In this special edition of our podcast, Alex Alonso, SHRM’s chief data and analytics officer, and Nichol Bradford, SHRM’s executive in residence for AI+HI, unpack highlights from The AI+HI Project 2025 event — from driving workplace innovation to fostering inclusivity and accessibility. Get their practical advice on harnessing AI for strategic change, plus learn from real-world successes and challenges shared by event attendees from Workday, Arizona State University, and more.
In this special edition of our podcast, Alex Alonso, SHRM’s chief data and analytics officer, and Nichol Bradford, SHRM’s executive in residence for AI+HI, unpack highlights from The AI+HI Project 2025 event — from driving workplace innovation to fostering inclusivity and accessibility. Get their practical advice on harnessing AI for strategic change, plus learn from real-world successes and challenges shared by event attendees from Workday, Arizona State University, and more.
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[00:00:32] Alex: Hello, I'm Alex Alonso SHRM's, chief Data and Analytics Officer
[00:00:37] Nichol: And I'm Nichol Bradford SHRM's, executive and Residence for AI Plus. Hi, welcome to a special edition of our podcast.
[00:00:45] Alex: at the AI Hi Project 2025, our flagship event in San Francisco. This year we heard from top leaders in the space of HR, business and technology.
[00:00:57] Nichol: And so Alex and I wanted to get together and [00:01:00] share our thoughts and excitement around this year's event.
[00:01:04] Alex: We also wanted to hear from our attendees and hear what they had to say.
[00:01:08] Nichol: for starters, we asked them which AI trends they were the most excited about, and this is what they shared.
[00:01:15] I, I want to learn more about the concept where AI is a transformation for our organization instead of just a tool and application. And that's about be folks going forward after the conference.
[00:01:28] an AI workplace Trend I'm excited to learn more about is automation. Um, I'm also curious to learn what others are doing about upskilling and reskilling their employees. Um. Learning AI tools so they can leverage them moving forward. And I'm also curious to see what others are doing in the workplace, specifically around HR functions, um, that I haven't heard of before or haven't thought of before.
[00:01:52] C8162: as an organization, we sit at the intersection of. Disability inclusion and workforce development and corporate performance. And I'm [00:02:00] really excited about all of the technologies that are coming out related to the use of AI in accommodations and accessibility for people with disabilities.
[00:02:08] I'm really excited to learn more about. Uh, certain trends in ai, especially agents because I've just been hearing so much about them and I really don't know how they work and how they can change the way that we work.
[00:02:19] Being at Workday is a bit unique because we see what's happening at 10,000 organizations worldwide, but what's happening at Workday right now is not just our executives being able to jump into the ring and showing how they're using AI in their day-to-day lives, encouraging us all to be able to do it similarly.
[00:02:33] Great.
[00:02:35] Alex: Clearly there's a lot to learn and talk about when it comes to ai.
[00:02:39] Nichol: Absolutely. And I'm curious, what are some of the things that you've seen businesses struggle with when they're seeking to implement AI over the last year?
[00:02:49] Alex: I see a lot of, uh, kind of two things happening. One is organizations are doing almost a full 180 after having tried to regulate and stop and management. [00:03:00] Of it to now here's what they're thinking about, how they're turning around and saying, we wanna try it all, but not being clear about how it is that they're, they're kind of building in the management and the enabling of that, the learning of that.
[00:03:14] The other thing that I think is particularly critical is trying to find the people who are really those savvy learners who are gonna turn around and do something great with ai, right? And actually leverage it and help train all the algorithms out there even more effectively.
[00:03:28]
[00:03:28] Nichol: And what I've seen is people confusing enhanced productivity with the goal of transformation. And so, you know, it's, I. It's not as interesting to just get faster at email. It's more interesting to fundamentally redesign your business. And so I've seen organizations where they can end up in a cul-de-sac where they make a lot of progress and they just go faster, but they're not going faster towards a business transformation.
[00:03:58] I.
[00:03:58] Alex: Yeah, it's [00:04:00] fascinating. I, we, we heard a lot about that actually at the, at one of the events that we were at recently. It looked specifically at how do I go about doing something that I could never even have imagined. Right. We heard Roy Baha as an example talk about, I. What it is that I can do that is outside the realm of anything that I ever imagined, right?
[00:04:17] Smart and curious is great, innovative, and imaginative is even better.
