015: AI HR Trends for 2025

[00:01:04] 015, David Noe with SpeakEasy HR presented by Payroll Partners. It is November 18th. This month is flying by. Cannot believe it. We're at episode 15 of SpeakEasy HR and I have a really fun topic with a great guest. If you have been in the Cincinnati area and have gone to potentially an AI conversation, you might have seen this guest in person.

[00:01:30] But I have Kendra Ramirez on today, CEO of KR Digital Agency. Welcome, Kendra.

[00:01:38] Kendra Ramirez Thank you so much, David. I'm very much excited about our conversation today.

[00:01:42] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be one that I think a lot of people will learn from and hopefully take what they learned from you and bring it into their jobs within HR and business and everything. So we'll dive into that a little bit. If you are watching live, this is on YouTube and LinkedIn.

[00:02:00] Kendra Ramirez I have a question that I want people to chime in on, which I don't know where I rank myself yet. I'm probably going to say five, six on this scale. But if you are watching live, you know, go into the chat. You know, let us know where you're watching from. If you have questions along the way, we will get to them as many as we can.

[00:02:24] Kendra Ramirez But on a scale from one to 10, where do you rank yourself on AI, artificial intelligence, which we hear more and more about. And like I said, we'll dive into a little bit in a in a moment with Kendra. So again, this show is live. If you are first time, welcome. If you are a returning guest, welcome back.

[00:02:49] Kendra Ramirez And every time I have someone on this podcast, I want someone to really bring the topic they're most passionate about right now in their job.

[00:02:58] Kendra Ramirez And you've done a lot of work in the past. You have really been building bots since 2018. You are an advocate for AI. You serve on the Cincinnati AI Catalyst Committee, co-host of Greater Cincinnati region's largest AI meetup.

[00:03:16] Kendra Ramirez Some of your services just so people, if they haven't seen you in action in a, you know, in person conference, but your services range from social media, ad management, search engine optimization, video production, branding, email marketing, AI coaching strategy and training.

[00:03:36] Kendra Ramirez You have delivered over 100 talks on AI now, 54 in 2023 and 64 in 2024. So you are globally recognized on LinkedIn's homepage. You're the recipient of the Women of Influence Award, the John Barrett Entrepreneur Vision Award and the Cincy Chick Woman of the Year and STEM Influencer.

[00:04:04] Kendra Ramirez You're a bestselling author of Marketing Fusion and Micro Shift. Kendra, you share insights on leveraging digital technologies and the importance of understanding our mindsets. So you've been doing this for a while and I cannot wait to hear how you got into this kind of work too.

[00:04:20] Kendra Ramirez So we've got one from, looks like Kim says, I've done a little to no work with AI online from Ohio between Cleveland and Akron. So welcome, Kim. Thanks for joining us.

[00:04:35] Kendra Ramirez So again, if you are watching live, just let us know where you're watching from.

[00:04:40] Kendra Ramirez And like I said, the question I pose to everybody watching on a scale from one to 10 with 10 being expert, where do you rank yourself on AI?

[00:04:48] Kendra Ramirez So was there anything I missed on your intro that you wanted to add, Kendra?

[00:04:54] Kendra Ramirez No, you crushed it. Thank you so much. Thank you. I can tell you did your research. So I really appreciate that.

[00:05:02] Kendra Ramirez I went into chat GBT and I asked, what are good questions to ask an AI expert? So the ones that I shared with you, I actually kind of generated on my own,

[00:05:15] Kendra Ramirez But also needed a need a little help to get some together. So good.

[00:05:20] Kendra Ramirez Anyway, we are going to play the world famous envelope icebreaker game coming up and kind of hear about your the start of working with AI. So we'll get to that. But again, if you are watching, Kim gave herself a one out of 10. So thanks for being honest, Kim.

[00:05:42] Kendra Ramirez Hopefully you get a lot out of this. And I'm sure more people are like you. And I like I said, I'm probably more in the five or six range, but I definitely have a lot to learn. So we all we all think we're all learning.

[00:05:57] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's just going to continue to change and evolve. Anyway, I'm going to bring this up, see if it's going to work here. All right. So the envelope icebreaker game, if you have not watched this before, I have 15 envelopes.

[00:06:18] Kendra Ramirez I let the guests pick a number. And I've given them the questions all, you know, previous to today. So they know what I'm going to ask them. So do you have a number one through 15 Kendra?

[00:06:30] Kendra Ramirez Oh, goodness. You know, I don't even remember what what we picked. We'll just go three.

[00:06:36] Kendra Ramirez Three. Okay. Number three, just so everyone sees number three. So I'm not picking another envelope. It is three. And this one is

[00:06:48] Kendra Ramirez What was your first job that you earned a paycheck with taxes deducted?

[00:06:52] Kendra Ramirez Oh, I like it. I like it. Gosh, my first job with taxes. I worked in high school. So I had a paid co op and internship in high school.

[00:07:04] Kendra Ramirez And it was really fantastic because I actually worked for an eye doctor.

[00:07:10] Kendra Ramirez So I was the one that did the little pre exam and the glaucoma testing and then helped you pick out your frames afterwards. And so yeah, I was was in high school as my first like official, official taxes check.

[00:07:24] Kendra Ramirez And you were probably like, where'd all my money go?

[00:07:26] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, yeah. Definitely.

[00:07:30] Kendra Ramirez Yeah. All right. You want to do one question?

[00:07:33] Kendra Ramirez You want to do one more? One more, not three.

[00:07:35] Kendra Ramirez Okay. All right. Sure.

[00:07:36] Kendra Ramirez One through 15?

[00:07:39] Kendra Ramirez Seven.

[00:07:41] Kendra Ramirez Seven. All right. Number seven, it is. Let's see what's in here. All right. When you were in grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up?

