Finding True North: How to Lead Organizations Authentically and With Moral Clarity
BY Katie Chambers June 08, 2026What does it mean to be an authentic leader? “I’ve always wondered why that’s a hard question,” said Bill George, author of True North: Leading Authentically in Today’s Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition, and former CEO of Medtronic, during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Minneapolis conference. “I think a lot of people are afraid. They feel like they have to go into the workplace and wear a mask. Being authentic is being genuine; it’s being who you are. You [should] actually constantly grow as a leader. You’re adapting to a situation.”During the session moderated by Kristen Painter, business editor at the Minnesota Star Tribune, George shared practical strategies and techniques for navigating today’s complex world, including advice on personal values, crisis leadership, and self-awareness.What Is a Leader’s True North?In his book, George defines the new true north as a call for leaders to step up in an era of intersecting crises. “It’s easy to follow your true north, follow your values, your purpose, until you get under pressure, and you have to decide between two options,” George said. “And that’s the real test. Where there may be sacrifices you have to make, do you have the moral courage to step up and follow what you believe, or do you back down?”Painter noted one recent crisis: the sudden rollback on corporate DEI pledges. “Do you think moral courage is actually in decline, or has the cost of exercising it simply gone up for leaders?” she asked. George does think leaders are afraid of the current government, so even though they might quietly continue all DEI practices personally within the company, they don’t want it explicitly stated. He cites Costco leader Ron Backer as an ideal example of a leader who stood up for his beliefs in the face of DEI backlash and received an overwhelming 98% vote of support from his shareholders. It’s these moments that matter for an organization. “Do you stand up and be counted? Everyone’s watching you inside the company and outside the company, and they frankly don’t believe anything you say if you don’t stand up under pressure,” George said. Contrary to some belief, having a moral center is actually good for business. “You have to act. Everyone’s so worried about short-term earnings. You better worry about long-term building your organization with the right people.” A leader’s primary obligation, George says, is always to their employees. “Without employees, there’s no support for your customers.” One recent practical, and harrowing, example: Operation Metro Surge, the ICE invasion on Minneapolis. George advised companies to issue statements to their employees. “Our employees’ welfare is the number one thing we have to do, and we have,” he said. “We’ll provide a safe workplace, we’ll provide for your security, and we will do everything to provide for your well-being. And if there are any issues, we will send in our security teams and our lawyers to support you and to help you,” he said. He would have issued a blunt, honest statement like that to employees, and done so quickly. He feels that while some local business owners eventually rose to the moment, they generally waited too long. Why Nuance Is Effective “A lot of leaders snap back to what you’ve identified in this book as sort of a command-and-control style of leadership. I’ll call it an old school way of leading, very top down, very much it leads to micromanagement, which is a disempowering feeling for workers,” Painter said. Engaged leaders, rather than those blanketly issuing orders, are more effective. George cites Corie Barry of Best Buy as an example: during Covid, she closed 1,083 stores and furloughed 82,000 workers, once she could ensure they would be covered by government unemployment benefits. Then she encouraged each local store to convert to a warehouse for online shipping, letting the store decide how best to manage it for their own community. “She gave everyone the authority. So that to me is an engaged leader, an example of how you should lead in a crisis. But she didn’t just hang back in our office and say, ‘you guys handle it.’”Bill George signed complimentary copies of his book True North for session attendees George says one of the toughest problems faced by middle managers is when the top tier of leadership implements a “command-and-control” style, while the manager still wants to lead with morals and heart. “What you have to do is stay true to your values, your purpose, and perform. And if you perform, you’ll be okay, but you still have to be an empowering leader for your people. You can’t just flip [when times get tough],” he said. He encourages organizations to be ruthless when it comes to toxic leaders: move them out before they become too damaging. Middle managers should be empowered as leaders of their portion of the business, to inspire their own teams and take ownership over results. George advises that leaders “have the courage to be the voice of our values, and not to be rules-based, but to be empowering, and to make moves to ensure that we have empowering leaders throughout our organization.” That means going directly to workers to talk one-on-one about problems and work together on solutions, rather than relying on secondhand feedback that may be filtered. The future is less “hero leader” and more “coach.” And coaches care about their people. “Let them be in the part of the organization where they can use their greatest skills. Then align them around your purpose and values,” he said. “This is not soft. Challenge people! Ask them how they can do better. Work with them to solve problems.” 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)
Skills That Stick: How Tech and Tools Are Boosting Learning and Development
BY Grace Turney June 02, 2026When Christine Karel, head of enterprise learning at Ameriprise Financial, joined early conversations around enterprise adoption of Microsoft Copilot, she pushed for learning and development to be included from the outset to ensure the investment translated into real business value. She observed that many AI rollouts are initially centered on technology, risk, and compliance, without a clear strategy for how employees would apply these tools to drive performance and productivity outcomes. Karel emphasized that deploying AI at scale is only part of the equation. Organizations are now focused on closing the gap between access and impact by helping employees build the capability to use AI in meaningful, role-specific ways. When done well, this shift enables faster decision-making, improved productivity, and a stronger return on technology investments“If you launch a massive investment like Copilot across an organization,” said Karel, “how are we, as talent and learning and HR, supporting that initiative?” That question, and the lessons behind it, set the tone for a lively panel discussion at a From Day One’s Minneapolis conference. A panel of leaders dug into how companies are scrambling to build AI fluency among employees, why the pace of change keeps outrunning their strategies, and what it will take for L&D to earn a permanent seat at the table. The panel was moderated by Evan Ramstad, business columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune.When the Tool Launches Before the TrainingThe story Karel told about Copilot wasn’t unique. Michelle Anderson, VP of global learning & development at AmTrust Financial Services, described almost the same experience. “A couple years ago, we launched Copilot to the entire company without us, they didn’t come to L&D at all, and then they wondered, ‘Well, why did this fall flat? Why isn’t anybody using it?’” The company pulled the tool back and is now building its own internal solution. L&D has a seat at that table now, Anderson says, but only because the first attempt failed.The pattern reveals something important: AI adoption isn’t primarily a technology problem. It’s a learning problem. People arrive with wildly different baselines: some treat AI like Google, others are genuinely uncertain what it can do. And without a deliberate strategy to meet them where they are, even well-funded rollouts stall.Anderson’s team at AmTrust has responded with a framework called Grow, designed to weave learning into employees’ daily workflow rather than tacking it on as a separate task. The system uses job descriptions and self-reported skills to recommend relevant development, surfacing nudges through Microsoft Viva Learning directly inside Teams. Managers are expected to reinforce the habit (a minimum of one hour of learning per month is company policy) because, as Anderson put it, “if your manager doesn’t support something, you’re not going to find the time to do it.”Measuring Comfort, Not Just CompletionOne of the sharper debates among panelists was how, and whether, to assess employees’ comfort with AI tools. Anderson said AmTrust deliberately chose not to survey its workforce on the topic. “We were worried that there would be fear associated with it,” she said. “And I don’t think we’re ready to address that fear yet.”Panelists shared insights on "Skills That Stick: How Tech and Tools Are Boosting Learning and Development" during the discussion in Minneapolis Carita Hibben, VP of HR at C.H. Robinson, took a different approach. About two years into what she described as a comprehensive AI transformation at the logistics company, her team conducted a pulse survey asking employees to rate their comfort with AI in their daily work. Around 73% said they were comfortable—a result Hibben called encouraging, and one that also yielded “actionable insights on areas that we might need to dive deeper into.”C.H. Robinson has also leaned into AI-powered role-play simulations. Using a platform, employees and managers can practice challenging conversations by either playing themselves or switching roles to see the scenario from the other side. The same kind of simulation is used by the company’s sales and account management teams to prepare for difficult customer conversations. Hibben noted that utilization spikes during performance review periods and other high-stakes moments, even without formal requirements to use the tool.AmTrust has built out similar functionality through LinkedIn Learning, with the added ability to create custom simulations tailored to specific roles. The platform scores participants and recommends follow-on coursework based on performance. Anderson’s team is now exploring how to embed those simulations into new-hire programs for claims associates.Closing the Loop at the C-Suite LevelMoses Berkowitz, chief revenue officer at Censia AI, works closely with CHROs, CFOs, and CEOs on workforce strategy. He offered a bird’s-eye view of what’s driving urgency at the top of organizations. “This is a CEO and board-level conversation right now,” he said, “and the conversation in 10 out of 10 rooms is that this is going to have a massive impact on our workforce. Not in a scary way, but jobs are really going to change.”What gives him optimism, Berkowitz said, is that conversations previously happening in silos are now happening in the same room: What skills does the business actually need? What do our employees have? Where’s the gap? That alignment, he says, is the foundation for meaningful progress.Karel echoed that framing, describing how Ameriprise’s AI Leadership Council, originally composed of technology, risk, and compliance leaders, has expanded to include talent, communications, and business unit representatives. The lesson she drew was pointed: you can only get so far with a tool. “The people that run the tool, that think through the tool, and actually work around the tool are really what we need to be thinking about.”Berkowitz added a striking data point from his firm’s work with one of the world’s largest consulting companies: out of 400,000 employees, the single heaviest user of their internal AI tools is the CEO. “That sends a message to everyone that we take this seriously.”The Half-Life ProblemSkills are expiring faster than ever, and AI is accelerating that trend at a remarkable pace. Berkowitz says that the half-life of a skill has collapsed to under five years, and for anything AI-adjacent, it’s compressing even faster.The implications for L&D are significant. Berkowitz described working with a university that invested $250,000 in an AI training program. Six months after launch, the program was obsolete—the underlying technology had moved on. “As the half-life of skills compresses, we need to think about how we build programs differently,” he said.The panelists largely agreed that the answer isn’t to build more programs faster, but to build differently. That formal, comprehensive training curriculum may simply become too time-intensive to justify, says Anderson. “We’re going to have to get to the point where we’re not building big giant formal programs anymore. We’re building more in the flow of work, in the place that they need it.”Karel put it plainly: AI makes it faster and easier to create content, but that won’t solve the structural problem if organizations are building around the wrong model entirely. What will endure, Karel says, are the foundational capabilities: critical thinking, adaptability, ethical judgment. “Those are old skills. If you could just base the foundation on some of those things, those are going to be the things that take you along the way.”The Human Element Doesn’t DisappearAs the conversation turned to productivity, Berkowitz gently pushed back on the framing that tends to dominate headlines. “The topic of productivity, it’s all we want to talk about in the media, and we’re replacing workers, but I think it’s a bit of a red herring.” The more useful question, he says, is how organizations can deliver more value to customers per unit of human capital. He cited the example of bank tellers after ATMs arrived: The work changed, but the role didn’t disappear. Tellers shifted from handling cash to greeting customers, and the experience actually improved.Anderson made a similar case, pointing to research suggesting that some roles could see 40% to 50% productivity gains through automation. But she was quick to add the counterweight: “There has to be a human at the center of it. How do we teach people to be better critical thinkers and thought partners?” She envisions a future where managers become more important, not less, not because AI will replace their authority, but because coaching, psychological safety, and human judgment will matter more as digital tools handle more routine tasks.What L&D Looks Like in Five YearsClosing the session with a rapid-fire look ahead, each panelist offered a vision for where learning and development is headed.Karel predicted that the function will shift its focus from teaching specific topics to shaping workforce design, with learning as one lever among many, grounded in deep knowledge of what skills the business actually needs.Hibben emphasized agility above all else. “What we know is that there’s going to be continuation of skills needed, and those talent practitioners need to be flexible and agile.”Anderson was less focused on where L&D sits in the org chart than on whether it maintains strong partnerships with the business and stays aligned on outcomes.Berkowitz offered a challenging take: the United States spends roughly $150 billion annually on upskilling and reskilling, he says, and he believes that figure still dramatically underestimates what’s needed. “If I were to wave the magic wand, we’re going to invest a lot more in L&D.” The catch is that it will be managed like a business. “We’re going to run it like a P&L.”Anderson’s response was immediate: “I would be okay with that.”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)
Leading HR Through the AI Transformation
