The Rules Are Being Rewritten: How Bold Leaders Win in the AI Era
BY Ade Akin December 22, 2025The time between technological revolutions has shrunk from 50 years to a couple of decades, and AI is now rewriting what work looks like faster than organizations can adapt. The rapid pace of new technologies that significantly impact how companies operate is creating massive skill gaps that traditional hiring and training methods are ineffective at addressing. Recruiting and learning divisions within organizations are now coming together to improve talent acquisition and address skill gaps from within. Tigran Sloyan, the CEO and co-founder of CodeSignal, urges companies to move beyond passive learning and resume screening, and embrace AI-powered, hands-on learning programs and scalable assessments. “You want to answer the question, ‘What can we do? How can we leverage this, and how can it be good for humanity?’” Sloyan said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s LA conference. The Historical Pace of Change And Why This Time Is DifferentSloyan started his presentation by comparing the speed of technological breakthroughs since the development of the internet to the pace of tech advancement several centuries ago, when the printing press was invented. “It used to take us 50 years to experience a new, dramatic technological shift,” he said. “Forty years ago, we didn’t have web developers. Thirty years ago, we didn’t have cloud engineers. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have mobile engineers.” Each shift created new jobs and skills, but organizations had more time to adapt.Today, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which has only been around for a few years, are transforming workplaces, garnering over 700 million active weekly users. Sloyan says the challenge is leveraging new technologies like AI to “transform how we find, discover, and develop skills that will shape this future.”Closing Skills Gaps With Hands-On, AI-Powered LearningTigran Sloyan, CEO & co-founder of CodeSignal, led the thought leadership spotlight Sloyan introduced CodeSignal as an “AI-native skills intelligence platform” built on the principle that people learn best when performing tasks. “Think about when you learn how to ride a bike, how you learn to drive a car. You get behind the wheel, and you actually try and practice,” he said. The same applies to job skills, but scaling hands-on learning programs has historically been challenging.Sloyan shared the example of Dropbox, which faced considerable AI skill gaps across its workforce. Dropbox’s executives recognized it couldn’t hire its way out of its problem because the skills required were too new to be widely available. The solution was to partner with CodeSignal to build a Gen AI Skills Academy. The academy offers employees three options: AI use lessons for non-technical roles like marketing, AI integration classes for building products using existing tools, and AI creation courses that teach how to build new AI systems. Sloyan says the key to the success of Dropbox’s Gen AI Skills Academy is its practice-based nature. He demonstrated a model where learners first practice prompting an AI model, then are tasked with teaching a simulated coworker named “Nova” how to do it. “Another way you learn well is by teaching other people,” he said.CodeSignal’s AI doesn’t only simulate conversations, it also provides personalized feedback through its “Cosmo” system. “Practice without feedback is not very helpful,” Sloyan said, comparing it to learning to drive a vehicle without an instructor. “With generative AI, we’re making it possible to actually scale this to an entire organization.” Dropbox applied this to thousands of employees, enabling them to learn, practice, and get feedback at scale.How AI Interviewers Are Opening Up the Hiring FunnelSloyan also shared how Coinbase created a more efficient hiring process thanks to CodeSignal’s AI interviewers that scale top-of-funnel recruiter screens to nearly 100% of its candidate pool. Coinbase had previously struggled sorting through a flood of applicants with its limited recruiting team, leading to as many as 95% of job applicants never hearing back from a human.“Almost every candidate that applies actually hears back and actually gets to have a conversation to talk about their skills,” Sloyan said. He showed a demo of “Milo,” an AI interviewer CodeSignal uses in its hiring process, interviewing a candidate.A common concern is that AI interviews might feel impersonal, but Sloyan says candidate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “Candidates are saying, ‘This is one of the best interviews that I’ve actually done,’” he said. The AI can be customized for tone to align with an organization’s legal and brand guidelines. Sloyan says the next step is moving toward AI avatars to create an even more immersive experience. He playfully demonstrated the concept with a candidate interview conducted by an AI avatar of Santa for an “elf” position.A Future Built on Skills, Not Just CredentialsSloyan kept returning to a central theme during his presentation: The future belongs to organizations that can discover and develop new skills proactively. AI is the accelerant, but the solution is timeless; learning by performing tasks reinforced by feedback. It’s the necessary response to a world where new jobs are created by new technologies every decade. “Technology keeps on moving faster and faster. Humans do not,” Sloyan said. “We’re still the same humans, and it’s this technology that needs to help us go through this process faster and be on the winning side of history.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Technology and Talent: How HR Leaders Are Future-Proofing the Workforce
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 22, 2025What does it take to turn a workplace into a learning machine? During a panel discussion at From Day One’s December virtual conference on the future of work, executives made one thing clear: it’s not about programs or policies, it’s about empowering employees to take charge of their growth.First, organizations that support continuous learning make it easy to access training for both technical and durable skills, especially for what Becky Karsh, VP of talent and growth at F5, calls critical roles. That means personal development plans, plus the ability for employees to nominate themselves for learning and development opportunities.Second, they embrace internal mobility. “Now that you have employees learning new skills, it’s going to make them more marketable for more open roles in the company,” said Melanie Stave, SVP, NA career development & mobility practice leader, at LHH. “Ensuring that that is an avenue for movement is key.” And finally, when it comes time to fill open roles, those companies look at internal talent first. “I really think it falls to senior leadership,” Stave added. “They really need to champion this mindset.”HCSC’s VP of talent solutions Shannon Fuller backs what he calls a “train-your-replacement” culture. “When you have a replacement and successor in place, it’s much easier to move talent across the organization,” he said. At HCSC, employees are encouraged to lead their own development, thinking not only of who will take their place, but also where they will go next. “Oftentimes, we’re waiting on our manager and we’re waiting on goals,” he said. “I encourage people to drive their own car.”Giselle Battley, global head of emerging talent & learning at Yahoo, suggests that organizations host internal career weeks where employees can meet with recruiters about open roles within the company. “Especially in large organizations, you often don’t know what opportunities are available,” said Battley. Events like this give employees the chance to move fluidly throughout the organization, building their skills while strengthening the company’s overall talent base.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, journalist and From Day One contributing editor, moderated the session about "Technology and Talent: How HR Leaders Are Future-Proofing the Workforce" (photo by From Day One)Future-proofing doesn’t always require changing roles. It can also mean short-term projects in different departments, which satisfy curiosity, strengthen employee networks, and add cross-functional skills to the organization’s reserves.Of course, such programs demand time and attention from HR. To make them sustainable, Stave recommended offering plenty of self-serve resources, setting clear goals and timeframes for temporary projects, and making it clear where completing these projects and acquiring new skills can lead.Skill development isn’t limited to technical capabilities like AI proficiency or data engineering–it also includes durable skills, like how to lead a team. “I don’t think we’re moving away from the fundamentals,” said Karsh at F5. “In fact, I think we need to double down on them. Leadership is an art that needs to be honed like a craft.”Panelists noted that building skill-based programs requires knowing what skills already exist within the organization. “The problem in doing this kind of infrastructure work is that the right hand often doesn’t talk to the left,” said Kason Morris, global director of skills-based organization strategy at Merck. “If we’re democratizing access to opportunities, we need to speak in a language of experiences and skills,” he said. That means, for example, not letting a university degree stand in for actual abilities.In fact, HCSC is in the process of removing degree requirements, focusing instead on the skills people have–whether built up in school, on the job, or elsewhere, says Fuller. Morris says we’re moving toward a time when conversational AIs will help not only develop skills, but identify them as well. “That’s intelligence for the employee and intelligence for the business,” he said.Continuous learning isn’t just a strategy, it’s a mindset and a culture. By empowering employees to own their growth, embrace new challenges, and share knowledge across the organization, companies can not only keep pace with change but lead their industries.“We all started this journey right by being scared of AI,” Stave said. “But after all the research and the personal benefits we’ve seen–it’s just so nice to hear all the good stuff that’s coming.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by EyeEm Mobile GmbH/iStock)
AI Disrupts Staffing: The Inevitable Transformation
BY Stephanie Reed December 19, 2025AI may have entered HR through efficiency, but it’s staying for something bigger. As tools grow more sophisticated, their role is expanding from automating tasks to shaping how organizations understand people and make hiring decisions. According to John H. Chuang, CEO of Aquent, recruiting is where that shift is becoming most visible.During a live thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Miami conference, Chuang spoke about the advanced capabilities of the latest AI technology and how it will eventually be integrated into every department in an organization. One way recruiting is being revolutionized is by AI processing voluminous data, he says. A recruiter alone is less efficient at digesting information from thousands of potential recruits. “I would argue that human beings are actually sort of not qualified to do the initial stage of sourcing because they cannot absorb data,” Chuang said. “What can absorb data? Computers. What can now understand computers? AI.” Beyond processing information at scale, AI also enables better matches by identifying specialized skills and technical nuances of roles that recruiters themselves may not be deeply familiar with, he says. For example, some clients are seeking very specific roles, such as cardiologists, medical coders, and construction supervisors. “Are you telling me that the average recruiter is going to know all the lingo and all the technical details in all these areas that are completely dispersed? No, they won’t. But AI can. And AI does know these things.”Another way AI is reshaping recruiting is through language. While recruiters may only speak one language, AI can process resumes across many, removing a common barrier to global hiring. Once the technology is properly trained, it also allows recruiting to scale efficiently, helping talent teams identify the best candidates faster. The return on investment is clear: the cost of an additional AI-led search is significantly lower than a human-led one, making large-scale recruiting far more cost-effective, says Chuang. John H. Chuang, CEO of Aquent, led the thought leadership spotlight At Skill & Aquent, Chuang described how the company is moving toward a recruiter-less model, driven by advances in AI. Agentic AI, an evolved form of the technology, acts as an intelligent assistant for processes that require flexibility, context, and real-time decision-making. “Recruiting will be absolutely unrecognizable in three years,” he said. A 2025 Deloitte report highlights how agentic AI is reshaping workplace processes, from understanding context and user intent to supporting scenario planning, forecasting, and risk assessment. It can even make autonomous decisions in areas like economic forecasting and competitive analysis. Chuang recalled that during an Aquent beta testing ahead of a January release, the team tasked agentic AI with finding a customer solution engineer, and the system took action on its own.The team set a goal to find a customer solution engineer. Agentic AI took action on its own.“We didn’t tell it what to do at all.” The technology created a strategy: create two job ads. One defined the technical aspects of the position, while the other highlighted the customer service aspect more. The system ran the job ads, continuously optimizing underperforming postings through four iterations as more matches came in. Once it reached a sufficient pool of candidates, the results were sent to a recruiter. “Guess how much time all the strategy development, the posting of jobs on five job boards, one’s internal database, and four iterations, how long this took? This took eight minutes.”While agentic AI may “supercharge” talent acquisition, Chuang emphasized that people remain essential to the process. Recruiters won’t have to read through too many documents. Instead, they can focus on interviews and negotiation.HR’s new role will be to help transform the organization, emphasizing the partnership between people and technology. Put simply, computers will accomplish what computers are best at, and people will accomplish what people are best at. “AI can do amazing things. And you haven’t even seen anything yet. It’s coming, and it’s going to be more amazing than you’ve ever seen.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Aquent, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Humility in AI: Partnering With Technology That Assists, Not Overrides