[00:07:54] Kendra Ramirez Oh, so I this is so ironic. I literally was just talking about this the other day. So so growing up, I played school at home. I had a chalkboard.

[00:08:06] Kendra Ramirez I would ask the teachers for like, like they had any leftover worksheets that I could take home and use with my class, which was just imaginary. And so I just I would play school for hours. And so it's so fun that I do training for a living and speaking for a living now. So like I got to play out that childhood dream. I didn't put you know, I didn't know that that was a career back then. The only thing I knew was a teacher.

[00:08:33] Kendra Ramirez Yeah. And now I get to teach in companies and corporations around the around the country.

[00:08:38] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, no, that's that's awesome. That's awesome. So like I said, the chat is open. It is live. If you are watching on YouTube or LinkedIn, my question to you audience on a scale from one to 10 with 10 being experts. Where do you rank yourself on AI? We had another one come in. Heather, I've started using AI with my consulting.

[00:09:26] Kendra Ramirez

[00:09:29] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, I've started using services as a business that you've been doing for quite some time. So when was that? Like when when did that all start for you in the world of AI?

[00:09:38] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, I'm a nerd. So I'm constantly playing with technology. I've played with over 100 AI tools at this point. And I literally just found another tool last week. So like I'm always finding something. I love technology because like growing up, like schools are really focused on learning from a book and I don't learn that way. I learned so the early

[00:09:59] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, I learned so many days of the very first computer I ever got my hands on it. My brain just clicked. I was like, I understand this. Like so I'm a kinetic learner. And so being I had a digital agency the last 19 years, just always making sure we knew technologies that were coming out. So in 2018, we were building bots. And I would say the good bots, not the annoying ones, just the ones that would be able to respond, you know, quickly to messages as they were coming in.

[00:10:29] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, I was like, I'm a nerd. And so we were educating our clients already on like, hey, these are AI tools you should be considering. And then once chat GPT came out, for whatever reason, that was a tipping point for our clients, when they were like, Oh, this is like a real thing now. Like this isn't just people dabbling, like it's a real thing. And which led to me doing some training sessions. So it was just

[00:10:54] Kendra Ramirez It's just an easy evolution of our agency to just expand upon from going from digital into AI, we still do digital. But just making sure that we also are navigating AI and doing that with businesses on their journey.

[00:11:09] Kendra Ramirez Got it. No, that's, that's interesting. So when, when was that? So you're talking

[00:11:14] Kendra Ramirez 2018 is when the very first time we ever touched an AI tool in our in our company. Yeah.

[00:11:21] Kendra Ramirez Okay, got it. So it's has it felt that long? Or has it felt longer? Because it just

[00:11:27] Kendra Ramirez Yeah, you know, it just well, even when I say I've had a digital agency for 19 years, it feels more like five. Like it doesn't feel that that long. Like I must I miss being this like weird time warp. But yeah, it doesn't it doesn't feel that that long at all.

[00:11:43] Kendra Ramirez Oh, that's great. So we got another one. Gary, I feel like AI is not telling the tale as to Rhino am and my personality is like just my thoughts.

[00:11:58] Kendra Ramirez So thank you, Gary, for sharing. So again, if you are watching live the question out to the audiences on a scale from one to 10 10 being expert, where do you rank yourself on on AI? So before we dive into a few more questions, I just want to bring up a couple of questions for the audience. When it comes to payroll and HR technology, you have a porky payroll process is your current provider hogging your time or money?

[00:12:27] Kendra Ramirez Then you need payroll partners. You can visit us for more information at payroll partners dot net. So if you were at the SHRM conferences in Ohio or Kentucky, and you got one of our awesome pigs, we had those this year last year, it was a cow. So we've always gone with like an, you know, animal theme at the SHRM conferences. So watch out for next year. We've got some ideas to

[00:12:55] Greg. So I gave you a couple of questions. And obviously, you know, there's a lot to dive into this, but from an AI's role in HR, let's start, let's start there a little bit. Because I think what we see in HR and really any, any industry, there's going to be ways that AI is going to impact it for good for bad, you know, wherever you stand with it. So,

[00:13:20] you know, how is AI currently being used in HR from a broad perspective that anybody watching from an HR perspective should probably start taking notes and maybe figuring out where they want to start?

[00:13:34] Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And keep the questions coming. You know, we want to answer and answer your burning questions. And so, so yeah, yeah, where, where, where to start, right? What to be considered. And so the HR teams that I've worked with is we always start with the objective first. What are we trying to achieve? So we don't start with the tool. We start with the objective. What are you trying to achieve?

[00:13:57] And look for those like low hanging, repeatable tasks, right? That feel very manual, that feel heavy. And what are some things that we can apply AI to? So, so really off the top of my head, real use cases that you can apply in HR today, like after this, this session, writing job descriptions, writing performance reviews, writing onboarding plans, employee engagement plans, policies,

[00:14:25] handbooks, handbooks, like all the things that you're like, oh, that's on my plate. And, but it's like item number 53 of all the other things I've got to get done. And also when working with teams is that mental load, right? Like it's just like that thing is setting there and we know we need to attack it, but we may not know where to even get started.

[00:14:46] So like I use AI to brainstorm on a daily basis. Like I'm constantly brainstorming. So I'll go in and say, hey, here's something I'm thinking about. What else should I consider? And I always get some little piece or some little nugget of something like, ooh, that's a really good point. I didn't think about that. Or decision making, right? Like I've got, you know, here's a this or that, you know, which, which path and help me think through the steps, you know, for this.