BY Carrie Snider May 26, 2026AI is actively reshaping how organizations hire, develop, and support employees. But the biggest challenge now isn’t access to technology. It’s ensuring people stay engaged, trusted, and connected to their work as change accelerates.During a panel discussion at From Day One’s Seattle conference, industry professionals highlighted a shared reality: AI transformation is fundamentally a people challenge. The discussion was moderated by Seattle Times business reporter Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton.From rebuilding trust and redefining meaningful work to reinforcing human value and responsible governance, the conversation made one thing clear: future-proofing HR means strengthening the human side of work, not replacing it.Addressing the Trust GapEmployees have been through a lot in recent years. Cathy Peterman, chief people officer of tech at Wayfair, doesn’t shy away from the reality many employees are experiencing, which is uncertainty layered on top of years of disruption. “We’ve dropped this AI transformation on six years of cultural and trust debt,” she said. Between the pandemic, economic instability, and waves of layoffs, employees are carrying a backlog of concern about whether they have a future in their current role. Panelist shared insights on "Future-Proofing HR With AI: How to Lead, Adapt, and Keep the Human Touch in a Tech-Driven Era"Context matters. Leaders can’t introduce AI purely as an efficiency tool without acknowledging the emotional landscape employees are navigating. Peterman emphasized transparency and shared ownership. “We’re all kind of figuring this out as we go,” she said. Peterman encouraged a collaborative approach. “Let’s be in it together. Let’s figure it out together.”This shift is about rebuilding credibility. Ignoring the past risks widening what she called the trust gap, while addressing it directly creates a path forward. As she noted, “We’ve had a tough six years together.”In a moment where AI brings both excitement and anxiety, trust becomes the differentiator. Organizations that acknowledge uncertainty and invite employees into the process will be better positioned to move forward together.AI Requires Human AwarenessFor Liz Friedman, senior director of HR AI transformation at Microsoft, the promise of AI in HR comes with a clear responsibility: staying grounded in human experience. Technology is advancing rapidly, but organizations can’t forget about their people. “We need to meet people where they are right now,” she said. This is especially true as employees feel stressed and overwhelmed by the pace of change.That emotional reality cannot be separated from AI adoption. Friedman described the current moment as “a very emotional place to be,” where questions about job security, purpose, and long-term impact are unavoidable. She also warned against over-reliance on automation itself. “One of the biggest dangers right now is that people are letting it do the thinking for them,” she said. This can lead to what she called “AI slop.” Instead, Friedman encouraged using AI as “a great thought partner” that expands thinking rather than replaces judgment.Ultimately, responsible AI is about intention, Friedman says. Organizations that slow down enough to ask better questions, acknowledge employee concerns, and protect critical thinking will be the ones that use AI not just efficiently, but wisely.Helping Employees Feel They MatterAmanda Myton, head of learning and development at Snowflake, underscored that one of the most pressing challenges in the AI era is deeply human. “The thing that was falling fastest amongst employees was a sense of mattering,” she said. In fact, employees are increasingly asking, “Does the work I do matter? If AI can do all of these things, how do I matter?”For leaders, that question cannot be left unanswered. Myton emphasized that managers play a critical role in helping employees reconnect to purpose by guiding reflection on value and contribution. She said, “What am I doing that is uniquely human? What value am I bringing?” framing it as a necessary lens for navigating AI-driven work.Myton also cautioned that adoption metrics alone can be misleading. “Teams can have high AI adoption, but low human connection, and on a dashboard they can look the same.” The real differentiator is what leaders do next. “It is where that manager reinvests those gains back into their teams that makes the difference,” she said.Ultimately, Myton framed this as a core responsibility for HR and learning leaders. “How are we making sure that folks still understand what their unique value is?” In a rapidly evolving workplace, reinforcing meaning is essential for maintaining engagement and motivation.Responsible AI Requires Strong GovernanceShannon Flynn, VP of corporate HR at Fortive, emphasized that the speed of AI adoption has forced organizations to rethink governance much earlier than expected. “We set up our AI machine learning team, but we quickly had to put in some governance in place,” she said, adding that experimentation alone is not enough once tools scale across an enterprise.Flynn also noted that governance cannot remain static. “The governance that we put in place seven years ago does not stand, and we have to continue to reinvent it,” she said, highlighting the need for continuous adaptation as AI evolves.A turning point in her thinking came from a personal experience with AI-generated misinformation. After using AI for research, Flynn discovered the system had fabricated a source. “It hallucinates, so you have to know that it will make stuff up because it wants to make you happy.”Because of this, she says, strong guardrails are essential. Organizations must clearly define: “Here is what you can use it for, and here is what you cannot use it for.” Ultimately, humans should begin a project and end a project, and AI can help in the middle.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Personalizing Benefits While Keeping Costs in Check
BY Jessica Swenson May 22, 2026Employers are shifting employee benefit models away from fragmented vendor ecosystems toward integrated solutions focused on outcomes rather than utilization, says Cara Dochat, PhD, clinical specialist at Sword Health.“We want options that are easy to use, easy to access, that help us manage our everyday conditions—not just the catastrophic ones when we’re in crisis—and that also feel personalized to us,” Dochat said.As budgets tighten amid continuously escalating economic pressures, organizations are seeking ways to improve employee health, engagement, productivity, and retention through personalized benefits, all while reining in spending. This was the topic of a panel at From Day One’s Seattle conference, moderated by journalist and healthcare communications specialist Alexis Hauk.By collaborating with vendor partners whose programs meet employees where they are, says Paris Ramsey, VP of health solutions for Aon, employers can help their teams reduce absenteeism and burnout through personalized care. Aon has identified an employee demand for virtual care pathways since the pandemic; virtual care also benefits workers who may live in areas known as care deserts. “Working with vendors that have really good access to care in that virtual manner allows employees to get the care that they need when they need it,” she said. Panelists spoke about "Personalizing Benefits While Keeping Costs in Check" in SeattleDochat described the evidence-based, personalized mental health services available to users through Sword Health’s clinician-driven, AI-supported platform. By shifting away from a session-based model of care to an always-on solution, she says, the company is able to offer in-the-moment mental healthcare to an expanded audience.An increasingly diverse global workforce means that organizations must also consider customizable benefits menus that can flex for local customs and culture. Ongoing employee feedback and demographic awareness has been critical to program design for her organization, says Vivian Hung, head of total rewards & HRIS at Enphase Energy. “The approach we take is global guardrails with local execution. We standardize on our global strategy and guiding principles. We make decisions based on external market competitiveness, internal equity, statutory compliance and, of course, employee experience,” she said. “Then we allow flexibility for our regions to execute based on what is best suited or best trending for that particular country.”However, even the strongest benefits programs can fail if employees don’t know what is available to them or how to use it. Panelists agreed that employee education and communication is key. For example, veterans transitioning from the military to a corporate environment may not know the differences between government healthcare and private employer systems, says Nick Rettenmyer, VP of total rewards at Shield AI. “When you have a population that hasn’t necessarily grown up in a corporate environment, there’s a big opportunity there to make sure that they understand the benefits, and what it can mean to them and their families.”Some companies use AI technology to drive engagement and help with decision-making. Hung highlighted ways that Enphase is “finding creative ways to optimize the programs [they] offer.” The company hosts monthly educational sessions about existing benefits and provides on-demand libraries of AI-produced videos that help employees learn more about how to engage and utilize those benefits, she says.“We’ve put a lot of tools in the hands of employees to help them to navigate that, especially around health benefits in the U.S.,” said Tristan Orford, VP of total rewards and M&A for SentinelOne. “You need to do the education to help employees understand what [specific health plans] look like in their own situation.”AI-powered decision support during open enrollment helps Aon employees proactively ask risk-based questions to narrow down solutions, reducing confusion, says Ramsey. “You get the engagement that you’re looking for because employees feel that they had a hand in the decision-making process, and they also understand what they’re buying at the same time.”Rettenmyer and his team are building a total rewards portal that will demonstrate the value of employee benefits programs in a meaningful way. By offering “a consolidated place where [employees] can start to self-select,” he said, “your spending becomes much more effective.”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)
Designing an Employee Experience That Engages, Recognizes, and Supports
BY Katie Chambers May 20, 2026How do you build a culture of care at a construction site? It’s all about perspective. “We’re one of the most inclusive industries in the world because it takes 300 skill sets to put together a project any day of the week,” said Kabri Lehrman-Schmid, project superintendent, SeaTac construction leader, at Hensel Phelps. Taking care of a crew’s needs can mean anything from setting up a coffee station to applying for parking permits for them with the city. It’s all about paying attention to employees’ unique needs, and responding accordingly. A great employee experience considers all facets of a worker, from well-being and compensation to recognition and growth. Creating an environment where employees feel genuinely engaged and supported throughout their development was the focus of a panel discussion among leaders including Lehrman-Schmid at From Day One’s Seattle conference.Today’s Workplace TrendsPost-pandemic, many organizations are leaning into what Maris Krieger, senior director, talent, learning and development, at Hearst Corporation, calls a “culture of care,” It’s all about doubling down on providing additional healthcare and childcare benefits as well as learning opportunities. “We are a global company, a very diverse portfolio company, so we are continuously working to make this experience that we have feel connected and shared across the globe,” she said.As many workers return to the office, they are again spending “10 to 15% of employee time commuting,” said Chinmay Malaviya, co-founder and CEO of Ridepanda. “Post-pandemic, more people now acknowledge and recognize this as a painful, stressful, anxiety-inducing time. Employees are expecting different things,” he said. Malaviya identifies this as an opportunity to provide solutions that ease the strain and help employees make the most of their time, such as in-office wellness activities to preserve their free time or carpool options to improve affordability. Ridepanda works with employers to rethink commuting as part of the overall employee experience rather than just a logistical necessity, says Malaviya. By working to address the daily frustrations tied to commuting, it aims to support employee well-being while also helping companies strengthen workplace satisfaction.Due to remote work options, many large corporations are now finding their employees scattered across different locations. At Hensel Phelps, says Lehrman-Schmid, employees already felt this way, given the nature of the company’s work spread across many individual job sites. It’s HR’s role to bring everyone together, despite the physical distance. “I’m in that position as a job site leader, to be able to take the great initiatives we’re doing at a corporate level and actually make it applicable to the production-oriented systems that we have in very dynamic projects that could be high rises, that could be tunnels, and make it applicable to our people in the work that they do daily.”Where Culture and Benefits Intersect Katie Bunker, VP, HR, North America at Cotiviti, said leaders should be “very deliberate about the employee experience. It’s like culture. If you don’t look after it, it just happens.” This means understanding the experience of stakeholders at the organizational, managerial, and individual levels. “We set out to define what we wanted the employee experience to be like. What does it mean to work here, and what does it mean to experience it? What’s our mission?” Bunker said. These should guide every touchpoint, from first applying for a job through retirement. Her team relies on employee engagement surveys to gauge whether their strategies are working, and they just closed one with a 91% response rate. “That’s because you created a culture where they feel like their opinion matters,” said moderator Diana Opong, independent reporter and host. Panelists spoke about "Designing an Employee Experience That Engages, Recognizes, and Supports"At Hearst, Krieger said, “We have shared culture, we have shared principles, but we still need to give flexibility to different organizations.” For example, their New York office is now mostly in-person with some hybrid options, while the Seattle office skews more remote, especially for tech workers who were initially hired to work exclusively remotely during the pandemic. To keep those folks engaged, the company has one week per month with in-person collaboration events. When it comes to AI, organizations should focus on educating employees while also allaying their fears. Krieger’s company asked staff “AI champions” to opt in and help educate their peers while emphasizing the human element of using the technology, “the critical thinking, the judgment, even delegation. We are really trying to make it non-threatening,” she said. Hensel Phelps is using AI to augment and improve existing processes, such as using an app called “Smart Tag It” to identify hazards associated with each day’s tasks. “This is a process that has existed forever, but in taking AI to it, not only are we providing education to teams [and] to leaders that traditionally have not received education in technology, but we are also providing feedback on, ‘Was that an interactive session? What questions can you ask your crew to make sure that they better understand this situation?’ It’s building these collaborative skillsets in positions that have not traditionally had that opportunity,” Lehrman-Schmid said. While Krieger has seen how AI has put some areas of her organization’s business, including social media, “under attack,” it’s also provided more human opportunities as employees continue to upskill in new technologies. “We have been doing more things in collaboration across the organization, I feel that it has even strengthened human collaboration. We haven’t switched to tools and machines and robots and AI, but human collaboration comes very naturally [in] that different functions and teams are coming together and trying to solve a problem.” As HR teams look to amp up the employee experience, Bunker encourages them to approach it from a business perspective rather than an HR one, especially when seeking buy-in from leadership. “So, it’s not a ‘me versus you,’ [instead] it’s a data set.” Be prepared to share the hard numbers demonstrating the financial and business benefits of investing in employees’ well-being. The people should always be the priority. “My grandmother used to say, ‘You spend five days out of every seven at work, so you better like what you’re doing and you better like who you’re doing it with,” Bunker said. “And I think in the roles that we have, we’re stewards of that, and we can really influence that. So, we try to be very intentional about 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.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Leading Through Digital Transformation: Redesigning Work and Keeping People Connected
