HR's Role in AI-Driven Change

Implementing AI is different than other types of software. Globalization Partners (G-P) Head of HR Laura Maffucci shares her lessons from navigating an AI mandate, handling employee fear, and building a cross-functional AI governance council. Listen to hear how we transition from informal employee experimentation to structured, agentic workflows that enhance productivity without removing the human in the loop.

Key takeaways from the discussion:

• Why bolting generic AI tools onto existing, broken workflows fails to deliver much results

• How an internal cross-functional AI council enables employee use

• The difference between executive perceptions and employee realities

• Enabling the desired behaviour

• Being real

  
  

  00:00 Lessons from early enterprise AI implementation

  01:13 Scope of AI deployment at GP

  02:17 Managing employee fear of job replacement

  04:31 Moving from unstructured to structured automation and the change implications

  06:00 The differing implementation needs: deep versus broad

  08:41 The failure of bolting on AI

  10:43 Purpose-built compliance and agentic data scraping

  12:43 Managing shadow AI and workflow fragmentation

  13:46 Structuring a corporate AI policy council

  15:10 Creating positive energy around governance rules

  16:40 Executive delusions vs employee realities

  18:37 Why rising quality standards impact efficiency

  19:21 The role of HR in change management

  20:52 Balancing personal skepticism with strategic adoption

  22:05 Finding non-technical AI champions in house

  24:22 The power of authenticity over corporate jargon

  25:27 Where to connect with Laura and G-P

Find Laura Website: https://www.G-P.com/ or https://www.globalization-partners.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-maffucci/

Find Andrea (me) Website: https://thehrhub.ca/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-adams1/