Bob Pulver and Richard Rosenow discuss various topics related to people analytics and AI in the workplace. They cover the ongoing terminology debate, the importance of upskilling in AI, and the impact of AI on both individual and team productivity. They discuss the challenges of integrating AI tools into existing workflows and the need for HR to take a proactive role in embracing AI and responsible AI practices. They also touch on the demand for AI talent and the future of HR tech. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the future of work more broadly, including impacts to education and the changing definition of a (not necessarily human) workforce. 


Keywords

people analytics, AI, terminology, upskilling, team productivity, AI tools, workflows, HR, future of work, workforce, AI, HR, upskilling, responsible AI, AI talent, HR tech


Takeaways

  • The terminology in the people analytics and AI field can be confusing, but there is a growing consensus around the term 'people analytics'.
  • Upskilling in AI is crucial for HR professionals to stay relevant and take advantage of the tools and technologies available.
  • Integrating AI tools into existing workflows can improve team productivity, but it requires careful planning and coordination.
  • HR needs to take a proactive role in embracing AI and ensuring that it is used responsibly and ethically in the workplace.
  • The definition of a workforce is changing as AI agents and systems become more prevalent, and HR will need to adapt to support and manage these new types of workers. HR has the opportunity to leverage AI tools to improve processes and decision-making.
  • Upskilling in AI is important for HR professionals to effectively use AI tools.
  • Responsible AI practices, including data hygiene and bias mitigation, are crucial in HR.
  • There is a growing demand for AI talent in HR and organizations need to adapt to this change.
  • The future of HR tech will involve AI-driven workflows and a focus on responsible AI practices.


Sound Bites

  • "At the end of the day, give yourself some grace if you're trying to figure out what these mean. It's confusing right now."
  • "If you add AI to one task, but you leave everything else alone, have you done anything? Have you actually made a significant improvement in that end-to-end workflow?"
  • "HR, if you were on the fence or kind of worried about it, I'd say like, hey, it's a good time to start dipping your toe in, start trying to make use of this, start trying to bring it into your day-to-day usage because the tools are getting strong enough and they're starting to become more available."
  • "I could see someone making a really funny comedy about this"
  • "Upskilling in [Generative] AI is simpler than becoming a data scientist or AI software developer"
  • "HR has a prime opportunity to experiment with AI and extrapolate its value to the rest of the organization"


Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:08 Navigating the Terminology of People Analytics and AI

06:12 The Importance of Upskilling in AI for HR Professionals

10:16 Integrating AI Tools into Workflows for Improved Team Productivity

15:21 HR's Role in Embracing AI and Ensuring Responsible Use

25:25 Exploring the Potential of AI in HR

27:45 The Opportunity for HR to Experiment with AI

29:44 Addressing AI Hallucinations and Biases in HR

36:01 Understanding the Data in AI for HR

39:31 The Growing Demand for AI Talent in HR

43:10 The Value of AI Skills and Talent in HR

47:53 The Future of HR Tech: AI-driven Workflows and Responsible AI


Richard Rosenow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardrosenow/

OneModel: http://www.onemodel.co/

People Analytics Roles: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/people-analytics-roles-update-7219034161934671875/

Powered by the WRKdefined Podcast Network. 

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello everyone, this is Bob Pulver. Welcome back to the Elevate Your AIQ podcast. In this episode

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm joined by my friend Richard Rosenow from OneModel. Richard and I discuss people analytics,

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_02]: talent intelligence, the integration of AI in HR, emphasizing the importance of upskilling,

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_02]: responsible AI practices, and the evolving definition of the workforce.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_02]: We highlight the need for HR to proactively embrace AI to improve productivity and decision

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_02]: making while addressing challenges like data hygiene and bias. The conversation underscores

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_02]: the growing demand for AI talent and the future of HR tech involving AI driven workflows with what we

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_02]: call agentic workflows, which we anticipate will drive significant value and innovation.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Stick around to hear Richard's insights on how to best elevate one's AIQ,

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: and I hope you enjoy this discussion. Thanks for listening.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Elevate Your AIQ. I'm your host Bob Pulver,

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_02]: with me today is my friend Richard Rosenow. Hey Richard.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Good to see you Bob. Hi everybody.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much for spending some time with me and for our audience. There's, oh my god, there's

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_02]: so much to talk about. You and I never have shortage of topics, but I thought we could just

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_02]: kick off with just you just giving a bit of background about what you've been up to,

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_02]: how you wound up where you are at OneModel and some of the extracurriculars that I know

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_02]: you help others with like finding jobs in people operations and people analytics.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, no I'd be happy to. It's always good to see you Bob, always good to catch up.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So my background, so way back when sociology got interested in like how do people come together,

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: why do people come together? And I've really been chasing that my whole career.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Had an early career in non-profit, quickly found my way to people analytics space and

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: got to see some of the like world's best people analytics teams. So I got to see GE Capital,

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: got to see Facebook, Uber, Nike, Argo AI and really learned a lot about a lot of different teams.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So got to see kind of like early workforce planning at GE, got to see Facebook's team go from 15 to

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: 150, got to lead teams at kind of Uber, Nike and Argo and really with a big focus on kind of data

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and data platforms. That's always been an excitement for me in a space I really enjoyed.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So this role opened up here over here at OneModel. So I'm our VP of People Analytics

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Strategy and that's a bit of a funny title. It's one that I think my MBA program loves because