[00:15:12] So an organization that I was working with, they were trying to decide, are we a sister company with this other company or are we a strategic partnership? And cause there was a little bit of financial exchange, but not both ways. And I said, I don't know how long have you been dealing with this? And like, oh, I don't know, six weeks or so. I'm like, okay, well, we're going to figure this out in less than a minute right now.

[00:15:32] So we were all together. I pulled up Chachi BT and I said, here's the scenario. Help us decide what are we a sister company or strategic partnership? It broke out and said, well, this is a definition of a sister company. This is a definition of strategic. And based off the information you provided, it sounds like you are more of a strategic partnership.

[00:15:51] So I looked around the room, all the leaders was like, okay, which one, you know, based off of that, they're like, oh yeah, it totally makes sense the way they laid it out. We're definitely a strategic partner.

[00:16:01] And they had been literally mulling this over, you know, trying to figure it out for six weeks. And we figured it out in less than 30 seconds.

[00:16:09] Oh my gosh.

[00:16:10] Yeah. Yeah. So other use cases, just like training and development. Like I go in and I build my workshops, right? I'll go in and say, I'm doing a two hour session, a three hour session, an all day session. Here's the audience. Here are the key components that I want to make sure they outcomes of the training.

[00:16:26] And then I'll like, oh, I need a pre training evaluation. I need a post training evaluation. I need, you know, quizzes to give. I need round table exercises. Like you just go in and like as a thought partner and thinking through all those that used to take me so much time to build out. And now I can quickly go through, refine it and narrow it down to the things that I really want to make sure and do. And so it is really, really sped that whole process up.

[00:16:56] So the one challenge that you post everybody today, or, you know, maybe it's something else, but if you haven't played around with chat GPT, just the free version, is that, is that the best place to start for anybody that really hasn't used it?

[00:17:10] Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I think chat GPT. So just chat GPT.com starting a, the free version, but sign up. So what I have found in doing one-on-one sessions where I'm walking around and helping people with their laptops, they're like, oh yeah,

[00:17:26] I've been using it. And I walked by and they're just using a little free prompt, right? Like the window, but they've never signed up.

[00:17:32] Got it. And so then they're frustrated because they're like, well, this thing doesn't know anything about me. I'm like, because, because you didn't sign up for it. So you can still go in and sign up for it and have your profile.

[00:17:42] And then it'll start memorizing some things about you and how you tend to like to receive information. So making sure you're, you're doing that. And then also turning on, turning on memory.

[00:17:55] And then in the custom instructions and the custom instructions in the settings of chat GPT. Um, when you click on a little rounds, you know, version of view, click on settings, you can do the custom instructions and then say, who are you? What do you do? Uh, types of content. How should chat GPT respond when using your, um, when you're writing things.

[00:18:16] Yeah. And so one of my tips is a lot of us don't know our writing style. And so what you want to do is take a couple of pieces of content that you've already written, maybe blogs, emails, just any content you've written, throw it in a chat GPT and say, describe my writing style based off these examples.

[00:18:34] Yeah. And then it'll spit back a beautiful, succinct paragraph of your writing style. So then I took that writing style and I put that in my custom instructions. So it knows when I go to write something, I want it in approachable tone. I want it in a non-technical tone. I want it in, you know, so those are some things to get it to start writing like you and knowing more about you.

[00:18:57] Got it. Yeah. That makes sense. Cause I, I have signed up for it, but I haven't gone through everything that you just went through. So anybody that has used chat GPT, make sure you're signed in, make sure you go through the instructions. And, um, you know, if you have to watch this again on demand, I will have this on demand. So you can go out to Spotify if you are trying to take notes and you're trying to keep up, but, um, yeah, that's, that's really good advice.

[00:19:23] So, so how about, how about leaders in HR and thinking about AI, you know, what, what are, what should leaders in H I be thinking in HR be thinking about with AI and how to maybe take it to the next level within kind of their organization?

[00:19:41] Yeah. You know, I think HR leaders are uniquely positioned because we are change management people. Right. And then when I say we is, I have a degree in human resources management. I started out in technology.

[00:19:53] Uh, recruiting and all the things. And so we are, you know, part of that whole change management is about human behavior. Right. And so making sure that we are preparing our workforce. And so everyone thinks I am crazy is amount of times I get on stages across the country, but I'm super passionate about because I don't want people left behind.

[00:20:15] And every technology shift we've ever had women and minorities and nonprofits get left behind or small businesses get left behind. And so it's just my own personal mission to make sure people aren't left behind because these are things that you don't have to be technical.

[00:20:30] And so, and so that's the beauty of the evolution of AI. And so now if you can speak or type, you can use AI, right? You don't have to be technical. And so, and just having a conversation is called chat for a reason, right? Having a conversation with it saying, you know, you are an HR leader, an HR manager, um, you know, write, you know, write this job description and here's the details and here's what I want.

[00:20:55] And then it gives you, I would say, I would say, get you 80% of the way there. And then you want to go in and refine it, right? So continue to prompt even after it gives your response and refine it down to what you need. And so for HR leaders, the big thing is I was really shocked. I was at an HR conference for leaders and I was speaking on AI and I always pull up a slide that gives the little, um, Terminator photo, you know, and I say, how are we feeling about AI?

[00:21:24] And I open up the dialogue because I think it's really important. And even as leaders, we need to do that with our teams is truly understand how people are feeling about it because it is, it is the, you know, wide range of, of emotions for people.

[00:21:38] And what's fascinating is some of the HR leaders said, well, Sally's using AI arms crossed attitude and everything. Well, Sally's using AI. I said, good, Sally will have a job in the future.

[00:21:51] You know, like, so there was judgment. So I thought that was really interesting. Um, there was judgment in the room of like, oh, well, they're lazy or guilty using these tools. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. So we had a great conversation and I'm really glad that someone voiced how they were feeling. Um, and, and I always say, look, it's, if you can, you in an Excel spreadsheet, you can do long math or you can use an Excel formula.