BY Grace Turney December 19, 2025Paul Pavlou, PhD, the dean of the Miami Herbert Business School, doesn’t sugarcoat the future of work. While many leaders tiptoe around AI, Pavlou offers a direct assessment: AI will indeed replace many jobs, but that transformation represents only half the equation. The other half–how AI can elevate human potential in ways we’ve barely begun to imagine–demands the same attention.During a fireside chat at From Day One’s Miami conference, Pavlou shared insights from his extensive research on AI, decision-making, and organizational transformation. The conversation, moderated by Steve Koepp, From Day One co-founder and editor-in-chief, explored how business leaders and educators are grappling with a technology that Pavlou describes as being “an order of magnitude” even more significant than previous breakthroughs like electricity or the internet.Redefining What Technology Can DoUnlike tools that simply automate tasks, Pavlou says that AI represents something fundamentally different: a technology designed to overcome human limitations rather than merely extend or mimic human capabilities. “It thinks like us, or more like us, and better than us,” he said. This important distinction changes the conversation from what AI can do for us to what it tells us about our own abilities.The implications become stark when examining certain professions. Take radiology, for example, Pavlou points out that machines can analyze scans faster and more accurately than physicians. With that in mind, what is his advice for prospective students? Don’t become a radiologist if your job security depends on regulations requiring a human to perform tasks a machine handles better.Yet he emphasizes this isn’t necessarily bad news for society. Better, faster diagnostic capabilities mean earlier disease detection and improved patient outcomes, even if it means fewer radiologists.The Autonomy ParadoxPavlou’s research on consumer decision-making revealed an intriguing paradox: people usually prefer to make their own choices, even when they know an algorithm would (theoretically) recommend something better. In studies examining how shoppers choose clothing, the researchers found that shoppers (particularly women) would rather make the final decision instead of accepting AI’s recommendation.Paul A. Pavlou, dean & professor at the Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, shared his research on AI during the session This desire for autonomy extends beyond retail. Whether you’re a physician, an HR manager, or an executive, professionals want to understand why AI recommends specific actions rather than blindly accepting its output. “I want to have the last word,” Pavlou said to describe how people want to remain empowered to make their own decisions.This insight packs profound implications for how organizations use AI systems. The technology works best not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a tool that enhances it, with humans maintaining ultimate control—and accountability.Preparing Students for an Accelerated TimelineAt Miami Herbert Business School, Pavlou faces a concrete challenge: employers increasingly want candidates with two to four years of experience, yet the school’s primary mission involves preparing entry-level graduates. His solution leverages AI itself. By using technology to personalize education and provide real-world project experience, students can graduate with the equivalent of several years of workplace experience compressed into their undergraduate years, he says. The school has launched AI majors and minors while transforming existing programs to incorporate AI across disciplines, from HR to finance to accounting. “It’s not just about teaching students to use AI,” Pavlou said, “but using AI ourselves” to personalize the entire educational experience. The goal: graduates who are “job ready on day one” with capabilities that would have taken years to develop in previous generations.Beyond Individual Jobs to Lifelong LearningAccording to Pavlou, there has to be a shift in how organizations think about workforce development. AI’s rapid advancement means upskilling and reskilling can no longer be confined to early career stages. Companies increasingly approach Miami Herbert for guidance on what their employees, whether they have 20, 2,000, or 200,000 workers, need to know about AI.This demand has shifted executive education, elevating it from a secondary offering to a strategic priority. Organizations need different training at different levels: foundational skills for entry-level employees, experimental mindsets for middle managers, and strategic frameworks for C-suite executives who must create organizational cultures open to AI adoption while establishing appropriate guardrails.The Compassionate MachinePerhaps the most provocative element of Pavlou’s research involves what he calls “compassionate AI.” The premise challenges common assumptions: if human beings often lack empathy and compassion in decision-making, can AI actually serve as a corrective force rather than an amplification of our flaws?“The baseline is human beings,” Pavlou said. “They’re not very compassionate.” He offers the example of self-driving vehicles: while humans kill tens of thousands of people in car accidents every year, a single death caused by a driverless car causes widespread outcry and regulatory backlash. This double standard, he suggests, reflects our reluctance to acknowledge our own limited capabilities.Pavlou expressed skepticism about companies that announce mass layoffs blamed on AI adoption. The real opportunity is not eliminating positions, but creating better jobs and generating more value. Organizations should focus on how AI allows for better decision-making, reduces errors, and improves outcomes rather than simply trying to cut costs through workforce reduction.He advocates for comprehensive training as the foundation of responsible AI adoption, implemented at individual, team, and organizational levels. This training should address both effective use of the technology and ethical considerations. Only after organizations understand what the technology can do should they establish guardrails and policies, rather than creating restrictions for capabilities they don’t yet fully grasp.The conversation concluded with a reminder that reflects Pavlou’s central point: AI doesn’t exist in a vacuum. “We created them to serve us and augment what we actually do,” he said. The question isn’t whether humans or machines are superior, but how we can work together to overcome limitations and elevate capabilities that neither could achieve alone. For business leaders navigating this transformation, that perspective offers a more productive framework than the binary thinking that has dominated much of the AI debate.Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Talent in Motion: How HR Is Using Tech to Align People, Skills, and Opportunity
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 18, 2025Thanks to the explosive changes in the workplace brought on by the arrival of AI, employees are being asked to learn new skills all the time–often on top of already overfull plates. That leaves HR leaders facing a difficult question: How do you build skills at the pace the business demands without burning people out? Some HR leaders say the answer lies in shorter, more flexible learning experiences, paired with clear pathways that give employees ownership over their growth.“We have to have learning experiences that are easily adaptable,” said Nate Beck, SVP of learning and experience at Zions Bancorporation, during a From Day One webinar on how HR is using tech to align people, skills, and opportunity. The company has moved away from eight-hour, weeklong training programs in favor of lighter, more flexible approaches. Targeted development plans now begin with e-learning to cover the basics, followed by a 90-minute discussion focused on behaviors.“This allows people to leave the classroom with confidence and a plan of action immediately, instead of a full day of theory,” Beck said. The focus is now squarely on specific skills and the behaviors that support them. “It allows us to be quicker at meeting the needs of the organization when things change. If a skill is no longer relevant, that’s no big deal–we can adjust, because we’re not working on three days of content, we’re working on 90 minutes of content.”“When I started in learning and development, it used to take us months to develop multi-day programs,” said Nikki Slowinski, EVP of talent experience and development at Publicis Digital Experience. “We just don’t have that luxury anymore.”Journalist and From Day One Contributing Editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Publicis is now using Microsoft Copilot to help build training programs faster and more responsively, informed by data. “We’re able to meet needs before they become obsolete,” Slowinski said. “There’s still a lot of critical thinking involved to make it effective and high-quality, but I don’t think we couldn’t move at this pace without AI.”At the same time, leaders emphasized that durable skills–like critical thinking, systems thinking, and problem-solving–remain essential, and may be “even more critical now,” said Veronika Lantseva, SVP of workplace performance at U.S. Bank. “AI is a transformer of the way that we do work. Those skills come into play for a human to be able to say, ‘Here’s how I can connect the dots and leverage AI to drive business outcomes.”“Adaptability is the foundation for every other growth mindset,” Beck added. The most valuable capabilities remain human ones: “critical thinking, relationship-building, communication—those are things that AI cannot outperform us on.”With so much change underway, fatigue is a real risk. To embed learning into the culture, companies need to incentivize it, said Marcus Cazier, director of learning and development at bioMérieux. “Make learning a part of core duties. Tie it to performance bonuses.”Giving employees agency over what they learn helps too. “This starts with a conversation with leaders around long-term goals and the skills needed to get there,” said Lantseva. “Let’s say I’m a project manager in HR, and I’m aspiring to work in finance. The skills-based ecosystem gives me the language to say, ‘Here’s the delta between the skills I have today and what I need in the future.’ Then I can work with my manager to say, ‘How do I close that gap?’”Internal skills frameworks clarify the skills and proficiency levels required for different roles, giving employees a clear target to aim for. “That gives people leaders and HR language to use when they have future-focused conversations,” Lantseva said.That clarity can also break down barriers among departments, said Beck. “You get more cross-functional work. People are happier when they can see opportunities that are available. Maybe they don’t leave HR, but they get to participate in something with accounting. It’s such a good and healthy practice to have transparent skill and role frameworks so people can try new things.”SHL, for example, developed a skills taxonomy of 96 discrete behavioral skills that companies can use to evaluate their talent. Employees can better understand their own capabilities, while the organization can identify internal candidates ready to take on new jobs rather than hiring externally. When a new role opens or a team needs support, leaders can see who already has the relevant skills.Sukhmani Grewal, a solutions architect at SHL, described working with a client whose senior HR leader wanted to move into a business role–an unusual step in that organization. “We were able to show they have the right skills to be an effective business leader for the opening,” she said. “We were able to connect the dots, and the person is thriving.”Skills can also be transferred person to person, outside of structured training programs. At bioMérieux, mentorship has been a vital mechanism for skills-sharing, but only when it’s treated as more than a goodwill exercise. The mentorship is short-term and skill-based, says Cazier. It’s distinct from coaching or sponsorship, and sets the expectation that leaders will mentor, supported by systems and tools.“Adaptability is our foundation, and digital fluency keeps us relevant,” Beck said. “But human skills are what keep us irreplaceable. That’s what people need to remember–focus on how humans interact, and how we can use AI to augment our capacity.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by courtneyk/iStock)
Culture That’s Real: Bringing Company Values to Life
BY Jessica Swenson December 18, 2025“Everyone wants to have a good culture, but they don’t really understand how much time and energy and effort it takes,” said Bert Hensley, chairman and CEO of Morgan Samuels Company. He believes that employees should be empowered to co-create and shape the culture in which they work.During a panel at From Day One’s Miami conference, moderated by Miami Herald business reporter Michael Butler, Hensley and other executive leaders discussed how organizations can cultivate cultures that embody the company’s values while both challenging and supporting employees.Companies need to determine “what kind of organization they want to be, and what kind of people need to be a part of it,” said Jonathan Méndez, head of executive search and HR business partner at Kellanova. Ensuring that talent aligns with the company’s purpose is key to preventing cultural tension.This knowledge is also crucial for any executive search and other new talent decisions. Identifying key business objectives, knowing the requisite skills and experience, and being aware of cultural considerations are vital to finding candidates that share the company’s values, says Hensley. He recommends in-depth, in-person meetings with teams seeking new talent to better understand how they interface and operate before assessing or recommending candidates.Referencing a shared ownership model emerging at his company, William (B.J.) Warren, the head of HR effectiveness at Bayer, says they are seeking to remove hierarchical roadblocks and empower the people closest to the customer to take on decision-making. This allows the relevant groups to determine “what is it that best meets the needs of [our] customers, versus the challenge of ‘who do I need to report to or get approval from in order to really take those decisions?’”Belonging & Safety Employees need to feel safe and seen in order to have a sense of belonging in the workplace. Abbe Partee, DHL Supply Chain’s head of culture and inclusion, oversaw the development and launch of the company’s Belonging at Work program. This program allows for deeper conversation and connection through training focused on inclusion and psychological safety, and it has delivered a lift in employee engagement and Great Place to Work scores.