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got analytics and strategy, what's not to love but I do a lot of different things over here.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So I work horizontally, I get to talk to everybody about kind of what's going on in

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: people analytics but bringing that into the inside of the company. And then externally

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I do a lot of our research, a lot of our community connections and I get to talk

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: about people analytics day in, day out and that makes me very happy and thrilled to be

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_02]: here with you today Bob. Excellent, excellent. Now that's great. I think one of the, as I myself

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_02]: pivoted into the sort of talent space, certainly part of that impetus was because I saw so much

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_02]: opportunity in this space and obviously had to quickly learn a lot of different terminology,

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_02]: talent, intelligence, people analytics, workforce analytics, what are all these

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_02]: different sort of disciplines and why aren't more companies investing in some of these

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_02]: areas? Why aren't some of these teams working more collaboratively together and I think today

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I still ask those questions. Yeah, I think you've posted about this talent, these definitions and

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_02]: when out getting into sort of terminology debates necessarily, when you think about that

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_02]: landscape around talent, intelligence, people analytics, looking outside, looking inside

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_02]: and how these things sort of crisscross, you give us like a TLDR, you know,

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of version of where you see all that? Oh, totally. Yeah, I think it's funny because like

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_01]: anyone coming into the space and knew I think that's the first battle they have to deal with

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: is just like what is everyone saying and why are they saying different things? And that's,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: but that's part of like a decentralized movement is like we don't have like a FINRA or governing

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: body. We have a lot of people trying to figure this out and doing their best and because of that

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: we have a lot of different ways that people kind of came to this space. So I think I'm pretty laid

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_01]: back when it comes to the like people analytics workforce analytics, HR analytics, talent analytics,

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: like a lot of that terminology. I think a lot of that is either nonsense or has a particular

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: reason but coalescing around people analytics has been healthy I think and we've seen a lot

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: of that in the past couple years where it tends to be a little bit more heavy in that direction.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I think though we have seen talent intelligence really start to pull away.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I think in no small part to Toby Kulsch has done a phenomenal job with the talent

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: intelligence collective. I mean he's got a book on talent intelligence just all the love for Toby,

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: what he does but I think when we start to think about those, I remember somebody telling me well

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: they're the same thing aren't they? And I'm like at some point words have to mean something

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and I think a lot about analytics and intelligence in particular. When I think about analytics I

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: think about with the data we have let's make a decision. When I think about intelligence

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I think about let's gather the information about the world and bring it back.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people have still have their own debates about that but that's how in my mind

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: those two slot together really well is talent intelligence people and analytics teams need

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_01]: talent intelligence teams to bring them the information and get them the data and acquire

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: that and bring that back to make sense of it. I think some other people do internal,

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: external and there's still some debate on that too but at the end of the day I'd say

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01]: give yourself some grace if you're trying to figure out what these mean it's confusing

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_02]: right now. How those teams even formed at the beginning may have guided how much of each like

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_02]: you said some of it's really about intelligence gathering and sort of calling through a lot of

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_02]: that data and making sense of it as opposed to doing interrogating the data yourself getting

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_02]: your hands dirty so to speak manipulating the data doing scenarios and looking at those

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_02]: large data sets across especially a big organization. So I think that has guided

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_02]: you know and maybe bifurcated some of the the pools of where people are focusing.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I guess the way I think about it nowadays and I admit I'm doing a little bit of

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_02]: sort of Monday morning you know quarterbacking here since I didn't grow up in HR or analytics

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_02]: but it just seems like when you think about your talent life cycle and your global talent

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_02]: ecosystem holistically and you think about the need to attract and retain the right people

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_02]: you've got to look in a 360 degree view and you know however you need to

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_02]: aggregate those insights and I know a lot of this but how do you pull all that disparate data

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_02]: together and maybe come up with new insights that one particular person or small team

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_02]: may not have uncovered and what are those do a collection of weak signals amount to a

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_02]: stronger you know signal that we actually have to take action upon or I just think there's so much

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_02]: to pay attention to that you've got to start to pull pull that together even if the teams are

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: day-to-day operating. Yeah absolutely and it's funny because I think within a single team

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_01]: you have there's the work you have to do and then there's how you talk about that work

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: day-to-day a lot of times you just have to do the work like you just have to get it done

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: whatever it is like whether it's labor market internal external analytics like at some

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: point you're just an HR person doing work and it's a lot more clear I think it's when we try to

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_01]: like look across companies and we try to benchmark and we try to talk about this publicly that's where

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: people get into these like holy wars over the names of things or but it is it's helpful to have

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: common names because you can find each other and I think that's been one of the most difficult

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: things about the the job market for this space is for people that are trying to break in and

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: say hey I want to do data and I want to do HR and I know what my company might have called it

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: before but how do I find those jobs at other companies I think that's been the most difficult

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_01]: thing is that it creates a real barrier in the labor market but again I keep coming back to like

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: giving people some grace on this I think about HR teams that are hiring their first people analytics

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: person and they don't have the experience of being part of a people analytics team and now

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_01]: they've got to figure out the name for this thing and so I think half of that too comes out

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01]: of that just like HR teams are trying their best they're creating a role that they hope will

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: work to kind of drive things forward and then again you kind of figure it out on the ground

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_02]: once you're actually in the company right right for people who haven't spent a lot of time in