[00:22:20] Right. Does it mean that I'm lazy because I use an Excel formula? No, not at all. Right. It's just an efficiency. It's just a, just a tool. So I just really encourage HR leaders, um, one to just meet people where they are and understand where they are, ask them how they're feeling about it, explain why you're rolling out AI, explain that it's not to replace them because let's face it, all of us on this call, there's not enough humans to get the work done.

[00:22:47] Not enough humans to get the work done. So something has to give in AI. Is that something right? It can help us get even more, you know, work done on those limited teams that we have.

[00:22:58] Right. Yeah. There still has to be a human element to some degree, which employees and the experience of an employee and how you use AI, there's obviously people that feel like they're not going to have a job in the future. And I, I'm, I'm sure there will be some industries that will shift and change. So, you know, from an employee experience, you know, how,

[00:23:21] how can you use a AI when it comes to employee training development programs?

[00:23:28] Yeah. And I just want to address the job situation. So, you know, 19 years ago when I started digital, we all said the same thing. Oh gosh, where's all the jobs? And what happened?

[00:23:38] Yeah.

[00:23:38] We have new jobs, right? Social media managers, content managers, digital ads managers, like all new jobs.

[00:23:44] So same thing's going to happen. So what they are talking about now from a research standpoint is 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet.

[00:24:03] That's six years.

[00:24:05] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's like no time. And so just understanding that, you know, yes, there's shifts, big shifts, because this is the biggest shift we've all experienced in our lifetime.

[00:24:16] You know, and, and for some of us that have been around a little longer, this is the biggest shift since the internet. Right.

[00:24:22] Right. And so understanding that there will be new job creation and, and making sure that we are empowering and upskilling and reskilling our team members to prepare them, you know, for this.

[00:24:36] So, so yeah, that's one of the things I'm like, Ooh, I gotta, I gotta talk about that. So you were saying employee engagement.

[00:24:42] I just want to get back to the question.

[00:24:45] Yeah. More training development, but training development.

[00:24:47] Your comment about the 85% of jobs, I think that that's, it excites me, but it's, I'm also curious, are there specific industries that you see more growth that will potentially help, you know, generate more jobs out of that 85%?

[00:25:08] Like, are there two or three industries that maybe people watching that are in college or like new into their career and they just don't really know what they want to do?

[00:25:16] Maybe that will shift your curiosity into some industry that you feel like it's going to have the biggest growth.

[00:25:23] Yeah.

[00:25:24] What about that?

[00:25:25] Yeah. It's, it's tough because it's, it's going to be in everything, right? You know, AI.

[00:25:29] So it's not going to be one of those things we go, go to a place to experience AI.

[00:25:33] It will just literally built into everything.

[00:25:35] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:36] And so it's one of those where I always say like, Hey, would you work for a company that says, you know, Hey, we don't use the internet here.

[00:25:43] No, you wouldn't. Right.

[00:25:45] You know, same thing from AI, you know, perspective.

[00:25:48] So I don't know from a, you know, if there's like one or two top industries, like, Oh, go jump into this industry.

[00:25:53] You know, healthcare is being greatly impacted in a good way.

[00:25:56] They're starting to I just saw something earlier today where they can now early detect by 10 years early.

[00:26:03] If someone could be pre-diabetic or predisposed in that way, I saw something about AI was figuring out, you know, from a Parkinson's, you know, standpoint, you know, early detection there.

[00:26:14] Um, and so I met a radiologist recently and he said he used to do 25 patients a day, you know, reading x-rays and identifying things.

[00:26:23] And he now does 110 patients a day using AI.

[00:26:28] Wow.

[00:26:29] Yeah.

[00:26:30] Yeah.

[00:26:31] And because AI can go through and read, you know, say 80 slides and just say page, you know, slide number 23, a human needs to go look at.

[00:26:40] There's an anomaly there.

[00:26:41] There's something there.

[00:26:42] And he's like, you know, we're humans.

[00:26:43] We're tired.

[00:26:44] We get, you know, we may miss something because you're looking at slides all day.

[00:26:48] And, um, so, so yeah, I think, you know, there's great, great opportunities in, in that, that space as well, but it really is going to touch everything.

[00:26:57] Yeah.

[00:26:58] What about, um, how can AI assist improving workplace wellness initiatives?

[00:27:05] Yeah.

[00:27:05] Yeah.

[00:27:06] So this kind of dives back to the, you know, training and development, you know, piece or wellness initiatives.

[00:27:11] It all is connected.

[00:27:13] And so going in and you can use chat to BT, like I was telling you earlier and build a facilitation plan and say, um, you know, I need to build a facilitation plan based off these hours, based off these parameters.

[00:27:27] Here's a couple of key things that we're going to cover.

[00:27:30] Um, I need breakout questions.

[00:27:32] I need kind of the pre questions coming in afterwards.

[00:27:36] And then, you know, for wellness initiatives going in and say like, Hey, um, here's a couple of wellness initiatives that we are considering.

[00:27:44] What else should we consider?

[00:27:45] Or what should we name our wellness, you know, series, um, going in and play and brainstorm with it.

[00:27:52] You can put together a wellness plan and say, how do we reduce stress?

[00:27:56] What are some things we can do?

[00:27:58] Oh, let's build a quiz for our teams to help identify some areas of things and identify gaps that they may feel our wellness initiatives don't have.

[00:28:07] Um, I mean, literally the opportunities are endless.

[00:28:10] And so what I want to encourage everyone is have that AI first mindset.

[00:28:14] So when I'm kind of stuck on something, I'm not looking to like, Oh, who, who can I talk to?

