Afleveringen
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Summary
What happens when a compliance-minded HR veteran who has seen the inside of more than 50 companies takes on workforce planning for an almost entirely frontline, cross-border workforce right as AI rewrites the rules? In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Dawn Stastny, Chief Human Resources Officer at BelPak, the packaging company formed when Coregistics, Proven Partners Group, and Belvika combined into one organization with more than two dozen facilities across the US and Canada. Dawn shares why she refuses to call them soft skills, how AI screening unlocked a pool of candidates her recruiters could never reach, the governance guardrails she applies to every AI decision, and why she has a calendar reminder set for the middle management crisis she predicts in 2031. This conversation is for HR and people leaders navigating AI adoption with frontline and deskless teams.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:30 From consultant to operator at BelPak
05:45 There's nothing soft about humanity skills
07:30 Merging three legacy companies into One BelPak
11:15 AI recruiting and the third shift problem
15:30 AI governance and compliance guardrails
18:30 Give the time back to your people
24:00 The 2031 middle management crisis
28:30 Developing talent through community partnerships
32:00 Lightning round and final advice
Takeaways
-Humanity skills like empathy, judgment, and discernment become more valuable as AI advances, not less.
-AI screening lets recruiting reach candidates the traditional process never could, like third shift mechanics, while removing unintentional bias from the first pass.
-AI gives you information; humans are still responsible for verifying it and making the final decision.
-Entry level jobs cut by AI in 2026 and 2027 could create a middle management shortage by 2031, so leaders need to protect their pipeline now.
-Instead of consuming talent, develop it: community college partnerships can build the skilled workforce you cannot hire off the market.
Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-stastny-sphr-shrm-scp-/
Website: https://belpak.com
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com
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Summary
Jens Hovgaard Jensen, Vice President of People and Culture at ECCO Americas, joins host Barb Bidan on The Human Element for a candid conversation about HR's future in the age of AI. Drawing on a career built from turnarounds and carve-outs at Maersk, Girteka Logistics, and ECCO, plus ten years as an officer in the Royal Danish Life Guards, Jens makes a provocative case: HR should actively eliminate its own transactional work with AI before someone else does it, treat restructuring as a chance to lead with humanity, and stop over-planning the workforce in favor of higher-value analytics. It is a practical, occasionally uncomfortable listen for HR and people leaders who want to move from administrative function to true business partner.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Jens's path from the Royal Danish Life Guards
02:35 The military through line: plan, then pivot
06:35 Closing 75 stores across three countries
07:45 Why ECCO gave people notice in November
10:45 HR sawing the branch it sits on
16:15 From transactional HR to true business peer
19:55 Where AI is already quietly removing HR work
23:00 Plan less, elevate the workforce analytics
29:25 The broken benefits model and vendor AI roadmaps
32:35 Lightning round and the final word
Takeaways
Treating people with dignity during a restructuring is also good business. ECCO told staff in November about January store closures and saw low turnover, not a wave of early exits."Working yourself out of a job" is a career accelerator, not a risk. Eliminating your own repetitive work tends to get you promoted into bigger problems, not pushed out.HR should drive its own AI adoption before someone else does. The transactional, administrative identity is exactly the work AI should absorb.Never spend more than 20 to 30 percent of your time planning. You need the other 70 percent for execution, and over-granular workforce plans rarely survive contact with reality.The real AI prize in HR is the analytics humans could never do well before, from predicting attrition to running M&A due diligence to challenging your own assumptions.Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensjensen42/
Website: https://us.ecco.com
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of. For more information, visit wisq.com.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Summary
RJ Jadhav, Vice President of Human Resources at Lumen Technologies, joins host Barb Bidan to reframe how HR leaders should think about AI, transformation, and the role of their function. RJ has spent his career inside the most transformative companies in tech â fifteen years at Microsoft, the hypergrowth years at Google Cloud, and now at Lumen, where he's helping rewire a legacy network company into a digital services company built for the AI economy. In this conversation he unpacks why AI is 70% culture and 30% tools, why business impact has to be the goal long before AI, and why HR has earned the right to lead the AI charter inside the enterprise.
Takeaways
Transformation needs three things at once â leadership behaviors, designed systems instead of interventions, and a real business anchor. Pull one lever in isolation and the other two drift.AI is not the destination. Business impact is. Start with where the business is going, then let AI accelerate moonshots you'd otherwise rule out as too slow or too expensive.AI is 70% culture and 30% tools. AI amplifies whatever culture already exists â good or bad. Treat it as a tool rollout and it will surface every cultural weakness you have.The most underestimated AI metric in the C-suite is protected leadership capacity â the space to think, reflect, and produce ideas muscle memory cannot.Stop using AI as a productivity hack. Start using it as a leadership system that coaches your judgment in real time.Chapters
00:00 Cold open and welcome
00:55 Meet RJ Jadhav, VP of HR at Lumen Technologies
02:00 The through-line across Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Lumen
04:30 Microsoft's established engine vs Lumen's existential rewire
05:50 One year in â moments that prove the transformation is real
08:30 AI as accelerant, not destination
09:10 Lumen's three-year people strategy and the business-first sequence
11:00 The most underestimated AI unlock â protecting leadership capacity
13:00 From productivity hack to leadership system
15:30 AI as a 24/7 coach
16:30 AI fluency as the only new HR skill
18:00 Why HR should lead the AI charter
20:30 The Chief AI Enablement Officer role
21:30 Three focus areas â redesign, talent, culture
22:30 The work-design framework â automate, agentify, human
24:00 Skills for the next generation of HR leaders
26:00 AI is 70% culture and 30% tools
27:00 Goal Pro â 70,000 goals aligned to the North Star
31:00 Barb's recap of the conversation
32:00 Lightning round
34:00 Top takeaways
36:00 RJ's parting words â the judgment test
Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rj-jadhav/
Website: https://www.lumen.com/en-us/home.html
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com
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Summary
On The Human Element, Barb Bidan talks with Jennifer Erfurth, Global Head of HR at the cybersecurity company OPSWAT, about what it actually takes to run an AI-first people function rather than just talk about one. Jennifer canceled a planned Workday rollout, built AI agents on top of BambooHR, rewrote her employer value proposition to lead with AI, and kept her human HR team in place as the safety net. She breaks down the three bets behind the approach: what to build, who to hire, and how to drive adoption without forcing it. She is also candid about the parts that are still messy, including a chatbot that hallucinates an HR contact named "Aaron," and why 25 years of experience is the thing that keeps AI honest. The throughline: going AI-first is not about replacing the human function, it is about deciding what AI handles and what stays human. Built for CHROs, VPs of People, and anyone leading AI adoption in HR.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Jennifer Erfurth and OPSWAT
02:30 Building an AI-first people function from scratch
04:30 Change management and what's in it for me
07:30 Running HR like a product, launch at 80% and iterate
08:00 The AI-first EVP and screening for AI fluency
12:30 Why they scrapped Workday and built on BambooHR
15:30 Tier zero AI and tier one human HR
17:00 The skills-inventory app built in an hour
21:00 Bringing an existing team along, learn, organize, recognize
23:30 The future of the CHRO role
25:00 Lightning round
27:30 Barb's takeaways and the last wordTakeaways
Build the knowledge base before the agents; OPSWAT spent six months on its before turning on a single agent.Build can beat buy. An engineer built a skills-inventory app in under an hour, replacing tools like Eightfold and Fuel50.An AI-first EVP attracts the talent you want and filters out the talent you don't.Drive adoption by teaching people to self-serve rather than forcing the tool on them.Keep a human in the loop; the AI can be right five times and wrong the sixth, and experience is what keeps it honest.
Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/globalhrexecutive/
Website: https://www.opswat.com/
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit wisq.com.
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Summary
On The Human Element, Barb Bidan sits down with Joshua Horenstein, who runs both the HR and legal functions at Innophos. Joshua argues that AI governance fails on the org chart, not in the policy document. He walks through his manufacturing-pilot mindset for rolling out AI, names the two reasonable worst cases most HR leaders aren't watching for, and explains why the friction between the CHRO and the GC is the engine of good policy, not a problem to fix. For HR leaders, CHROs, and the chief legal officers who work alongside them.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Joshua's dual hat: CHRO and chief legal officer at Innophos
03:15 The first governance question, what type of AI are you deploying
04:45 The pilot-to-policy mindset from manufacturing
05:45 AI governance as the rules of the road
07:30 Two reasonable worst cases: productivity backfire and dormant data leak
10:45 Sandboxing AI in an industrial company
13:45 The CHRO and CLO tension as the policy engine
16:45 Curiosity beats the playbook in HR leadership
23:15 AI as your shadow partner, the two-year forecast
26:15 The biggest flaw in current AI governance models
AI governance is the rules of the road, not a 50-subpart document. Flexible top-level rules outlast rigid policies that age before they're signed.The internal AI data leak (a dormant folder permission surfaced by an AI tool) is almost as dangerous as the external one, and almost nobody is auditing for it.The friction between CHRO and CLO is the engine of good AI policy. Siloed functions produce one-sided answers.Sandbox the AI like a chemical pilot. Cordon off the data, open the spigots gradually, watch for leaks.Never let AI make a termination, promotion, or compensation decision. Humans own the outcome.
TakeawaysConnect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshhorenstein/
Website: https://innophos.com
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate, designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com
(00:00) - Introduction(00:45) - Joshua's dual hat: CHRO and chief legal officer at Innophos(03:15) - The first governance question, what type of AI are you deploying(04:45) - The pilot-to-policy mindset from manufacturing(05:45) - AI governance as the rules of the road(07:30) - Two reasonable worst cases: productivity backfire and dormant data leak(10:45) - Sandboxing AI in an industrial company(13:45) - The CHRO and CLO tension as the policy engine(16:45) - Curiosity beats the playbook in HR leadership(23:15) - AI as your shadow partner, the two-year forecast(26:15) - The biggest flaw in current AI governance models -
Description
In December 2024, Christine Aldrich's recruiting team caught their first deepfake candidate. Twelve months later, nearly 1 in 6 applicants at Pindrop shows signs of data manipulation â and every HR leader Christine knows has a story.
In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Christine Aldrich, Chief People Officer at Pindrop (the company building identity verification and deepfake detection technology), to talk about what hiring really looks like when you can no longer assume the person on the other end of the camera is who they say they are.
They cover the velocity of the deepfake hiring problem, why the two reflex responses (ban AI / go back in-person) are both wrong, the lightweight tactic any recruiting team can deploy on Monday morning, and why the future of recruiting belongs to the people who let technology verify identity so humans can focus on what only humans can do.
Why December 2024 was the inflection point for deepfake candidates in hiringThe Pindrop data behind the "1 in 6" stat â and what it really means for your funnelWhy banning AI in your application process filters out your best candidates while letting fraudsters throughHow recruiter bias training collides with deepfake detection â and how to resolve the conflictThe three-minute consistency check any recruiter can start using on MondayHow to run identity verification in the background so candidate experience doesn't sufferWhy "AI fluency" is now a behavioral attribute at PindropThe most overrated tool in fighting candidate fraud (hint: you've been on it today)What recruiting looks like when AI takes the bottom of the skill stack
TakeawaysChristine's closing reframe for every HR leader on the drive home
Chapters(00:00) Cold open and intro
(01:15) Christine's path: Michigan, Ford, Dunkin' Brands, and four startups
(04:00) The first fraudulent candidate (December 2024) and the velocity of the problem
(05:45) The 1-in-6 stat and what data manipulation actually looks like
(06:30) What a deepfake candidate looks like in a real interview
(09:00) AI usage vs. AI fabrication â where Pindrop draws the line
(11:00) Why this isn't just a tech industry problem
(12:30) The collision between recruiter bias training and fraud detection
(16:00) The lightweight tactics any team can start using Monday morning
(18:00) Verification in the background â preserving candidate experience
(21:30) AI as both threat and defense â and why treating it as only one is the mistake
(23:30) How Pindrop's own team uses AI in the recruiting process
(25:30) The candidate side of the verification conversation
(28:00) Lightning round: first red flag, the recruiter tactic, the most overrated tool
(29:30) "AI can fake identity. It can't fake humanity."