[00:04:22] Nichol: And one of the things that we talked about in the session with Mickey McManus, the faculty member from BC. G AI is a constraint around one organization. They took what used to take 22 hours and they did it in 22 seconds. And so using those kinds of constraints where you take a, a process or something that you're doing and you say, well, what would it take to do this in 22 seconds?
[00:04:50] Or, or things that completely shift people's frames of reference about how they're thinking about what's possible.
[00:04:57] Alex: It's, it's unbelievable. We're actually seeing quite a bit of that. [00:05:00] We also heard a lot about the thing, focusing on how I can be better in terms of what I produce, but at the same time, if we're all leveraging the same kinds of ai, how are we creating sameness that may be what we want or may not be what we want when it comes to creativity and innovation.
[00:05:17] Nichol: And what about successes? What are the successes that you've seen?
[00:05:21] Alex: You know, some of the successes that I've seen really focus on the innovation and creativity tasks
[00:05:26] And this notion of moonshot projects, right? How do I build a moonshot project that I incentivize with my workforce to say, think about what we could be doing differently that we don't do well, right? How do we really do that?
[00:05:39] That's the first example where I see a lot of organizations actually evolving into that next layer of success, a successful implementation. The other thing that I see is actually a, a,
[00:05:50] A phenomenon that I learned about from you, uh, called Slipstreaming, right? And I think to myself specifically about how in the world of racing, auto racing, right, slip streaming really [00:06:00] is about building efficiency and building speed by actually drafting off of the car in front of you or next to you.
[00:06:07] What I see happening with AI is people are really unlocking human agency by having those AI agents surround everything that they're doing. And there are organizations really doing that over and over again, whether it's CEOs and CHROs using a digital twin to be their strategist and help them bounce strategies off of, or it's different AI analytics bots that are going in and finding and mining data that for trends that we could never have seen before.
[00:06:33] Those are the kinds of things where I'm really seeing successes.
[00:06:36] Nichol: Yes, and and two of the speakers that we have at this year's A IHI project, one from Walmart and the other one from ServiceNow. And then also what we saw with GP as well. What's interesting in all three of these cases is that what they've done internally
[00:06:54]
[00:06:54] Nichol: And the way that they have focused on being people, people focused, tech powered, [00:07:00] I.
[00:07:01] It's wonderful to see organizations that are really pushing on both sides, but staying very, very human centered and seeing outsized results.
[00:07:14] Alex: It's, it's fascinating to see and I think about where we were just a year ago. How people were just trying to dip their toe into it. Now it's, how do I do this? Not by dipping my toe, let me stub my toe over and over again as long as I'm advancing. It's, it's a wonderful phenomenon to see.
[00:07:30] Nichol: You know, we also heard from our attendees on what they thought their biggest AI challenges and successes were. I.
[00:07:38] My organization's biggest challenge with ai, um, I think is more at a micro level. So we've done a fabulous job of, um, being early adopters of ai. So we had an, uh, a partnership with Open AI that allowed us.
[00:07:52] Um, to have faculty, staff and students. Um, for example, we had an AI innovation challenge where they could submit proposals on [00:08:00] how they could leverage chat GBT, um, for the learner experience, uh, research. And so we did a lot of focus on getting that implemented to get people excited about it and how they could use it within their daily work.
[00:08:12] Um, we also created an AI team to help support a lot of these activities. So I think we've done a great job there. Um, the place where I think we need more work is for someone at my level. So I run that human resources team. How do I get excited about ai? How does my team use ai? Um, I think that's a space where we, we, we find a little bit more challenging. Our organization's biggest success with AI has been being an early adopter, um, making sure that our faculty, staff, and students knew where our stance was and that we, um, are innovative and we wanna take this tool and move it to the next step.
[00:08:49] Um, we created an AI team to help support the university's vision of where we need to go. Um, we had an AI innovation challenge where faculty, staff and students could submit proposals around [00:09:00] how they could use AI tools, um, around research. Learning and the student experience. Our organization's biggest challenge with AI is that we've been creators and producers of AI for our customers for over a decade now, and we're just starting to be able to see how we can be able to, as employees begin to use it too. So there's been a variation between what we're pushing forward to with the rest of the world and what we're actually being able to do in our own organization.
