WalkMe's Chelsea Pyrzenski on Workforce Transformation and AI

[00:00:00] Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of WorkforceAI.News. I'm Mark Pfeffer. Today I'm talking with Chelsea Pyrzenski, the Chief People Officer of WalkMe. WalkMe is about learning and they're helping a lot of people learn about transitioning to AI.

[00:00:28] When it comes to AI, employers often have one set of concerns while employees have another. They may not always overlap, even when executives think they do. So we're going to talk about how employers are getting their workforces up to speed, where their points of view diverge, and more on this edition of PeopleTech. Hey Chelsea. So we're talking about a survey that WalkMe did.

[00:00:56] It really was about transformation and training of employees or companies to use AI and get the most out of AI. And I guess the first question I want to ask is, are employers keeping up with all the training that's necessary to implement AI and to leverage it? Yeah.

[00:01:20] You know what's interesting is that our report really found a huge gap between our executive confidence in AI transformation and employee readiness. So what we're seeing is about 79% of executives say that they're on track, but then only 28% of the employees feel prepared. And what that really comes down to is two major factors. So first, you know, leaders often underestimate the complexity, right, of their own tech stack.

[00:01:44] What they're thinking right now that they're using is about 36 or 37 applications, but they're actually using 625, which is a staggering 1600% discrepancy. And so really right now what organizations are doing is they're bringing in new AI or they're bringing in new business transformation. But what they're failing to really do is do structured training.

[00:02:06] They're failing to really have real-time support or unified applications that help with the digital adoption or allowing their employees to be ready or confident. Why that disconnect though? As you say, it's a pretty big one. How come they're in different worlds like that? You know, it's interesting. I think that right now a lot of the executives, they don't understand or don't see how much they have within the tech stack.

[00:02:30] And so this is why digital adoption and what WalkMe does is so critical is because we actually go in there and we streamline and remove the friction that they're actually seeing or that's allowing the employees to have less productivity. And so what we're seeing with digital adoption is that we're actually going in there and finding out where's that friction at, where are the employees struggling, how do we streamline that, and then how do we educate on the very technology that they're using.

[00:02:58] So with this transformation, they're just not doing the adoption piece. They think that the transformation is enough. Do they have to learn? I mean, what's this training involved? I think people hear AI training and they think, oh, we're going to make you a data scientist. But what's it really about? It's really about being able to reduce the redundancies in the workflow.

[00:03:21] So like, let's say you're working, let's say like in workday and you need to, you're, you're in operations and you need to make a change on an employee file and you have to do 10 different clicks. With this transformation or with this adoption, you're removing the 10 clicks to maybe one or two. And so it's reducing the confusion and it's allowing more productivity and to get work done faster. And how do employees feel about all this?

[00:03:47] Aside from the disconnect with executives, it's a, it's a new way of working for a lot of people. Yeah. And I think that's why there's a lack of confidence with the, with the 28% of employees feeling prepared and it could be overwhelming. So I think there's two different schools of thought. Like how do I use, here's a technology tool. It's supposed to make things easier, but how am I optimizing the use of it? Am I using the right tools with it? Am I putting the right prompts into it? Am I optimizing that, that, that, that tool?

[00:04:17] So, so I think that there's another school of thought with it where employees are nervous of AI and they're afraid that it's going to take their role. Whether it's going to take, you know, part of their position or they're, they're going to be redundant and removed from the organization. So there's a fear of that as well. So the training aspect is the most critical in terms of the adoption. And do employees get that or are they sort of resisting just for the sake of resisting? Yeah. You know, I think that it's again, two different schools of thought.

[00:04:47] Some are really embracing it and finding it as a way to be more productive at work. And then some others are just really resisting it. They don't want to learn, but it's change management. And it's a whole new way of thinking. And they might be stuck in just doing what they're doing. They're confident with what they're doing. And it's just a whole new technology that they don't want to learn. Or perceptions. What's the story with that?

[00:05:17] I mean, could you talk again in a little bit more detail about why executives and employees seem to be, you know, in these different realities almost. About even the number of applications that are being used, not just what needs to be learned or what the business issues are. I think it's just because it's so new, right? I think leaders often underestimate just the complexities of their own tech stack. There's so many out there.

[00:05:45] They're not involved the day-to-day of using it and the front line like employees are. And so what they believe is that work is getting done and that they are optimizing their tech stack. And then they're not necessarily in the nitty-gritty as a tech leader or let's call a CISO or a CTO. So when you're looking at a CFO, they're not necessarily looking at the entire tech stack of how things are getting, how work is getting done.

[00:06:09] What I love about the Workforce Agility Limited Series by Cornerstone was we talked to executives and customers all about skills. Skills, skills, skills, skills, skills, skills. Cornerstone has a wonderful background in learning and development, training, et cetera. Their LMS is world-class. But they've centered the business now not just on that, like building upon that, but building upon how everything has moved to the skills economy.

[00:06:38] So check out the limited series called Workforce Agility. And you can get it wherever you get your podcast. And it's just a wonderful series where we talk to their executives on the shift of why and also their customers that are using it. So check it out whenever you get a chance. Appreciate it. Hi, this is Stacey Harris. And this is Terry Zipper. And we're the hosts of the two podcasts under the HR Huddle.

[00:07:05] On Spilling the Tea on HR Tech, we uncover the latest trends, truths, and challenges from Sapien Insight Group's groundbreaking research and our analyst insights, serving up everything you need to know about HR tech with no sugarcoating. And on HR, we have a problem. We tackle the toughest workplace challenges head on, offering you expert advice and actionable solutions to help HR leaders thrive in today's fast-changing world.