(31:00) Barb's takeaways and Christine's final word
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskaszubski/Pindrop: https://www.pindrop.com
Connect with the Guest
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com
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Summary
On The Human Element, Barb Bidan talks with Q Hamirani, Chief People Officer at HighLevel, about treating AI as a teammate you onboard rather than a tool you install. Q draws on building people functions at Airbnb, Paper, and now a 2,000-person fully remote AI company to argue that the real constraint on AI adoption is human cognitive capacity, not technology. He shares how he trained an AI compensation model to stop and validate at three checkpoints so a human always owns the outcome. The throughline: the people leader's job is not to implement AI, it is to decide what stays human. Built for CHROs, VPs of People, and anyone leading AI adoption in HR.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Q Hamirani, CPO at HighLevel
02:20 Backing into HR from an engineering mindset
06:10 AI as a teammate, not a tool
11:00 Defining what a digital teammate owns
13:05 The real bottleneck is human capacity
16:40 Multi-modality: surveys, songs, and websites
21:00 Three stops that keep AI out of the black box
24:40 Accountability as culture, not compliance
27:30 Bolting AI onto broken work
30:40 Lightning round and the last word
Takeaways
- Onboard AI like a teammate with a loose job description and a clear owner, not a tool you install.
- The binding constraint on AI adoption is human cognitive capacity, not budget or technology.
- Break AI processes into blocks with human validation stops so nothing runs as an end-to-end black box.
- Accountability does not change in an AI world; a human still owns the outcome.
- The people leader's job is to decide what stays human.
Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamirani/
Website: https://www.gohighlevel.com/
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit wisq.com.
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Summary
In this episode of The Human Element, Chief People Officer John Foster (Tala) makes the case that the biggest risk for HR leaders isn't doing bad work â it's doing great work that the organization isn't ready to receive. John shares the framework he calls scratch OD, his argument for why AI won't fix performance management but will replace it, and the career moment when a boss told him to take his foot off his throat. Essential listening for people leaders who want to use the AI era to redesign, not just optimize.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: John Foster, Tala, and the Gamut framework
02:30 AI as restructuring work, not optimizing it
05:30 Organization market fit: the Cambrian explosion analogy
09:30 Applying AI at Tala: rethinking software development and workflows
11:30 Performance management's 10-second reinvention
15:30 Using AI as a thinking partner for organizational rethinking
19:00 Scratch OD: the chef framework for HR design
23:00 The change agent's trap: empathy for overwhelmed leaders
26:30 When HR is correct but not effective
28:00 The winning organization in 2026: customer-centric and modular
30:00 Lightning round: Trader Joe's, Ford, and what HR most often skips
Being entirely right about the work does not make you effective at changing the organization.Scratch OD starts with the ingredients â what people actually need from work â not with which best practice to borrow.AI makes individual performance clarity at scale possible for the first time, shifting the model from top-down judgment to individual empowerment.The organizations that thrive in the AI era will be customer-centric and modular, not defined by their product or technology.If you can imagine what you want to build and describe it in detail, you already have an entry point into using AI to construct it.
TakeawaysConnect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfoster-gamut/
Website: https://tala.co/careers/
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the world's first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit wisq.com.
(00:00) - Introduction: John Foster, Tala, and the Gamut framework(02:30) - AI as restructuring work, not optimizing it(05:30) - Organization market fit: the Cambrian explosion analogy(09:30) - Applying AI at Tala: rethinking software development and workflows(11:30) - Performance management's 10-second reinvention(15:30) - Using AI as a thinking partner for organizational rethinking(19:00) - Scratch OD: the chef framework for HR design(23:00) - The change agent's trap: empathy for overwhelmed leaders(26:30) - When HR is correct but not effective(28:00) - The winning organization in 2026: customer-centric and modular(30:00) - Lightning round: Trader Joe's, Ford, and what HR most often skips -
Summary
In this episode of The Human Element, Barb talks with Heather Oxley, CHRO at Perficient, about what it looks like to run HR for a firm whose entire business is helping other companies transform. Heather walks through three areas where she's deploying AI across the talent life cycle: project staffing, learning and development, and recruiting. Her central argument is that the value of AI in HR isn't primarily about cost reduction â it's about bringing clarity to the decisions that define the function. She also names the one thing AI should never touch.
Chapters
00:00 Host Intro: HR at a Firm Built on Transformation
01:30 Heather's Role at Perficient and the AI-First Mandate
03:30 AI in Project Staffing: Beyond Skills and Availability
09:00 The Leapfrog Moment for Smaller Teams
12:30 Learning as Career Navigation, Not Content Delivery
17:00 90% Voluntary Adoption in Two Weeks
19:30 AI in Recruiting: Where the Legal Stakes Are Highest
22:30 Closing the Candidate Black Hole and Debiasing Panels
24:30 The Fork in the Road: Cost Reduction vs. Decision Clarity
26:00 Lightning Round: The Line AI Should Never CrossTakeaways
AI in recruiting should augment human judgment, not replace it, especially as legislation in New York, California, and Colorado continues to evolve.Using agents to close the loop with every candidate who doesn't advance is one of the highest-value, lowest-risk uses of AI in HR.The fork facing HR leaders today is cost reduction vs. decision clarity, and most organizations are defaulting to cost.Moments that matter (offers, terminations, promotions, hard conversations) should always involve a person, not an agent.The HR leaders who matter in this era are the ones who prove the function can be as agentic as any other part of the business.
Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatheroxley/
Website: https://www.perficient.com/Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:00) - Host Intro: HR at a Firm Built on Transformation(01:30) - Heather's Role at Perficient and the AI-First Mandate(03:30) - AI in Project Staffing: Beyond Skills and Availability(09:00) - The Leapfrog Moment for Smaller Teams(12:30) - Learning as Career Navigation, Not Content Delivery(17:00) - 90% Voluntary Adoption in Two Weeks(19:30) - AI in Recruiting: Where the Legal Stakes Are Highest(22:30) - Closing the Candidate Black Hole and Debiasing Panels(24:30) - The Fork in the Road: Cost Reduction vs. Decision Clarity(26:00) - Lightning Round: The Line AI Should Never Cross -
Summary
In this episode of The Human Element, Barb Bidan sits down with Azurée S. Montoute-Lewis, Global Chief People Officer at Burson, to discuss what it actually takes to move AI from pilot programs to organization-wide adoption. Azurée argues that the organizations succeeding at AI adoption aren't moving the fastest. They're the ones who built a foundation of trust before deploying tools, designed metrics around decision quality rather than usage, and drew clear lines between where AI assists human work and where humans must still make the call. With 5,000 employees and 9,000 internal AI agents, Burson is a working example of what that approach produces.