“We want you to feel that you’re connected, you contribute, you’re valued, and that’s where you get this sense of belonging. But it’s not just up to the leaders to create the culture of belonging. It’s up to everybody,” she said. By holding all employees accountable not only to performance, but to behavior, DHL maintains clear focus on its values of respect and results. “If you get results without respect, you are not part of this culture.”Panelists spoke about "Culture That’s Real: Translating Company Values Into Everyday Reality" during the sessionAt the same time, advises Méndez, while a culture steeped in niceness can attract and retain talent, too much focus on being nice can inhibit healthy conflict and innovation. To offset the influence of Midwest nice culture at Kellanova, he says, the company has focused on amplifying its core values while introducing a new one: courage. They “[bring in] talent that has those values and has that courageous mentality, but in the day-to-day work we try to encourage that type of behavior to really push the organization forward.”Centering diversity initiatives on the customer base and business results is another way to realize a company’s values around belonging and safety. Hensley’s executive searches have a 40% diversity rate (exceeding the industry average of 12%) because they search more broadly for the correct fit for a role rather than hiring for diversity quotas. “Diversity works best when integrated into business operations, not treated as an add-on,” said Warren.Partee and Méndez agreed that the employee population and upper-level leadership—including the C-suite—need to reflect the customer base that an organization serves. “There’s more innovation, there’s more creativity, there’s better problem solving. When you have diversity at all levels of the organization, it just makes sense for your business,” said Partee.Restoring HRBP CredibilityAcknowledging that HR is sometimes viewed primarily as a policy enforcer, several panelists agreed that HR teams need to act as business partners first to rebuild credibility and confidence in the function. In his first three weeks with Kellanova, Méndez met with all 200 of his team members. “It was an incredible learning opportunity to understand the business and the people, and if you understand your people first you’re able to start breaking down that barrier.” Knowing the pain points and performance impacts of the business gives HR leaders credibility and allows them to provide better input.To ensure that culture flows through all levels in an organization, executives need to put themselves in situations where they are “shoulder-to-shoulder with their employees,” Méndez said, and encourage their leadership teams to do the same. “That visibility creates trust. If you don’t have that visibility, and if you’re in that ivory tower, in your office with the door locked, you’re not going to ever have that relationship.”Partee has added board-level sponsors to employee resource groups at DHL, putting those senior leaders in a position to “spend much more time with people of different identity groups, listening to them, hearing about what their challenges could be, and getting a different perspective.” Warren suggests expanding the use of 360-degree reviews and peer feedback to help close performance and communication gaps. He also cautions that prioritizing systems that check boxes rather than prioritizing people can complicate processes and erode trust. Historically Bayer has led its HR transformations with technology changes that enable processes, he says, but with their new self-organized team approach they are now “much more focused on the people first. The process and technology can follow.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and editor based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Accelerating L&D With AI: How to Lead, Adapt, and Keep the Human Touch
BY Katie Chambers December 17, 2025Nearly 60% of HR leaders say AI adoption is one of their biggest challenges, yet the prospect of radically improving worker learning and development is a huge new opportunity. How can AI make L&D more individualized, efficient to produce, and integrated with the flow of work? Can it upskill workers more quickly than traditional methods and accelerate leadership development? Leaders shared their ideas on the subject during a panel discussion titled, “Accelerating L&D With AI: How to Lead, Adapt, and Keep the Human Touch,” at From Day One’s Miami conference. “The best companies in the world that are going to develop through this phase are the ones that train their people to use AI most effectively, not be scared of it, and embrace it,” said Dave Coldwell, global AI executive at Cisco. But that’s easier said than done. “With AI, like any new technology, there is some apprehension, and we all know that it’s a tool. It’s not human,” said moderator Paul Bomberger, independent journalist and former Miami Herald business editor. Leaders must maintain human connections with their teams while rolling out emerging technologies, and emphasize that these tools will never replace human workers—just augment them. “It doesn’t have innovation. It is good at giving you resources and instructions, but there’s the human aspect that we need too,” said Elyse Sitomer, learning & organizational development partner at Memorial Healthcare System.It can be hard to get “old school” industry leaders to get on board with the AI revolution. Alexandra Bautista, SVP of employee experience at Harvard Services Group, said the key is “helping them understand that it’s a tool to leverage your performance.” She has brought in speakers to share how AI can make the workday easier and reinforce that it’s a positive rather than something to be feared. Panelists suggest rolling out simple tools like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT to get your general workforce more comfortable with artificial intelligence. These tools can simplify administrative tasks by summarizing email chains, creating agendas, or taking notes at meetings. From there, more complex AI educational software packages are no longer one-size-fits-all, but highly individualized, says Chris Narmi, chief strategist, AI and workflow at HP. These tools “recognize the strengths and weaknesses of an individual, track them through their learning process and customize their learning program.” And the training is often built in. “AI is unique in that it’s the first technology that can really teach you how to use it.”Innovative Uses for AI in the Workplace Gone are days of lengthy employee handbooks or boring onboarding videos. “What generative AI has allowed us to do at Cisco is personalize the training. [We have] the right training for the right people at the right time, and that’s led to developments in leadership, developments in creativity, and exponentially improv[ed] our salespeople’s engagement with the customers and partners that they’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” Coldwell said. “The thing that’s uniquely human is intuition, empathy, and purpose, which we don’t have just by using AI alone.” His organization has developed its own AI model, called Circuit, used by its 20,000 salespeople. “Instead of replacing people, it’s actually helping to skill up our new employees, but also for our existing employees, it’s helping empower them to be better.” Maria-Pia Barbona, VP of HR at Swatch Group, shares that in her previous role at LVMH, her team worked with tools like Yoodli, an AI speaking coach that let salespeople roleplay customer interactions. “You prompt your AI, you go into a FaceTime call with your AI, and there’s a person that you see there and you go in a roleplay,” she said. The platform lets associates practice difficult conversations and refine their techniques to make a sale. Managers were able to log in to see results, which helped them discover trends as to which areas required further training. Panelists spoke about "Accelerating L&D With AI: How to Lead, Adapt, and Keep the Human Touch" Narmi cautions that AI can provide solutions to customer issues, “but it lacks the empathy to understand the applicability of those answers, and you’ll learn that you need to apply your own judgment. The human piece is applying that [artificial] intelligence appropriately under a set of circumstances.” He advises engaging in active dialogue with AI to hone its answers, guiding it with your own human emotion and intuition. “I find it a collaborative process: it learns from me and gets better.”AI works best when it’s breaking down large swaths of information, providing summaries, and giving detailed explanations. Then you need to synthesize all of it in the complex, innovative, and nuanced ways that AI can’t. “I like AI for its immediacy. It gets the hard work out of the way,” Sitomer said. Narmi shares that he has developed a fleet of AI agents through Copilot to help him optimize his performance. “I have an executive assistant. I have an editor. I have a white paper writer.” At Harvard Services Group, Bautista and her team create GPTs that offer a customized learning path for new hires during the first 30, 60, and 90 days of their employment, creating a “learning culture” at the organization that did not previously exist. “We’re taking it to the next level, starting next year, and customizing based on performance conversations with the managers. Where are those skills gaps that this person may have? Do we want to get them to the next level? If so, what are the competencies that they need to have?” she said. Employee retention is the goal. “I think there’s no other way to tell our employees that we care than to tell them we see you. We want to develop you. We want you to grow.”Narmi advises that leaders remember that AI is just a tool; an organization’s biggest asset is still its human workforce. “Recognize that your talent, and the fundamental talent of the people that work for you, is imagination. You need to foster imagination and help people to understand that AI cannot perform that role,” he said. “Let it do the research but let people use their imagination with the AI to expand [their] ideas.” Or, as Coldwell put it, “AI is for speed. People are for direction.” Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Global Hiring and Emerging HR Tech: A New Path to Solving the Talent Shortage
BY Grace Turney December 17, 2025Noelle Pittock, senior director of onboarding and business operations at Remote, remembers the first time her team completed what was previously a six-to-eight-week performance review cycle in just 48 hours. The drastic change wasn’t only about speed; it ultimately saved 7,000 hours of work and achieved 95% completion rates. This breakthrough came from rethinking how technology could actually make work processes smoother instead of more complex.The talent crisis has reached a tipping point. According to research from Remote surveying nearly 4,000 business and HR leaders worldwide, 72% of companies missed a key business goal or deadline in the past year due to talent shortages. These weren’t product failures, they were people problems. Teams simply couldn’t find and onboard the right talent fast enough to meet critical deadlines.“The bottleneck isn’t that great candidates don’t exist. It’s that we’re looking in too narrow a place,” Pittock said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s December virtual conference. Opening Borders, Not Just Job PostingsThe data reveals an intriguing paradox: 74% of HR leaders say finding qualified local talent is more difficult than a year ago, yet 79% would hire more international candidates if it were as easy as hiring domestically. The willingness exists, but the infrastructure just isn’t there.Many companies are currently expanding their geographic reach, says Pittock. Some business leaders expect more than half of their 2026 new hires to come from outside their primary country. This isn’t a fringe strategy anymore; it’s becoming standard practice for businesses struggling with shallow local talent pools.Noelle, a senior director of onboarding & business operations at Remote, led the virtual session (company photo)Remote itself operates as proof of concept. The fully distributed company receives 30,000 to 35,000 applications per month across 90-plus countries, employing nearly 2,000 people without a physical office. “We haven’t faced a talent shortage by taking this globalized strategy,” Pittock said.What’s held companies back isn’t desire, but clarity. Nebulous local regulations and compliance concerns make the risks seemingly outweigh the rewards. Modern HR technology is trying to change that perception through global-first sourcing tools, AI-assisted screening, location-based compensation planning, and legal hiring mechanisms like employer of record services that handle compliance complexity.But finding talent is only half the challenge. HR teams also face an operational crisis managing the sheer volume of work across disconnected platforms. The average HR leader juggles 3.6 tools, with some using four to seven systems just for basic processes. These tools rarely communicate with each other, ultimately multiplying workload instead of reducing it. “When HR teams say they don’t have enough time, that’s not an exaggeration,” Pittock said. “That’s reality.”Automation That Actually Reduces WorkThe most effective teams aren’t just adopting new tools; they’re completely rethinking workflows. Remote’s approach offers a framework: simplify processes before automating them, consolidate platforms to eliminate data silos, and create automated workflows that don’t rely on institutional memory.In hiring, AI screening now helps teams navigate increased application volume. Candidates can use AI to tailor resumes quickly, flooding recruiters with applications. One in five talent acquisition professionals report seeing AI-generated applications with misleading information, says Pittock. Remote’s pilot program used AI to extract skills, summarize resumes, and generate consistent screening questions, allowing recruiters to focus on qualified candidates rather than sorting through virtual piles of paperwork.Onboarding presents another opportunity for automation. Remote onboards talent in over 100 countries by breaking the process into clear workflows with integrated systems, she says. Personal data automatically generates employment agreements in seconds and compliance checks verify identity remotely. By integrating AI directly into workflow platforms, Remote compressed reviews from six weeks to just two days. Managers complete reviews on day one using preliminary information and structured data. Leaders calibrate and finalize decisions on day two. The system achieved 85% employee satisfaction while completing reviews 15 times faster. “AI isn’t replacing judgment,” Pittock said. “It’s supporting it by handling drafting, summarizing, and formatting so managers can focus on substance.”Starting Small and Scaling StrategicallyFor HR teams ready to simplify their workload while increasing productivity, Pittock recommends four immediate steps: remove one manual task you touch often, consolidate data into fewer platforms, pilot global hiring for a single role where widening the search meaningfully improves your candidate pool, and add one lightweight automation ritual like weekly check-in reminders.The key is identifying what matters most to your team. “Take a pulse check with your HR leaders,” Pittock said. “What’s the one most annoying thing they do every day that, if it disappeared overnight, would change how they work? Start there.”These changes require minimal investment but create foundations for sustainable, high-performing organizations that remain people-centric even as they automate. The goal isn’t replacing any of the human elements in HR’s, it’s about freeing professionals to focus on what actually requires their judgment, creativity, and care.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Remote, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photo by dem10/iStock)