[00:28:20] I just go to AI and say, can you help me figure this out?

[00:28:24] Or can you do step-by-step in this?

[00:28:27] Or what else should I consider?

[00:28:28] Or I'm in a visioning session for 2030.

[00:28:31] You know, where do we think things are going and then take the material and then vet with others.

[00:28:36] Right.

[00:28:37] So, um, I get a lot of calls of, Hey, Kendra, can AI do this?

[00:28:40] I'm like, I don't know.

[00:28:41] Let's ask it.

[00:28:42] Right.

[00:28:44] Let's ask it.

[00:28:45] Yeah.

[00:28:45] Yeah.

[00:28:46] Oh, geez.

[00:28:47] Um, and there's, um, there's some good tools pie.

[00:28:50] So pie.

[00:28:50] Dot AI is a good one for just empathy, like a, from a mental health and coaching.

[00:28:56] So, um, cause we all know employees do not participate in the, um, you know, employee assistance programs.

[00:29:01] They don't trust them.

[00:29:03] So are there things that you can do?

[00:29:05] You can also encourage, so you could do a lunch and learn on wellness initiatives and say, all right, let's all pull up chat to BT and figure out a fitness plan and say, I want to work on my arms, but with something that I can only do around the house and, you know, something that's only 20 minutes.

[00:29:19] And it'll write your fitness plan or recipes.

[00:29:22] Maybe you've got, you know, allergies or you're tired of eating the same things.

[00:29:25] You can go and say, Hey, here's, you know, some of the things that I like, what else would could be some other recipes.

[00:29:31] You can take a picture of your fridge or your pantry and say, what can I make tonight?

[00:29:36] Um, so like, there's just so many really fun things that you can look at, at, you know, all wellness, you know, capabilities and, you know, um, and all those, those aspects.

[00:29:46] And so allowing kind of those personalized plans, like, you know, maybe a lunch and learn around wellness and like, okay, everyone, let's go in and do this together in AI.

[00:29:55] Why? Because that's one of my tips on AI adoption is get people playing first.

[00:30:00] So they really understand and not be fearful of it.

[00:30:04] So get them, you know, writing kids stories or kids books or bedtime stories with their kids names in it or songs or coloring pages, like all the fun things to get them past the fear of using the tools.

[00:30:18] Yeah.

[00:30:19] Yeah.

[00:30:20] It's, uh, and, and I haven't, cause you asked me before we came on about editing my podcast and, and I, I do edit it to, to, you know, find clips and I put them on LinkedIn.

[00:30:31] I put them on YouTube.

[00:30:33] I put them on my website, speakeasyhr.com to just get people more aware of topics I talk about with guests and they don't have to watch the whole episode.

[00:30:42] They can watch short clips and you're like, well, are you using this?

[00:30:45] And I was like, no, I'm not.

[00:30:46] So I'm like, there's just anything that you're doing that takes effort and, and time.

[00:30:53] There's probably a way to, to save time and be more efficient.

[00:30:57] It's just a matter of how much money you want to spend.

[00:30:59] So, you know, I think there's, I don't know what the statistics are of people actually spending money on AI yet where it's like, you know, not a free membership, but, um, I would assume that's going to go up.

[00:31:10] So, I mean, if, if I had, you know, I don't know what the like basic packages are, but if I had $20 a month to spend on AI, is there, is it chat GPT?

[00:31:22] Is there something else out there?

[00:31:24] You know, primarily with HR folks, right?

[00:31:26] Yeah.

[00:31:27] Yeah.

[00:31:27] You're a good way to invest a little bit of money a month on something or is it chat GPT?

[00:31:33] Yeah.

[00:31:34] Um, gosh, there's so, so many tools and, you know, depending on your organization, some people only want you to have Microsoft co-pilot, right?

[00:31:42] Um, and there is a monthly and that wouldn't be on you.

[00:31:44] That would be from the company.

[00:31:45] And so it kind of depends back to what are you trying to achieve and which tools align with that.

[00:31:50] Um, so I always say that, Hey, 20 bucks a month for a PhD, right?

[00:31:56] You know, I'm hiring someone that has a PhD, meaning the AI for 20 bucks a month.

[00:32:01] You can't go hire a PhD for 20 bucks a month.

[00:32:03] Right?

[00:32:04] So that's the level of knowledge that it has.

[00:32:06] Um, so, you know, trying the free tools until you've hit a wall where you're like, I can't, I can't do some of these things.

[00:32:13] And knowing that if I get to that 20 bucks a month that, Hey, Oh, I'll be able to, you know, do some other things that I can't within the free version.

[00:32:20] Um, and, but yeah, the 20 bucks a month, you know, totally, um, it's a, it's an easy investment and well paced for itself.

[00:32:28] Um, and so look at it more as you just hired a new assistant on your team and that new assistant costs you 20 bucks a month.

[00:32:36] And so the new assistant on your team, you've got to feed it enough information, you know, just like if you hired a human, you got to feed it enough information for them to understand what you do and what you're trying to achieve and what tasks you want it to do.

[00:32:48] Right.

[00:32:49] Mm-hmm.

[00:32:50] Yeah.

[00:32:51] So I think that would be a good, you know, easy first step.

[00:32:53] Okay.

[00:32:55] So we're, we're live on LinkedIn and YouTube.

[00:32:57] So if you are watching, if you have any questions for Kendra on AI and HR or just AI in general, please put them in the chat.

[00:33:05] I did have this up earlier.

[00:33:07] Really?

[00:33:08] Where do you rank yourself on a scale from one to 10?

[00:33:10] We want to get you higher than what you are today with this conversation with, with Kendra and everything that she's been involved in with her, uh, KR digital agency here in Cincinnati.

[00:33:21] So you've, uh, you've gone and done a lot of speaking engagements.