Chapters
00:00 Azurée's role at Burson and what makes it unique
03:10 AI forces an operating model change, not just a technology change
07:30 Why scaling AI breaks down: ownership, data gaps, change fatigue
11:45 Bringing along early adopters, skeptics, and global audiences
14:00 The right way to measure AI impact (not usage)
17:20 When Burson's data came back inconclusive and what they did next
20:15 Agentic AI: from AI that assists to AI that acts
23:50 The feedback coaching agent and where Burson draws the line
27:00 Trust, fear response, and psychological safety in an AI workplace
29:30 Lightning round: one metric, one governance mistake, one line AI won't crossTakeaways
Measuring AI adoption by usage is the wrong metric â decision quality and output quality are the signals that matter.Organizations that deploy AI without a transparent trust conversation trigger a predictable fear response; building trust first makes adoption easier and more durable.The strongest HR AI use cases augment human capability rather than replace human judgment â Burson's feedback coaching agent is a working example.Calibration, succession, and leadership assessments should stay with humans; AI can aggregate inputs but cannot supply the nuance of real leadership observation.HR's core job in the AI era is designing the human architecture around the technology: the measurement frame, the trust foundation, and the human/AI boundary.Guest links
Azurée S. Montoute-Lewis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azureesmontoutelewis/Company Website: https://www.bursonglobal.com/
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
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Summary
A new hire fills out their 90-day survey and says they're not getting meaningful time with their manager. Instead of filing it away for a quarterly review, Bradford Wilkins pulls the dataâand within ten seconds, AI shows him that the manager is spending nearly 50% of their time on pre-sales activities that aren't even part of their job.
Within a week, the team is redesigning job responsibilities, reallocating time, and building a fix that will accelerate ramp for every future hire in that department. In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Bradford Wilkins, VP of People and Organization at Cognite, an industrial AI company, for a fast-moving conversation about what happens when you stop looking at people data in silos and start connecting it the same way you'd connect sensors in an oil refinery. Bradford walks through how Cognite is building knowledge graphs that layer engagement data on top of performance data on top of Salesforce data to surface correlations no one was seeing before, why he says 50% of his job is already gone (and why that's exciting, not scary), and his "cheesecloth" framework for AI-first thinking: push everything through AI first, and whatever's left on the other side is the human work. He and Barb also get into why entry-level hires who grew up on AI may be more valuable right now than your mid-career employees, how org charts are starting to include agent boxes alongside human ones, and why the best time to start was twenty years agoâbut the second best time is now.
00:39 How Cognite connects people data the same way it connects industrial sensors04:30 The 90-day survey that triggered three fixes in a single week09:54 Where the biggest HR automation opportunities are right now12:59 "50% of my job is gone"âand why that's the exciting part14:12 What still requires the human touch: team composition, empathy, judgment19:42 Building trust by helping employees visualize where their jobs are headed23:51 Managing agents as direct reports: the new org chart26:35 Learning labs, AI champions, and building capability through show and tell
Timestamps
Push every process through the "cheesecloth" of AI firstâwhat's left on the other side is the genuinely human workConnect your people data across silos (engagement, performance, time tracking, CRM) instead of analyzing each in isolationDon't add AI on top of a bad process; you're just compounding the problem fasterBuild trust by helping employees visualize what their jobs will look like after AI, not just telling them not to worryCreate learning labs and AI champion roles to drive adoption intentionally instead of hoping it happens organicallyRecognize that entry-level hires who grew up on AI may be your most valuable asset right now for accelerating adoption
Takeaways
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfordwilkins/Company website: https://www.cognite.com
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:39) - How Cognite connects people data the same way it connects industrial sensors(04:30) - The 90-day survey that triggered three fixes in a single week(09:54) - Where the biggest HR automation opportunities are right now(12:59) - "50% of my job is gone"âand why that's the exciting part(14:12) - What still requires the human touch: team composition, empathy, judgment(19:42) - Building trust by helping employees visualize where their jobs are headed(23:51) - Managing agents as direct reports: the new org chart(26:35) - Learning labs, AI champions, and building capability through show and tell -
Summary
In a regulated, data-rich industry like insurance, speed isn't the goalâcredibility is.
In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Elizabeth McSaveny, Chief People Officer at Zurich Canada, for a grounded conversation about what it actually looks like to drive AI adoption at scale inside a global enterprise. Liz leads people strategy for a company that already runs on data across underwriting, claims, and risk, which gives her a unique vantage point on how HR should show up in the AI conversation: not as the owner of the technology, but as the orchestrator of trust, clarity, and responsible use.
She shares how Zurich built ZuriChatâa GPT-based tool with enterprise guardrailsârolled out mandatory Copilot training with annual recertification, and why the gap between access and adoption is almost always a leadership problem, not a technology problem.Barb and Liz also get into the distinction between artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence, why 70% of AI transformations fail due to leadership rather than tech, and what Liz is looking for in a new L&D hire tasked with building AI capability across the organization. She closes with practical advice for every HR leader: get comfortable with the tools yourself first, because your team is watching whether you actually use what you're asking them to adopt. If you lead people in a regulated industry or are trying to build AI adoption that sticks, this conversation will ground your approach.