[00:07:36] Whether you want the scoop on tech or tools to solve people problems, we've got you covered. Take a listen and subscribe. If you want to become part of our community, we'd love to see you. You mentioned before that a lot of companies or a lot of employers, they go through transformation and they kind of think they're done. They're ready to rock on. But they're neglecting the training. And what are they thinking?

[00:08:03] They can just implement this technology and everybody's immediately going to know how to use it? Yeah, that's been the sentiment so far. And so, you know, what we're seeing in the report is as leaders are launching these new AI tools or these new transformation tools, that they see it as a productivity. They see it as a way to optimize work, to get work done faster, to get work done well. And so the piece of it is that they're really thinking about digital transformation.

[00:08:31] Digital transformation is a strategic process. It's using technology to really fundamentally change how businesses operate and deliver value to their customers. But it's the what and it's the why behind, you know, the major tech-driven change. But the key of what they are failing to do is around the digital adoption. This is using tools effectively. This is the how that really makes transformation stick. So without digital adoption, even the ambitious, you know, digital transformation projects can fail.

[00:09:00] Because if employees aren't trained, supported, or engaged with these new tools, the ROI just won't be there. When I think about digital transformation, it's about, you know, changing the business, but digital adoption is enabling the people. So it's one sets the vision and one ensures execution. And what are the consequences if you just deploy AI solutions and tell people, you know, go ahead and use them, but don't really train them?

[00:09:29] How do, does that make a company suffer? I mean, where will they see the problem? The biggest risk is really lost productivity. And it's already happening. So like in 2024 alone, enterprises lost about $104 million due to digital inefficiencies. That includes, you know, unused tech, failed IT projects, employees spending too much time trying to navigate clunky systems.

[00:09:55] So on average, workers waste about 36 working days per year just dealing with the technology frustrations. And as we know, that time can be really spent on high-impact work. And so we were talking about this earlier, like employees are relying on 10 or more applications just to complete one single task. And that strain is real for employees. So I think the biggest takeaway is that leaders must prioritize work enablement.

[00:10:21] We've been talking about that, right, with the trainings and the support and the unified applications. But we need these streamlined workflows to really reduce complexity and then ensure that technology is helping employees do their jobs better, just not creating more friction or just another tool. I also wanted to sort of look behind the curtain at WalkMe. Are you folks using AI at all in your product? Are you incorporating it?

[00:10:51] We do. We do have WalkMe for WalkMe and we do have AI across our tech stack as well. And we utilize it in our day-to-day. And can you tell me in the product, how does it work? Yeah. So if I think about it from an HR perspective, so we utilize ours within our tech stack of Workday, which is now going to be SAP. And it's to streamline how we utilize applications of changing job descriptions, things of that nature.

[00:11:19] We also utilize it for recruiting. So it's within our recruiting application to help us really look at candidate capabilities and skill set gaps around talent development. We utilize that as well for performance management. But across our technology stack, we have things like Workstation, where you can ask AI in real time. So it can actually pull things.

[00:11:41] So if I'm an employee and I want to know what our PTO policy is, I would just go to our Workstation, type it into our AI tool, and it would pull up the forms, it'd pull up the policy, and it'd allow us in real time to be able to quickly navigate our tools and systems. I want to ask you, you work with a lot of companies, obviously, you've got your finger on the pulse of HR, I think, and how they're working with WalkMe.

[00:12:11] You hear a lot in the media about HR thinks this or HR thinks that about AI and about the transformation that's going on. I'm wondering about your observations. What do you see in HR's reaction to the new technology and its application? Yeah, I think within our industry and within our network, we're really excited about AI.

[00:12:35] We see AI being able to help organizations work smarter, not harder, and also for employees to work smarter, not harder. And so we see it being able to be a productivity tool for us and be more innovative. I mean, we've used it just alone within our HR organization to really optimize and increase the way that we're really building out our talent and teamwork agenda.

[00:12:59] And so for 2025, AI has been a really huge, I would say, support tool for us in thinking more innovative. And does it make you dream a little bit about possibilities, you know, what you could ultimately do with the product, services you could ultimately offer? And, you know, what's the direction you'd like to see that go? Yeah, I mean, there's a couple different buckets.

[00:13:25] So like talent acquisition, we talked about like the resume screening, but even like chat box for candidate engagement, you know, answering FAQs, scheduling interviews, kind of removing out some of that tactical pieces that today recruiters are doing when they should be focused really on finding top talent. But I also like the predictive hiring, which we talked about a little bit, which really assesses candidates who are most likely to succeed or stay long term. And then talent development is really where I think it's exciting.

[00:13:51] So personalized learning paths, skills taxonomy and mapping, mentorship matching, you know, anything around employee experience of sentiment analysis. Like we do org health surveys and we've been throwing in some of the analytics into ChatGPT and seeing it be able to pull out like reports or themes or areas where we need to focus on our targeted initiatives.

[00:14:13] So it's really, I mean, it's really exciting because it's unlimited of the amount of things that we can do within the HR space as we start to, as you say, daydream about the future of it. Thanks very much. This is actually enlightening and it puts a great perspective, you know, on things. And thanks for your time. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:14:46] My guest today has been Chelsea Brzezinski, the chief people officer of WalkMe. And this has been PeopleTech, the podcast of WorkforceAI.news. We're a part of the Work Defined podcast network. Find them at www.wrkdefined.com. And to keep up with AI technology and HR, subscribe to WorkforceAI today. We're the most trusted source of news in the HR tech industry.

[00:15:16] Find us at www.workforceai.news. I'm Mark Goffin.