[00:09:25] Our organization's biggest success with AI has been the introduction of Google, Gemini, and the gems that go along with it. Every day I'm hearing from my coworkers using new of the technologies, new gems that are being created in varying ways. They're being used from a marketing perspective, from a product and product development perspective, and our field facing teams as well. my organization's biggest challenge with AI has really been mindset and people looking at how they do work and, and being able to see things differently and embrace AI for what it is and without fear. my company's biggest success in AI [00:10:00] has been, um, really in our support team and being able to use AI to answer the more rote questions, the questions that, that they get asked 15 times a day and let them answer escalations and, and the questions that they really need a human for. My organization basic challenge is really the culture and this is what you discuss a lot during the conference. The, the culture readiness for a transformation like this, uh, it's, since it's a biopharmaceutical company, it's a lot of high regulations and, and everything you change, it would change everything then it take a while.
[00:10:35] Uh, but we are. Open, you know, to really start to focus in, in baby steps, small things in the beginning. Um, but is the culture of readiness that we need to make sure everybody is open to, uh, uh, this new adaptation. Yeah. Since we didn't really start the, the, the, the AI implementation yet, uh, we didn't really [00:11:00] have much success. But we are, we're taking a lot of time on the planning because we believe if you are planning, uh, correctly, uh, the adoption. Of everybody, it would be easier.
[00:11:11] C8162: Yeah, I think. The speed can be a little bit challenging. I think as I sit here and listen to all of the speakers talk about how quickly things are changing, I, I, I get a little worried about those who are left behind.
[00:11:23] I think when things move quickly, our most marginalized people get, sometimes get left behind. So I worry that the biases, um, that are built into rapidly moving technologies can negatively impact people with disabilities. Um, but we're really excited about the opportunities as well. Wow, One of our successes in using AI recently has been the rollout of a, a toolkit for our corporate HR partners to utilize AI in every step of the talent management lifecycle, from recruitment to retention, with a specific focus on ensuring that people with disabilities, um, have the [00:12:00] accommodations that they need to do their job effectively and that they are.
[00:12:02] Accurately being represented in the workforce. Great.
[00:12:06] Nichol: So Alex, there were a lot of fascinating discussions at our event, but I'm curious, what were your personal highlights?
[00:12:15] Alex: So my highlights varied so much. It was fascinating. I loved, actually, I attended one of your sessions just standing in the back a little bit and loved hearing about all the ethical challenges that arise and hearing our attendees kind of share the ethical challenges that arise when they're thinking about implementation and use of ai, especially around intellectual property and, and the use of intellectual property.
[00:12:38] So we heard from our friends at BlackRock, uh, Neil and Nick, the CTO and the CHRO, talking specifically about all the kinds of things that they talk about when they're leading the transformation, the continued transformation in terms of either investments or the kinds of things that they look at specifically around AI within their own organization and talking about.
[00:12:57] How they may approach the problem [00:13:00] differently. What happens when they don't agree? How do they develop the synergy that they need to ensure that they're approaching it together and actually leading to the transformation that they want? Um, and then some of the other things that I really thought were just powerful or watching people's reactions to, uh, some of the things that we unveiled for them, some of the new technologies that they, they heard about here at, at, uh, a IHI.
[00:13:21] It was fascinating to hear what they had to say.
[00:13:24] Nichol: Yeah, and one of my favorite quotes from the event was Mickey McManus. He quoted the head of innovation for Lego, where she said AI is like a hammer plus a ocean. Plus a swarm of bees. And he made the point that people are talking about it as if it's a person and he says it's not a person, but it also is all of these things.
[00:13:52] So it's a, a tool and it's an ocean. So it has this infiniteness to it and it's a swarm of bees. You can send it [00:14:00] off to do your bidding. And so it's a combination of things and what I loved about it is Mickey draws things and every drawing that was in his presentation is something that he actually, I. Is drawn.
[00:14:13] And so just watching the audience really relate to what he was saying because it was delivered in such a, you know, a very, really kind of tactile way. So that that was a highlight for me.
[00:14:31] Alex: We also heard quite a bit from others, like some of the speakers that we had today. I know you, uh, got to spend some time with Guillermo, uh, today, and one of the things that he talked about, uh, it was really thinking about how this innovation is no different than some of the other innovations that have happened in the past.
[00:14:46] He, he shared a wonderful anecdote about his grandmother. And thinking specifically about what it was like for her when she was the main coffee maker, barista of her town in Italy, and there was the new innovation of a coffee machine and an [00:15:00] espresso machine and something that was completely outside the realm of what she really wanted to do.