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_02]: either analytics or AI or automation it all just sounds like you know magic maybe or

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_02]: you know non-human you know things doing stuff like they don't they're still getting their

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_02]: arms around you know what this all means and you know maybe they missed the whole

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_02]: you know RPA process automation kind of wave where we did try to simplify you know processes

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_02]: and automate you know steps of a workflow and things like that I do think when we think about

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: how or what kinds of solutions to deploy against a specific you know business opportunity

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_02]: business challenge or when we think about how to sort of upscale and reskill people

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_02]: with you know these days a lot of it around generative AI I do think terminology does

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_02]: matter because you could wind up spending spinning your wheels and learning things that

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_02]: you don't necessarily need to know and I think there's just too much out there to not have some

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_02]: guidance of sort of what to focus on that's relevant to your you know career trajectory

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_02]: your professional development and the work that you need to get done today and that

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: your manager expects you to get done yeah no it makes a ton of sense and it's funny because the

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the generative AI that's come out in the past kind of two years here has such a gravity to it that

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_01]: it's almost like pulled all of the AI conversation into that and it's funny because like we we've

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: had a tool as part of the one model toolkit for a long time called one AI which is this

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: we've had to start calling it traditional AI sometimes where the end which is almost

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_01]: like a funny thing too there's like there's old school AI then there's generative AI

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: whatever it might be but it's this like the predictive algorithms the classification algorithms

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: these different pieces that didn't quite get into the public imagination in the same way

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's almost that there's like a more obscure predictive AI that's a little difficult

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and once you understand it there's really powerful things that you can do there

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and then the interesting thing I think about generative AI is it's one of the first tools

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that kind of came with a help manual because like you can ask chat gpt what is chat gpt and

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_01]: answers you it's a tremendous tool to kind of learn about the space and drive that

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_01]: what's funny though is a lot of the legislation is going after both

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and I think this has been an interesting thing too is like because a lot of people have been

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: doing predictive or classification especially around things like resumes or ats and they've

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_01]: been getting away with things maybe they shouldn't be getting away with from an algorithm perspective

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and suddenly generative comes out and every legislator is moving we're going to see some

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_01]: actual legislation come through regulation come through and it's going to capture everything

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: because that we know it's not going to be specific about that so I think there's been some really nice

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01]: education in the past couple years about this whole space and as much as I would like more

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: name definition I'm glad that in general people are like okay this is a thing it's real it's happening

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_01]: let's take care of people in the right way as we're working with these tools yeah no I've

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_02]: noticed the same thing and when I started learning and getting deeper into like the

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_02]: responsible AI space especially when it came to like things that are auditable within you know talent

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_02]: acquisition for example you know it was interesting sort of balance because yes I was trying to keep

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_02]: up with everything going on with generative AI but generative AI at least at the time

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_02]: was not the type of AI to your point that was actually subject to an audit it was something

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_02]: that was doing up the stack ranking and it was like probabilistic and it was

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: predictive AI I don't know if that's you know synonymous with traditional AI but certainly

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_02]: there was this whole generation at least one generation of AI and you know of course my

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_02]: my brain immediately goes to Watson because I saw I was at IBM and Watson came out of the labs and

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_02]: I saw it being developed and I saw all the different capabilities that it had and

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_02]: the APIs that were made available that leveraged that technology and so

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_02]: but you're right nowadays it's and responsibly AI is a lot more than just you know legal

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_02]: you know protections and what's auditable it's it's the whole you know life cycle and being

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_02]: responsible by design so everyone that touches it and now everyone that uses it is also potentially

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_02]: a builder you know building your own custom GPT or you're going into Amazon and using

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_02]: you know party rock to create your own agent or Microsoft create your own co-pilot whatever

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_02]: and so the concept of responsible AI takes on more meaning for more people as more people touch it

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_02]: in different ways but I think one of the things that is important you know going back to if this

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_02]: is affecting everyone how do you sort of upskill yourself and just the things that you need to

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_02]: know you know all the terminology kind of aside what's the best way to get this this work

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_02]: done and maybe it's an actual AI solution maybe it's basic you know automation and maybe it's

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_02]: something else I mean don't just assume that AI is here and therefore that's my new hammer and

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: everything's a nail right so I think just think we've got a temper some expectations and

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_02]: that's part of making sure people know what to what to do with it and when and how to use it

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah upskilling is a really good conversation too because I think there's a lot of people

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_01]: that are feeling worried that they're getting left out and we're at an interesting moment though

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: that enough is changing fast enough that if you upskilled six months ago you might be out of date

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: which is also very tough without fastest moving but I think we're at a point where

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01]: folk in HR if you haven't been looking at this yet you really should and especially when it

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_01]: comes to the kind of like agent-based workflows and how some of the applications are finally

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01]: coming out that you could start to use because at the end of the day like you don't

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_01]: have to learn how to build an LLM you don't have to learn how to build one of these tools from scratch

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to learn how to use them and I don't think we were ready to use them before before

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: pretty recently here so HR if you were on the fence are kind of worried about it say like hey

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a good time to start dipping your toe in start trying to make use of this start trying

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_01]: to bring it into your day-to-day usage because the the tools are getting strong enough and

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: they're starting to become more available and yeah it's a good time to start to up skill right

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_02]: now as you talk to companies are they doing enough to up skill their own workforce or are they

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_02]: are they waiting for a strategy or they embracing this or do they still are they still not sure

