My department asked me to reduce AI plagiarism reports, and now I don’t know where I stand

I’m a TA and part of my role is grading final group projects each semester, and it’s become increasingly common to come across submissions that strongly appear to rely heavily on AI in ways that don’t align with the course’s academic integrity expectations. When that happens, I follow the guidelines: I document what I see and assign the appropriate penalty based on the rubric and policy. The issue is that many students appeal or complain to the department, and while my department head has supported my decisions so far, he recently told me that the volume of complaints itself is becoming a problem. He suggested I find ways to reduce the number of cases being reported and pointed out that other classes don’t seem to generate as many complaints. Now I feel stuck between enforcing the standards I was asked to uphold and the implicit pressure to reduce friction at the administrative level.