[00:15:05] He told the story about how she didn't come down and actually look at it. Wouldn't even go in the kitchen or make coffee for three days. Then within a year she was actually the lead barista again, but using greater efficiency, greater opportunity and everything you might imagine with a different frame of mind.
[00:15:21] And it was fascinating to hear how that's really what's happening in the world with ai. I.
[00:15:26] Nichol: Yeah, and what we heard in multiple different sessions today was about the frame of reference that people bring to it, and when we're. Inspiring and encouraging and, and nudging and supporting people in change. The way that you describe it and the way the words that you used earlier, we started the day with.
[00:15:49] With Lynn Jeffries, the futurist from Institute for the Future, and also Ben Eubanks, who is a, also a researcher in HR. [00:16:00] And one of the things that Lynn said is very, very careful how you describe it. She actually took issue with describing AI as a worker, as a person. It's a tool. And she felt that that. The, you know, the describing these as people, uh, is one of the things that makes it difficult for people to really embrace it.
[00:16:22] Alex: It was fascinating. I loved how Lynn also referenced some of the work that, uh, Toshi Anders who had on her team there really does look at the world of AI and how there are things that we think we know about it and what we message around it that really make a big difference in the way that people adopt it.
[00:16:40] You know, I also think a little bit about what SHRM's Chief of Staff and Chief External Relations Officer Emily Dickens talked about during her session and thinking specifically about responsible policy around ai. But one of the things that really kind of struck a chord with me was really that AI is not.
[00:16:57] This or that. It is a [00:17:00] transformative opportunity and energy and it is something that we should all harness and leverage, and it can be any number of these things, whether you're talking about this swarm of bees or you're talking about the army of coders or you're talking about what it might be. It's all those things wrapped up into one, but its core is transformative energy.
[00:17:17] Nichol: And, and to build on that, one of the things that I quite like. About this year is that, you know, last year it was all like, what is ai? Oh my goodness. This year everyone's really asking for how, how do they use it? But then the, the level down is that one of the, the speakers today said, AI is not one big thing.
[00:17:42] AI is so many different types of ai. So that's one level of, of separating things out. And then the second part was use different ai. For different things and different tasks and orientations. [00:18:00] And so we're starting to get to a level of granularity where we're understanding that, on some things we want mustard on some things, we want ketchup on other things, we want mayonnaise and, that there's a mix and appropriate time.
[00:18:15] And then sometimes you just put it all together. And so I think that's good because we're, gonna start being able to, Turn the knobs and I think have better outcomes as people are really learning how to use the tools. So it's a maturation that can be witnessed from year to year, and I think that's great.
[00:18:37] Alex: I'm, I'm fascinated to see, to your point, how do we make it so that we're actually creating, you know, this is the one area where we want this, this is the one area where we apply this type of technology. This is where we do this, and then this is where we make thousand island dressing. Right. A little bit of ketchup and a little bit of, uh, mayonnaise, right?
[00:18:54] So all these things are opportunities that we really can think about how we change the world.
[00:18:59] These are [00:19:00] just a few of the highlights that Nicole and I shared just from our experience at this event, but we also asked our attendees to tell us what it is that they heard, what they experienced, what they learned, and share it back with us.
[00:19:12] at the conference I learned that we need to be able to use thoughtful tools to be able to evaluate and prioritize all the AI ideas that we have.
[00:19:20] There was one activity where we looked at impact relative to time to be able to execute and how we could prioritize our various activities accordingly. And I think that's something that we can take back to our team because we have so many great ideas and we'll never get to them all. But how can we be able to really build a model that allows us to be able to choose the right ones that have the biggest impact.
[00:19:38] C8162: This has been an incredible conference. I think the speakers have been so knowledgeable and I've really learned a lot. Um, you know, I'm not, I'm a a lawyer by trade. I'm not a technical expert.
[00:19:48] And so learning about the ways that, um, software engineers think about AI technologies and the different types, um, has been really interesting and I think we will be something that I'm gonna share [00:20:00] with my organization and we can also then share with our partners
[00:20:03] I really like the perspective, uh, AI as a.
[00:20:07] Transformation and not, uh, just a tool and application. And I want to make sure, like this will be a very, um, clear not just for the teams that are implementing, but also for, for the all employees and, and be able that they, they, they understand. And they bind the idea to really make sure we can do a, a good, uh, adoption on the whole organization. One thing I learned at this conference that I really am excited to take back is that it doesn't necessarily take a huge investment to begin using ai because we're a small organization.