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_01]: how to up skill workforce it's a really good question I think part of my answer is going

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_01]: to be definitely guided by who I talked to so I talked to a lot of people in analytics teams

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and I talked pretty specifically to people analytics teams it's rare that I actually catch

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: up with an hrvp and maybe that's something I should reflect on but I'm thinking about

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: people in analytics I think it's been harder to start to use for direct application because of

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: some of these kind of like hallucinations or guardrails and ethics that need to be put in

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: place I think some of the the systems are just getting there like we've got our our chatbot

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and beta we've got some tools that are rolling out to our users kind of across the one

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_01]: model side but I think about uh people in analytics we still have to do our jobs

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: which is a lot of this like understand assess be thoughtful about and create hypothesis and

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01]: track what's going on across the workforce as much as AI is making a difference there I think

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_01]: we're seeing a little bit more applications in uh call centers scaled operations L and D

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: recruiting where you see a lot of this like text that was being generated before is now

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: we can move a little bit faster through text or whether that's ingesting and thinking

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_01]: about text or creating text so I think HR teams uh it's a good question about how they're doing I've

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: heard a couple trainers that are making pay on this that they're they're doing a lot of trainings

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: on how to do generalized AI I'm uh I'm a little nervous for some of those because there's a

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a bit of a cottage industry that's really sprung up and it's hard to tell fact from

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: fiction sometimes but um it's definitely in full swing that people are starting to talk about

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: getting trained whether full HR functions are trained somewhere I think that's a good

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_02]: question still yeah I mean I think I think back to some of the programs that IBM had put in place

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_02]: to try to upscale everyone around what does this AI future really really mean for us right and so

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_02]: we've got to really understand some of the basics but then how could you put this into practice

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_02]: and I think uh you know so some of that was oh let's let's hear your ideas and if you think

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_02]: it's something that could turn into something for real it's not just a pie in the sky thing

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean be creative and don't be too you know conservative in your assessment let's just let's

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_02]: just hear your ideas and if you think it has legs let's try to put a team around it and build

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_02]: see if we could build it and then if you do that let's see if we could get some you know we

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_02]: could crowdfund it and then if we can crowdfund it maybe we can you know put you through a

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_02]: shark tank kind of exercise and then see what comes out the other side but like you've got a

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_02]: experiment and it's not just um about experimenting as an individual because I feel like that's been a

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_02]: big focus of late of conversations like look at our individual you know productivity gains and then

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_02]: and just extrapolate that to you know if our average consultant is you know 30 percent more

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_02]: productive and we've got 100 consultants or whatever look all the time we've saved or

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_02]: whatever but I don't know if everyone has really thought enough or has moved up the sort of value

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_02]: curve to look at you know team productivity and and even maybe i'm looking past productivity right

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_02]: productivity I feel like a lot of that ties to automating things as opposed to augmenting

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_02]: how our brain works either an individual's you know human intelligence or collective

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_02]: intelligence but how do we do more on the value creation side in terms of the

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_02]: not just productivity but how do we make better decisions I guess is one way to

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_02]: think about it how do we inject like how do you really get people to think broader than just

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_02]: elevating the individual because it's almost like and I want to tie this back to what you said before

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_02]: about like workflows and stuff like that if you add AI to one task but you leave everything else

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_02]: alone have you done anything uh have you actually made a significant improvement in that end to end

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_02]: workflow because now you know if one person one cog is now moving at 10x but the other cogs are

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_02]: moving at the original speed that doesn't sound it sounds like something's going to break

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah I think you're onto something with the individual worst team and I

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: want to think a lot about recently is that uh the apple event so apple announced a lot of new

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of AI overlays and kind of consumer based AI tools I think that's been a big ripple

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_01]: effect to the workplace because suddenly every worker that has an apple device has a AI

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_01]: experience that they've had so whether or not you've gone to chat gpt or gemini or these other

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_01]: tools that are out there that was kind of up to chance before but this sort of rollout that's

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: happening across the consumer experience we'll definitely see that bleed into work which says

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_01]: like well I can do this on my phone why can't I do this with workday or how can I do this

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_01]: on my phone why can't I do this with Oracle and um I think those companies will start to see

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: that pressure from the consumer space towards the kind of HR tech space so we could question

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_01]: about like kind of team productivity and team connection before we move on I need to let you

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: know about my friend Mark Pfeffer and his show people tech if you're looking for the latest

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_00]: on product development marketing funding big deals happening in talent acquisition HR HCM

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_00]: that's the show you need to listen to go to the work to find network search up people tech

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Pfeffer you can find them anywhere I think you see a little bit of that with some of like the

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_01]: sales enablement solutions which is also a funny thing like people analytics a lot of times

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_01]: sales enablement stays a little bit separate I don't know why that is and that's something

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to dig in a little bit more because some of the best people analytics projects around kind

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_01]: of sales and sales understanding but sometimes sales have their own teams that do that with

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: like I'm thinking about tools like gong or hockey stack or hockey stick for marketing

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_01]: some different like AI enabled workflow kind of in the flow of work of that tech system

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's another kind of motivation for HR which is like hey if you don't move quick

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_01]: here to understand what's going on and understand your workforce as it relates to

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: the augmentation that's happening it's going to start happening in pockets outside of your

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01]: vision and so as we think about these different teams whether that's developer experience or