[00:33:25] Um, I'm sure you get a lot of just random questions.

[00:33:29] Is there, is there an event or some individual that came up after and, and said something to you that was like, just, it stands out to all of other speaking engagements that you've been to?

[00:33:43] Yeah.

[00:33:44] Yeah.

[00:33:45] Um, gosh, I, you know, I think, you know, the thing that was really surprising to me is, um, I, it always happens afterwards.

[00:33:53] And so now I just address it in my talk is people will come up to me and say, I feel lazy or guilty.

[00:33:58] I feel like I'm cheating when I'm using AI, you know?

[00:34:00] And I'm like, stop it.

[00:34:01] Leave that right here.

[00:34:02] You're not taking that with you.

[00:34:03] You're going to leave it right here.

[00:34:04] We're, we're, we're done with that.

[00:34:06] So I, you know, hear that quite often.

[00:34:08] And the other thing I hear very often is they just want, they're like, I just want to set with a human to learn this stuff, right?

[00:34:15] Like, yeah, I can go online.

[00:34:17] I can take courses, but I just want that human to set.

[00:34:20] So in the workshops that I do, they love it.

[00:34:22] Cause they're like, and that, that's kind of the feedback.

[00:34:24] They're like, this was so awesome because I feel like, you know, I had that, you know, someone to be like, Hey, I'm stuck over here.

[00:34:30] Can you help me figure out, you know, this prompt's not working for me.

[00:34:34] Um, and so, you know, one of the other things from a prompting standpoint,

[00:34:39] that's my secret sauce is when you go in and give it some context, you're giving it a task, you're giving it a role.

[00:34:44] You're giving it context of the task you want it to do.

[00:34:48] Then the next line is ask me questions for clarity and then hit enter and then let it do its work.

[00:34:55] And it will come back and say, well, I need to know this and this before I can actually do the tasks that you've given me.

[00:35:01] And so you don't have to have a perfect prompt.

[00:35:03] You don't need to go buy everybody in the brothers, you know, buy my thousand prompt packs.

[00:35:06] You don't need it.

[00:35:07] Right.

[00:35:07] The systems are really, really smart and you can just give it enough context and don't worry about perfect.

[00:35:14] And just say like, here's what I'm trying to figure out and just like spit it out.

[00:35:18] Right.

[00:35:18] Because sometimes I do that when I'm driving, I'll just chat with chat to BT and like, Hey, here's what I'm thinking.

[00:35:23] And I have a whole back and forth dialogue, you know, with it.

[00:35:26] And it syncs with my desktop.

[00:35:28] So later on I can go on my desktop and look through, you know, the conversation and get back to that as well.

[00:35:34] Yeah.

[00:35:35] Okay.

[00:35:36] What are, because I think with recruiting, I think AI has been hurting companies that are using some technology with AI when it comes to sourcing applicants and having AI pick applicants for them to interview and screen.

[00:35:53] So what kind of pitfalls from a recruiting standpoint do you see and how can somebody in HR kind of overcome those and try to stay away from those challenges?

[00:36:04] Yes.

[00:36:05] Yeah.

[00:36:06] AI just natively out of the box is very biased.

[00:36:10] It's very biased.

[00:36:11] So like you're saying, Hey, it's coming up with a picture, but it's not even close to me.

[00:36:15] It makes me look younger or thinner or, you know, whatever.

[00:36:18] It's just very biased.

[00:36:20] And so just knowing that inherent nature of it, because so like track to BT specifically was trained on 175 billion parameters.

[00:36:28] So several years ago, as they were building the model, that doesn't mean a whole lot to us because you're like, what does that mean?

[00:36:34] That means it would take a human 500,000 lifetimes to read.

[00:36:38] And so back to AI, learn, see, and do's, right?

[00:36:43] Learn, see, and do.

[00:36:43] That's what AI does.

[00:36:45] So that original model has 10 X itself already.

[00:36:48] So the original model, I think of it like Pac-Man.

[00:36:51] It went and ate everything it could get its hands on and it ate some not so good things, right?

[00:36:56] We can't believe everything on the internet.

[00:36:59] And so that's where, you know, it ate some bias.

[00:37:02] And so we have to be really careful because it'll throw out people's names because they weren't John Smith, right?

[00:37:08] You know, and it'll throw out different things.

[00:37:10] So being really, really mindful and making sure you're using tools that have guardrails for that.

[00:37:17] And then the big thing is human in the loop.

[00:37:20] Yes, you can do some pre-interviews, some pre-tests, some pre-things, using AI tools.

[00:37:26] And then just making sure with human in the loop, you know, you're doing a fact checking like, hey, these last 10 interviews were all, you know, there was not diversity in there.

[00:37:35] Or, you know, like, let's go back and look at the sample size and see was there, you know, opportunities there.

[00:37:42] You know, did the AI, you know, miss it?

[00:37:44] So I agree.

[00:37:45] Right now we need to be very cautious when we're using AI in those recruiting, you know, pieces and making sure that we're validating the things that it's providing.

[00:37:54] So I know there's definitely, you know, some good tools out there that we're really trying to narrow that down and help with that.

[00:38:02] One is like HireEasy, HireEasy.

[00:38:06] HireEasy.

[00:38:07] They used to be Kyro, I think they were like HireXual or something, and they just renamed themselves HireEasy.

[00:38:13] And then I know like Jazz HR, which is, you know, just a more small, affordable, you know, HR system.

[00:38:20] They've got some things, you know, in place.

[00:38:21] So some of the tools, so I encourage you to go look at your current technology stack and see,

[00:38:27] is there something that either is on their current AI roadmap or future AI roadmap?