AI in HR: How Work, Skills, and Leadership Evolve in a New Tech Era
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 17, 2025A year ago, HR leaders approached artificial intelligence with trepidation, afraid to jump in first, lest they also be the first to make a mistake. “That really changed overnight,” said Adam Vassar, head of talent science and learning design at skills evaluation platform CodeSignal. Early adopters follow a familiar pattern: automating the top of the recruiting funnel or using AI to assess technical skills like coding. Today, the use cases are broader and more varied. Vassar now works with clients to evaluate employees–technical and non-technical alike–on generative AI literacy, role-specific AI proficiency, and understanding of the technology’s limitations.Vassar and his fellow panelists discussed how AI is reshaping jobs, and how HR is helping to manage that shift, during a From Day One webinar on how work, skills, and leadership are evolving in the age of AI.“But before we can evaluate candidates on the AI skills they need or target the skills employees need to develop, we have to redefine skills taxonomies and job architecture,” Vassar said.That’s the work currently underway at data engineering firm Innodata, says Charlie Tañala, head of talent, capability development, and employee experience. “The foundation is clarity,” Tañala said. “You need a skills taxonomy that reflects the work your organization actually does.” The project, launched less than a year ago, will undergird Innodata’s internal skills marketplace, enabling the company respond more quickly to client needs and employees to move fluidly within the organization.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Innodata accelerated its focus on AI skills as it gained a wave of AI-proficient clients, and their existing client base was quickly catching up. “We started supporting customers who build and refine generative AI models, and the expectations moved to a different level,” Tañala said. “The skills required in generative AI workflows are more specialized and more judgment-heavy. We had to rethink almost everything–how we attract talent, how we design roles, and how we structure teams.”What AI skills a workforce needs will vary by company and function, says Marvie Wright, the VP of HR at customer service provider Qualfon. “Spend time in discovery to understand what’s out there,” she said. “Then tailor that to your organizational needs, being aware of what gaps you have, and how would you like for an AI to fulfill those.”AI is being applied differently in finance than in, say, communications or IT, prompting employers to think more deliberately about how skills are developed across functions. At Qualfon, a cross-functional task force evaluates and sets expectations for AI skills by department. “We know this is leading to a more enhanced future,” Wright said. “It’s really exciting, and it’s going to change the educational forefront of the workplace as well.”Identifying and measuring skills is only part of the equation. Training is another. “You want hands-on experience to see what’s possible, explore the edges, and understand where the logic breaks down,” said Ari Lehavi, head of applied AI at credit ratings institution Moody’s. He favors group workshops that demonstrate what’s so satisfying about AI, which is the ability to go from zero to prototype in hours.Participants collaborate–bolstered by AI–to solve real problems, moving from concept to execution. “I like to see how different people come up with ideas,” Lehavi said. “You help when they struggle, and, typically, you end up with some great ideas,” he said. “Everybody builds something, and they get very proud. That whole element of fear and the unknown dissipates, and they can venture into new ways of operating.”Wright advocates for as personalized an approach as possible. “We look at their individual needs, their gaps, and their progressions, then tailor individual approaches for each one very quickly and very accurately,” she said. As Qualfon has intensified its efforts, the returns have come faster. “We love it. We’re obsessed with it right now.”For Tañala, it all comes back to adaptability. “The skills we rely on today can change quickly,” he said. “Our people need the confidence to adjust without feeling lost. AI readiness is about understanding how to work with AI—and how to make good decisions with what it produces.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Harsa Maduranga/iStock)
The Power of Purpose-Driven HR Technology Decisions
BY Christopher O'Keeffe December 16, 2025The HR technology landscape didn’t arrive at its current complexity overnight. While many of today’s leaders may not have lived through three decades of platform evolution firsthand, the industry has—from the dot-com era’s monolithic systems to Web 2.0’s “all-in-one” platforms, through the SaaS boom that fueled a massive unbundling of tools, and now into an AI-powered cycle of rebundling and automation.During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s November virtual conference, Alex Uhre, enterprise sales manager at Rippling, walked through this history to share how HR leaders can make smarter, purpose-driven technology decisions. “Companies above 1,000 employees on average have 177 SaaS technologies within their organization,” he said. Employees feel that burden acutely: “It creates this position that not only are employees a little bit frustrated about trying to figure out where to go, but we’re also finding that even when you do have these all in one systems for our administrators, they’re finding themselves hamstrung.”Against that backdrop, Uhre outlined a clear, three-pillar framework: buy for the employee experience, choose unification over integration, and adopt new systems with a methodical mindset.How We Got Here: The Four Cycles of HR Technology Uhre opened with a rapid but revealing history lesson.In the dot-com boom, he said, “desktop technology and desktop information and personnel records transitioned into this idea of the HR information systems that we know today.” These early monoliths centralized employee data and automated payroll, replacing paper systems with digital infrastructure.The rise of Web 2.0 expanded this further. “We saw this rise of ‘integrated technologies’ where it wasn’t just about the employee records. We wanted to see technology expand to more of the practical day to day things that HR was taking care of.” Recruitment, onboarding, and performance tools all moved under the umbrella of the “all in one.”Then came SaaS—and a structural shift. “We saw this unbundling of technology,” Uhre said, where organizations adopted “individual point solutions that provided exactly what they needed.” The gain in specialization created an explosion in total platform count.Now the pendulum is swinging again. “AI is here, massive automation is here,” Uhre said. “We can unify systems again. We can rebundle systems to give HR and business professionals holistic systems that provide exactly what they need.”The Three Pillar FrameworkToo often, Uhre said, HR tech is marketed around “what saves HR time.” But he encouraged leaders to rethink the goal altogether: “I’d love to shift this mindset from saving HR time to reducing friction for your employees.”An employee tech journey audit offers a practical starting point. “Talk to all of your individuals within your organization,” he said. “From the first day that they join your company, throughout the life cycle of their employment, where is it that they’re finding inefficiencies, and where can things be better?” And utilization is what determines value. “Utilization is the true test,” he said. Alex Uhre, an enterprise sales manager at Rippling, led the session (company photo)The proliferation of disconnected systems has created what Uhre called the modern “Frankenstack.” “APIs are great. Integrations are fantastic,” he said, “but they’re a bandage for what could be structural redesign.”The cost of this patchwork approach is significant: dual maintenance, data discrepancies, compliance risk, manual work, and fragmented reporting. “Efficiency comes from data talking to itself,” he said, “not having administrators check on APIs or check on integration.”Uhre shared the diagnostic question he urges leaders to ask vendors. First, “If you make a change to an employee, how many systems does that need to touch?” And, “Am I able to report on everything entirely in one single report?”Even at Rippling, the impact of unification is visible. “It should start and stop with as few systems as possible.”The third pillar, he says, rather than roll out new platforms in one sweeping change, Uhre advises leaders to identify a minimum viable rollout. “When you have a unified system, you are actually able to roll out individual pieces over time,” he said. He urged teams to start with high-impact, low-friction improvements: “Maybe it’s expense reporting, maybe it’s PTO requests, things like that.” He also emphasized the importance of measuring everything. “I would really ensure that you are measuring adoption and gathering feedback,” he said. “If it works, promote it. If it doesn’t, let’s fix it before we launch the next module.”Across every stage of the framework, Uhre returned to one theme: clarity.The Way Forward: Purpose-Driven Decisions in an Era of AI and ComplexityAs the industry enters another major inflection point—this time shaped by AI and automation—the lesson from Uhre’s session is clear: companies cannot afford accidental tech stacks.Unification, intentional design, and employee-first thinking are no longer differentiators; they are survival strategies.And while the tools have changed dramatically since the dot-com era, the goal has stayed the same: making work easier, clearer, and more connected for the people at the center of it.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Rippling, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by Thawatchai Chawong/iStock)
How AI Can Work as a Partner to Augment Human Capabilities, Rather than Replace Workers
BY Ade Akin December 16, 2025Imagine having a new team member who shadows your best salesperson to fetch data and learn unspoken rules, like why one client is more responsive to a direct approach while pitches have to be carefully framed for another. This apprentice never forgets a lesson and shares their nuanced understanding with colleagues. That’s the vision of AI that Ari Lehavi, the head of applied AI at Moody’s, is bringing to life, shifting the focus from task automation to capturing and scaling the institutional wisdom that companies are built on. Lehavi shared this idea and more during a fireside chat at From Day One’s December virtual conferenceThe transformative potential of AI lies in human-AI collaboration based on a continuous, two-way learning street that’s designed to augment human judgment rather than replace it, he told moderator Rebecca Knight, contributing writer at Harvard Business Review. Shifting From Automation to AugmentationAI-doomers often frame the technology as the worst thing that’s happened to job security in human history, but Lehavi sees it more as a collaborative tool that enhances human performance and encourages organizations to do the same. Ari Lehavi, general manager, head of applied AI at Moody’s, spoke during the fireside chat (company photo)“I do think that there’s been some orientation around thinking about AI as a way to generate efficiencies and automation, and I don’t think that’s the best use of AI,” he said. “Increasingly, I’m seeing a shift in the way that companies are thinking about it as an accelerant of performance, rather than as a way to generate efficiencies.”The central question then becomes how to increase productivity and work quality with AI. Lehavi says one of the ways that organizations can accomplish this is by using AI to handle simple, repetitive tasks, freeing up employees to focus on work that requires uniquely human skills, such as judgment, empathy, and innovation. “The hard cases, the edge cases, the complex areas, the mentoring of other people, the management, the development of skills in other individuals, the expansion of what’s possible in their role,” Lehavi added, pointing out what humans excel at. The Importance of Bi-directional DesignLehavi says “bi-directional design” is necessary to optimize human-AI collaboration. Most AI tools used today have a single directional design. You ask questions, and it answers. True partnership requires a feedback loop where humans teach AI context and nuance, he says. “AI has information that it can pick up from documents, from data that can help you assemble research faster,” Lehavi said. “But that has a very limited kind of lift that it creates.” The exponential gain happens when AI begins to understand how and why you make decisions. “It has to kind of almost get into your head.”AI provides value, like summarizing key points from a large text library, in a bi-directionally designed system, but it also identifies gaps in its understanding. It learns to ask questions such as “Why did you make that decision?” This leads to humans working with AI, explaining the nuanced instincts that come with experience. Capturing the reasoning behind human decision-making enriches the AI model's understanding, allowing it to provide more insightful recommendations in the future. The information learned by the AI can be packaged and shared, creating a “collective organizational wisdom” that other employees can access. A Concrete Case: Augmenting the Sales ProfessionalLehavi shared an example of how bi-directional communication between humans and AI works in the real world from within Moody’s sales department. A standard CRM stores data, but misses the subtleties that define a veteran sales rep’s success. Insights like the unspoken politics of a client company, the specific pain points a key decision-maker is sensitive to, or the historical context of a relationship. Moody’s built a system that starts by giving sales team members AI-generated leads, matching market pain points to the solutions it provides. The AI responds with questions such as. “Tell us what we don’t know, tell us, you know this person,” Lehavi said. “We know the general profile, but we don’t know this particular relationship in this particular instance, and what exactly is the dynamic that would make this deal move faster and closer.”The seller feeds the nuance context back to the AI, which then refines its recommended messaging and value propositions. The system also identifies patterns in these seller-client relationships and provides recommendations such as: “What you’ve told us about this individual and this company seems a lot like three others that we’ve encountered, and this framing of this message really resonated.” The sales team member tests the hypothesis, and the result, positive or negative, is fed back into the AI model, expanding its institutional knowledge. Lehavi views AI more as an apprentice than an intern. “Initially, the apprentice gets more value from you than you get from the apprentice,” he said. You invest time teaching the algorithm your ways, then the dynamic eventually flips. “You’re starting to get that much more value. And then you know that you have a true partner, so you can move up to the next level in your career.”With AI managing more of the administrative burden and research, sellers have more time and mental space to focus on the irreplaceably human aspects of their role: deepening relationships with clients and crafting persuasive value propositions. For leaders, it means scaling the impact of top performers, so other employees benefit from the institutional knowledge they help build. The Undocumented Layer of Human JudgmentThe critical insight Lehavi stressed throughout the conversation is appreciating the vast, often invisible complexity of most professional roles. He points to what he calls “the undocumented layer of human judgment” that exists in every position, from customer service to legal departments. Studies suggest that around 10% to 40% of what knowledge workers do is based on this tacit understanding.