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_01]: sales enablement or call centers or workforce management that may not sit in HR

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: they are all getting aggressively interested in this space and if HR doesn't step up to that

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and say hey I'm going to lead here this is who we want to be this is where we're going

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_01]: this is how we're going to treat our people I think we've seen historically the business

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_02]: units will run with that too yeah unlike the workflows stuff you know if you're

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_02]: going to make a big impact you've got to have these these agents deployed in a logical

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_02]: fashion maybe even connect to each other and that may crisscross you know different types of

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: solutions so you know you mentioned Apple and then you know if someone's bringing their Apple device

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_02]: into you know an organization that's you know a Microsoft shop and you've got a co-pilot I mean

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_02]: could someone technically build an agent well I know Apple's you know still the ink is still

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_02]: wet on the Apple intelligence announcements but it just I started thinking about like what

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_02]: does this mean so you've got a team and maybe some of those team members are Apple people

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_02]: and maybe some are Android and then some are on Windows laptops and some are on MacBooks and

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_02]: like how do you like will these different agents and co-pilots and GPTs like they be able to

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_02]: talk to each other and connect with each other I mean I don't even know how that would work

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah well what's coming to mind is actually building on that it's

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_01]: what I'm grappling with is how this forces us to redesign our understanding of what a worker is

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and what a workforce is because I think workers historically were contained to humans you can get

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_01]: that kind of like worker to belly button count in the kind of descriptive analytics as much as

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_01]: like RPA was trying it was it was not quite there in terms of like this sophistication

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_01]: of the technology to really elevate to that disruptive level to what does it need to have

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: a workforce but as soon as work starts getting done by a lot of these agents and systems and

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_01]: humans kind of augment or they augment humans whatever it might be a kind of reckoning that HR

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_01]: is going to have to deal with is this sort of who supports work and workers and who makes

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_01]: sure that workers can collaborate and I see that broadly as worker and not humans because

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_01]: at the end of the day like what you're talking about is like if chat gbt and Gemini aren't playing

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_01]: nice in the workplace like how do we make them talk to each other and like that we know how to

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_01]: solve that with people you sit him down you coach him and you say play nice and be be nice to your

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: coworkers it'll be it'll be kind of funny to see this like um agent-based coaching where

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_02]: you're actually coaching the agents maybe I could see someone making a really funny comedy about

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_02]: this oh yeah with our with a bunch of digital sort of digital twins acting like

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: cut this part out we'll make the screenplay bob that's our next move yeah there's definitely

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_02]: something there back on the um like the upscaling piece I mean I just feel like HR we talked about

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_02]: this the other day like when we talk about upscaling you know we're not we're not asking

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_02]: people to become like data scientists or you know AI software developers or whatever it's

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's simpler than that I think we're there's so much going on that I feel like

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_02]: there's everyone starting to feel overwhelmed and wherever they are and the you know AI is

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_02]: coming from my job versus yeah I can do all these amazing things or somewhere in between

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_02]: it just seems like to get started and to learn and to be to get to like an intermediate level

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_02]: of working with AI and learning how to use it like the learning curve is not as drastic as

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02]: some of these other disciplines right and so um I think you made you know comment around

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_02]: like HR like this is a prime opportunity they're their average users are not necessarily

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_02]: the most tech savvy group but but you can see so clearly where some of the advantages might be

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_02]: on top of the fact that you know HR teams you know many in HR already think about you know

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_02]: compliance and you know being human centric and things like that it just seems like there's a

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_02]: really really amazing opportunity for them to to start experimenting for it for themselves

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_02]: and then extrapolating the value uh you know to the rest of the organization yeah I totally agree

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I think HR has got a great opportunity to be a leader here especially because like a lot of the

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_01]: things that happen like let's take prompt engineering for a second if you look at like how to write a

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_01]: good prompt you say like okay here's here's what you're supposed to do here's some examples of

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: how what good looks like here's how I want you to respond and please give me this result

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever it might be like a lot of these different prompt guides as you start to look

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_01]: at them you start saying hey that's actually a really good way to write a job description

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_01]: if you can tell someone exactly what they're supposed to be doing if you give them clear

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_01]: guidelines if you give them clear goals if you tell them what success looks like they're going to

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_01]: be really good at their jobs and so what's funny is actually the method of interacting with a

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: lot of these tools is the one that HR is excellent at HR might be the best in the company in

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_01]: terms of like articulating jobs to humans and that's really what the LLM needs a lot of the

[00:26:26] [SPEAKER_01]: time is that way to articulate what is it you're supposed to do in human language in natural

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_01]: language and so this ability for HR with has that kind of like compliance mindset too and that ethics

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_01]: mindset and the kind of like how do workers kind of get jobs done the upskilling path might be a

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_01]: lot smaller than it was for people analytics I think this sort of like data mindedness in

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: this data education we've been trying to do and data literacy we've been pushing has been

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: helpful and a lot of HR has gotten there now but it was still a break from like hey my my

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: core job is working with humans in a very human way now I've got to go work with data this move

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: to AI is going to be very similar interactions almost to what HR has been really good at so I

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: think what's going to be funny is this sort of shift from HR feeling like they've got a somehow

[00:27:12] [SPEAKER_01]: upskilling something that it's not who they are too maybe something more natural in terms of the

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_01]: way it interacts so I'm if anyone's listening to this and hasn't really dipped a towing yet