[00:38:33] Instead of hiring and getting another tool, look at your current technology stack and see,

[00:38:39] is there some AI things that I could be using that maybe I just haven't turned on or haven't talked to those vendors about?

[00:38:45] Yeah.

[00:38:45] Yeah, we definitely have it in our technology.

[00:38:47] And we have an ATS, we have the recruiting, onboarding, benefits, performance management.

[00:38:53] So we definitely see it.

[00:38:55] We definitely see it.

[00:38:56] So we're not having to create it.

[00:38:58] It's in the system and it's helping people save time and be more efficient, like you said, with job descriptions and all that.

[00:39:06] So you don't have to recreate things that are already out there.

[00:39:09] So when it comes to performance and talent management, we've talked a little bit about it,

[00:39:15] but, you know, what are the best ways, you know, AI can support continuous learning and really help develop employees?

[00:39:24] Yeah.

[00:39:25] So it's really fun to like just go through employees and meeting with them where they are.

[00:39:31] And I've taken every assessment nerd known to man.

[00:39:35] So like, so what I'll go in and say, hey, in the disc, I'm an I, I'm going into a meeting with the C.

[00:39:43] And I will say, how can I best make sure that I'm providing things that the C needs in this meeting?

[00:39:49] Yeah.

[00:39:50] Or, or, you know, in Enneagram, I'm, I'm a three with a wing two and I'm going into a meeting with and knowing, you know, other people and where they are.

[00:39:59] And how do I prepare for that?

[00:40:01] And so really, you know, understanding that personalized training.

[00:40:05] So having employees kind of identify like a gaps, you know, like a skill gap and say, hey, here's a skill gap.

[00:40:12] There's an area where I would like to do some training and just see if there are off the shelf courses out there that they could take or participate in.

[00:40:20] Or, or if you're in Ohio, there is Ohio tech cred where maybe your organization doesn't pay for, you know, that kind of training, but they can get tech credits through Ohio on that.

[00:40:31] Every employee can, you know, get that as well.

[00:40:34] So really that personalized learning and understanding where those skills gaps are and where some of the learning opportunities and just encouraging them to use AI to advance their learning.

[00:40:46] So one of the things that was mentioned to me, and this is like mentioned several times, specifically this year, they're like, Kendra, where's the learning if you're just using AI all the time?

[00:40:56] And I'm like, I learn more now than I have probably last 12 years because, because every time I engage with AI, I'm learning something new or seeing a different perspective or a different side or different angle that I didn't see before.

[00:41:11] Right. Now that's a great point about personality assessments. Cause I've gone through the disc. I don't know how many times in my career, probably three or four.

[00:41:20] And every single time it's with a different work group of managers or staff. And so when you are going to meetings, I know there are tools that prepare you beforehand. Like, Hey, you're going into a meeting with this kind of person.

[00:41:35] But this, if you don't have a technology platform like that, you know, being able to take that as long as you know who that person is from a disc perspective and just throw that in there and have that ready so that you have a better meeting with those people or a prospect or I, I don't know.

[00:41:52] I think some people put it like in their different profiles, but I don't see it as much, you know, on their email signatures. You don't see it much.

[00:42:00] But if someone has a disc assessment profile, that'd be great. Or the, the, you know, several other ones that are popular out there being able to be more prepared for meetings like that.

[00:42:12] I mean, that's huge. So I didn't even think about that until you, until you said it.

[00:42:15] Yeah. I went down a rabbit hole one day and I was just like, okay, I'm preparing AI training for organization. I'm just curious. How could I make sure and address?

[00:42:26] Like I went through and I was like disc and strength finders and Colby and like, I just played like I play, you know, so I was just playing like, you know, what are something I need to be mindful of or different learning styles. Right.

[00:42:40] You know, as I'm preparing a presentation, is there visual, is there kinetic opportunity, is there reading, is there auditory opportunity, right?

[00:42:48] Like, you know, doing that as, as well and meeting people, you know, where, where they are and how they learn.

[00:42:54] Back to like, I don't learn from reading a book, so I got to be careful and mindful about how I'm developing training and making sure that it's an experience to be able to meet different people, you know, where they are.

[00:43:05] Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's wild where technology's gone. You know, I, I grew up, I was in grade school and we'd get like 15 minutes to play around on the worldwide web.

[00:43:15] And it was like, you know, it's just one of those things that you're just like, man, the kids growing up now.

[00:43:21] I mean, I've got kids in, you know, teenage years now and I'm just like, man, they, they don't know what it was like when, when we were growing up.

[00:43:29] And now like they're, they're going to go into a career and they're going to be using AI and they're going to be doing this all different.

[00:43:36] Like you said, just 85% of jobs.

[00:43:40] I just want to make, make sure everyone hears this.

[00:43:44] 85% of jobs have not been created that we'll have in 2030.

[00:43:50] Yeah. So if you are worried about not having a job in six years, hopefully this is making you feel a little bit more optimistic with that kind of statistic.

[00:44:00] Cause that's, that's crazy.

[00:44:02] Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, like, you know, something like, you know, we do SEO.

[00:44:06] Well, now we're having to make sure that we understand, you know, large language model optimization.

[00:44:11] Right. Cause like, even for me, my Google usage is way down.

[00:44:16] Like I go to AI and searching AI and how things are, are coming up in, in chat to BT or Claude or perplexity or Gemini, any of these tools, you know, can my company be found in those tools?

[00:44:29] Right. So knowing that we not, you know, the decrease in searches in Google, because people are shifting into AI.

[00:44:38] Right. So that to me is a whole other job, right? A large language model, model optimization, you know, optimization.

[00:44:45] So, and there's going to be on and on like new, new opportunities that we just can't even imagine right now.

[00:44:52] Going into next year, like I just wrote a whole article last week on AI agents.