01:06 Liz's intro and what leading people strategy means at a global insurer02:10 Why credibility matters more than speed in regulated environments05:26 Advice for HR leaders stepping into global or regulated roles for the first time07:39 How Zurich uses AI in underwriting, claims, and HR10:57 Building ZuriChat with enterprise guardrails and mandatory recertification16:57 Hiring an L&D leader focused on building AI capability23:27 What HR leaders are getting wrong: focusing on the tool instead of the mindset26:02 One action HR leaders can take this week
Timestamps
Lead with clarity and trust, not speedâcredibility is how you earn the right to move fast laterClose the gap between AI access and adoption by investing in leadership capability, not more toolsRequire training and recertification for AI tools so employees understand both the power and the boundariesSell AI internally as an enabler of your day to day, not a separate initiative layered on top of existing workModel AI use yourself before asking your team to adoptâthey're watching whether you practice what you promoteDefine what good innovation looks like before telling your team to "be innovative"
TakeawaysGuest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-McSavaney-chrl-bsc-371377/
Company website: https://www.zurichcanada.com/en-ca
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(01:06) - Liz's intro and what leading people strategy means at a global insurer(02:10) - Why credibility matters more than speed in regulated environments(05:26) - Advice for HR leaders stepping into global or regulated roles for the first time(07:39) - How Zurich uses AI in underwriting, claims, and HR(10:57) - Building ZuriChat with enterprise guardrails and mandatory recertification(16:57) - Hiring an L&D leader focused on building AI capability(23:27) - What HR leaders are getting wrong: focusing on the tool instead of the mindset(26:02) - One action HR leaders can take this week -
Summary
AI is already inside 75% of companiesâand 100% of people are using itâbut only 10% actually know how. So what's really standing between organizations and meaningful AI transformation? According to Amanda Scott, it's not the technology. It's us. In this episode, Barb Bidan sits down with Amanda Scott, CEO of North America Talent Solutions at AON and a PhD candidate researching AI's impact on the workforce, for a deep, data-driven conversation on what's real versus hype in the AI era. Amanda leads a team of 500+ advisors across rewards, career, executive compensation, and assessment, giving her a rare dual lens: practical client work by day, academic research by night. Together, Barb and Amanda unpack AI sensitivity heat maps, the widening gender pay gap hiding inside AI adoption, why junior and senior roles are most exposed, and how the "middle" of the workforce may be the most important group to get right. If you lead people, design jobs, or set pay strategy, this one's essential listening.
00:54 Amanda's global background and why she's pursuing a PhD on AI03:56 The biggest limiting factor in AI adoption (hint: it's humans)06:41 Building AI heat maps and reshaping jobs around them12:50 What CHROs and C-suite leaders need to do right now15:38 Amanda's research: how AI is widening the gender pay gap18:48 The future for early-career workers entering the workforce22:17 Why the middle of the organization may matter most26:50 Lightning round and final takeaways
Timestamps
Map where AI will hit your workforce before deploying toolsâstart with a sensitivity heat map of roles and tasksRethink compensation alongside job design, because evolving roles change pay structuresPrioritize reskilling as an inclusion strategy, not just a retention oneBreak down silos between HR, technology, finance, and the boardâthis conversation requires all of themRedesign processes from scratch instead of just speeding up old ones with AILead with curiosity; it's the one skill that compounds through every wave of change
Takeaways
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabscott/Company website: https://www.AON.com
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:54) - Amanda's global background and why she's pursuing a PhD on AI(03:56) - The biggest limiting factor in AI adoption (hint: it's humans)(06:41) - Building AI heat maps and reshaping jobs around them(12:50) - What CHROs and C-suite leaders need to do right now(15:38) - Amanda's research: how AI is widening the gender pay gap(18:48) - The future for early-career workers entering the workforce(22:17) - Why the middle of the organization may matter most(26:50) - Lightning round and final takeaways -
Summary
What happens when you've actually built AI into hospitality at the scale of 7,000 employees and millions of guestsânot theorized about it on LinkedIn? In this episode, Barb Bidan sits down with Ani Nazaryan, Chief People Officer at The Siegel Group and Amazing Brands, for a refreshingly practical conversation about where AI belongs in HR and where it absolutely doesn't. Ani built her foundation in luxury hospitality, helping open two of the most iconic resorts in Las VegasâThe Cosmopolitan and Fontainebleauâwhere she stood up entire people systems for thousands of employees and pioneered branded AI personas like Rose and Morris years before AI was a buzzword.
Together, Barb and Ani get into the real use cases for AI in onboarding, recruiting, communications, and coachingâplus the moments leaders should never outsource. Ani shares why she calls overuse "hiding behind AI," her three-bucket test for when humans must lead (career, culture, judgment), and how to keep your authentic voice intact when AI is drafting your messages. If you're a people leader figuring out where to draw the line, this one's for you.
[03:09] â Ani's immigrant journey from Armenia to Las Vegas hospitality[05:59] â Where to draw the line: AI as assistant, not replacement[07:21] â Why automated onboarding still needs a human phone call[09:40] â Building Rose and Morris: AI personas with brand identity[13:11] â Hard messages, layoffs, and the role AI should never play[14:48] â Keeping your authentic voice when drafting with AI[20:37] â The "keyboard warrior" trap and what overuse looks like[25:45] â Lightning round and Ani's final word for HR leaders
Timestamps
Use the three-bucket test before letting AI lead: career impact, culture impact, judgment required â keep it humanBookend automated processes with real human touchpoints to preserve connectionDraft your message in your own words first, then use AI to polishânot the other way aroundBuild branded AI personas that reinforce identity instead of generic chatbots that flatten itFree leaders from manual reporting and templating so they can spend more time in the fieldProtect critical thinking by refusing to outsource judgment your team's experience earned
Takeaways
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ani-nazaryan-27660084/
Company website: https://siegelgroup.netSponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(03:09) - Ani's immigrant journey from Armenia to Las Vegas hospitality(05:59) - Where to draw the line: AI as assistant, not replacement(07:21) - Why automated onboarding still needs a human phone call(09:40) - Building Rose and Morris: AI personas with brand identity(13:11) - Hard messages, layoffs, and the role AI should never play(14:48) - Keeping your authentic voice when drafting with AI(20:37) - The "keyboard warrior" trap and what overuse looks like(25:45) - Lightning round and Ani's final word for HR leaders -
Summary
If your HR team is buried in inbox requests, youâre leaving no time for the moments that truly need a human touch. Preet Michelson, Chief People Officer at TMS and Morgan Street Holdings, shares how sheâs using AI to modernize global HR operations across 44+ countriesâwithout losing the human element.