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01]: like I'm really cheering y'all I'm like go on to chat you go on Gemini go check one of these

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: things out start to play with it and I think you're going to be surprised at how quickly you can

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_02]: enable and apply some of the HR skills that you've hold yeah no that's excellent perspective I think

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_02]: that you know and I don't think there's any one particular role that's necessarily that needs

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_02]: to be like the you know the gatekeepers or the people that sort of turn around and learn

[00:27:49] [SPEAKER_02]: it and then turn around and teach the teachers or whatever I mean I think anyone can step up

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_02]: and and take on that sort of early adopter even you know change engine you know evangelist kind of

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_02]: role whether you're an HRBP which is probably a great one but if you're involved in talent

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_02]: acquisition or you talk to hiring managers or whatever like you said I mean you're having

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_02]: these sort of natural human-like conversations as you as you prompt it and sort of nudge it

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_02]: to get to what you want not not in a trying to influence it kind of way but just in a more

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_02]: in a collaborative you know can you help me you know assimilate this this information or can you

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_02]: help me sort of pivot you know the way that this job description you know reads to something else I

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_02]: don't know there's a very it's a very natural interaction just the interface itself that

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_02]: would allow you to you know be be more effective and I think the quicker you get started you know the

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_01]: better off everyone is yeah and I think we'd be remiss not to say like spend some time upscaling on

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_01]: the limitations too so like understand what hallucinations mean how they happen uh how to

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_01]: look out for things I think spending some time to figure out kind of what should be AI and what

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_01]: should be human like when I think about hallucinations they're one of the funny things

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_01]: like if you really pressed a human to give you an answer to something they didn't know about

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_01]: they might make something up and like very similarly if you press one of the little

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_01]: ones to do something they don't know it might make something up and so even that I think HR is more

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: accustomed to like our our subject matter like is much more fluid and flexible than a lot of

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: other functions in terms of what truth is and how to figure out what truth might be within the

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_01]: business so I think we're primed to kind of look for those kind of like hallucinations and pieces

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but um it's definitely a like like educate yourself on some of the risks

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a really big one and then I think where where HR could really stub a toe I think is

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: where if you used it for things that really shouldn't be used for which is like when like really deep

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: human connection is needed and I think we have a lot of that in our jobs which will stop us from

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_01]: being automated uh for a long time which I think I'm grateful for within the HR domain

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_01]: but that's sort of like what does human connection mean what is meaning what does it

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_01]: mean to have purpose at work those things that it's really important to have a human behind it

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_01]: keep that in mind as you guys are kind of rolling that out but I think as much as you can pulling

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_01]: in and getting involved is a great idea just being cautious is still important yes I agree

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_02]: hallucinations I mean everybody's got a friend who's like this kind of know it all right so you

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_02]: asked him the question and you don't think they have they would have the answer but they

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_02]: gave you something and you're just like yeah okay well you're not exactly you're not a doctor

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_02]: remember right so there's definitely some of that and and there might be you know bias there just like

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_02]: there's you know human you know bias in the way that we you know either choose to give an answer or

[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_02]: in the way that we answered a particular question um you know the appearance of knowledge is not

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_02]: the same as having expertise so I think using it with a with a critical eye you know it's not

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_02]: a calculator and just really understanding where some of its limitations are I think is

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_02]: is important and that ties to some of um you know what we always talk about when we talk about

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_02]: you know upscaling it's not just a matter of writing better prompts or you know learning

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_02]: some specific aspects of the different you know generative AI tool but understanding that there's

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_02]: there's a we're all when it comes to responsible I were we're all responsible

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_02]: and again to your point before this is HR's you know bread and butter is making sure we're

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_02]: making human-centric decisions making sure we're making you know keeping fairness in mind

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_02]: and then of course you know transparency and explainability and all those things

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_02]: when you think about just tying that to the the theme of the the podcast here when you

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_02]: think about all these things and you think about the concept of an AI queue

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_01]: what comes to mind when you when you hear that yeah it's a good question right I think about

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to know what it can do and what it can't do I think that that's really important I think

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01]: knowing kind of like use cases and then when to stop we've touched on that a little bit

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I think another one we didn't touch on quite as much is what goes into it so I think about

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_01]: a educational space that uh I think HR might have avoided for a little while it's just like

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_01]: where did your data come from and what does it mean to create data and what data was fed

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: into this machine because there's that sort of um I picture like a schoolhouse rock that like

[00:32:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill like and then it walks through how a bill is created we've got to do

[00:32:33] [SPEAKER_01]: that at some point for HR data and kind of if you stretch it the whole way back to understand

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it's actually like when somebody said they quit the company who did they tell how did that person

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_01]: enter it where did they enter where did that data go where did it come out do we have it out

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and then have we actually extracted it architected it modeled it got ready for that AI

[00:32:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that's an education that I think is still coming but it's something that that um that data engineering

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: space HR is still relatively new to that but it's important one for AIQ and I think that's

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_01]: that's a broader piece around educating yourself around where the data comes from that goes into

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_01]: your AI is important for local decisions around your own company but also broader

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_01]: ethical decisions around fair use correct use copyright all those things about kind of like

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_01]: the data that actually was used to train this thing so yeah I think a AIQ also means data awareness

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and data intelligence in addition to AIQ no one's put it quite that way before and you're right