BY Grace Turney May 18, 2026Todd Reeves spent years running payroll early in his HR career. “Don’t ever do that,” he joked to the audience at From Day One’s Seattle conference. “There’s no good outcome other than perfection in payroll.”The joke landed, but it also illustrated something true about the function Reeves now leads at the highest level. Human resources has long been defined by operational precision, by getting the details exactly right. What Reeves, chief people officer at Zoom, described in his fireside chat was a profession on the cusp of shedding much of that burden entirely.The conversation, moderated by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter for the Seattle Times, covered Zoom’s pandemic-era transformation, its evolving AI strategy, and what it means to lead a global workforce through a period of relentless technological change.From Video Calls to Completed WorkZoom turns 15 this year, and Reeves is quick to note how much the company’s ambitions have expanded since its founding. “We started out with the mission of just making video communications easy, accessible, and simple,” he said. Today, the company is focused on something it calls “C to C to C,” conversation to completion.The idea is that AI can turn the things people say in meetings into action, without anyone having to follow up. Reeves offered a simple example: if someone in a call says they want to schedule a meeting, it’s already on the calendar before the call ends. A request to send a proposal might generate a draft presentation on the spot. “How do we make that conversation turn into work during the meeting, shortly thereafter, or provide intelligence for you to use later on?” he said. “It’s a real transformation.”The Pandemic’s Lasting ImprintNo conversation with a Zoom executive sidesteps Covid. The company tripled in size within 24 months of the pandemic’s onset, expanding from an enterprise-focused platform to a tool used for weddings, parliamentary sessions, and school classrooms around the world.Reeves wasn’t at Zoom during that period, but the culture it forged is one he inherited and described with evident pride. When schools scrambled to shift to online learning, Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan made the decision to distribute licenses to 125,000 schools globally, at no charge. “That’s emblematic of how we think about Zoom and what we do for the community,” Reeves said.The operational intensity of those years also left its mark. A bias toward speed and a low tolerance for bureaucracy became embedded in the company’s culture, and Reeves said both remain defining traits today.Todd Reeves, the chief people officer at Zoom, spoke with moderator Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter at the Seattle TimesBoyanton asked Reeves about competition in this changing space, not just from Microsoft Teams, but from the expanding universe of AI companies entering the communications space. His answer pointed to three areas where Zoom believes it has an edge.The first is ease of use, a principle the company treats as a core competency rather than a feature. The second is AI capability: Zoom uses what Reeves described as a federated AI model, selecting from among the best available AI systems depending on what a user needs, an approach he said has produced top scores on rigorous academic benchmarks. The third, and perhaps most durable, is context. Because so much workplace communication runs through Zoom, the platform accumulates a rich layer of conversational data that can power AI tools in ways a newer entrant can’t replicate.The Future of HRWhen Boyanton asked where the HR profession is headed, Reeves didn’t hedge. He sees much of the transactional work of HR, such as tier-one employee support, routine queries, and administrative processes, being fully automated within five years. Zoom is already redesigning its internal knowledge base to be read by AI, and he expects a conversational HR chatbot to absorb 20 to 30 percent of his team’s workload.What remains, he says, is the work that genuinely requires a human: talent strategy, organizational design, leadership development, employee relations, culture. “Spend more time on the parts of the job that really require a human to influence and be a factor,” he said. “The other things will get taken care of.”The advice extended to how HR leaders make decisions in general. Reeves described himself as a data convert: someone who has learned to bring numbers and evidence into discussions that typically run on opinion and intuition. When a recent internal policy debate arose, he asked how many employees it would actually affect. The answer was 12. “I said, okay, then I think we can make a simple decision around this.”Even without formal metrics, he encouraged his team to find ways to gather information. Talk to 20 employees, run a small experiment. “There are ways to get data even if you don’t feel like you have the specific metric.”Connection in a Changing WorldWhen Boyanton asked how Zoom manages its worldwide workforce, spanning R&D teams in China and India, sales organizations across multiple continents, and employees in dozens of time zones, Reeves answered with a laugh: “We use Zoom.”The practical answer was more layered. He described a design philosophy built around local, intact teams that can operate largely independently, without requiring a manager on the other side of the globe to make decisions. Clear goals, recorded meetings, and accessible documentation help overcome the obstacle of distance. And as a leader, he said, accessibility has to be intentional: he runs town halls in the evening and again in the morning to make sure employees across regions can participate.The session ended with an audience question about keeping teams meaningfully connected amid constant noise and digital overload. Reeves’ answer was simple: don’t overcomplicate it.Have a team meeting. Start with something enjoyable. Make room for humor. The nature of work will keep changing, he said, but people are still people—-trying to solve problems together, trying to connect.“Have some fun,” he said. “Remember the Zoom happy hour chats? Just do stuff like that. And I think everyone will be fine.”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)
Rethinking Hiring and Talent Strategy in the Age of AI
BY Ade Akin May 14, 2026Dani Monaghan knows exactly what’s going on when a job candidate pauses mid-sentence before answering questions, their screen suddenly switches, or their eyes dart to the side during interviews.“There’s a lot of tells,” she said. As the SVP of global talent enablement at Expedia Group, Monaghan has learned to spot the subtle signs that someone is using AI to cheat during the hiring process. However, Expedia also wants to recruit people who are skilled, comfortable, and ethical in their use of artificial intelligence. It’s a fine line, and one that Monaghan explored in detail during a fireside chat with Rob Smith, the executive editor of Formidable, at From Day One’s Seattle conference.Preventing candidates from cheating the hiring process with AI doesn’t require banning its use. Instead, Expedia sets explicit boundaries. “We are very clear with candidates where they can use AI in a process, and where they cannot use AI in a process,” Monaghan said. “We want them to use AI. Those are the people that we want to hire, people who know AI, and are comfortable with AI, but ethical standards are equally as important to us.”Expedia uses both human observation and technology to catch dishonest candidates. Monaghan notes that the company even employs one of its vendors’ AI cheating-detection tools. The line becomes particularly delicate for roles where problem-solving with large language models is part of the candidate’s assessment. “We want them to problem solve and be able to explain to us how they solve the problem with AI, ethically and responsibly,” Monaghan said. Candidates who can articulate how they tested for bias, trained their models, and validated outcomes demonstrate the kind of AI literacy Expedia prizes. Those who try to game the system, however, reveal a character mismatch that outweighs any technical brilliance.Mapping Where AI BelongsExpedia didn’t rush to deploy AI in hiring and then figure out the ethics later. “If you just put AI on a bad process, you have a worse outcome,” Monaghan said. Instead, the talent team remapped its entire hiring journey, deciding precisely where AI excels and where humans must retain control. “We’ve built a roadmap for where we would use AI, where AI does its best work, and then where we would use humans, where we do our best work. But ultimately, the human is the final decision maker and the stamp of approval.”Dani Monaghan, SVP of global talent enablement, spoke during the fireside chat with moderator Rob Smith, executive editor at FormidableThat roadmap has already produced powerful tools. Monaghan described an AI agent that handles hiring manager intake meetings, generates job descriptions, gathers competitive intelligence, and even estimates time-to-fill, all in real time. “For those of you that are in the recruiting world, sitting in front of a hiring manager at an intake meeting and being able to talk about all of that in that same meeting, instead of going back and researching, coming back in two weeks, is a game changer,” she said. This week, the team is also rolling out an automated AI scheduling tool that promises to untangle the complexity of coordinating interviews across 70 countries and multiple languages.Getting Rid of Bias Before It BeginsAI bias is one of the most discussed risks in talent technology, and Monaghan emphasizes that Expedia approaches it with a preemptive, rather than purely reactive, strategy. “You’ve got to de-bias your training data before you actually train the model,” she said. Beyond cleaning the data, Expedia audits its models continuously and keeps a human in the loop for final decisions. All experiments happen inside walled gardens until they’re ready for production, where monitoring remains intense.This disciplined approach reflects a broader philosophy Monaghan calls “AI optimistic, but balanced by AI responsibility.” The company aims to harness AI’s speed and scale without allowing opaque algorithms to make high-stakes choices about people’s careers.The AI Knowledge GapSmith asked whether universities are preparing graduates for an AI-driven workplace. “I don’t think they’re doing that yet,” Monaghan replied. Yet the interns and young candidates she meets are remarkably AI-literate. “They are teaching themselves,” she said. Her real worry is about access. “If you’re not taught AI at school or in university, and you don’t have the means to access technology, I think the gap is bigger than it will ever be before.”Expedia has embedded AI questions into its new behavioral interview framework to address this internally. Every candidate, regardless of role, is probed on their curiosity and willingness to learn about AI. For technical positions, the company sets up live scenarios with language models and watches how candidates think, test, and explain their solutions. AI as a Travel Companion, Not a ThreatShifting from talent to the core business, Smith asked whether generative AI tools like ChatGPT threaten Expedia’s relevance as a trip-planning platform. Monaghan acknowledged that the leadership team obsesses over the question, but she sees durable advantages in the marketplace model. “They have access to incredible deals and bundles and supply and data,” she said. They have payment processing, very sophisticated, multilingual, multi-country payment processing systems. They have fraud detection systems. They have customer support. I think that will be hard to replace.”The battleground, she said, is the top of the funnel, the inspiration and planning phase. “Rather than going to ChatGPT or one of the other models to plan it for you, go to Expedia, and our AI needs to be as good or better.” The endgame is AI-fueled personalization that uses Expedia’s vast customer data to craft trips so uniquely tailored that travelers won’t want to go anywhere else. “That personalization can be really, really special,” Monaghan added. Optimism With GuardrailsMonaghan offered a practical path for organizations without Expedia’s scale. “You’ve got to start somewhere,” she said. Her team began with AI education, then created playbooks, and then built a governance structure. Having top-down endorsement helped: the CEO mandated that everyone become AI-literate by understanding the technology’s capabilities and limits. “You can take small steps, and you can also in your personal life, which I think everybody here had their hand up at some point, everyone is playing with AI.”Monaghan, an enthusiastic fly fisherwoman, confessed her own favorite personal use of artificial intelligence. She uses AI to determine which flies to pack for specific waters, which fish are hatching, and what she might catch. It’s a small, joyful illustration of a tool that, when deployed responsibly and with a clear governance framework, can enhance the quality of human life.Monaghan returned to the theme of dual vigilance and hope throughout the conversation. AI is advancing faster than any technology shift she has witnessed since the advent of the personal computer, the internet, and mobile. “What is possible and what is probable is boundless. What is likely is going to be bounded,” she predicted, citing constraints like governance, regulation, privacy laws, the cost of building massive data centers, and electricity. Monaghan’s final call to the audience was to leave feeling optimistic and excited about what’s ahead. “Yes, it’s scary. It’s a scary ride. I myself can see that it could be a really scary thing, but I’m just hoping people walk away feeling, ‘Actually, this is a good thing.’ It has so much potential for mankind, health care, education, space exploration, it’s just going to multiply our ability to do these things—but with the caution around responsibility, guidelines, governance and knowing where humans are still important.”Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Cut Costs, Not Corners: Effective Marketing in Lean Times