A former CPA at KPMG who later moved into commercialization, Preet brings a business-first lens to HR, supporting a creative, fast-moving company known for Happy Meal toys and programs like TâMobile Tuesdays. She breaks down a practical, two-part approach: centralize and summarize inquiries with AI to spot training gaps and service needs, then route tier-0/1 questions to a chatbot (Jewel in SAP SuccessFactors) while protecting time for complex, sensitive issues.Preet also details a goal-led performance process powered by AIâgoal suggestions, a living goal library, an âon/off trackâ mid-year, and year-end summaries pulled from emails and decksâwhich drove 96% review completion and 97% manager 1:1s. Expect clear criteria for bot vs. human, change management lessons after a global HCM rollout, and how HR shifts from âpushâ to âpullâ by showing up with data, empathy, and a strategic POV.
Timestamps
[00:36] â From CPA to CPO: why HR must be business-first
[02:22] â Inside TMS and Morgan Street Holdings: a âbuy and holdâ model and global footprint
[03:25] â Creative, fast-moving culture: Happy Meal toys, TâMobile Tuesdays, and geopolitics
[04:41] â Fixing manual HR ops with AI: SAP SuccessFactors + Jewel, and the case for logging everything
[06:46] â Centralize, summarize, then go deep: using AI to bucket inquiries across EU/APMEA/NA
[09:44] â Bot vs. human: timeliness/accuracy vs. nuance/sensitivity (immigration, FMLA, family)
[13:19] â Goal-first performance: AI goal suggestions, a goal library, on/off-track mid-year, AI-aided year-end
[16:46] â Outcomes and brand shift: 96% review completion, 97% 1:1s, and moving HR from push to pull
Takeaways
- Centralize and summarize HR inquiries with AI to uncover training gaps, policy fixes, and regional needs.
- Route tier-0/1 transactions to a chatbot; reserve experts for nuanced, sensitive, or multi-path issues.
- Redesign performance around a few clear goals; use AI to suggest goals, craft feedback, and surface accomplishments.
- Simplify checkpointsââon track/off trackââto focus manager time where it matters most.
- Measure adoption and communicate wins; high completion and 1:1 rates signal cultural momentum.
- Use AI as a time-saver, not a truth source; validate outputs and keep humans at the center of decisions.
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:36) - From CPA to CPO: Why HR Must Be Business-First(02:22) - Inside TMS and Morgan Street Holdings: Buy and Hold Model(03:25) - Creative Culture: Happy Meal Toys and Global Footprint(04:41) - Fixing Manual HR Ops: SAP SuccessFactors Chatbot and Logging(06:46) - Centralize Summarize Then Go Deep: AI Inquiry Bucketing(09:44) - Bot vs Human: Timeliness and Accuracy vs Nuance and Sensitivity(13:19) - Goal-First Performance: AI Goals Library and Year-End Reviews(16:46) - 96% Completion and HR Brand Shift: From Push to Pull -
Human-First AI in Healthcare: Guardrails, Frontline Wins, and HR's New Playbook
How do you make AI feel human-first in a mission-driven, frontline environment? Ashley Ridgeway-WashingtonâCEO and Principal Advisor at Leverage Group and former CHRO at JPS Health Networkâshares a leadership-led approach to AI that elevates patient care by improving the employee experience. A rare blend of HR strategist, attorney, and executive coach (JD, MHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP), Ashley has led global DEI at Amazon and is a Deloitte Next Gen CHRO Academy alum. She breaks down high-impact frontline use casesâfrom real-time materials management to patient de-escalation in the palm of a caregiver's handâand why AI fails when it's treated as a tech project instead of an operating model change. Ashley details the leadership behaviors AI now demands (humility, problem clarity, decision rights, and governance), how to redirect time from admin to high-touch work, and why "train AI like an intern" is a powerful design principle. She also tackles AI literacy and guardrails (including deepfake risks), what healthcare can borrow from Amazon's customer obsession and speed-to-value, and how HR can automate the rote (absence management, onboarding, off-cycle pay) to focus on coaching, succession, and talent. Plus, lightning-round advice on what to delegate to an agent tomorrow and the digital mindset HR leaders need next.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:45] â Guest intro: Ashley's path (JPS Health Network, Amazon, Leverage Group) and why healthcare needs human-first AI
[02:00] â Frontline use cases: materials management, patient experience de-escalationâbeyond diagnostics and rev cycle
[02:44] â Where AI fails: unclear problems, weak data, no change management, and skills atrophy risks
[05:35] â From admin to empathy: freeing leaders' time; using AI to check bias and tone while guarding against hallucinations
[08:58] â Automating HR: "Ask Ashley," RPA for absence management, labor planning, onboarding, and off-cycle pay
[12:46] â Lessons from Amazon: customer obsession, speed-to-valueâwithout importing a ruthless edge
[15:57] â Design principles: train AI like an intern (voice, tone, context); set "never delegate to AI" decisions and guardrails
[18:22] â Literacy first: deepfakes, ethics, and why healthcare must invest in AI education for staff (and kids)
TAKEAWAYS
- Treat AI as a leadership and operating-model shiftâdefine the problem, decision rights, data readiness, and change plan before tools.
- Redirect admin time to human touch; use AI for both enterprise efficiency and individual productivity (bias/voice checks for leaders).
- Automate the rote with RPAâabsence management, labor planning, onboarding, and off-cycle payâto unlock strategic HR work.
- Borrow tech's customer obsession and speed-to-value while anchoring to mission, empathy, and clinical competence.
- Train AI like an intern: codify voice, tone, and context; publish a "never delegate to AI" list; enforce governance and ethics.
- Build AI literacy and guardrails across the workforce to prevent misuse (e.g., deepfakes), audit outputs, and avoid skills atrophy.Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:45) - Guest Intro: Ashley's Path from JPS Health to Amazon to Leverage Group(02:00) - Frontline Use Cases: Materials Management and Patient De-Escalation(02:44) - Where AI Fails: Unclear Problems Weak Data and Skills Atrophy(05:35) - From Admin to Empathy: Freeing Time and Guarding Against Hallucinations(08:58) - Automating HR: Ask Ashley RPA Absence Management and Labor Planning(12:46) - Lessons from Amazon: Customer Obsession and Speed-to-Value(15:57) - Design Principles: Train AI Like an Intern and Set Guardrails(18:22) - Literacy First: Deepfakes Ethics and AI Education -
From Purpose to AI Workers: CCC's CHRO on Scaling AI Without Losing Humanity
If you're embedding AI "everywhere," how do you move fast without losing your human centerâor burning out your leaders? Christy Harris, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at CCC Intelligent Solutions, shares how the 45-year-old, $1B+ AI-powered SaaS company is modernizing the auto claims ecosystem while transforming how its own people work. Christy explains CCC's consumer-first "tiebreaker" for tough trade-offs, why "AI everywhere" means embedding AI in daily workflows (not turning everyone into data scientists), and how purpose and storytelling keep teams grounded amid change. She dives into the emerging reality of leading both humans and AI workers, the importance of clear feedback loops (for agents and people), and how AI can coach managers in the moment. Christy also tackles leader capacityâwhat it takes to move with pace without tipping into burnoutâand why internal AI adoption is a cultural shift, not just a technical one. Expect practical moves, from building AI fluency to launching CCC's first AI worker in T&E, plus a call for HR leaders to be architects of the future, not bystanders.