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_02]: it's not to again make everyone that's trying to learn AI be you know data experts but it's part

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_02]: of taking that critical lens to say well just like if you were going to do some root cause

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_02]: analysis of where something went wrong you've got to go back to you know sound you know data

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_02]: you know practices good data hygiene um and and trustworthy you know data because that is

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_02]: you know the the fuel for any of these algorithms and so again I'm not saying that people need

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_02]: to add a whole suite of data courses but it would definitely be helpful to know you know through

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_02]: your company or wherever they've sourced data whether it's from another team inside the company

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_02]: or you've sourced you know external data maybe it's you know social media data whatever what is

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_02]: the provenance of of that data because if your data is suspect and it was you know biased from

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_02]: the beginning then obviously the AI is just going to become you know biased based on the historical

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: data that is collected yeah it's something I'd say leverage your peers leverage your communities and

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_01]: leverage your vendors make your vendors work on this too make them explain what's going on help

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_01]: help kind of reach out and find out what they're doing there that's something I feel a lot of

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_01]: questions about kind of data AI and how to get access to data that's a lot of what we get

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: up to over here one model is actually unlocking that full power of your HR tech stack and data

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_01]: and so we're always fielding questions and talking to teams about it and trying to share the

[00:35:06] [SPEAKER_01]: share the good word about what's needed to kind of make this happen at scale because

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_01]: as a whole I think I think maybe that's something that I'd be really excited to

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: share is just from talking to everybody about this both from the HR tech as well as the

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: practitioner side everybody is moving forward together there's a lot of community involvement

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: on this and excitement around it what it could mean for the world to work

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01]: so yeah just to emphasize that reach out to your friends reach out to your community

[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and start there before you put yourself through a whole bunch of courses

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah that's awesome do you um I know you've done a lot of work to help the community at large

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_02]: around um you know just finding you know job opportunities around you know people analytics

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_02]: and related areas and how how's that going I mean I know I see people expressing their

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_02]: gratitude constantly myself included I just think it's regardless of what the economic numbers

[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_02]: sound like there's always a lot of you know transition happening in the workforce and

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_02]: just want to give you an opportunity to sort of you know plug how that's that's going and

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_01]: what resources people can thank you Bob no really it's um I'm very grateful to one

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_01]: model that we're able to kind of put that roles page together and it's a way that we give back

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: to the community to say let's make this a little bit easier to get people connected

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I think what's really exciting though and this really dovetails into the rest of our

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_01]: conversation is this AI boom has led to an AI talent demand and suddenly the

[00:36:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Nvidia's Microsoft Google's apples are fighting over core talent but then actually

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01]: everybody in the Fortune 500 is looking for AI talent right now and suddenly if you go back

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_01]: to like okay how do I actually find good talent I have to have a talented intelligence team that

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_01]: knows the market I have to have really good recruiters who can actually go find that talent

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and make sure it could land I have to have great people analytics team to make sure I

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: can keep that talent and I need a workforce planning team to actually grow that team over

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_01]: time and make sure I'm making the right decisions from a strategic perspective

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I am I am really hopeful that we're going to see a forecast to kind of wave of an

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_01]: investment in HR around this space uh the demand for AI talent whether that's upskilling

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_01]: with your LND team or finding growing keeping AI talent that's actually out there in the market

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_01]: today I'd be on the lookout for recruiters right now if I was hiring if I wanted to get AI talent

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_01]: in six months you need a recruiter today so I think there's good news happening across the

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_01]: board and I'm starting to see little inklings of that and the people analytics board we're seeing

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of tech companies start to rehire we're seeing a couple kind of data science and AI

[00:37:37] [SPEAKER_01]: rules start to pop up very specifically and I'm looking forward to seeing more of that from

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_02]: the job board too nice that's great when you when you say AI skills or AI talent I think

[00:37:49] [SPEAKER_02]: there's some confusing or nebulous kind of thoughts that enter my mind because

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_02]: if when I think about you know low code no code anybody can build their own GPT or whatever

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean does does that mean I'm if I can do those things am I AI talent or are you still looking for

[00:38:12] [SPEAKER_02]: a developer who's created from you know cobalt to uh you know working with certain LLMs or whatever

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_02]: so I guess I just want to understand because everyone you're right everyone's looking for AI

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_02]: talent there've been some headlines recently where people are saying well you know even

[00:38:29] [SPEAKER_02]: the concept of a knowledge worker is changing because if I have knowledge at my fingertips now

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_02]: then aren't I better off hiring somebody who just has good AI related prompting skills and knows

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_02]: you know some of this latest and greatest stuff and can learn everything else or knows how to

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_02]: access the knowledge from everywhere else uh isn't that just as valuable as you know a gen X

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_02]: or like me who's seen a lot and knows a lot but you know need to hire me or I think there's

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a really interesting distinction there when I when I was saying AI talent I think what I meant

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01]: was that like generating AI tool kits and tooling so you have a lot of those like again

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: like the nvideos the googles the facebooks that are all fighting over that kind of like

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_01]: someone actually to create this stuff and the researchers around it like that that talent

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_01]: pool is so limited so there's definitely a talent war happening there I think there's another one

[00:39:25] [SPEAKER_01]: that's on the horizon which is this like AI minded or AI literate talent which is like you can use and

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_01]: deploy and scale operations through the use of AI and so that would be like maybe maybe a metaphor