BY Jessica Swenson May 13, 2026Don’t be afraid to question things you’ve always done, says Allison Gillespie, VP of marketing for O'Reilly Media. “We as marketers always need to look at that, while also leaving room for experimentation, because everything is changing and the playbooks we’ve been using for years are not working anymore,” she said.Rapidly changing landscapes in technology and customer behavior are forcing organizations to think creatively about fundamental shifts in their marketing effectiveness. This was the topic of a panel discussion moderated by Workforce Observer founder Subadhra Sriram at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference.Traditional qualified leads can feel like a marketing-driven initiative without any sales buy-in. That’s why Kumarbabu Vanapalli, VP of digital experience & engagement for Infineon Technologies, worked with junior sales reps to co-define valuable leads and experiment with continuous feedback loops and weekly iterations to refine lead targeting. “Our job is to enable salespeople to sell, not tell them which leads they have to go after,” he said. This strategy grew Infineon’s lead pipeline to over 55,000 per year over the course of three years.With customer indicators coming from multiple sources, customer voice, leads, socials, marketing now requires an omnichannel approach, says Gillespie. She believes it is crucial to find the right mix of channels and be flexible enough to redirect underperforming initiatives into new opportunities.Leaders spoke on the executive panel titled, "Effective Marketing in Lean Times: Creative Approaches to Delivering Value"AI search functionality is quickly reshaping marketing measurement as we know it. Hugh Burnham, head of search (SEM / SEO) at Ford Motor Company, shared that 70% of informational Google searches do not get past the AI overview, which makes traditional metrics like website visits and page flow less relevant. He encourages active optimization of your website content for AI-driven discovery.“Being passive and looking at your Google Analytics or Adobe is last year,” Burnham said. “You really need to change things, like crawlability, citation score, sentiment analysis, and how is your citation viewed?”Echoing the need for updated metrics, Andrea Cutright, VP of marketing for Upwork, says that Upwork replaced over one-third of its KPIs within its most recent annual planning cycle. “If you haven't swapped out a lot of your KPIs, you’re not watching where the market’s going.”Sajag Chikarsal, VP of marketing at DigiCert, advocates for a shift to revenue-aligned marketing measurement. By redirecting his marketing organization’s focus from top of the funnel to metrics like deal velocity, average sales cycle, and average sales price trends, he is able to connect focus areas back to specific marketing channels. “Now you can even say how many leads or MQLs or engagements am I getting from the AEO,” Chikarsal said, “and are they converting at a faster pace than the leads that I’m generally getting from the website from just pure SEO?”Rather than building content based on brand messaging, Burnham suggests researching real user questions and using FAQ structures and schema markup tools to create content that’s more easily discoverable by AI agents. “What ends up happening is, your answers from your website populate the Google ‘also asked’ questions. That also helps get a signal to the AIO so your data ends up showing your circuit.”Treating FAQs as living documents and ensuring they are written conversationally, says Vanapalli, makes your content more likely to match AI query patterns, increasing the chance that it will show up in searches.Internal AI transformations can drive marketing value as well, as long as organizations avoid some common mistakes like misalignment with customer needs and focusing solely on AI as a tool rather than a broader strategy.A clear definition of success and structured experimentation are important steps to effectively pilot and implement AI, says Cutright. Lack of confidence in outcomes can create barriers, but working together to define success provides a tangible, shared goal for teams to pursue. “You can visualize or feel your path to that success, rather than what I’ve seen some peers struggling with, where you just need to move to AI. That can be a little bit overwhelming, and it can’t really feel real.”To ensure consistency and avoid legal risks, warns Burnham, companies must standardize any LLM tools used by their teams, including the capability to monitor use and inputs. It’s also critical to reskill talent from authors and creators to editors and strategists. When using AI for content, journalistic integrity is paramount. “Make sure that your editors are also very good at prompt data and make sure that they read it. They just don’t copy and paste it.”Framing AI as a growth opportunity rather than a threat can help gain marketer buy-in and encourage skill-building, says Cutright. Show employees how they can eliminate repetitive or disliked tasks, she suggests, and create environments that are safe for experimentation. She told the story of Upwork’s Festival of Failure, which celebrates learnings based on failed initiatives, creating a safe space for employees to explore new things and learn from each other.Marketing leaders also embrace unconventional methods to drive ROI. To maximize his team’s cost efficiency, rather than investing in expensive event sponsorships, Chikarsal sends sales development reps to events with meeting quota targets. This has reduced their cost-per-opportunity from $23,000 to $6,500, while giving them better insights from direct customer interactions and breakout sessions.In-person engagement through trade shows, dinners, and events are outperforming digital marketing for O’Reilly Media, says Gillespie. People want to see that there is a human behind the brand, so direct interaction, especially at trade shows, helps reinforce trust. “Going back to that very human face-to-face is actually moving the needle. And we get so much direct attribution from trade shows.”Cutright advocates for a simple solution that empowers teams and helps integrate new processes: “Just give people permission to move in the new direction without trying to hang onto what’s in the past.”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)
The Invisalign Story: A Case Study in Marketing a Revolutionary Product
BY Jessica Swenson May 11, 2026While Invisalign is known for changing lives through innovative digital orthodontics, the company has had to think creatively to actually earn that relevance among its customers and partners.The evolution and strategy behind its marketing approach was discussed by Kamal Bhandal, SVP of the global Invisalign brand for Align Technology, during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference. The session was moderated by independent video host, journalist, and producer Claire Reilly.“Really identify the stakeholders in your customer journey, so that you know that you’re attacking points of failures or points of delight,” said Bhandal. Invisalign started by identifying the service providers who would comprise its delivery network, and invited them to help test and refine its products, she says. To maintain the partnership and trust of their clinical partners, the company makes continuous efforts to understand and meet their needs. “We’re looking to understand their business needs, their clinical needs, and the clinical outcomes that they’re looking for, and then designing products that meet those clinical needs,” she said. Kamal Bhandal, SVP, global Invisalign brand, consumer & Americas Marketing at Align Technology, spoke during the fireside chatInvisalign also engages in peer-to-peer training, education, and certification programs to prepare clinicians to use its products, as well as conferences and specialized sessions with deep dives into treatment techniques. Other key stakeholders in the Invisalign customer journey include end users, decision-makers or influencers, and frontline staff. Understanding each of these stakeholders is important, she says, as each can impact those points of failure or delight. The company spent its early days proving that the product worked, before shifting to a lifestyle marketing approach that highlighted how Invisalign could seamlessly fit into consumers’ lives. Continuous innovation prepared the company to manage increasingly complex cases, which broadened its scope. “We always first start with understanding the consumer, understanding the person, and what their lives are like,” said Bhandal. This helps the brand focus its marketing less on product features and specs and more on solving key pain points that matter to the customer. By studying the real lives of teens and parents, from social pressures and confidence issues to practical constraints like family schedules and multiple responsibilities, Invisalign can position itself as a product that reduces friction by fitting into the user’s life rather than disrupting it.She cited two examples that appeal to decision influencers (parents): damage to traditional braces during sporting events can cause emergency orthodontist visits—with Invisalign, these visits are greatly reduced. Additionally, the simplicity of hygiene as compared to traditional braces makes it easier for teens to maintain. For the teens themselves, the draw becomes straighter teeth and increased confidence without the stigma of traditional braces.Solving these problems for families also earns Invisalign its relevance in current culture. “We think about not talking at people, but really creating a conversation and being a part of culture,” says Bhandal. “Brands who integrate into culture, who move at the speed of culture, are brands who win.” Invisalign shifted its branding from a top-down to a community-driven approach, using real stories from patients and doctors to shape the brand. Cultural participation and user-generated content are key.As a healthcare-focused company backed by science and technology, however, it doesn’t tie itself to any one category of social influencers. It partners with lifestyle, fitness, beauty, and health influencers who represent the brand’s typical customers and showcase Invisalign as one part of their well-being process.A core takeaway from Invisalign’s brand evolution is to become obsessed with understanding your customer and what their life is like. “Not through just quantitative data and quantitative data analysis,” said Bhandal, but really dig into who your consumer is, who is influencing the decisions along the way, and what they are thinking about. “Become super obsessed with understanding human behavior of those that are involved in your buying journey.”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)
Designing an Employee Experience That Inspires, Recognizes, and Supports
BY Jessica Swenson May 08, 2026Given the amount of change and disruption in today’s workplace, the employee experience is really the change experience, says Renu Sharma, head of learning and skill development at HP.“Learning and change management are no longer a support function. They’re really defining the employee experience,” Sharma told moderator Rachael Myrow, senior editor at KQED, during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. Sharma advocated for using clarity, transparency, and skill-building to give employees the confidence they need to adapt and remain productive. HP also offers leadership development to support leaders helping their teams navigate and prepare for change.Agile, human-centered leadership development systems are another key to building better employee environments, says Michel-Riyad Nabti, senior director of learning and development for Autodesk. By using enterprise-wide data to personalize leadership training and inform workflow capabilities, Nabti’s group positions people leaders to effectively guide teams through change.“We’re focused on building high performance, and also building capabilities for managers to be drivers of change and lead teams through change, because of the inevitability of continuous change,” he said. “As we look at defining what those competencies look like, we are also examining, how do we continuously evolve [them] to reflect the needs of the organization and externalities that are having an impact on the company?”The human side of transformation needs to be considered, says Matt Jackson, chief growth officer for Unmind. Workplace transformations can amplify the existing life stressors that employees bring to work every day, he says, so investing heavily in technology but neglecting the psychological impact often leads to transformation failure.Panelists spoke about "Designing an Employee Experience That Inspires, Recognizes, and Supports" at the Silicon Valley eventIt’s also important to recognize the emotional process that employees must manage while going through change, says Hari Date, principal consultant at Workhuman. Rather than enforcing top-down mandates that require employees to “just deal with” a change, allow time for them to adjust. “Give them that time to process and just understand and be aware that you’ve already gone through that journey. They’re just hearing it for the first time; give them that time and that grace to go through that,” he said. Panelists agreed that providing support to employees doesn’t have to be complex. Citing a Gallup survey, Jackson said, “The biggest driver of engagement, from a manager’s behavior, is having one meaningful conversation with a direct report each week.”Providing a safe space for learning also emerged as a common theme. By creating structured learning spaces and sharing internal success stories, says Sharma, HP helps employees build confidence through visibility and continuous learning, which helps scale adoption of new concepts like AI. It also helps connect team members who have similar challenges. “[Make] sure you're providing them a safe space and having that trust and psychological safety where they can come and learn.”According to Nabti, normalizing AI experimentation, reducing the stigma around using AI tools, and encouraging discussion of how AI shows up in daily work can also help foster a sense of psychological safety. “How do you open up that conversation and create an AI-native mindset so that your team feels fully invited into that conversation and has the opportunity to grow as individuals while they grow in terms of performance,” he said. Leaders acknowledge that AI adoption requires both cultural and behavioral shifts within an organization. Cynthia Hannah, VP of talent development and experience at Okta, stresses that AI adoption is shaped by perception and can be uneven across organizational levels. She has found that leadership teams are more on the leading edge of AI use, but aren’t necessarily sharing their experience with the organization. That has helped Okta to ask the right questions to find its footing with workforce AI proficiency.“What does getting everyone proficient on AI look like, and how do we keep building the skills on that as we go forward?” Hannah asked. By starting with that core proficiency, you can better position the organization to integrate AI into meaningful workflows and create value.A focus on adapting mindsets, skills, and expectations can help balance anxiety with healthy tension to promote AI adoption. Nabti and team are looking at how AI is fundamentally changing their teams’ workflows while also exploring how it can augment human potential.Hannah acknowledges AI skill gaps but sees great opportunity for talent and HR professionals. “If you're in the talent space, it's been really hard to take the recognition data, the performance data, the feedback that happens in a class, and actually have all those signals together. There's just a real drive to make all the systems talk together to have that insight.”Despite concerns that managers will be replaced by AI, many companies are actually using it to support managers with coaching, education, recognition insights, and workflow innovations.Unmind centralizes training materials and best practices into a single proprietary AI coach to boost the effectiveness of newly promoted managers, says Jackson.The use of AI-driven employee recognition data allows Workhuman clients to identify engagement gaps, take proactive retention actions, and recommend new hire mentors. By shifting your perspective on recognition analytics, Date asserts that you can pick up attrition signals and take early actions to prevent employee turnover.Hannah suggests that thinking critically about how and why your organization is using AI can help you find new ways to add business value and engage teams. “When you start to talk about what’s possible that wasn’t possible before, that clicks into creativity. Now it’s change you’re leading versus change you’re responding to, and you can engage your teams in that.”Organizational change and AI technologies aren’t going anywhere, so leaders need to embrace transparency, clarity, and employee-centered strategies to keep teams engaged and guide them into these new spaces. With a long-term view of AI-driven workplaces and lifestyles, Date said, “I think, for now, it’s just figuring out how we coexist in this world that we’re building.” 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)
Cutting Through the Noise With Storytelling That Drives Impact
