HR has moved past asking, “What is AI?” Now the question is, “What problem can it actually solve?” Joey Price sees the conversation shifting from AI hype to real use cases, smarter questions, and technology that can produce meaningful work.
AI coworkers, AI agents, digital employees, HR tech, workforce transformation. The bigger shift is how we think about the technology itself. When AI can hold a conversation, complete a task, make intelligent decisions, and respond to follow-up questions, does “tool” still describe what it is?
In this episode… Joey Price talks about why companies need to make bold bets on AI, what HR professionals are actually asking about the technology, and why AI agents may soon be treated more like coworkers or digital employees. The conversation also covers AI interfaces, voice interaction, intelligent task execution, and why we may be much closer to this future than we think.
Key Takeaways :
HR is asking better AI questions. The conversation has moved beyond “What is AI?” HR professionals are now comparing products and asking what results AI can actually deliver.
Bold bets matter. Joey points to Blockbuster, Kodak, and Toys R Us as examples of what can happen when companies fail to respond to disruption. His view is simple: eventually, you have to pick a direction and move.
AI agents may earn the title of coworker. Joey isn't opposed to calling mature AI systems employees if they can perform meaningful work at a level comparable to humans.
Your AI team could build itself around your needs. Joey describes a model where AI recognizes the types of questions you keep asking, identifies capability gaps, and suggests adding another specialized coworker to the team.
The test is intelligent dialogue and execution. If you can ask AI to complete a task, get an intelligent result, and then discuss or refine that result, Joey sees that as getting closer to employee-level responsibility.
Voice could change the interface completely. Joey already uses voice to brain-dump ideas into Claude and connect them with other tools. His point is that AI is moving beyond giving people more content to read and toward actually helping them get work done.
This episode was recorded live at SHRM Annual 2026
The Heroes of HR podcast is a limited series sponsored by isolved.
isolved is an HCM platform that modernizes HR, benefits, and payroll across Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and more.
Learn more about isolved: https://www.isolvedhcm.com/
Guest : Joey Price
President and CEO of Jumpstart HR, brings a practical HR perspective to the AI conversation, focusing less on the hype and more on how AI can solve real problems, execute meaningful work, and potentially become part of the workforce itself.
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyvprice/
The Heroes of HR Podcast is hosted by
Amy Miller, Product Evangelist at isolved
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amycmiller/
Ryan Leary, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/
William Tincup, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/
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