[00:44:56] So like this year has been about AI reasoning, but going into next year is going to be AI agents.

[00:45:01] And if you think like the past two years have been crazy, I'm saying next year is going to be even crazier.

[00:45:07] Because we're going to have AI agents set up on top of all these tools and execute tasks from A to Z and speak to other AI tools.

[00:45:17] So like, it's just going to be a wild ride.

[00:45:20] So I'm telling you right now, buckle up.

[00:45:22] Buckle up.

[00:45:23] Buckle up.

[00:45:24] I put this QR code up.

[00:45:26] This is AI simplified from Kendra.

[00:45:28] So if you are watching live and want to go out to this, it's some of her work out there.

[00:45:35] So Kendra, if there's anything else you wanted to add about the AI simplified.

[00:45:39] Thank you so much for sharing this.

[00:45:41] It is.

[00:45:41] It's a passion project.

[00:45:42] I love doing it.

[00:45:43] And, you know, submit your questions and I'll answer them, you know, in the newsletter as well.

[00:45:48] It's, you know, weekly.

[00:45:50] I've been writing for over a year and a half.

[00:45:51] And so you can even see all the archives.

[00:45:54] So you can go back through if you've missed something.

[00:45:56] So you don't have to just only see, you know, this coming week's, you know, e-newsletter.

[00:46:00] You can go back through the archives and dig through anything that you want to, you know, look for as well.

[00:46:06] So, yeah.

[00:46:07] I enjoy doing it.

[00:46:08] Yeah, I was taking a look at it before we jumped on here and a lot of good information out there.

[00:46:14] So how can HR professionals use AI to complement their work rather than, you know, replace their roles?

[00:46:24] Yeah, I think that's the biggest concern for a lot of people.

[00:46:27] And it's just understanding that, you know, it's not AI coming, you know, to your job, right?

[00:46:34] And it's not AI coming for your job.

[00:46:36] It's just coming to your job.

[00:46:37] So it's not coming for your job.

[00:46:39] It's just coming to your job.

[00:46:40] So looking and I always think of like the Iron Man, right?

[00:46:44] So in the Iron Man movie, you've got Tony Stark, the human in the Iron Man suit.

[00:46:48] And they're fine by themselves, but they're really powerful together.

[00:46:52] And so the more we can encourage each other to be that human in the loop with AI,

[00:46:57] and the AI is there to assist us.

[00:47:00] And the more we're willing to be curious and lean into that,

[00:47:04] the better opportunities, career path opportunities, having job opportunities in that future when things are making these big, big shifts.

[00:47:13] And I also want to encourage just any women out there as well, because eight in 10 women are being impacted by AI versus six in 10 men,

[00:47:22] because women tend to be in that knowledge worker role.

[00:47:25] So knowledge worker means we just do laptop, you know, laptop work.

[00:47:28] And so being really mindful of that and that, again, with technology shifts, we tend to get left behind.

[00:47:36] And that literally you do not need to be technical.

[00:47:38] If you can speak or type, you can use AI.

[00:47:40] Yeah.

[00:47:41] Yeah.

[00:47:42] If you can speak or type, you can use AI.

[00:47:44] Love it.

[00:47:46] If you want to hear more about Kendra's work or connect with her, I have her QR code up for her website.

[00:47:55] So there's all kinds of information out there for you to learn more about what she can do beyond AI, training, coaching, everything,

[00:48:03] with all of her other services with her agency.

[00:48:06] So be sure to connect with her on her website, follow her work.

[00:48:11] And I'm sure you'll be still doing speaking engagements into next year for quite some time on all the AI topics.

[00:48:19] So looking forward to hopefully seeing you again in person around the area here.

[00:48:25] So do you have anything else that you wanted to bring up and make sure that we get through before we get off?

[00:49:01] Yeah.

[00:49:03] One topic I've been looking forward to hearing a lot about and just, you know, it seems like everywhere I go, if it's not like the sole focus or a topic, people are talking about it.

[00:49:16] And just again, if you are able to connect with Kendra, definitely do that.

[00:49:21] So Heather said nice job.

[00:49:22] Kendra, I'm looking forward to exploring Pi AI.

[00:49:24] Is that the?

[00:49:25] Yeah, that's it.

[00:49:27] Thanks, Heather.

[00:49:28] Hopefully that helps you and anybody else out there that's not explored Pi AI in your job.

[00:49:33] So again, I appreciate your time, Kendra.

[00:49:36] I know you are busy with all of your engagements and speaking and everything.

[00:49:39] So I wish you all the best for next year.

[00:49:43] Hopefully we can have you on next year and talk more about AI and see where else this leads,

[00:49:48] because I'm sure there'll be more down the pike here with all the stuff coming out.

[00:49:52] But anything else you'd like to add before we jump on?

[00:49:57] No, thank you so much.

[00:49:58] I really appreciate you having me.

[00:50:00] All right.

[00:50:00] Well, everyone have a great rest of your day.

[00:50:02] Thanks for tuning in.

[00:50:03] If you want to learn more about my work at speakeasyhr.com, make sure to go over there.

[00:50:10] The website is live.

[00:50:12] I've got a blog section, just clips from all the previous episodes,

[00:50:17] and you can connect on demand with all the podcast platforms, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon, Apple.

[00:50:24] So you can check all the recent episodes that I've had all on demand there.

[00:50:29] So be sure to check it out.

[00:50:31] So all right, Kendra, you have a great rest of your day and we'll talk to you soon.

[00:50:35] And have a great holiday season if I don't hear from you.

[00:50:40] And we'll talk to you soon.

[00:50:42] You as well.

[00:50:43] Thank you.

[00:50:43] All righty.

[00:50:44] Bye-bye.

[00:50:45] Bye.