BY Katie Chambers May 06, 2026How much for your Instagram feed, or worse, your email inbox, is filled with AI slop right now? “As our feeds fill up with more mediocre content, and as we’re faced with this information overload, we really need to ensure that our marketing teams are creating messaging that is cutting through,” said Claire Reilly, journalist and moderator of a panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference.In the age of information overload, compelling storytelling can set a brand apart from the barrage of mediocre content. How can marketing teams craft content that truly engages when audience attention is scattered and fickle? Panelists explored this question and more. Unnikrishnan (Unni) KP, SVP, marketing, Americas at Palo Alto Networks, jokes that B2B marketing can easily slump from “business to business” to “business to boring,” depending on the storytelling. “At the end of the day, you’re reaching out to an audience who’s a human being, they are a consumer.” KP says explaining the “nuts and bolts” of a product is important too, but you first “need to connect with the audience and try to see how it attaches to what that person stands for.”Nizzi Karai Renaud, chief brand officer at Zazzle, faces a different challenge: reaching both designers who take their art seriously but also want to make money, and consumers, all who come to the website for a wide range of products and solutions with wildly different tones tied to their personal self-expression. “That’s the core tension in the storytelling,” she said. “The overlap happens at identity,” whether a consumer is buying a product for themselves or someone else. “The product for us is the artifact, but the story underneath is that recognition and belonging is what unites all of this together, that humanity piece.”Panelists shared insights on the topic, "Creative, Results-Oriented Storytelling That Connects"To accomplish this in brand storytelling, Zazzle relies on both user-generated content (UGC) as well as in-house created marketing, all tied back to the humans behind the interactions. “We used to say, ‘Zazzle has millions of designs.’ But what converts much better is saying, ‘Your sister is impossible to shop for—until she isn’t.’ Our technique is to channel the customer’s inner monologue.”Meanwhile, AI is revolutionizing how storytelling reaches customers, as online searching shifts from prioritizing SEO to AEO or GEO instead. “How are you changing your strategy as we go from one of straight clicks to citations and building yourself as an authority in search?” Reilly said. Vidhya Srinivasan, chief marketing officer at Prophix, and her team have been staying ahead of the curve. “Earned media has become very, very important,” she said, citing UGC as one pathway in. “The brand authority is going to go back to the very basics: What are the backlinks? Who are the brands? How are you surfacing?” With AEO and GEO, the priority is now search phrases rather than search words. And KP notes that the bigger challenge will be ensuring that your results land as those “most validated” by AI. Bala Desikamani, VP of marketing at Temenos, offers the three “superpowers” of AI as it impacts marketing: processing massive volumes of data, creating personalized content at scale, and refining analytics to improve forecasting.AI can take that data and help “to triangulate your target and focus on anything that you do,” Desikamani said. “It also gives very useful insight into which type of audience is in [your] market, looking for solutions that you can leverage, and then gives you attributes that help you build stories that resonate to that market set.” AI can provide extremely detailed attributes for the ideal client profile and help dig down to different geographic regions or specific products within a company. It can also help with A/B testing in social media and copywriting. With AI becoming increasingly powerful, it is also inspiring the same fear in workers in all departments from marketing to HR to legal: Will my job be replaced? “AI [is] spewing out 100 creative ideas to everybody and anybody can democratize [them],” Desikamani said. “If anybody can come up with a bunch of creative, how do you create that differentiation? And that is why the human element still comes in,” he said. “Collectively in this room we have so much more intuition than all of AI across the world can ever possess. That intuition is your superpower as human beings. Leverage that intuition, but leverage AI for what it can do, which is to do the grunt work, but eventually you make the decisions.”AI is allowing brands to produce masses of content quickly and cheaply, but that doesn’t mean it’s all high quality, Reilly says, and cynical consumers are getting wary. KP says that working with AI should be similar to the learning process of children—meaning it takes time, practice, and challenge, not just accepting the first answer to your first prompt to an LLM.Srinivasan sees the value of using LLM’s or other creative platforms to create copy, social media posts, and even full webinars. But humans are still needed to “retain the authenticity of the brand. My team uses Claude every day, and every PowerPoint looks the same. There are things that become templatized and boring.”Using AI to increase productivity is fine, Renaud says, “but that final touch, that creativity, it can’t do it yet, and I’m not sure it will get there.” She notes that science has proven consumers make decisions based on their salience or their “gut,” and their gut is often put off by AI, or even human-created content that they wrongly suspect is AI. “That gut check has to exist with humans.”AI still cannot replicate the true authenticity of humans. “Do whatever scientific process you follow to ensure authenticity of your stories and messages,” Desikamani said. “The lines are blurred now between sales and marketing. The biggest barometer of your actual engagement in terms of the quality of your funnel is your conversations and the feedback that comes from sales. Keep it authentic and measure it through the influence that marketing exerts on the actual funnel.”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)
AI in Marketing: Scaling Personalization Without Losing the Human Touch
BY Ade Akin May 04, 2026While other brands were racing to automate every email subject line, blog post, and social media caption during the height of the generative AI boom, Unilever, Vaseline’s parent company, took a different approach.Instead of using AI to accelerate the launch of new products, Unilever used it to listen to consumers, which led to an unexpected discovery that their base didn’t need a new product. Instead, they needed validation, and sometimes correction, on how they were using old products. These insights led to the “Vaseline Verified” campaign, an initiative that deferred a costly R&D rollout in favor of celebrating consumer “hacks.” The campaign went on to win 11 Cannes Lions awards, including the Titanium Grand Prix.This story, shared by Heather Bollinger, the chief revenue officer at Vurvey Labs, set the tone for a panel discussion focused on AI’s optimal role in marketing at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference. The conversation, moderated by Rosalie Chan, a senior tech editor at Business Insider, made one point clear: the most effective AI strategies focus on reimagining workflows and breaking down silos between data, compliance, and content—not replacing humans.The Augmentation MindsetThe panelists drew a sharp distinction between using AI to scale processes and using it to improve human capability. James Kessinger, the group VP of marketing at SolarWinds, says his team leverages AI agents for heavy data lifting, scraping funnel metrics from initial click to closed revenue, but remains cautious about removing the human touch in communications aimed at technical buyers.“You’ve got to humanize that, at least in our world, talking to engineers,” Kessinger said. “You’ve got to be able to give them relevance of somebody who’s actually doing this job. It’s hard sometimes for AI to capture that essence.” Panelists spoke about "AI in Marketing: Scaling Personalization Without Losing the Human Touch"AI serves as an editor for brand voice and trademark compliance at SolarWinds, freeing content marketers from tasks such as proofreading so they can focus on more important aspects of content, such as fluency and tone.Henrique Loyola, head of content & discovery for Play Games Go-To-Market, Google, echoed the theme of augmentation, describing AI as an enhancer. “If a task would take you a few hours to do, we think AI can have it done in a few minutes,” Loyola said. He highlights the use of AI to tag game metadata not just by genre, like “action” or “RPG,” but by emotional and behavioral traits like “engaging” or “long play session,” allowing Gemini to organize the Play Store in ways human curators never could, given how time-consuming it would be. Redefining Compliance and Generative SEOThe conversation shifted to a growing tension in the marketing industry: the rise of “no AI” disclaimers in consumer advertising versus the wholesale adoption of AI in B2B content creation. Kumar Rathnam, the SVP and head of global products, digital, sales & marketing solutions, at Dun & Bradstreet, says his employer has a pragmatic approach to AI adoption. “In B2B marketing, anything that is not human, we are absolutely fine,” Rathnam said, adding that the company draws the line only at synthetic human imagery and video. “The disclaimer doesn’t have to be there, as long as there are no humans involved.”However, the influx of AI-generated content is forcing a complete overhaul of how marketers approach search engine optimization (SEO). Rathnam described a shift from keyword stuffing practices to a “question and answer” architecture that’s designed specifically for AI crawlers and chatbots. “Agents are looking for people to answer questions fast,” he said. This means prioritizing FAQ structures and comparative content that allows large language models to easily cite and synthesize a brand’s authority.Kessinger says the way AI algorithms approach source citations is now evolving. While Reddit once dominated AI summaries, platforms like G2 are gaining ground because they offer verified, bounded audiences. “They get a higher citation because it’s a bound audience. We know who they are,” Kessinger added.Vibe Coding for MarketersA surprising trend emerged when the panel addressed the democratization of software development. The panelists admitted to embracing “vibe coding,” the practice of using natural language prompts to spin up quick, disposable software tools, to solve marketing bottlenecks.Loyola described using vibe-coded solutions for short-term curation problems, such as suppressing game titles related to sensitive global events. “It’s easier to get to a product team with a new feature you need if you have something ready,” Loyola said. “You can just bring them a product instead of 15 pages of technical requests.” Rathnam notes a similar phenomenon, where marketing operations teams build their own agents to analyze campaign data in real-time, bypassing lengthy customer relationship management change processes to prove a concept before scaling it.Yet, with this new power comes a warning about AI’s tendency to please its user. “AI has a bias towards completing the task as quickly as possible. It wants you to say, ‘Great, thank you,’” Loyola said. “It may start to hallucinate or lie just to get it across the finish line. You have to trust it, but you have to check.”The Human at the CoreThe panel’s advice for marketing leaders is to prioritize data integrity and human judgment over loyalty to any platform. Rathnam urges to avoid locking into monolithic “end-to-end” AI platforms that may be obsolete within a year. Instead, he advises focusing on the underlying data pipeline and feedback loops. “Get your data story right,” he said. “Anything you do around data, the accuracy, the coverage, the completeness, is going to help anything that changes in the future.”For Bollinger, the Vaseline story serves as a perfect metaphor for the current moment. Artificial intelligence is powerful enough to simulate human behavior, but its greatest ROI comes from understanding actual humans. “Don’t be afraid,” Bollinger said. “Dive in. There are so many opportunities to augment your teams, but the human has to be at the core of that.”Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Reshaping the Workforce: How AI and HR Technology Change How Things Get Done
BY Katie Chambers April 28, 2026“What’s fundamentally changing in how work gets done in your organization because of AI?” asked moderator Subadhra Sriram, founder and host of Workforce Observer. The answer? Well, almost everything. Leaders explored this topic during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference, moderated by Sriram. One of the most marked differences AI has made in the workplace already comes down to scale. “Every individual’s impact has changed a lot. So what one person could do before, it just means something very different with all the tools that we have now,” said Maggie Zhu, people partner at Anthropic. The tools allow employees to compound their work so that the pace of output is ever-increasing.Samanntha DuBridge, SVP, chief talent officer a t HPE, says AI isn’t necessarily replacing work, but instead allowing workers to focus their attention in new ways. “It’s an exciting time to take some of the more mundane tasks kind of out of the way, and think about data and what you want to spend your time on a little bit differently,” she said. The big changes come with mixed emotions, says Dutta Satadip, chief business operations officer at Pebl, “It’s this interesting balance of excitement and fear,” he said. LLM’s, large language models, are changing workflows for so many people in the office, not just with writing but with coding. “Whatever is in your head is going into AI, into code, and you’re seeing the application,” said Allan Brown, VP of total rewards at Snowflake. “Excel is going to be a thing of the past for presenting something to a senior leader.”Panelists spoke about "Reshaping the Workforce: How AI and HR Technology Change How Things Get Done"This is a good way to frame AI adoption for people who might be afraid of it, says Seema Daryanani, people and culture partner, Gemini App, Google DeepMind. “It will cut down these manual tasks so that you can spend more time innovating and creating,” she said. Fortunately, employees are generally not yet in danger of being replaced. “The efficiencies are being shared by both employees and the company,” Brown said. “The company gets more productivity, but the people are having work-life balance. You start reducing the amount of work you can do, and you’re suddenly going to find yourself a little bit of time.” Communications strategies promoting AI adoption can be built around this notion, encouraging employees to think about their mental health and how they would best like to use their time, both at work and at home. The Future of HR For HR professionals in particular, AI is helping them save time, especially when it comes to attaining, sorting, and delivering reports on data. “We do our annual voice of the workforce survey, and it used to [be] you’d get the summary data pretty quickly, but all the sentiment would take a really long time. [With AI], it’s the same day,” DuBridge said. “You can get things [instantly] that would take a team of people to review, analyze, [and] categorize a couple months.”Daryanani finds that AI handles the “how” of the presentation, the layout and structure, so we can focus on the “so what”: the deep-dive analysis and the story the data is telling us. For a practical example of how AI technology can ease the HR process, Brown shares how his organization used AI agents to answer questions about a new payroll system. “We’ve got 35 locations all over the world. The [number] of questions that were probably going to come in was insane. Somebody came up with the idea: let’s take all these payroll documents and policies, and the health benefit documents, put them all into Notebook LM, and they created a little AI agent that employees could just ask their questions,” he said. “And it answered all the questions. It eliminated that work. Those questions didn’t even come in.”Contrary to popular belief, AI is actually managing to make the hiring process more personalized, DuBridge says, as tools and systems take over a lot of the boring, menial back-and-forth of reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. “It’s more about building that relationship with the applicant, trying to find out more about them, sharing more about the company, and finding that right fit in the right team,” she said. “It’s more about that person in that role, and it’s less about, ‘Are you available at three o'clock on Friday?’”With AI causing rapid changes across all aspects of the workforce, HR needs to keep adaptability, upskilling, and growth in mind when hiring. “What you thought you were hiring for six months ago could be different from what you’re hiring for now,” Zhu said. “Thinking about what their role might be today and how it might evolve is changing how we’re thinking about hiring in general. [It] needs to be an active conversation.” That means employers may start to value foundational abilities above all else, Satadip says. These include “core problem solving, general cognitive ability, curiosity, he said “because those will persist regardless.” Willingness to experiment is also key. No matter the changes to come, people can, and should, always be prioritized. “I think it’s really important to remember that your organization is composed of people and to be human first,” Zhu said “It comes down to values—you have to keep those values at the forefront.”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)