TIMESTAMPS
[01:09] â The problem CCC solves and why auto claims need modernization now
[03:01] â Balancing product AI with workforce change; the consumer-first tiebreaker
[04:06] â "AI everywhere" defined: embed in drafting, analysis, and prioritization; anchor in purpose
[09:53] â Move with pace and "fall in love with the problem, not the solution"
[12:37] â Leading humans and AI workers: feedback clarity and AI as a coach for managers
[17:59] â Leader capacity and burnout: supporting managers through fast change
[24:14] â Internal vs. product AI: adoption is cultural; build AI fluency and lead from the front
[24:38] â CCC's first AI worker in T&E: removing a high-friction employee pain pointTAKEAWAYS
- Anchor change in purpose and customer impact to reduce fear and keep teams aligned.
- Enroll, over-communicate, and create open forumsâthen listen and iterate.
- Embed AI in daily work (drafting, analysis, prioritization) so people focus on judgment and relationships.
- Train leaders to manage humans and AI workers; practice clear, corrective feedback and use AI to coach better.
- Move with pace and a challenger mindsetâfall in love with the problem, not the solution.
- Treat internal AI as a culture change: build AI fluency, start with high-friction processes (e.g., T&E), and protect leader capacity to prevent burnout.Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(01:09) - The problem CCC solves and why auto claims need modernization now(03:01) - Balancing product AI with workforce change; the consumer-first tiebreaker(04:06) - AI everywhere defined: embed in drafting, analysis, and prioritization; anchor in purpose(09:53) - Move with pace and "fall in love with the problem, not the solution"(12:37) - Leading humans and AI workers: feedback clarity and AI as a coach for managers(17:59) - Leader capacity and burnout: supporting managers through fast change(24:14) - Internal vs. product AI: adoption is cultural; build AI fluency and lead from the front(24:38) - CCC's first AI worker in T&E: removing a high-friction employee pain point -
Summary
How do you build a people strategy for a high-trust, high-stakes environment where your âcustomersâ are caregivers?
Colette Brown, Chief Human Resources Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital, shares how her team centers HR on mission, fixes pay with data, and uses practical AI to return time to human moments. With strong alignment from CEO Carol Gomes, Colette led a compensation overhaul grounded in market reviews and role prioritizationâdriving vacancy down from 18% to 3%, turnover from 22% to 7%, and engagement from the 7th to the 55th percentile. She unpacks how Stony Brook avoids the âpoof, youâre a leaderâ trap with hands-on manager development, a prescriptive 90-day onboarding and buddy program, and a culture of gratitudeâright down to a dedicated Resilience Room.
Colette also details where AI already works in healthcare HR and clinical workflows: policy analysis, job descriptions, tone checks, and ambient scribes that improve listening while preserving human review. She closes with hiring for values and aptitude (teach the rest) and a coaching approach that targets behaviorsânot attitudesâso leaders build performance and dignity at the same time.
Timestamps
[00:45] â Guest intro and the reality of âcaring for the caregiversâ
[03:45] â Centering HR on mission: linking engagement to patient experience
[07:10] â Compensation overhaul: market reviews, prioritization, and leadership alignment
[10:10] â Results from pay investments: vacancy, turnover, and engagement turnarounds
[12:33] â From star clinician to capable manager: building real leadership development
[14:52] â Culture that sticks: 90-day onboarding, gratitude, and the Resilience Room
[17:25] â Practical AI: policy analysis, job descriptions, and ambient scribes with human review
[25:21] â Coach behaviors, not attitudes: âpinpointingâ to drive change
Takeaways
- Anchor HR decisions to mission and patient experience to sustain alignment and energy.
- Fix pay first: run market reviews, prioritize high-impact roles, and secure CEO/CFO sponsorship.
- Replace âpoof, youâre a leaderâ with structured, hands-on manager training and clear expectations.
- Design culture into the first 90 daysâbuddy programs, frequent check-ins, and visible recognition.
- Use AI to shed tedium (policy comparisons, JDs, tone checks) and adopt ambient scribes to improve listeningâalways with human validation.
- Hire for values, curiosity, and aptitude; teach the rest. Coach on observed behaviors, not attitudes, to improve performance with dignity.
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:45) - Guest intro and the reality of caring for the caregivers(03:45) - Centering HR on mission: linking engagement to patient experience(07:10) - Compensation overhaul: market reviews, prioritization, and leadership alignment(10:10) - Results from pay investments: vacancy, turnover, and engagement turnarounds(12:33) - From star clinician to capable manager: building real leadership development(14:52) - Culture that sticks: 90-day onboarding, gratitude, and the Resilience Room(17:25) - Practical AI: policy analysis, job descriptions, and ambient scribes with human review(25:21) - Coach behaviors: building performance and dignity at the same time -
Summary
In mission-driven organizations, trust isnât optionalâso how do you adopt AI without losing the human element or opening new risks?
Elizabeth Mattila, Chief Human Resources Officer at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), shares a pragmatic playbook for using AI in HR while protecting culture, candidates, and company data. From her first âwowâ moment with ChatGPT to todayâs realitiesâdeepfakes, resume automation, and high-volume recruitingâElizabeth explains where AI adds real value and where humans must stay in the loop.
She details how EDF is training recruiters to spot synthetic identities, exploring vendor partners for deepfake detection, and factoring AIâs environmental footprint into tech decisions. Elizabeth also digs into practical wins: using AI for executive summaries after workshops, triaging inbox overload, and translating employment-law changes into plain English.
