Delete a suggested shift
Click the Delete (trash) icon.
The system removes the suggestion from the timeline.
Bulk approve, delete, or regenerate all pending shifts from the AI schedule panel:
Approve all pending suggestions
Click Approve shifts in the AI schedule panel.
If any pending suggestion has a labor rule violation, a batch summary dialog opens. Unfilled shifts are included in the dialog's total count but are not listed as their own row in the flagged list.
The pending shift panel guidance says to assign an employee or delete an unfilled shift. Approving shifts in bulk still includes unfilled shifts in the approved count, and approving one converts it to an open, unassigned shift rather than assigning an employee.
Regenerate AI shifts
Regenerating replaces all current AI suggestions. Any pending suggested shifts that have not been approved or deleted will be removed.
In the AI schedule panel, click Regenerate shifts.
The Regenerate schedule? dialog shows how many existing AI suggestions will be removed.
Select which days to include, Full week or Specific days (current and future days only).
Click Regenerate week/day(s).
The system removes all current pending shift suggestions and starts a new generation run.
Delete all AI suggestions
To remove all pending AI shift suggestions without approving any:
In the AI schedule panel (review mode), click Delete shifts.
In the confirmation dialog, click Delete.
The system removes all AI-suggested shifts from the timeline and the AI schedule panel closes.
Publishing a schedule with pending AI shifts
When a schedule still has pending AI-suggested shifts, publishing the schedule first approves those suggestions and then publishes the schedule. Any suggestion that cannot be filled becomes an open, unassigned shift as part of the approval.
The publish dialog includes an Include X unassigned shifts option. The count indicates the number of unassigned shifts included in the publish action:
On the Employee tab, the count includes all pending unfilled AI suggestions.
On the Job and Department tabs, the count includes only pending unfilled AI suggestions for the selected job.
Select Include X unassigned shifts to publish the open shifts along with the assigned shifts. Leave it unselected to publish only the assigned shifts. The open shifts remain on the schedule as unpublished shifts until they are filled or deleted.
Approved AI shifts follow the normal publish flow and require no additional action.
Publishing approves all pending AI suggestions that remain on the schedule. To avoid approving suggestions that have not been reviewed, delete them before publishing. In the AI schedule panel, click Delete shifts.
FAQ
The AI Shifts button is not showing up — what do I do?
The AI Shifts button requires the Labor → Scheduling → Schedule → Add/Edit/Delete Shifts permission. If the permission is in place but the button is still not visible, AI Shifts may not be enabled for the account. Contact a Customer Success Manager (CSM) or R365 administrator to have it turned on. Learn more about the Schedule Calendar toolbar.
Will regenerating remove the shifts I already approved?
No. Regenerating only removes pending (unapproved) AI-suggested shifts — shifts already approved are not affected. The Regenerate schedule dialog shows exactly how many pending suggestions will be removed before confirming. After regenerating, a new set of suggestions replaces the previous ones. Learn more about the Schedule Calendar.
I approved all my AI shifts — will employees see them now?
Not yet. Approved AI shifts are added to the schedule as unpublished shifts and work just like shifts added manually. Employees will not see them until the schedule is published and employees are alerted. Learn more about how to Publish or Unpublish Schedules.
Why does a shift show a warning triangle, and what does the labor rule label mean?
The warning triangle indicates the suggested shift violates a labor rule. Pointing to the triangle shows the name of the violated rule. A shift that adds overtime also shows the number of added hours in the tooltip.
Why do some flagged shifts show an hours figure and others only show a rule name?
Only overtime violations show an hours figure. Every other labor rule shows the rule name alone.
What does a warning-toned card mean?
A warning-toned card is an unfilled shift, a suggestion that could not be matched to an employee. Unfilled shifts remain part of the pending count and can be approved individually or in bulk; approving one creates an open, unassigned shift.