Navigating Superintelligence at Work: The Role of Leadership, Trust, and Organizational Readiness
BY Grace Turney April 28, 2026At her dentist’s office not long ago, Sandy Carter found herself in a surprisingly futuristic conversation—not with a doctor, but with a dental hygienist who was explaining how AI was creating a digital twin of Carter’s teeth. The hygienist, eager to keep up with the technology that had entered her workplace, had enrolled in a community college course so she could answer questions from curious patients.For Carter, it was a perfect illustration of the moment we’re in. AI isn’t arriving; it’s already embedded in the everyday tasks of ordinary workplaces, from dental chairs to marketing departments to customer service queues. The question isn’t whether to engage with it, but how to lead people through it.Carter, chief business officer at Unstoppable Domains and author of AI First, Human Always: Embracing a New Mindset for the Era of Superintelligence, shared that conviction, and a great deal of hard-won practical wisdom, during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. In conversation with Steve Koepp, editor in chief and co-founder of From Day One, Carter explored AI adoption, organizational change, and the role of leadership in the AI-era. A Long View on a Fast-Moving TechnologyCarter has been working with AI since 2013, well before the concept became popular and well-known. She was part of the IBM team that deployed AI for Jeopardy! and later helped produce what she calls the first AI-generated cookbook, a collaboration with the Culinary Institute that she describes as an early glimpse of generative AI. “It was kind of like the first taste of Gen AI coming way long ago,” she said.That long view shapes her perspective on the current moment, which she described in her book using a chapter titled “Exponential Baby.” Change is accelerating, she acknowledged, but she’s skeptical of the anxiety it produces. To put the pace of adoption in context, she cited a chart tracking AI usage across millions of people. What it shows surprised even her: roughly 80% of people haven’t used AI at all. About 15% have tried it, but only the free version. Just a small fraction (around 2.5%) have used paid tools that allow them to actually build with AI. And the share developing agents, the most sophisticated form of AI deployment, is barely 1%.Carter signed copies of her book AI First, Human Always for session attendees Her point wasn’t to minimize the urgency, but to dispel the panic. “You’re not behind,” she said. “Everybody doesn’t have the pink cup today.” She was referring to her daughter’s conviction that all her classmates owned a coveted limited-edition Stanley Cup, until Carter called around and discovered that nobody actually had one. “The same thing applies here.”The Trust GapThat doesn’t mean AI adoption is going smoothly. One of the most significant obstacles Carter identified is what she calls the trust gap: a disconnect between how executives perceive AI’s capabilities and how employees experience them on the ground.She pointed to forthcoming research from WalkMe, recently acquired by SAP, which found a 4x trust gap between executives and employees in their confidence around AI. Carter illustrated the problem with a story. She was invited to review an AI dashboard at a Fortune 50 company. The executives walked her through it, everything was green. After they left the room, she turned to the team leads. “I said, ‘Really surprised that your dashboard was all green. I’ve never seen an all green AI dashboard before.’” The team leads confirmed her suspicion. Workarounds had been built; manual processes had been quietly substituted; but the dashboard continued to reflect optimistic metrics. The contrast she offered is Mercedes-Benz, where senior leaders have developed their own agents and brought employees across the entire organization, from assistants to car painters, into rooms together to evaluate where AI works and where it doesn’t. “That’s the best practice that we should be looking at,” Carter said.Agents as TeammatesAt Unstoppable Domains, Carter has put her philosophy into practice. Rather than deploying AI as a tool or using it as cover for layoffs, her team has built a structure in which AI agents function as named teammates, reporting to human managers in an expanded org chart.Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the team’s 12 agents (including the Red Queen, who handles campaign analysis, and the Mad Hatter, who serves as a brainstorming engine) were chosen collectively, not handed down from the executive suite. The agents report to people managers, and the team has grown its roster from 12 to 45. To incentivize collaboration, when an agent produces something valuable, the human team it supports receives a bonus.The most striking data point from this experiment involves Gen Z workers. Citing a recent survey, Carter noted that 47% of them said they would prefer an AI manager. “It doesn't speak well to the quality of bosses,” said Koepp. But Carter’s explanation was more nuanced. “Why do they want an agent as a manager? Not political. They’re fair. And they don’t care if I work from home.”She sees this as an early sign that agents will eventually take on managerial roles, and that HR needs to be ready for the people questions this raises: Who owns agents? Do they have performance plans? How do you coach managers who are managing both people and AI?The Customer Use CaseFor businesses still on the fence about AI investment, Carter offered a concrete example from her company’s customer service operation. Unstoppable Domains has 4.8 million customers, and its AI agent now handles 48% of all customer service inquiries, without any layoffs. But the story she found most compelling wasn’t the efficiency gain. It was that the company moved to number one in customer satisfaction in its category.The key was rethinking what customer service could do, not just automating what it already did. “Why does customer service just identify a problem?” she asked. Now, when an agent identifies an issue, it can also resolve it, logging the fix in GitHub for an engineer to approve. The agent also flags incoming new customers who run into trouble, prompting personalized outreach from the community support team. New customer acquisition has risen as a result.This is the potential Carter returns to repeatedly: not AI as a cost-cutting mechanism, but AI as a means of raising the ceiling on what’s possible. She cited Deloitte, McKinsey, and a BMW report finding 38% higher productivity when humans and AI work together. “AI plus humans yield stronger results,” she said.What AI-First Leaders Look LikeCarter outlined three qualities she believes define effective AI-first leaders. The first is authenticity: knowing what you understand and what you don’t, and being willing to say so.The second is the capacity to reimagine. The most successful companies she works with don’t start by asking how to automate what they already do. They ask: if we were a startup today, with access to AI, how would we build this function from scratch?The third quality is what she calls being “fearless,” or, in her framing, shifting from brainstorming to what she calls “playstorming.” Executives who want to lead with AI have to be willing to get their hands dirty and fail in front of their teams. “This is not a technology that you can just think about theoretically,” she said. She described vibe coding the AI agent for her own book across 17 different platforms herself, learning from the experience rather than delegating it.Carter closed with what she considers the most important strategic reframe for organizations navigating AI. Most companies approach transformation in the wrong order: they select a platform, then redesign processes, then figure out what to do about people. The companies that fare best flip the sequence entirely: starting with readiness at the human level, then process, then technology.And in that people-first model, she says, HR is central. “I’m going to argue that I think the most important person in the transformation is you guys,” she told the room of HR leaders. “You deal with the people. And I think people is really where it’s at.”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)
Marketing at the Speed of Light: How to Get the Pitch Across When the Product Is Changing Fast
BY Ade Akin April 27, 2026What does it take to market a company that may not be a household name, but powers the technology people rely on every day—from Face ID in your smartphone to the undersea fiber optic cables connecting continents?When Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi stepped into the Chief Marketing Officer role at Coherent in 2019, he expected a conversation about traditional market segmentation. Instead, he received a piece of advice that reshaped how the company thinks about marketing. He recalls being told that Coherent effectively serves two types of customers: those who buy its products, and those who buy its stock.The idea broadened the scope of marketing beyond end customers to include the investment community—emphasizing that the company’s story must resonate not only with engineers and procurement teams, but also with investors evaluating its long-term potential.Parthasarathi shared this and other insights during a fireside chat about, “Marketing at the Speed of Light: How to Get the Pitch Across When the Product Is Changing Fast” at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference. Parthasarathi offered a closer look at a company whose products are everywhere in a conversation with Steve Koepp, co-founder and editor in chief of From Day One. His mandate, he says, is to crystallize the story of technology quietly powering the AI revolution, data centers, and modern manufacturing, and tell it to two very different audiences.From the Periodic Table to AI Data CentersParthasarathi started the conversation by demystifying “photonics,” which he describes as “the science of light, the technology that goes into creating light and manipulating light and sensing light.” The examples were as tangible as they were ubiquitous. “When I wake up, the first thing I do is I look at my phone, and you know the magic of Face ID and the phone completely opening up by looking at your face,” he said. “That’s made possible in photonics.” Those signals don’t stop there. They travel from your phone to an RF tower, where an optical transceiver converts electrical signals into optical signals, sending them through fiber optic networks, including undersea cables, to reach a friend in Singapore.Coherent’s story started in 1971, in Pittsburgh, with a name so esoteric it requires a chemistry lesson. Originally called “II-VI,” a reference to the group's two and six on the periodic table, the company was founded on materials like zinc selenide and cadmium telluride, designed to shape and direct beams for the then-new carbon dioxide laser. Sanjai Parthasarathi, CMO at Coherent Corp., was interviewed during the fireside chatOver the decades, the company evolved into a diversified photonics powerhouse, acquiring Bay Area-based Finisar in 2019 and later adopting the name of its 2022 acquisition, Coherent, a brand synonymous with laser excellence. Today, Coherent’s technology is a cornerstone of the AI boom. As Sanjai put it, “Optical connections are rapidly growing inside the data center. Today all the connections between the racks and leaving the data center facility are 100% optical. Excitement in the optical community is around connections within the rack moving to optical.” One Portfolio, Two ExtremesMarketing for such a diverse company presents unique challenges. Coherent serves both “hyper-scale” data center customers, each of which, Parthasarathi noted, is “a market by themselves,” and then on the other end thousands of industrial and academic customers who buy standard products. “For our hyper-scale customers, it’s all a very high-touch, technical marketing activity that goes on,” he said. “We’re talking about long design cycles. We’re talking about partnerships and developing new platforms and technology.” On the other end of the spectrum, the team relies on more traditional demand generation and content campaigns.Dealing with this technical complexity requires a marketing team that can speak the language of engineers and scientists. While Parthasarathi jokes about his doctorate, he emphasizes that technical competence is non-negotiable. “You don’t need to be an expert in the technology, but you need to understand it deep enough that you can have a productive dialog with your customer,” he said.Coherent has centralized its marketing “brains” in a small Bay Area team to streamline its global operations, while a larger group in Malaysia handles content execution, a model that has proven efficient since its launch less than a year ago.The Next Optical FrontierOne of the most significant shifts underway in the tech industry is the migration from electrical to optical signals, even within the tight confines of a server rack. “When you need to go fast, and we need to go long distances, you have to go optical.” He paints a picture of future circuit boards with fiber traces instead of wires, a transformation that pundits estimate could multiply the market opportunity tenfold. This future is already being underwritten. In March 2026, Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in Coherent as part of a multi-year partnership to advance optical technologies used for AI data center infrastructure. That early directive, to market the company to both customers and investors, has made investor communication an important part of Parthasarathi’s role. “Ours is a complex story, and trying to simplify it for the investor audience is something that I spend significant time on,” he said.While the messages differ, the fundamental task remains the same: crystallizing the company’s technological story for a specific audience. “It’s ultimately about taking the technology and taking the story and crystallizing it for the audience. That’s marketing, right, whether it’s an investor audience or customer audience or a supplier.”Strategy, Storytelling, and the Limits of AIParthasarathi offered a grounded perspective as the conversation turned to artificial intelligence’s role in marketing. Coherent uses AI extensively for content generation and demand creation, but it’s clear about its limits. “AI is not going to tell me a story that has not been written yet,” he said. “Us as marketing folks, we’re writing the story. AI helps us refine the story.” For Coherent, AI remains a powerful tool in a highly technical B2B industry, where understanding customer pain points and translating complex technology into value is paramount, but it’s not a replacement for deep market knowledge.He emphasizes that successful marketing at Coherent is fundamentally a strategic function, sitting at “the intersection of markets, technology, and strategy.” This approach has underpinned the company’s ambitious growth, from a sub-billion-dollar revenue base a decade ago to a consensus estimate of around $7 billion for the current fiscal year. “Strategy is not done in a vacuum by two people from the executive team,” Parthasarathi said. “It’s done with multiple functions, and it’s a long-term plan.”Parthasarathi left the audience with a simple but powerful reminder as the session concluded. “Ultimately, it’s about the customers—what are the pain points that they’re having, what are the challenges that they’re trying to solve. And the realization of that is perhaps the most important thing that you can do as a marketing professional.” Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Workplace Wellness and Engagement When Employees Feel They’re at a Breaking Point