[00:20:40] Uh, it's really an evaluation of what is the most effective or what, what we can affect most by using ai. And I'm excited to bring that back and just start the work.
[00:20:52] One thing I've learned at this event, um, and it's maybe not something I learned, it's a concept I've heard before, but it really resonated with me, was that [00:21:00] AI is not gonna replace my job or do our job.
[00:21:03] It's someone who's gonna be able to use the tool. That replaces my job or your job. And so as a leader, that makes me want to better understand the tools that are available, make opportunities available for in my employees so that the way, if they wanna step into this space, they can and there'll be a place for them moving forward.
[00:21:21] Alex: so Nicole, last question for us on this episode. What's the number one piece of advice that you would give an executive or an HR team about the power of harnessing or how they might harness AI and AI together?
[00:21:37] Nichol: You know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna go off piece and I'm gonna do two. So the first thing I would say, especially from what we've learned at the event, is the first thing you need is not an AI strategy. It's a strategy. So AI is just to accomplish your goals, and so really understanding what the company or your [00:22:00] strategy is as number one.
[00:22:01] Then after that is understanding. In the different things that AI can do, what is evolutionary, what is revolutionary, and going from there, and I quite like that because our audience is getting a lot of inbound from different solutions. And if they don't start with what their own strategy is and really understanding what their own problems are, the, you know, what they're presented with.
[00:22:29] From a vendor could define their strategy as opposed to starting with strategy. So that's number one. And then number two is that because this is really just the very beginning of a very long race, there are no experts that understand each company context, culture. There's no external experts for that, and so it might as well be you.[00:23:00]
[00:23:00] It could be you. You know, the HR person, they understand their culture, they understand their company, they understand their context, and especially if they're leaning into the business decisions, they understand the strategy for their department and also the organization because they do workforce planning and all of those other things.
[00:23:17] And so, you know, for anyone who thinks that they're not credentialed. To step into the room on ai, they are credentialed because there are no experts. It might as well be you. And I think that that's like, I feel very empowered. Um, and I feel like that's very freeing. And so that's the, the second thing I, I want people to really know.
[00:23:41] Alex: you know, when I think about this, one of the things that stands out to me is I, there's two things that I would say. Number one is. Imagine that you are at a buffet and there is any number of solutions that you can try, and it is a buffet of ai, and there's nothing that says that you only have to accept [00:24:00] one or limit the number of plates that you can get.
[00:24:02] There's every number of vendor that you might imagine, right? And every type of solution that you might imagine, and it is all burgeoning. But one thing that we don't do well, and I know this because I've been in this, in these shoes, having been in HR and been in corporate HR, one of the things that stands out is not only is it important to make sure that you are taking advantage of all the possible kind of options out there, but push back on your vendors.
[00:24:27] Sometimes your vendors haven't thought of every possible solution or every possible use case, and sometimes you're giving them an opportunity that they wouldn't necessarily have if you push back on them. So I think that's a real big opportunity and a real big learning that I walk away from. The other thing that I always remind myself is if you don't know where to start.
[00:24:46] If you are at the beginning of your AI plus AI journey, my advice is always start with, it's worthwhile to have an AI tool, analyze your workplace data, start with data. Now, obviously I'm [00:25:00] biased, I'm the chief data and analytics officer, right? But one of the things that stands out is you can use a chatbot, you can use an analytical tool, you can unleash a bunch of AI into your actual workforce data and say.
[00:25:12] What are you seeing that I don't see help me make better purchasing decisions, help me make better decisions about where I'm missing out on skills that I should be taking into account for my talent pool. All those kinds of questions you can ask AI to tackle the data you have currently in your HRIS system and not limit yourself off the bat.
[00:25:32] It's a real easy application and something to dive into right away.
[00:25:35] Nichol: Well, Alex, I think that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Thanks so much for chatting with me.
[00:25:40] Alex: same Nicole and I always appreciate the opportunity to be on set with you and to our audience. We hope we see you next year at our event for the ai Hi, project 2026,
[00:25:52] Nichol: Till then, sign up for our weekly newsletter for weekly trends and advice.
[00:25:57]
[00:25:57] Alex: Just head to SHRM dot org slash [00:26:00] ihi. Thanks for joining us. See you next week for our next podcast episode.
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