“Whenever I see enterprise implementations that end up where people kind of feel like they didn’t accomplish what they were supposed to accomplish, I often link that to the underappreciation of how much of the work that gets done is unwritten, and is based on judgment and experience,” Lehavi said.The routine portions of a job that knowledge workers spend 60% of their time on might be automatable. But the high-value edge duties, where crucial relationships depend on nuanced judgment, are where human-AI collaboration must focus. The goal is to design systems that bring the right information and context to the surface to help their human counterparts make faster, more-informed decisions. Lehavi advises companies to build systems that ask “why.” AI models that learn from human experience and improve the performance of their human collaborators. This allows organizations to move beyond simply automating tasks with AI, and start codifying, scaling, and institutionalizing their collective knowledge–their most valuable asset. Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by KTStock/iStock)
Utilizing AI to Turn Employee Sentiment into a Strategic Advantage
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski December 15, 2025AI’s role has grown far beyond automation, reshaping how organizations generate insight and intelligence. That expansion brings new risks, but also new opportunities to use AI in ways that are ethical, human-centered, and effective.That balance is familiar to Shawn Overcast, general manager of enterprise solutions at Explorance. The global feedback and insights platform operates in more than 50 countries across five continents and has long focused on using AI to surface human potential, not replace it.During a thought leadership spotlight titled, “Responsible AI as the Intelligence Layer: Turning Employee Sentiment Into a Strategic Advantage” at From Day One’s Miami conference, Overcast shared her company’s background with AI and detailed how using this tool can and should be done in a responsible manner.Explorance started doing research and development with the AI space regarding machine learning about eight years ago. “We were at this before AI was cool,” said Overcast. Explorance launched its AI-centric solution, MLY, three years ago. Short for machine learning that answers the question why, the tool was deliberately developed to inform decisions about people as well as the actions taken with them, Overcast says.MLY reflects Explorance’s approach to responsible AI. The employee sentiment analysis tool helps organizations make sense of open-ended feedback, turning employee comments into insight and competitive advantage without losing the human context.Challenges With AI“With great potential comes great risk and great challenge,” said Overcast. Some problems with AI, says Overcast, include bias, transparency, data fragmentation, skill gaps, and privacy. “The data, the algorithms within AI, are only as fair as the data that it’s trained on,” said Overcast. “So, if there is bias in our hiring models, in our promotion data, for example, then the AI algorithm will carry with it inherent bias.”Shawn Overcast, general manager, enterprise solutions at Explorance, led the sessionThe transparency challenge deals with the black box theory, which is the inability to trace back as to why we’re getting the results we are. It’s often hard to trace it back and it’s important to do so to understand the source.Another AI challenge is data fragmentation. “I’ve been at this for a long time and that has always been a problem,” said Overcast. “Working with data silos is a real thing, a real challenge in our organizations, but it also presents a real challenge with being able to integrate all of that together,” Overcast said.Skill gaps also present a problem with AI use. “This is a real challenge for some organizations, because it’s not necessarily what we hired for,” said Overcast. “We hired more for the people aspect of the role, or the process aspect of the role, but not necessarily how to adopt new technology quickly.”Lastly, privacy is an extremely important issue and ultimate challenge at times with AI. Employee information must be protected, and businesses have to be cautious about how the collected data is used. As some of the challenges in contrast to what AI can provide, Overcast assures that these challenges aren’t ones that should cause us to step back, but rather insights that can help us do things with more thought. The 7 Principles of Responsible AIAs the HR team stands at the intersection of innovation and responsibility, it’s important to know how to pursue responsible AI. There are seven principles of responsible AI including the following: fairness and inclusion, transparency and interpretability, accountability and governance, accuracy and decision integrity, privacy and consent, purpose and human intent, and reliability and safety.“AI is not just a technology conversation, it is an ethical conversation, it is a mindset that we need to have, and these help us with quality control about the information we use to make decisions about people,” said Overcast.When pursuing fairness and inclusion, it’s important to make sure that AI amplifies every voice and that all employees are heard equally. Overcast offered an example about a global manufacturer that wanted to do a sentiment analysis across its manufacturing plants across the globe. With use of AI and multi-lingual analysis, it was discovered that a specific work group was having challenges with workload and wellness which was at a Spanish-speaking plant. In the past, if there weren’t Spanish-speaking employees on the main HR team, the data couldn’t be uncovered quickly as it had to be translated and analyzed separately. However, now with AI, it’s the same process regarding all employee comment data and the decisions are now made at the same time.As for transparency and interpretability, the black box problem exists. The data goes in, results come back; however, we don’t understand why and where the recommendation comes from. There are questions that may come up regarding the sentiment, the topic, or the tone. When using AI, it’s important that the recommendation is ultimately traceable back to the source comment. It’s vital to have trust in the data.The last responsible AI topic discussed by Overcast was privacy and consent. It’s vital to protect employee data and there are ways to do so with AI. For example, redaction provides a way to ensure employee data privacy. It’s important to ensure the organization is protected, too. Wherever you are in your AI journey, Overcast advises keeping the seven principles of responsible AI front and center. That includes educating teams on AI’s limitations and recognizing that, while powerful, it is not always accurate. Transparency and human oversight are essential, and responsible AI principles should guide every stage of how the technology is used.Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Training for AI: Six Ways HR Leaders Are Getting Their Teams Up to Speed
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 15, 2025As corporate America operationalizes AI at an ever-increasing rate, “HR is going to be the one figuring out how to connect the dots,” declares Dan Kaplan, managing partner and co-head of the CHRO practice at ZRG Partners. Company-wide AI rollouts are ultimately an HR matter, he argues, since they affect productivity, headcount, culture, and revenue. A new report from McLean & Company found that while 68% of companies are using AI, just 14% have a formal strategy. To get a handle on the new tech, some HR teams, like the one at New York Life, are taking the lead on adoption. The insurance firm launched its enterprise-wide AI training program in April, but HR had already been part of early pilots in 2023, testing internal systems that later scaled across the company.“Because of our early experiences with AI, HR became an essential voice for the broader rollout,” said Elliot Steelman, head of employee relations and leader of the HR department’s AI initiative. His team built fluency in prompt engineering, skills intelligence for talent mapping, analytics for long-term planning, and GPT creation. That is, generative pre-trained transformers, the large language models underlying today’s tools.Approaches to training up the HR team on the latest in AI tech vary by organization, but many combine classroom sessions, company-wide knowledge-sharing meetings, messaging channels for swapping tips, and virtual sandboxes where employees can play and experiment. Here are six ways HR leaders are training their teams to use–and lead–with artificial intelligence.HackathonsAt New York Life, AI hackathons–intensive, collaborative workshops focused on solving specific problems–have become one of the most effective ways to build HR’s proficiency. “Of the thousands of GPTs created at New York Life, many of the most-used were developed by HR,” said Steelman. “To date, employees in our HR department have collectively built more than 100.”The company’s CEO, Craig DeSanto, made AI a company priority. By starting with learning and exploration, the company made adoption less intimidating. “Employees felt like they were driving the change, not chasing it,” Steelman said.S&P Global was also an early adopter. After acquiring AI and analytics company Kensho in 2018, the company began training employees almost immediately. During a From Day One webinar, the global head of people solutions, Tiffany Clark, noted that S&P hosts quarterly hackathons to help employees experiment with AI and solve real problems.Internal Tool Development and TestingSome HR teams are co-designing their own AI productivity tools. The people-operations team at Nextdoor, the hyperlocal social network, began experimenting with ChatGPT in 2022. The head of compensation and talent, Tony Castellanos, said that their early willingness to tinker with a tool that was still clunky, and adapt it to their needs, helped build lasting proficiency.“You need curiosity. You also need resilience and perseverance,” he said. His team has developed their own AI tools to automate common workflows and answer employees’ questions about things like open enrollment and immigration.In 2024, S&P Global rolled out an AI assistant to handle common questions for the people-operations team. In partnership with the AI strategy team, Clark’s team helped develop the framework and conduct testing, a move that’s been instrumental not only in how employees leverage the assistant, but in building the HR team’s literacy, she said.Some people-operations experts, like Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain, want the department to take the initiative when it comes to AI use. “I’d love to see HR leaders be the first to the table,” she said at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference in October.Secure Sandbox Environments Training needn’t be too structured, or even goal-oriented. Many companies simply invite employees to experiment with sanctioned tools in “sandbox” environments, where applications and code can be tested safely.At biotech firm Genentech, all employees are trained on AI principles, ethics, and responsible use. The company encourages experimentation within sandboxes, coupled with live sessions and peer-learning events where colleagues show off what they’ve built.These safe, low-stakes spaces where employees are free to make mistakes, take risks, and “learn out loud,” are essential to adoption, said Amelia Rosenman, director of programs at the Experience Institute, during a From Day One webinar. “Share both your successes and your failures. That’s what creates that safe environment, that risk-free sandbox,” she said.Messaging Channels for Trading TipsAt fintech company Stripe, the people operations team set up a Slack channel where employees share how they’re using AI for little productivity boosts. “We make a point of being transparent about how we’re thinking about the future,” said Róisín Daly, head of people solutions, during a panel on how innovative companies are using advanced HR tech. The same was done at Aspen Dental, which created a Microsoft Teams group dedicated to sharing ideas for responsible AI use. This went a long way to quelling concerns that using AI was in some way cheating, said VP of learning and development Katie Stangel during a virtual panel. “People are starting to celebrate and call out when they’ve used it, saying, ‘I use ChatGPT to help me with this outline,’ or ‘I used Articulate AI to help me with the design and development of the course.’ We celebrate that.”Peer-Led Demos and WebinarsPeer-to-peer learning has become one of the most widely used ways to get employees comfortable experimenting with AI. New York Life hosts live workshops where staff demo their own AI use cases for colleagues. These sessions are often led by what initiative leader Steelman calls “internal evangelists” and “AI influencers.” These champions normalize experimentation, model best practices, and accelerate adoption by showing what’s possible.Every department requires different AI training, said Marvie Wright, VP of HR at Qualfon, during a From Day One virtual panel discussion on AI in HR. To meet those varied needs, the company created a cross-functional task force to evaluate tools and department-specific use cases, weighing factors like budget and compliance requirements. As adoption has grown, Wright has even added an AI programmer to her HR team. “The possibilities are endless, and my company is excited to invest because we know this is leading to a more enhanced future,” she said.Fellow panelist Ari Levahi of Moody’s Global agreed, noting that while training formats needn’t differ by function, “it’s all about the unique use cases associated with the HR role.”Traditional Training Environments, Both Classroom and Virtual More traditional forms of learning still play an important role in ensuring consistent, baseline AI literacy across HR and the enterprise at large. Nextdoor trains its team in a virtual classroom, where employees spend one hour a week for five weeks learning how AI works and then experimenting with it in their daily tasks. “One of the things that we're excited about is just the broad range of opportunities,” said Castellanos. “We don’t want to be prescriptive about what people do because we want to tap into the creativity and ingenuity of everybody here.”That openness has already paid off. One recruiter trained an AI-powered voice interviewer to help her team practice candidate interviews, something that previously had no real-world, low-stakes equivalent. “She really embodies curiosity, creativity, and the desire to improve,” Castellanos said. “She has continuously experimented with very specific use cases, and when this opportunity came along, she was one of the first to recognize its potential.”Rote reporting and paper pushing “erode energy and deplete people’s reserves,” he added. With a more AI-literate workforce, “you see an elevation of conversation. We’re not talking about how to push a task forward–we’re talking about strategic objectives. And that’s a lot more fun.”Stripe’s L&D team created a course that employees can access on demand, while New York Life supplements hands-on hackathons with on-demand modules. These structured offerings give employees shared language and technical grounding, making experimentation, and safe use, easier across teams. They also brought in the experts to teach AI skills, inviting leaders from Microsoft and OpenAI as well as Conor Grennan, chief AI architect at New York University’s Stern School of Business.While only a small fraction of companies have formal AI strategies, those that do are already reaping the rewards. At New York Life, an internal survey conducted in June found that 90% of HR employees’ say that they are confident in using AI in their day-to-day work, with 92% of employees reporting they actively look for new ways to integrate the technology into their daily work. “That speaks volumes about our shared enthusiasm, growing confidence, and the trust we’ve built together,” Steelman said.For HR leaders, that may be the lesson: AI adoption isn’t just about deploying new tools, it’s about building a workforce that feels empowered, curious, and capable of shaping the future of work itself–and that can begin with HR itself.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Featured photo by FG Trade/iStock by Getty Images)
Giving Your Team the Space to Be Creative With AI, While Using Guardrails Too
BY Ade Akin December 12, 2025A common frustration voiced by Spanish-speaking grandmothers and mothers across the country sparked a revolution at GE Appliances. Their question was simple: “Why can’t a washing machine understand us?” Answering that question led to the company reimagining its corporate culture, talent pool, and approach toward innovation. The story of GE Appliance’s Spanish-language washing machines began with an employee resource group and culminated in defining the organization’s new corporate philosophy. “We created it in a way that those cultural nuances would be recognizable when you spoke to it,” Rocki Rockingham, the chief HR officer at GE Appliances, said during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Miami conference.For Rockingham, Spanish-speaking washing machines are more than a new product feature. It symbolizes a radical shift in how the organization approaches artificial intelligence and how it empowers the employees closest to customer issues to build solutions, valuing intellectual curiosity as much as technical expertise. From “Can’t” to “Can”: Redefining How Work Gets DoneCorporate functions, like human resources, were historically seen as guardrail enforcers, flagging processes that couldn’t be done with new technology, especially regarding data privacy. GE Appliances has a different approach. “We really took a different philosophy and said, ‘We’re not going to lead with can’t. We’re going to lead with can,’” Rockingham said. “We’re going to lead with ‘yes,’ then we’re going to work backwards,” she told moderator Tim Padgett, Americas Editor at WLRN-NPR News. Rocki Rockingham, CHRO of GE Appliances, spoke during the fireside chat This “work backwards” approach means giving teams access to new technologies and allowing them to experiment, ideate, and create without constraints. The goal is to push teams to be creative from the onset. “Don’t start the project thinking, ‘I can’t do this,’” she said. “Start the projects thinking ‘I can do whatever I want to do.’”Managing a Multigenerational Workforce Through Common GroundA significant challenge GE Appliances has faced as its new open philosophy is deployed is managing a workforce that spans five generations, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z. “They communicate differently, they think differently, they assimilate differently,” Rockingham said.GE Appliance’s strategy hasn’t been to force a single style on all these unique personalities, but to find common ground. “We look at what are the things they have in common, and try to create a crossroads and a balance there, and create a communication opportunity for them to then create together,” Rockingham said.This is vital when bringing teams with varying attitudes toward work together, from Baby Boomers' preference for traditional office spaces, to younger generations’ desire for flexible schedules and opportunities to work remotely. Generational gaps also exist regarding trust levels in technology, particularly newer ones. Rockingham observes that while younger employees aren’t more trusting of AI than their older counterparts, they’re “more willing to take chances. To try new things, to do things differently.” Gen Z employees, for example, grew up with advanced supercomputers in their pockets, which inherently influences their perspective on technology. GE Appliances encourages the use of technology like AI by giving everyone “permission to learn differently and to learn more.” Business solutions can then be created from the lessons discovered. The “Zero Distance” Philosophy and Micro EnterprisesGE Appliances uses a “zero distance” philosophy to formalize its culture of innovating by empowering employees. “We narrow the gap between where the work is done and the output, so between the customer and who creates,” Rockingham said. This encourages co-creation and gives employees a direct relationship with the outcomes of their work.The zero distance philosophy is structurally supported by breaking up the organization into micro-enterprises, which are small teams dedicated to a single product line, like washing machines. “We’ve pushed into that micro-enterprise to say, ‘Okay, you’ve got this AI technology. Now you, being subject matter experts in dishwashers, go and create an idea and tell us what AI can do within your business,’” Rockingham said. An AI Lab and an Emphasis on Intellectual CuriosityTo further support its zero distance initiative, GE Appliances created an internal artificial intelligence lab, staffed with experts who work solely on AI projects. Employees can consult with these experts for guidance, and partners from higher education institutions, like the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, bring in professors for seminars and advanced students to hire and rotate through the lab, helping to address the challenges that come with the real-world application of AI. “What you want to do is you want to hire people who are curious,” Rockingham said. “You want to hire people who have an aptitude to think differently about how they work.” Doing so requires moving beyond traditional credentials and historically undervalued “soft skills.” “We’re having to dig deeper and look beyond just the credentials that are on the paper and say, ‘Well, how curious are you?’” she added.Humanizing Change, Not Just Managing It“The biggest thing I’ve learned is we have to stop managing change and start humanizing it,” Rockingham reflected when describing her experience helping to implement GE Appliances’ zero distance philosophy. This means creating an environment where people have the freedom to be creative and co-create, embracing the “zero distance” ideal.The change has helped Rockingham and her team to move beyond spreadsheets and rethink how they measure return on investment, focusing more on the talent profiles needed for recruitment and retention. The products that have been created under this new philosophy are the ultimate proof of concept. GE Appliances now uses co-creation centers, where the general public works alongside engineers and marketers to brainstorm and build. One such collaboration led to the creation of a small-batch mushroom grower that sold out within two months via crowd-sourcing, demonstrating a strong connection between public inspiration and commercial output. GE Appliances’ journey suggests that competitive advantages don’t always come from the best algorithms in the age of AI; they can also spring from a culture that asks grandmothers what they need from a washing machine, and addresses it head-on. Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
How Innovative Companies Put Advanced Technology to Work
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 10, 2025HR leaders are on the front lines of AI adoption in the workplace. They’re responsible not just for finding ways to make their own departments more productive and efficient, but for ensuring that it can be smoothly applied throughout the organization. At a panel discussion at From Day One’s November virtual conference about how innovative companies are putting advanced tech to work, leaders shared how AI is reshaping their organizations, from hiring to data privacy.How AI Is Saving One Company Thousands of Hours At Vail Resorts, one major success has been in taming application volume, an enormous relief for a company that employs 50,000 workers, roughly 80% of whom are seasonal. “Our first attempt with leveraging AI is around modernizing the talent-acquisition process,” said Shiv Akumala, senior director of HR and finance. The hospitality company launched a mobile-friendly UI interface where candidates can apply for jobs that match their skill sets and their experience.Behind the scenes, the platform analyzes applications and automatically schedules screening calls and interviews. For a team accustomed to manually sorting through seasonal hiring surges, the impact has been dramatic. This first attempt at AI has saved the talent acquisition team thousands of hours, Akumala says.Vail’s use of AI doesn’t stop at hiring. The company is also using tools that forecast labor needs in real time, factoring in guest bookings and weather conditions to help managers schedule workers more accurately. Instead of relying on instinct or static staffing plans, managers can use dynamic models to understand exactly when demand at resorts will spike.Training a Modern Workforce on AIAt S&P Global, leaders saw the promise of AI early. The data and intelligence firm began training its workforce on artificial intelligence in 2018, well before the 2022 release of ChatGPT created the current AI boom.All new hires get exposure to AI tools and principles, regular hackathons challenge teams to develop their skills, and employees are incentivized to solve their problems with AI. Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Executives model this behavior. CEO Martina Cheung and CPO Girish Ganesan have spoken at company all-hands meetings about how they use AI, both in and outside the office. That openness matters, says Tiffany Clark, S&P’s global head of people solutions and well-being. “That’s what really encourages and incentivizes our employees to leverage AI.”Making AI Simple and PersonalFor some, the AI learning curve is steep, and a slower introduction is needed, said Tyson Foods’ HR tech leader Devina Desai. The challenge is ensuring the tools are accessible enough for everyone to participate. “We need to make the experience for our team members basic,” she said.So, Tyson created a simplified, one-stop user experience within its HR administration system. Instead of navigating multiple portals with discrete credentials, employees can log in to a single platform to review dental insurance, submit medical claims, or learn about financial benefits. When everyday tasks like these become easier, Desai says, employees are more likely to use their benefits. Line managers get their own tailored dashboards with analytics, attendance records, and tardiness data–and each user sees exactly what they need.Ensuring Data Privacy Amid a Surge of AIIf efficiency is one side of AI adoption, data protection is the other. “We have very important internal employee data, so I always think about the possibility of leakage,” said Róisín Daly, head of people solutions at fintech company Stripe.As HR tech vendors began adding AI features, Daly’s team scrutinized the fine print. “We were suddenly faced with this problem: They’re processing our data and the lawyers don’t exactly know how to handle this, because it’s very new.”Daly must handle HR data–which includes troves of personally identifiable information, or PII–differently than her counterparts in other functions handle their data. While non-PII employee information may sit safely in the cloud, sensitive personal data requires iron-clad protections. The slightest bit of leakage is problematic at best, and catastrophic at worst.“That’s how leaders in the HR space tell me that they lose sleep, so I’m very focused on the experience, both from an internal data storage perspective and a vendor relationship perspective.”Clark agreed: “HR data is not the same as other forms of data. The biggest part is getting people to understand that difference, and then making sure we have firm data governance and data safeguards.”At pharmaceutical company McKesson, rigorous review is standard for every AI-enabled initiative. Ajeeth Anand Viswanath, senior director of HR tech services, says the company uses a three-tier approval model. First, legal reviews the use case. If it passes, it’s on to a senior specialist or data architect. Only after clearing those hurdles does it go to an executive-level board that assesses risk, exposure, and alignment with company priorities. “It’s a long process, as there are multiple questions,” he said. “Even the attorneys are present.”As the rate of change accelerates workplace transformation, HR leaders will have to contend with the way AI both simplifies and complicates the discipline. Whether it’s speeding up hiring, simplifying frontline tools, or tightening data protections, each organization is reckoning with how to deploy AI in ways that serve both the business and its people.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by JLco - Julia Amaral/iStock)