BY Grace Turney April 24, 2026Athar Siddiqee still remembers how thrilled he was when he got his first company-issued cell phone. “How cool is this?” he recalls thinking. But he had no idea he was stepping onto a treadmill that would never stop.That moment of innocent excitement captures something essential about the modern workplace: the tools meant to make life easier have steadily erased the boundary between work and rest. For HR leaders, that erosion has become a defining challenge—one that Covid forced into the open, and that no single app or assistance program has fully solved.The question of what genuinely supports employee well-being, and not just what looks good in a benefits brochure, was the focus of a panel at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference, moderated by Rachael Myrow, senior editor of KQED’s Silicon Valley News Desk. One Size Fits No OneSiddiqee, head of total rewards at Micron Technology, was candid about the limits of standard benefits packages. During the pandemic, Micron rolled out an employee assistance fund, a home-office setup stipend, Headspace subscriptions, virtual fitness classes, and one “Innovate and Invigorate” Friday off per month. All of this was useful, yes—but not universal.In India, for instance, the employee assistance program went largely unused. Mental health struggles are handled within extended families, and the stigma of seeking outside help made formal EAP channels a non-starter. Micron responded by building flexible benefits programs in India, Singapore, and Malaysia that let employees allocate funds toward whatever they actually needed, such as childcare, gym memberships, or other priorities. “We realized that one size didn’t fit all,” Siddiqee said. Those localized programs have stayed in place.The Quiet Cracking ProblemMyrow introduced the phrase “quiet cracking,” or employees buckling under sustained pressure, and asked for a clinical perspective on what the early warning signs look like.“The term might be rather new, but this has been going on for a long time,” said Inderpreet Dhillon, MD, senior medical director at Grow Therapy. A board-certified adult psychiatrist with 20 years in practice, Dhillon says what has changed is the intensity. The commute that once served as a mental buffer between work and home has vanished for many people. “My living room is on the first floor and my office is on the second floor. I used to drive 20 or 30 minutes to get back home. That used to be my time to unwind.”Leaders spoke about "Workplace Wellness and Engagement When Employees Feel They’re at a Breaking Point"Without that buffer, personal stress and professional pressure have merged into a single, unrelenting weight. By the time people reach clinical care, the situation is often already serious. The challenge, Dhillon says, is reducing friction well before that point—making it easier to find a provider, understand insurance coverage, and sustain treatment rather than seeking help only in crisis and disappearing once the acute moment passes.Preventive Care Over Reactive FixesAt VIAVI Solutions, musculoskeletal claims have ranked among the top two cost drivers for years, a problem compounded by a workforce that skews older than the broader tech industry. “Once musculoskeletal issues become significant, it’s hard to reverse,” said Nancy Yang, VP of total rewards at VIAVI Solutions. Working with medical providers and benefits brokers, Yang’s team developed a virtual physical therapy program that employees can access from home, combining guided PT sessions with routine stretching, designed to interrupt that trajectory early rather than treat it after the fact.Dhillon reinforced the logic from a mental health angle. Patients who drop out of care after one or two sessions, then return months later in the next crisis, never complete a full episode of treatment. At Grow Therapy, the company has developed coaching tools to support patients between weekly sessions, helping them stay engaged across the full arc of recovery. “The ROI shows up,” Dhillon said, in reduced healthcare costs, lower absenteeism, and recovered productivity, but only if employees stick with care long enough to get there.Connection, Trust, and the Importance of Being SeenOlga Bobin, head of global talent mobility at EPAM Systems, relocated from Belarus to the United States 18 years ago, raised two daughters, and spent most of her career working remotely across time zones and cultures. When Myrow asked what actually carried her through the hardest moments, she didn’t mention a single program.“It was three things,” Bobin said. “Real human connection, people who genuinely cared, not because the system told them to check in. Real flexibility, when my company truly trusted me in how and when I work. And recognition, knowing that my work mattered.”She was blunt about what that trust costs when it’s absent: the energy employees spend proving their availability instead of doing their best thinking. “When organizations remove that tax through genuine trust, people become better, feel better, and perform better.”Bobin also issued a challenge to the audience: “When was the last time you told someone on your team specifically what they did and the real impact it made?”Building Systems That Surface the Human Moment“That small moment, which compounds across many people across an organization, those small moments are what lead to greater disengagement,” said Katie Cunningham, director of product at Augeo Workplace Engagement. She pointed to a pattern most people recognize: a moment of going above and beyond that passed without acknowledgment. The technology question her team is trying to answer is not how to automate recognition, but how to surface the right signals so that managers can act on them in a genuinely human way.“We’re not talking about removing humans from acknowledging that,” Cunningham said. “We’re talking about how do we surface those moments and make them very, very easy to act on.” She noted that managers are already stretched thin, responsible for both cultural cohesion and business outcomes, and that AI tools can help by handling the preparatory work, freeing managers to focus on the actual human interaction.AI as Accelerant, Not ReplacementThe panel closed with a question about AI and job security. Siddiqee pointed to a program Micron created that keeps the human element central: a licensed behavioral therapist stationed at each major location, available for 20-minute drop-in sessions. The slots book out a month in advance. For that kind of support, he says, AI needs to step aside.Yang described her team’s use of AI-generated video skits that turn compensation conversations into coaching moments, short scenarios drawn from real VIAVI situations that help managers explain pay structures, leveling decisions, and promotion criteria in plain language.Cunningham’s team built an AI-assisted coaching tool to help product staff communicate more effectively with executive stakeholders, raising the baseline before those conversations happened rather than replacing the mentorship that follows.Dhillon offered a caution. The human need to feel seen, heard, and connected is not a feature that organizations can automate away. If rising productivity expectations (enabled by AI) come at the cost of psychological safety and cultural connection, “we’ve got a little problem on our hands.”The through line in every answer was the same: technology can reduce friction, surface signals, and scale support. But the moment of recognition, the expression of trust, the sense that one’s work matters—those still require a real person to deliver them.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)
Personalization Is the New Standard for Employee Well-Being
BY Katie Chambers April 23, 2026“We have people that are just starting out in their careers, parents, and people who are ready to retire. Some are salaried desk workers. Some are people out in the field and working hourly. There are people from across the world and many different nationalities,” said moderator Katie Johnston, reporter at the Boston Globe. All of these people come together at work.Thanks to data analytics technology, organizations have the opportunity to hone in on their specific needs to provide personalized benefits that leave them feeling engaged, supported, and seen. This was the topic of conversation during an executive panel discussion, moderated by Johnston at From Day One’s Boston benefits conference. Benefits That Reflect Cultural TrendsOrganizations are finding that more employees value meaningful work than ever before, especially post-pandemic. Aravind Menon, senior director of HR at Procter & Gamble, shares that his organization created a framework called the Employee Value Equation (EVE). “The primary focus of EVE is that employees at the core want to make an impact. They want to do meaningful work. They want to feel valued and rewarded,” he said. The organization uses surveys and data analytics to get feedback on what is working for employees, and what isn’t. With more than 100,000 employees, having a way to gather opinions en masse is crucial. Guided by feedback data, Procter & Gamble began offering a health plan with more transparent pricing and flex benefits, such as optional classes or services tailored to employees’ needs. Much of employee feedback, in one way or another, comes down to money. Offerings that support financial well-being have become integral to a well-rounded benefits package. “It is one of the only topics that touches every single person. Almost every single decision that you make on a daily basis,” said Rebecca Liebman, CEO and co-founder of LearnLux. Financial well-being now goes beyond traditional retirement planning, Liebman says, and also includes preparation for emergencies, childcare, elder care, and general financial resilience as the cost of living skyrockets. A well-rounded package should offer personalization for every life stage and be paired with an internal communications plan that educates employees on how best to maximize the offerings. Panelists spoke about "The Power of Personalization in Workplace Well-Being," at From Day One's Boston benefits conferenceSuch messaging can be particularly challenging for large organizations like Securitas, which has employees of all ages spread across the globe in a variety of roles. “I might have one guard sitting behind a desk at an office building, another one standing at a bank. I might have a group of them at a stadium. In most cases, they’re generally not co-located,” said Amy Noelle, senior director, benefits, North America at Securitas. But they must nonetheless receive clear, personalized information. Madhavi Vemireddy, CEO of Cleo, shares that in the U.S. alone, nearly 60 million people identify as caregivers and frequently hesitate to disclose this to their workplaces for fear of repercussions, such as being passed over for a promotion. “Family caregivers in the workforce, who are often women, deal with so many combinations of stressors: it could be pregnancy, parenting, menopause, elder care, [or] all of the above,” Johnston said. “How can employers identify who’s dealing with these issues and, before they get to the breaking point, what can they offer them?” Cleo works to help caregivers overcome the stigma and access the support they desperately need. “We’re supporting families across pregnancy, parenting journeys as well as adult caregiving, and we’re doing that holistically,” Vemireddy said. Early intervention can help workers stay healthy—and that depends on transparency and psychological safety to combat the stigma. “We need to start talking about it more, just like how we’ve been talking about mental health in the workplace, about menopause in the workplace, we need to start talking about caregiving in the workplace,” Vemireddy said. Sharpening Communications StrategiesDifferent workers may be receptive to different types of communication styles. But always, “there has to be an openness to the information before we decide on the delivery method,” said Kelle Colyer-Brown, head of office of accessibility programs at PSEG. Training internal stakeholders, in addition to engaging with outside vendors, is key. “We know that employees will go to the people that they talk to most often first, so ensuring that our managers have that information [is important],” she said.In terms of delivery, “our salaried office-based employees are most likely going to go to things like our blogs, newsletters, and email blasts. That is extremely unlikely for our field employees,” Colyer-Brown said. Field employees might be more reachable through all-hands meetings, daily stand-ups, fairs, or even apps. In difficult times, wellness offerings can help maintain engagement and retention. “This year, a lot of companies can’t give more money,” Liebman said. “So, they’re bringing in financial coaching as a benefit to help people understand what they can do with their paycheck. If we can’t give you more money, let’s empower you to make a plan for your life. And really, financial planning is just executing on the life that you want to live.” Looking ahead, Colyer-Brown recommends relying on survey data to understand what employees are seeking, then consistently reviewing and meeting with current and prospective vendors to ensure those trends are addressed. If your current vendors don’t offer adequate support, consider “what’s my buy, borrow, build, mix to fill in some of those gaps? Am I going to build internal services? Am I going to do outreach to government entities? Am I reaching out to nonprofits?” she said. “If I need to spend money, at least I can go to my leadership and say, ‘I looked at our internal resources first before I asked you for a check. I’ve done my due diligence.’”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)
Choosing the Right Problems to Solve: It’s Not AI for Something, It’s Something With AI
BY Ade Akin April 20, 2026In an era where many companies scramble to find uses for AI, Raman Achutharaman advocates for the opposite approach.“We always want to solve a business problem,” he said during a fireside chat at From Day One's Silicon Valley HR conference. “But you’ve got to find what value you’re going to generate, and then which tech comes along the way.” For Achutharaman, the SVP of operations, AI and productivity at Applied Materials, this problem‑first philosophy is the guiding principle behind a sweeping digital transformation at one of the world’s most vital technology companies.The Quiet Giant of the Semiconductor RevolutionApplied Materials doesn’t manufacture the tech gadgets that have become part of our daily lives, like smartphones and laptops; instead, it builds the multi‑million‑dollar equipment that manufacturers use to produce the semiconductors inside them. As Achutharaman said to Steve Koepp, co-founder and editor at From Day One, who moderated the conversation, a single advanced logic chip requires roughly 2,000 processing steps and three months to complete, despite being “a thousand times smaller than a human hair.” Founded in 1967, Applied Materials predates companies such as Apple and Intel in Silicon Valley and now employs more than 36,000 people globally. The company’s immense global footprint, supercharged by the accelerating AI revolution, makes digital transformation an urgent directive. To help meet this objective, Achutharaman’s role was created specifically to unify an organization that had grown “very global” and “very vertical.” He frames his team as an “internal consulting arm,” a nimble force that’s embedded in the middle to drive collective growth and navigate the friction of cross‑functional execution.Innovating the Way We InnovateWhen generative AI burst onto the scene, Achutharaman joined forces with the company's CIO and CTO to form a leadership trio that would charter the company's AI journey. Their guiding principle was to avoid using “AI for the sake of AI.” Instead, they focused on re‑engineering decades‑old workflows. They worked to “innovate the way we innovate,” Achutharaman said.Raman Achutharaman, SVP of operations, AI, and productivity at Applied Materials, spoke during the fireside chatThis mindset has led to a deliberate, problem‑centric rollout. The company established rigorous governance structures early on instead of unleashing every new tool on its workforce, addressing cybersecurity, intellectual property protection, and ethical concerns before any technology was deployed. “Almost the [entire] first year was really focused on making sure that anything we do doesn’t break,” Achutharaman said.The Cohort Program: From Office Hours to Change AgentsTraining 36,000 people on technology that evolves “every 15 minutes” requires more than a library of online courses. Achutharaman’s team launched a hands-on cohort program that pairs employees who have specific problems adopting artificial intelligence with mentors who are already advanced users. The program started small with weekly office hours where any employee could drop in with questions. It has since grown into a structured initiative. Last year, more than 1,000 employees applied to participate, and 250 were selected to work one‑on‑one with mentors.