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of like someone's got to build computers and someone's got to use computers you know it's

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER_01]: like you had the IBMs and the the intels uh and someone's actually got to use computers but then

[00:39:47] [SPEAKER_01]: someone's actually got to do the work too so I think we're still going to have a there's kind

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_01]: open debate I think right now is that sort of like will the current companies all kind of get up

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_01]: skilled or will we see some revolution in some of the companies that kind of get taken over by maybe

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_01]: AI startups that come out of the blue and I think that's one of the things that's really interesting

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_01]: about this AI talent war right now is there's a lot of people that still think they can build it

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_01]: in house and they're going after things that maybe we're out of reach before to be competitive

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: so I'm hearing about teams that are trying to train their own systems or build their own

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_01]: tools or create agents and a lot of things that maybe HR tech was doing before they're trying to

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_01]: like get started on it in house to see how far they can get so I think maybe it kicks off a little

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: bit of a build versus buy conversation again in a very new way with these new technologies

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_02]: and tools that we just didn't see before yeah no it'll be interesting to see how that evolves

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_02]: because I do you know I look across generations I guess I mean I look at folks like myself I

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_02]: look at you know how my you know my retired parents might be trying to use AI like on their

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_02]: you know Apple device or just general just looking for you know help or guidance but

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_02]: going back to your point I mean this this consumerization of AI in a way does affect

[00:41:06] [SPEAKER_02]: organizations but I also think about the younger generations like I you know we both have

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_02]: have kids and other you know preparedness for for the workforce not just for for college right

[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_02]: but you know mold enough to have nieces and nephews you know graduating from college and

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_02]: internships and things like that and like that's absolutely giving them a leg up if they know that

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_02]: how to use that stuff so I think about how you're right I mean there's a lot of analogies

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_02]: you could you can come up with I mean is it like being a digital native like using knowing how to use

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_02]: the internet and you know digital tools is it is it like giving them a computer again for the first

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_02]: time like do I actually know this isn't you know this isn't a typewriter right like it's

[00:41:53] [SPEAKER_02]: it's an actual computer it can do all kinds of things to help you be more efficient so I do

[00:41:59] [SPEAKER_02]: think that whatever your professional pursuits you're right there's always going to be people

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_02]: that need to build the foundational people to build the car not just learn how to drive the car

[00:42:10] [SPEAKER_01]: but yeah there's a lot there yeah it's a it's definitely a tough time though to be

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: to be entry level at this moment with or without AI skills there is a tough labor market I think

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a lot of companies are holding off they're waiting they're seeing they're trying to

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER_01]: see what they could do with the AI and the agents and even in trouble one model we're seeing

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01]: some interesting things that kind of agent-based workflows and some some announcements coming soon

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_01]: around that because there's there's some remarkable things you can do to really accelerate what we used

[00:42:39] [SPEAKER_01]: to do and I think we were just starting to see the tip of that so even with HR tech this year

[00:42:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm expecting HR tech will see some like announcements everyone's going to be talking AI

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I know skills last year I'd be shocked if we see skills at every booth this year it's going to

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_01]: be AI the whole way through but I think it's going to be still people talking about it

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm I've got a feeling that 2025 HR tech we're going to see some really like

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_01]: very new ways of working that this this AI ground up rebuild that companies are either working on

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: or they're going to get demolished by these startups that are going after it exciting things

[00:43:11] [SPEAKER_02]: are going on in the market today yeah I would say AI and skills were the top two topics at

[00:43:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Unleash and probably at HR tech last year too but my observation just you know quickly on

[00:43:24] [SPEAKER_02]: on Unleash I would say 80 to 90 percent of the conversations that I heard or was part of

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_02]: more about AI but very few on the just to tie in the responsible AI piece people were not

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_02]: generally talking about that unless I personally sort of nudge them in that direction but

[00:43:43] [SPEAKER_02]: that's good Bob that's good someone's gotta do it right and so yeah I mean I know

[00:43:48] [SPEAKER_02]: people say you know what that sort of underpins all of this but like you need to

[00:43:52] [SPEAKER_02]: you really do you need to be more explicit about that how are you where are you getting

[00:43:58] [SPEAKER_02]: your data are you prepared for an audit if you were subject to one are you doing

[00:44:03] [SPEAKER_02]: things the right way from to your point back from when you you know pull the data together

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_02]: or decided to use a particular algorithm or you know borrowed snippets of open source

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_02]: you know code or you know you borrowed some well-known methodology well is it

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_02]: proven to be mitigating you know bias did you transparent in the way you're

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_02]: you know analyzing that data and whatever because once it goes downstream through these

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_02]: authentic workflows and the data and the decisions are flowing to all these other places

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean that that course is way out of the barn at that point and then what are you gonna do

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_02]: so I guess maybe I am the responsible yeah I

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_01]: hey it's it's a it's a good banner to have Richard this has been great how can people

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_02]: get ahold of you and I'll put in the show notes you know your contact info as well

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_02]: as the link to your the job board that you're curating yeah thank you I yeah LinkedIn's best

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Richard Rosenout find me on LinkedIn and then one model.co if you're interested in talking

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_01]: data orchestration data visualization data science come find us we're always happy to talk

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_01]: people analytics AI data and I'm always happy to talk about those things too so Bob thanks for having

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_02]: me on today absolutely thanks so much Richard it's been a pleasure thanks everyone for joining