Expect a grounded approach: pilot AI to speed resume screening, keep interviews live and conversational, and set clear guardrails so AI assistsâbut never replacesâsensitive people work.
Timestamps
[00:45] â Guest intro: EDFâs mission and Elizabethâs first âwowâ with ChatGPT
[03:43] â Tool with caution: resume help vs. overuse and the rise of deepfakes
[06:05] â Security risk in hiring: training recruiters and why AI education is table stakes
[08:36] â Vendor landscape and EDFâs lens: spotting deepfakes and weighing environmental impact
[11:49] â AI in recruiting: where to automateâand why prerecorded video isnât the answer
[17:05] â Practical wins: inbox triage, exec summaries, and boiling down legal changes
[19:33] â Guardrails that keep AI from âdoing your jobâ while preserving speed and trust
[22:50] â Lightning round: protections, misconceptions, and AI red lines in HR
Takeaways
- Train recruiters to detect deepfakes; evaluate specialist vendors and bake controls into hiring.
- Pilot AI for resume triage and legal summarization, then layer human review for fit and nuance.
- Keep first-round interviews live; avoid prerecorded video screens that strip out human signals.
- Set clear guardrails: AI can draft resumes and summariesânever run sensitive employee relations.
- Weigh AIâs environmental impact alongside ethics, security, and business value.
- Invest in AI education for HR teams to move thoughtfullyânot fearfullyâat the right pace for your org.
Sponsor
Wisq is the AI platform for HR. We built Harper, the worldâs first AI HR teammate â designed to handle the judgment-heavy work that has historically consumed HR teams: job changes, performance concerns, leaves of absence, onboarding, and employee relations issues. Where HCM bolt-ons and chatbots deflect the easiest questions, Harper resolves full cases, end-to-end. The result is an HR function with the capacity and strategic bandwidth to focus on the work that moves the business.
Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
For more information, visit https://www.wisq.com.
(00:45) - Guest intro: EDF's mission and Elizabeth's first wow with ChatGPT(03:43) - Tool with caution: resume help vs. overuse and the rise of deepfakes(06:05) - Security risk in hiring: training recruiters and why AI education is table stakes(08:36) - Vendor landscape and EDF's lens: spotting deepfakes and weighing environmental impact(11:49) - AI in recruiting: where to automate and why prerecorded video isn't the answer(17:05) - Practical wins: inbox triage, exec summaries, and boiling down legal changes(19:33) - Guardrails that keep AI from doing your job while preserving speed and trust(22:50) - Lightning round: protections, misconceptions, and AI red lines in HR -
Summary
How do you embed AI into HR across a complex, manufacturing-led enterprise without losing momentum, or quality?
Jill Wrobel, Chief Human Resources Officer at Brunswick Corporation (Mercury Marine, Boston Whaler, Sea Ray), shares how her team is turning survey insights (âwe have too much workâ) into structured pilots and end-to-end redesigns.
Jill explains why HR must pair quick winsâLLMs for TA notes, job descriptions, and policy queriesâwith deeper process rethinks like onboarding.
She details a âfuture of HR workâ hackathon, lessons from an HR Q&A bot that needed a quality reset, and how HRBPs are co-innovating with supply chain using multimodal AI to analyze tens of thousands of CAD drawings for tariff/material modeling.
On the product side, she spotlights AutoCaptainâautonomous dockingâand the skills engine behind it. Jill also covers AI in service workflows to handle seasonal spikes, the staffing realities of Freedom Boat Club, and where AI can accelerate M&A diligence and integration planning.
Finally, she unpacks governance with IT, legal, privacy, and cyber; why HR houses Brunswickâs Enterprise Transformation Office; and the leadership mindset shift from âspeeding up current tasksâ to true end-to-end transformation.
Timestamps
[00:45] â Guest intro: Brunswickâs global footprint and why boating builds community
[02:13] â From âtoo much workâ to AI pilots: building a compensation agent and early hiccups
[04:45] â Redesign before you automate: onboarding, TA with LLMs, and lessons from an HR Q&A bot
[07:42] â HRBPs as innovators: multimodal AI on CAD drawings to model tariffs and upskill teams
[10:47] â Product-side AI: AutoCaptain and the skills behind autonomous docking
[13:09] â Rethinking ROI: beyond efficiency tweaks to end-to-end transformation and cultural agility
[18:51] â Seasonality and service ops: AI for manuals/parts; Freedom Boat Club hiring at scale; where M&A gains from AI
[27:50] â Governance that works: aligning HR, IT, legal, privacy, and cyber; HRâs Enterprise Transformation Office
Takeaways
- Run a âfuture of HR workâ hackathon to surface pain points and co-build targeted AI agents.
- Redesign fragmented processes (e.g., onboarding) before layering automation; measure quality and iterate.
- Apply multimodal AI to complex files (CAD, service manuals) to free experts for higher-value strategy.
- Build cross-functional AI governance and prioritize investments; centralize momentum via a transformation office.
- Upskill leaders on AI fundamentals and shared definitions to reduce confusion and improve decisions.
- Treat adoption as change management: over-communicate, support longer than you think, and aim for employee self-service to relieve HR.
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Companies get Harper live in weeks, not quarters, with implementation support built on deep HR domain expertise. Wisq serves HR leaders at leading companies across industries, helping them raise the bar on employee experience and expand what their teams are capable of.
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(00:45) - Guest intro: Brunswick's global footprint and why boating builds community(02:13) - From too much work to AI pilots: building a compensation agent and early hiccups(04:45) - Redesign before you automate: onboarding, TA with LLMs, and lessons from an HR Q&A bot(07:42) - HRBPs as innovators: multimodal AI on CAD drawings to model tariffs and upskill teams(10:47) - Product-side AI: AutoCaptain and the skills behind autonomous docking(14:27) - Rethinking ROI: beyond efficiency tweaks to end-to-end transformation and cultural agility(18:51) - Seasonality and service ops: AI for manuals and parts; Freedom Boat Club hiring at scale; where M&A gains from AI(27:50) - Governance that works: aligning HR, IT, legal, privacy, and cyber; HR's Enterprise Transformation Office - Laat meer zien