“When they solve their own problems using something, they start thinking about what else they can do with it,” Achutharaman said. “And they also act as the change agents going across the organization.” This peer‑driven model has proven to be far more effective than top‑down mandates, creating a self‑propagating network of AI champions throughout the organization.Data Quality and the Scientific RevolutionDespite all the excitement surrounding large language models, Achutharaman emphasizes that the real frontier lies in scientific and engineering data. The publicly available corpus of information, research papers, and technical articles is often biased toward positive results and lacks the calibration needed for rigorous scientific work. “You’ve got to generate your own data,” he added.To that end, Applied Materials is investing billions in a new research and development lab in Sunnyvale, California. The facility will help generate high‑quality data that will fuel the next generation of semiconductor innovation. “Having data at the right rate, using AI to be able to solve complex problems, needs not just AI. You actually need a whole bunch of other things: engineering, physical infrastructure, and actual experiments,” he said. Achutharaman also highlighted how Applied Materials' HR team is applying AI across the talent lifecycle. The technology is actively transforming every workflow, from analyzing Workday data to piloting AI‑powered manager coaching tools. Faster Insights, Better DecisionsAchutharaman remains firmly in the optimistic camp despite the accelerating pace of AI development. He sees the technology as a tool for gaining insights faster than a human ever could, enabling better decisions. He offered a personal example, using AI to digest decades of his aging parents’ complex health records, scattered across paper files and different doctors in India, to identify the right questions to ask their physicians. “Within five minutes, you’re able to at least find what questions to ask,” he said. “It’s not that you want the answers. The most important thing AI gives you is what questions to ask.” That perspective may be the most valuable takeaway for any leader navigating the AI revolution. The technology doesn’t replace human judgment; it equips people with faster insights, allowing for better decisions in an increasingly complex world. As Achutharaman put it, “It’s about faster insights and better quality decisions. It will give you insights that you would have missed.”Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Building Benefits That Balance Cost Efficiency With Employee Outcomes
BY Jessica Swenson April 15, 2026As healthcare and benefits costs continue to rise, organizations are under increasing pressure to cut spending while maintaining the employee experience. Jordan Dhillon, VP of sales for SmithRx, suggests that one way to drive cost efficiency is to explore alternative partners and start benefit evaluations early. “Don’t be afraid to have the conversation. Look for the long-term partner that’s aligned with your model and your values, and start the process early,” she said during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Boston benefits conference. Dhillon spoke on a panel with four other leaders, moderated by Harvard Business Review contributing columnist Rebecca Knight.Evaluating Benefits ProgramsTo balance utilization, cost, and vendors within your benefits programming, Elizabeth McClure, head of benefits for Lantheus, endorses a full audit approach focused on refining and streamlining your offerings. She recommends looking at utilization rates to determine high-value benefits, and maximizing impact by consolidating duplicative services provided by multiple vendors. “I think it was important to go through and get the full picture of what employees value, and how we can really focus on those [things].”Panelists spoke about "Building Benefits That Balance Cost Efficiency With Employee Outcomes," in BostonWhile ROI is of course a critical part of the decision-making process, Kathleen Harris, head of consultant relations & strategic programs at Forma, emphasized that overreliance on ROI can detract from benefits that are valuable for overall culture even with limited direct use. She told the story of the company’s on-site daycare; it can only serve 250 families out of Forma’s nearly 1,000 employees, but employees across the spectrum are proud to say that they have on-site daycare. She calls this a halo benefit.Harris also cautioned against fragmented evaluation of benefits. “Sometimes we talk about the ecosystem, but then we also look at things in a silo. So we’re not looking at it across, we’re looking at it vertically, in terms of what we’re offering our employees.” Between this siloed view and failing to incorporate employee feedback, companies can wind up with lower-value, fragmented benefit plans.The lack of fiduciary alignment in traditional pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can be a hidden cause of overspending, says Dhillon. She advocates for partnering with independent PBMs that focus on lower drug costs, transparent pricing, and patient-first outcomes, aligning themselves with employer and employee needs. “I would say you need to find a partner that’s independent and that is operating in your best interest as a fiduciary,” said Dhillon.Inclusion in Benefits DesignMarjory Lake, head of total rewards & people operations at JCDecaux, suggests that companies consolidate vendors, continuously listen to employees to meet them where they are, and design benefits programming for real-life employee needs.JCDecaux recently combined healthcare savings accounts and 401(k) accounts into the same vendor, saving the company money while improving the employee experience, she says.Lake looks at employee benefits holistically to ensure the company is meeting the needs of most employees. “I want to look at something that’s more impactful and more meaningful. That way [you can get] that buy-in for the higher ups, but also you’re meeting people in the middle of where they are in their lives.”Aside from the simple shifting of costs, companies are finding innovative ways to provide value. Harris advocated for lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs) as a core requirement to address the diverse, evolving needs of today’s workforce. She discussed their ability to complement traditional benefit plans by bridging gaps for things like caregiving education, and counseling that are otherwise not covered.The advent of GLP-1 medications for weight loss has created a new benefit-cost challenge for companies, panelists agreed. “What we really focus on is that supportive ecosystem around all of these things. We want to partner with lifestyle vendors and offer these things like gym memberships and other pathways to meet people in the middle,” said Lake. “A healthier and happier workforce will, over time, pay it for itself.”Cindy de Bruin, senior director of benefits and global mobility for Boston Scientific Corp., highlighted the company’s Surgery Center of Excellence, which routes certain procedures through a curated provider network with the goal of lower costs, improved outcomes, and shortened recovery times.However, the workforce had a strong, unexpected reaction to the change, leading the company to realize that they needed better communication. “We had to explain that part of this is not just about cost—this is also about your benefit. This is also about all our employees across the U.S..”Communication as a StrategyNot surprisingly, the need for communication and employee listening around benefits programming emerged as a common theme. Employees need to understand why changes are happening, says Dhillon, or you can run into resistance and engagement issues. “The more you can communicate, the more you can educate your employees as to why we’re doing this—I think it’s powerful, and that’s where I see the most success, honestly.” Communication gaps can impact employees’ awareness of what is available to them. Vendors can help them navigate benefits, says de Bruin, but first there needs to be communication from the employer. “If we do listening sessions, for example, we sometimes hear of benefits that they would like to have offered that are already there. That means we are doing something wrong in the communication.” she said. To help neutralize lack of awareness or slow benefit uptake, Harris recommends multifaceted communications and repeated exposure to visual cues alongside traditional communication campaigns. Using an established color-coded system that categorizes company benefits, Forma draws attention to specific offerings or benefits by adapting its intranet site during seasonal awareness campaigns, but still sends a notification postcard to employees’ homes to notify them of actions like benefits enrollment.McClure achieved a 90% response rate on a recent employee survey by clearly communicating the purpose, “to make informed decisions moving forward,” ensuring anonymity, and allowing open-text responses. Employees are given the message that “this is your big chance to get out everything you want to get out,” she said, “because it’s so valuable [for the company] to hear this feedback.” In that survey, they “had 95% of people say that they rated benefits as the most important thing when determining whether they’re going to get a new job or stay at the one they’re at.” Armed with this employee data, she is able to keep leaders focused on the big picture and avoid quick fixes that could have negative long-term financial implications. Additionally, it’s crucial to balance vocal employee preferences with what is best for most employees, says Lake. “Our job is to always look at the equity—what the greater good is, what the need is,” she said. “The goal is to build a foundation that supports everyone. That’s not always easy, because everyone has different needs at different times, and they’re in different places in their lives.”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)
Delivering Personalized Benefits for a Multigenerational Workforce
BY Ade Akin April 13, 2026Verlinda DiMarino didn’t spend hours researching her options when her 86-year-old mother asked for a getaway to New York to watch Broadway shows for her birthday. Instead, she called her company’s travel concierge, the same service she had previously used to plan a Harry Potter World excursion in London. “They take that work off the shoulders of our employees,” DiMarino, the Head of Benefits at Liberty Mutual Insurance, said. “So they can basically function and be more productive in their work as well as in their life.”DiMarino sat down with Wall Street Journal columnist Callum Borchers at From Day One’s Boston benefits half-day conference to lay out a vision for employee benefits that treats workers as whole people across a multigenerational workforce.Wraparound Benefits for a Multidimensional WorkforceThe old model for benefits packages, health, a 401(k), and dental, no longer cuts it. “Employees today, no matter where they are in their life journey, are looking for programs and benefits that support them holistically,” she said. “It’s really a part of the value proposition today.”Borchers, who also teaches at Bentley University near Boston, drew a parallel to the shift in higher education toward “wraparound services.” Just as students need more than classroom instruction to succeed at higher learning institutions, employees need other things besides a paycheck to thrive. Verlinda DiMarino, head of benefits at Liberty Mutual, spoke with Callum Borchers, columnist at the Wall Street JournalThe challenge becomes deciding what to offer a workforce that includes everyone from recent college graduates to employees in their 80s. DiMarino says the answer starts with data. Liberty Mutual uses employee surveys, focus groups, and employee resource groups (ERGs) to determine what workers really want. “We partner with them regularly in terms of understanding the needs of their community and the allies in their communities,” she said.Listening to employees led Liberty Mutual to expand its fertility program to include perimenopause and menopause support. “When women get to the top of their license, and they’re going full throttle and hitting all cylinders, their hormones start to kick in, and they’re starting to have some brain fog,” DiMarino said. “We don’t want to lose those women from the workforce.” The fertility program now covers more needs, such as family-forming fertility benefits, menopause support, and testosterone replacement therapy for men. One Program, Multiple Life StagesDiMarino highlighted Liberty Mutual’s retirement program as a prime example of benefits designed for everyone. It’s a standard 401(k) on its surface, but it also provides financial counseling, which includes unlimited, one-on-one sessions on budgeting, retirement strategy, and draw-down planning. The company also launched a student loan match package. “Some of our employees coming right out of school are challenged with some student loan debt,” DiMarino said. The program matches student loan payments with matching contributions, helping early-career employees to pay down their debt and build retirement savings. The same program offers mid-career employees an emergency savings benefit and support for home buying. “Within that one program, we are meeting the needs of early career employees dealing with student loan debt,” she added. “We’re helping our mid-career employees as they plan to buy homes, as well as providing support for retirement planning.”Where Artificial Intelligence Helps and Where Humans StayBorcher asked DiMarino about how Liberty Mutual navigates around AI in HR as an increasing number of workplace interactions become automated. “We don’t think of AI as a replacement. We understand that it’s generative, it’s not creative,” she replied. “That’s what our talent is. We’re creative.”Liberty Mutual uses AI for tasks like consolidating dense vendor decks or pulling salient points from documents. “That’s a great use case for AI,” she said. As for employee appetite for AI? That depends on the generation. “My daughter would rather never talk to a person if she could,” DiMarino said. “And then there are employees that want paper, they want to read something and see that it resonates and it makes sense, and then they want to call and clarify.”Covering GLP-1s as a Strategic InvestmentBorchers asked about one of the hottest topics regarding benefits today: GLP-1 coverage. He recalled that DiMarino had recently told a room of her peers that, “AI and GLP-1s were like the two big things on the bingo card.”Liberty Mutual covers GLP-1s for both diabetes and weight loss. “It really aligns with our philosophy that we want a healthy workforce,” DiMarino said. “If you’re at a healthy weight, you’re likely going to have fewer comorbidities. You’re going to be able to sleep better, you’re going to be more productive.”DiMarino acknowledges the high cost of GLP-1s, but frames it as a long-term investment in lower cardiac risk, reduced diabetes spending, and improved cholesterol management. Liberty Mutual built in wraparound lifestyle support when it moved to a new pharmacy benefits manager in 2026. “We wanted to give them the tools and the support around lifestyle management, being able to eat appropriately,” she said, especially for employees who want to titrate down or come off the medications.That coverage has now become a recruiting tool. “We do occasionally have employees. When they’re considering employment with Liberty, they’ll say, ‘Do you offer these medications?’” DiMarino added. “We’re happy to say that we do.”Benchmarking for Top TalentBorchers asked how much employers should keep an eye on competitors when designing benefits. “That’s important, because you want to be the employer of choice,” DiMarino said. Liberty Mutual benchmarks against a peer set that includes other insurance companies as well as “the most admired companies and the top 100.”Regarding hybrid work, which is another popular benefit, Liberty Mutual requires employees within 50 miles of an office to come in two days a week, allowing them to work from home on the remaining days. “That is extremely popular with our employees,” DiMarino said. The company also offers “virtual weeks” around holidays like winter break and back-to-school time, when everyone works from home.DiMarino’s message, delivered through stories of fertility benefits, travel concierges, and Broadway trips, suggests that the companies that invest in true wraparound support will be the ones employees remember.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)