Beyond Bereavement: A New Approach to Supporting Employees Through Life's Hardest Moments
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi December 09, 2025The length of average bereavement leave is just five-and-a-half days, but the impact of grief goes far beyond a work week. According to research done at Empathy, a platform that offers support for individuals experiencing loss, the effects of grief can last on average 16 months or longer. During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference, Sophie Ruddock, chief operating officer at Empathy and Nicole DuBois, chief HR officer at Graham Windham spoke about how companies can support employees experiencing loss. When employees feel grief, the negative impacts of it can show up in the forms of reduced productivity, absenteeism, burnout and reliance on other team members to pick up the slack. Data shows that “79% of employees considered quitting their jobs after a major loss, in part because of how their employers supported or didn’t support them,” said Ruddock. She added that 76% feared they would be fired due to their inability to fully bring themselves up to their regular work standards. Graham Windham has partnered with Empathy to provide its employees with bereavement benefits and the company has already seen the positive impact it’s making—boosting employee satisfaction and retention, says DuBois. “When we can talk about what we bring, and that we care about our staff beyond what they produce and what their deliverables are, we actually care about them as humans,” said DuBois. “It makes all the difference from both a retention standpoint and a recruitment standpoint.”Topics about loss and how to support employees through this challenging time can often be taboo, “but it is also one of the most human topics,” said Ruddock. Another collective challenge was the pandemic. When unexpected crises hit, company leaders often retreat behind closed doors to find solutions for their teams. DuBois emphasizes that to truly empower and enable managers, they need that same level of support themselves.At Graham Windham, leaders are provided with training and coaching through an online platform. Any employee has the opportunity to be matched with a professional coach of their choice. This resource can serve as an additional support around navigating burnout, stress, challenging conversations and balancing work and life, says DuBois. “We know that pouring into our leaders is a critical thing for us to do if we're to sustain our workforce,” she said.DuBois says the company’s mission is to keep up with innovation and think “about ways to reinvent.” With that in mind, she discussed the conflicting feelings that currently surround the idea of incorporating artificial intelligence to the workforce. Nicole DuBois, CHRO at Graham Windham, shared the company's experience partnering with Empathy during the session titled, "Beyond Bereavement: A New Approach To Supporting Employees Through Life's Hardest Moments"As employees fear their jobs will be replaced by AI, DuBois assures her teams that rather than pushing people out of their positions, AI can be used to increase efficiency. “Some of these tools can become almost like a thought partner in our work,” she said. Empathy is also exploring the ways that AI can provide its members with faster support and resources for the various processes that are involved after the loss of a loved one, including planning funerals, writing obituaries, closing down personal accounts and more, says Ruddock. “I really think about how [AI] can actually drive a much more personalized experience for someone, and in our case, provide much more personalized guidance for someone that is experiencing loss,” Ruddock said. AI can be used to “help humans do what humans do best, and not replace the human experience,” allowing for people to take the time they need to manage grief rather than filling out complex paperwork. “Care in these moments must be continuous. It’s not conditional. It’s not time bound,” said Ruddock. “That’s where technology, alongside a deeply human strategy, can really complement it, and allow that innovation to be sort of human first, but complemented by technology. Not the other way around.”Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Empathy, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Career Growth as a Key Ingredient for Employee Retention and Engagement
BY Carrie Snider December 08, 2025For decades, career advancement followed a predictable path: work hard, earn the next title, secure the next raise. But that’s no longer what most experience anymore. Ralph Nader, SVP and head of talent at IPG Mediabrands, put it plainly: “There are certain organizations or certain functions where it’s really easy to outline a very traditional career ladder. That said, that’s not reality for most.”Nader spoke on an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference. Leaders explored one of the most critical drivers of employee engagement and retention: career growth. Nader encourages employees and leaders alike to rethink growth through a broader, more flexible lens. Inspired by the now-common “career jungle gym” idea, he emphasizes that sideways, diagonal, or even backward moves can be just as valuable as upward ones. “Stop thinking about the next promotion, stop thinking about the next paycheck,” he said. “Really think about what skills you have now, what skills are needed for the dream job that you want.” The same goes for companies; they should expand to focus on skill-building for employees.For employees feeling stuck simply because a promotion isn’t available today, Nader offers both reassurance and practicality. Progress doesn’t always come in the form of a new job description—but it can come through strategically building abilities that position you for the next opportunity. Closing the Skills Gap for a Post-Pandemic GenerationFor Tina Gilbert, VP of employer offering at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), the emerging workforce is shaped by experiences unlike any generation before it. As both a talent leader and a parent of college-age daughters, she has seen firsthand how Covid disrupted key developmental years. MLT’s mission, Gilbert says, is to help employers understand this shift while preparing young professionals to succeed. Many students missed out on traditional developmental experiences, from in-person communication to navigating professional environments. “We’re trying to help young people understand some of the skills that might have been not as well developed,” Gilbert said. At the same time, she emphasizes that the new generation brings powerful strengths of its own, including “a level of understanding, of empathy and just general curiosity.”The challenge and opportunity lie in reconciling what businesses expect with what young talent is prepared to deliver. This requires intentional design. Gilbert described the need for a clear and accessible “playbook” that explains expectations, models relationship-building, and outlines how to engage successfully in professional settings. “What are you writing down for them to read?” she asked. “What are those relationship-building skills that you are working on, and how are you delivering that?”Coaching and community are essential. Young employees won’t simply absorb these skills passively; they need support structures. Organizations must ensure “the coaching and then their peer connections” are in place to reinforce learning.Career Growth Through LearningFor Sachin Jain, managing director and global head of talent strategy at Citi, the foundation of a successful career can be summed up in a single word: learning. Throughout his professional journey, this principle has shaped every move he’s made. “Whenever I have an opportunity, I ask myself what will I be learning,” he said, “I would probably select a role which I’ve never done or which has the maximum amount of change from what I had done before.”The session was moderated by Jennifer Reingold, journalist and president of Jennifer Reingold AdvisorsLearning is about intentionally seeking out unfamiliar environments, new responsibilities, and diverse perspectives. The greater the difference between one role and the next, the greater the growth. “That’s what provides you a different perspective,” he said. “That’s what provides you a different set of learning.” This mindset, he says, allows employees to deliver better results, gain deeper satisfaction, and accelerate their long-term career trajectory. In practice, this means redefining how organizations and individuals think about advancement. Jain notes that employees who grew up in a world of gaming, levels, and visible progress want a transparent view of where they stand. “They want to know what level they’ve achieved, and therefore, what is the gap to their next move–whether that be lateral or vertical.” Learning, then, becomes both the path and the product. Building Skills, Not Just Job TitlesIn today’s rapidly evolving workplace, career growth is no longer defined solely by promotions or job titles. Melissa Fridman, SVP and people business partner at Visa, North America, emphasizes that developing a robust set of skills is critical for long-term success. “It’s becoming a lot more about what skills you have, versus what’s the particular job you had,” she said.Fridman encourages employees to embrace opportunities that stretch their abilities, even if they seem less glamorous than their current role. Reflecting on her own career, she shared, “I thought somebody asked me this like years ago, and my answer has remained the same: say yes. I said yes to things I actually did not want to do. They weren’t as interesting. They weren’t as glamorous. But I guarantee you, when you look back, you will have taken something from that.” The modern workforce also demands agility and adaptability, particularly as AI and other technologies redefine roles and responsibilities. Visa has even developed internal AI tools, like its Career Coach agent, to help employees identify skill gaps and create personalized development plans. “It literally spits out, here’s what you should focus on in the next month, next three months, next six months, and what you should aspire for in a year,” Fridman said. The tools are designed not to replace human effort but to enhance it, freeing employees to focus on learning, creativity, and strategic problem-solving.By prioritizing skill development over title advancement, employees can better navigate an unpredictable world while positioning themselves for meaningful and sustained success. “You could just keep sitting and waiting,” Fridman said, “but you’re going to be better off than when you started just sitting and growing in the same linear fashion.”Asking Smart Questions to GrowGrowth in the workplace requires understanding the context behind decisions and using that insight to improve. Melanie Naranjo, chief people officer at Ethena, recalls a pivotal moment that reshaped her approach. Following a meeting, her CEO pulled her aside and “challenged me to reframe her argument around business impact, not just HR metrics,” said Naranjo. This experience taught her the importance of tailoring communication to her audience, ensuring that proposals resonate with decision-makers. Naranjo emphasizes that learning also comes from asking the right questions. “Can you help me understand what would have needed to be true for you to say yes? What would you have wanted to see differently?” By probing thoughtfully, employees can gain clarity on expectations and identify actionable steps to improve performance. This approach transforms feedback from a one-way critique into a learning opportunity that guides career growth.By initiating these conversations early, employees demonstrate engagement and collaboration while also aligning their personal goals with organizational objectives. Cultivating curiosity and seeking guidance empowers professionals to make better decisions and develop new skills. Ultimately, career growth is the foundation for engagement, retention, and long-term success. Across industries, the message is the same: organizations that prioritize meaningful development, transparency, and adaptability create environments where employees thrive. By focusing on learning, skill-building, and strategic exploration, both individuals and companies can turn the uncertainty of today’s workforce into opportunity for tomorrow.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Practical Power of AI in HR
BY Jessica Swenson December 03, 2025While human elements of leadership, storytelling, and empathy will always be essential in HR, the rapid evolution of AI technology has placed companies under continual pressure to integrate it into their daily operations—and fast. Many organizations focus their AI efforts on improving efficiency, which is undoubtedly a valuable approach. Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain, uses AI at her organization to reduce the content generation time for its annual workplace culture report from 30 hours to six hours. Jason Ashlock, Kuehne + Nagel’s global head of organizational development, avoids using AI for conceptual work but has seen it utilized for task-based activities, such as slide design and dashboard updates.But Piyush Sarode, global head of HR for worldwide markets and pharmaceuticals at Bayer, believes that companies should focus on a broader strategic purpose and business objective than just efficiency. Bayer utilized AI to enhance training for its pharmaceutical sales representatives over the past 18 months, reducing training time by 80% and accelerating sales representatives’ access to potential clients. “Instead of a few days or a few weeks, [credentialing] can happen in as short a time as one hour,” he said during a panel discussion moderated by technology writer and editor Sage Lazzaro at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference. “Think of the implication of this—it has freed up thousands of internal hours and [created] agility and speed for the business to deliver those outcomes,” said Sarode. Panelists spoke about "How HR Leaders Can Leverage AI to Make Their Work More Effective and Fulfilling"Yancey hopes to see HR leaders take the initiative to recommend where their organization could utilize AI and where humans should continue to lead. “I’d love to see HR leaders be the first to the table with those plans,” she said.Panelists had differing ideas on the best route to select and integrate AI technology successfully. Ashlock and team have “found the most success when the business, IT, HR, and P&L owners have cooperated around a clear definition of an identifiable use case that solves a known problem.” Then they upskill the associated team on the AI solution.Josh Newman, WPP’s global head of people strategy and experience, says that HR tends to focus more on training rather than business outcomes; he recommends starting with known deliverables and work architecture. “If you’re trying to start by identifying use cases for specific roles, you’re probably [not understanding] what the deliverables are and how they are made,” he said. “If you map out the work architecture, you can then pinpoint certain use cases to unlock capacity and give people more time to spend on higher-value work,” said Newman. Framing AI maturity in three stages—experimentation, productivity, and net-new innovation—fassforward CEO Gavin McMahon cautioned against spending too much time focused on productivity and not enough on innovation. To promote innovation, he suggests that curiosity and adaptability are key traits to cultivate in employees. “If AI automates some work, and makes us better at [other] pieces of work, it’s going to be really difficult for us to think about that net-new way of doing things,” McMahon said.According to Sarode, vision-setting and system-level thinking are crucial steps that allow teams to architect and catalyze innovative AI solutions. “It requires that, at some point in time, you really look at the system and ask, ‘What’s a bold vision on how we can be a better version of ourselves?’”Urging leaders to reflect on how they want their work or organization to be before rushing to implementation, Ashlock emphasized the importance of balancing vision with execution. “We don’t get many chances in a lifetime to be part of an epic, defining technological shift,” he said. Despite being at such an inflection point right now, many organizations are operating at top speed under enormous pressure without considering what they are creating for the future.On the topic of AI risk, governance, and guardrails, Yancey drew parallels to the early bring your own device model, which led to cybersecurity issues on corporate systems, and stated that this needs to be a major area of focus over the next couple of years. The average person doesn’t “think like an owner,” she said, “so they don’t think twice when they’re putting customer information, product information, and sales information” into AI systems that the enterprise may not even have approved.Panelists agreed that AI has a place in talent acquisition—primarily to streamline transactional, task-based actions—but, as Sarode said, human oversight remains vital to the recruiting and hiring process. “Thinking about AI as a replacement for a person is dead wrong,” said McMahon. “Thinking about it as something that can do some tasks intelligently for you is dead right.”Ashlock offered a closing piece of advice to HR professionals: “Ask [yourselves] three questions about any potential AI intervention, application, or implementation: does it build capability? Does it build clarity? And does it build care?”McMahon recommends using your anxiety as motivation to learn “as much as you can, as quick as you can.” You don’t need to be an expert, he says; the key is to start learning and experimenting now.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
How Technology Can Enhance the Full HR Spectrum, from Recruiting to Retirement
BY Katie Chambers December 02, 2025Love it or fear it, AI is here to stay. In implementing AI and other new tech, leaders need to bring along the entire organization and drive a mindset shift, which includes an appreciation of how agentic AI will boost efficiency and productivity. Organizations must also consider the importance of anticipating risks and concerns about bias while utilizing these tools. During a fireside chat at From Day One’s November virtual conference, Kim Shockley, the VP of HR technology & automation at HP, shared how her organization is making the most of emerging technologies. The Evolution of HR TechnologyDuring her 12 years working in HR technology, Shockley has witnessed rapid changes. Most companies had HR solutions “on prem” (meaning on a server on the premises) but now work mostly with cloud-based technologies. “HCM [human capital management] software vendors [have] become the standard, and companies [are] moving to really focus on an implementation of that across all capabilities” she said. “This huge explosion in the HR tech marketplace [is] focused on innovation and delivering best of breed technologies and really encouraging us to think outside of the box of what can I do beyond the standard of HR deliverables.”Many workplace software companies like Workday and Success Factors are acquiring and merging with others to provide all-in-one solutions, she says. “What’s happening now has the potential to leapfrog us and shift us significantly in a different direction, and that we in five years may look completely different than what we look today in our technology environments.” Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter at the Seattle Times, moderated the session with Kim Shockley of HP (photo by From Day One)The myriad of options can be overwhelming, so Shockley advises focusing on impact. Many HR tasks are “foundational [and] transactional, it’s the things that we have to do to help to run the business,” she said, referring to tasks like payroll and PTO. “And then there are other things in a business that HR delivers that have potential to deliver competitive advantage or strategic differentiation. A lot of these are in the talent space. They may be related to your employee value proposition,” she said. This is where technology beyond the core HCM can be beneficial in terms of talent support and development. Implementing Technologies That Promote Growth “Who do we want to be? We want to be an organization where talent is attracted to come to us, and then we are developing them, providing them the tools and opportunities to learn and grow so that they have choices in the future,” Shockley said. HP has implemented a talent intelligence platform that helped it become a skills-first organization and allowed employees to find new roles within the organization based on their skill-set, boosting talent retention. The tech also provides career pathing to help employees see how they can grow within HP. “I may see that I can switch functions where I may not have ever considered that before, because I have the skills to go there,” she said. Mentoring matches and stretch projects have all been optimized with AI technology. The software doesn’t just boost retention. “That same platform serves us on the recruiting side too, and helps us to find the right talent externally. It’s a skills platform. It allows us to find candidates based on AI algorithms and an AI model that does map candidate matching that has been a game changer for us in terms of us finding the right people, finding folks with the right skills, and moving them through the process,” Shockley said. While AI can certainly help HR leaders, they must be sure to use it responsibly, making sure systems “are designed and deployed in a fair, safe, and aligned manner with human values,” Shockley said. “HP as an enterprise has AI governance principles around trust, safety, security, and accountability. We have, on top of that, commitments for our people organization that take that a step further because of our responsibilities.” One of these is “human in the loop,” ensuring that a human is always involved and that AI is not solely making decisions related to humans. HR partners with employment attorneys and compliance departments to understand and define best use, high risk, and forbidden use cases. Encouraging the Mindset ShiftAgentic AI offers opportunities to transform and automate business processes. “I can create an end-to-end workflow that drives more productivity into our processes, for both HR and for our employees and it also can impact the employee experience,” Shockley said. This rapid evolution is both exciting and challenging. “I have to be in the mode of executing, because I can’t wait for everything to be perfect. I need to be moving forward and learning and taking advantage… I have a bigger risk in not acting than in acting today,” she said. The information overload can be significant. Leaders need to encourage teams to be ready for AI, which Shockley calls a “mindset shift.” “With your average person, there’s still a lot of unknowns around AI—a lot of questions, maybe some anxieties and fears,” said moderator Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter at the Seattle Times. Shockley says encouraging experimentation is the best way to get employees comfortable with emerging technologies. “You have to actually put the tools in the hands of your people. It doesn’t have to be complex,” she said. Starting small with simple tools like Microsoft Copilot can help workers understand the value of AI. From there, you can expand into more complex company-wide technologies, like HP’s career mapping tool that lets employees dream and aspire to an exciting future. AI implementation is most effective when approached with purpose and clear intent, Shockley says. “It’s easy to say, ‘That’s cool. I want that.’ But if you start going at it that way, you often don’t get the outcome that you were after because you didn’t really define the outcome. And so, we always come back to, ‘What are we trying to accomplish?’ And let’s start there and then let’s figure out what’s the right technology to deliver on that.” Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photo by Summit Art Creations/Shutterstock)
New Year, New Recruiting: Trends and Tech in 2026 to Optimize Hiring, Screening, and Beyond
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 02, 2025The HR tech industry continues to introduce new innovations to make hiring smarter, faster, and easier. Yet even as the number of applications per position grows, some talent leaders are rethinking how, and how much, they want to rely on this technology alone.During a From Day One webinar on recruiting trends and technology heading into 2026, talent leaders debated the ways in which tech will automate and augment the hiring process, and how to strike the right balance between human and artificial intelligence. They agreed on this: AI is here to stay, but so is the human touch. What Is Responsible AI?For Kim Stevens, director of talent acquisition at recruiting platform Employ, responsible AI can be defined simply: “It’s technology that supports people. It doesn’t replace them.” In practice, that means AI never overrides human judgment, and a person always makes the final call. It also means the technology can explain itself. When Employ’s AI screening tool flags standout candidates, it provides a clear rationale. This information helps keep the company audit-ready, a legal necessity–and some argue, a moral one.Mike Rockwell, VP of account management at Verified Fist, which conducts employee background checks, added that responsibility also includes security. “If you think about the most popular AI tools people are using, like ChatGPT, if you put something in there, everyone has it,” he said. Sensitive hiring information can’t be treated casually. Employers need to ensure the tools they adopt have the infrastructure to keep candidate data protected.Transparency with candidates is part of responsible AI use. If a company is relying on AI tools for recruiting, they should be upfront about it, Rockwell says. Job seekers who feel misled or entirely cut off from real human interaction aren’t likely to walk away with a positive view of the employer.Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Erica Wallace, senior talent acquisition manager at HR management software BambooHR, says that some organizations still struggle to formalize internal guidelines. “We can’t say people are breaking the rules if we haven’t established what those rules are,” she said. At BambooHR, guardrails are built directly into internal tools. Even if a recruiter tries to ask the AI who they should hire, the system is designed to decline.Clarity also extends to the candidate experience. Some job seekers assume recruiters haven’t looked at resumes in years, Wallace joked. To counter that perception, her team tells candidates upfront if AI will be used in the interview process and gives them the option to opt out. Every AI-generated decision, from whether to advance a resume to the next round to any ranking of applicants, is still audited by a human.The panelists agreed that it’s always worth questioning whether technology is saving time or quietly creating more work. “That’s something we’re asking all the time,” said Wallace. Her rule of thumb: AI should only be introduced to solve a clearly named problem. Too many vendors, she said, are inventing products for problems that they don’t face. Adopting tech for tech’s sake is a reliable way to burn hours, not reduce them.Some tasks require a combination of the human touch and tech power. Fraud prevention, for instance, has pushed BambooHR back toward more in-person interviews to verify a candidate’s identity. Employ has also increased the amount of screening done by human recruiters. And Stevens cautioned against “over-engineering” the process by letting AI handle too much candidate messaging, especially deeper in the funnel where a personal touch matters most.What Employers Should Focus on in 2026As hiring teams plan for the new year, Stevens encourages leaders to think about candidate communication as a baseline requirement. With so many applicants across industries, it’s common for job seekers to hear nothing or receive only canned responses. “It is our responsibility as humans to treat other humans as such,” she said. AI can help clear the noise and reduce administrative work, but it shouldn’t replace meaningful interaction.That means reinvesting time in the humans doing the hiring. Spend more time with your recruiters, Stevens says. Help them become better interviewers, better communicators, and more empathetic guides in a challenging job market. AI can accelerate workflows, but it can’t build trust or make someone feel valued.Technology should enhance the human element, not erode it, panelists agreed. “We have an obligation to try the best we can to remain human and keep that human element, even with the advancements in technology and AI,” said Stevens. “One way to differentiate is to lead with kindness and empathy in everything you do,” Rockwell said. “There’s someone on the other end that’s trying to get a job because they need to pay bills, they need to feed their kids, they need to be sitting in a seat so they have a career. It’s really easy to forget about that when everything’s happening through a computer.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Employ, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Take Production Studios/Shutterstock)