Hi Reader!

Less than 1% of CEOs see HR as a key partner in unlocking the value of generative AI.

That's not speculation. That's from Gartner Leadership Vision for 2025. And I really think it might be the most expensive blind spot in business right now.

Because here's what I've been seeing on the ground.

Over the past few months, I've been sitting down with HR and people leaders across industries to ask one question: what actually happens when HR takes a seat at the AI transformation table? The answers are becoming a pattern — and it's hard to ignore.

(P.S. We're turning these conversations into a full report on how HR supports organizational AI readiness, especially capability development in leaders and teams. More on that soon.)

When HR leads, things actually work

Most organizations still treat AI like an IT project: new tools, new systems, new dashboards. But the companies that are seeing real results are treating it like a business transformation. And they're pulling HR into the strategy from day one.

Here's what the data shows when that happens:

Companies ahead in AI adoption are 2.5x more likely to involve HR in helping employees identify which tasks should be automated — reducing the human friction that quietly kills most rollouts. And organizations with HR inside their AI Centers of Excellence are more likely to actually scale past the pilot phase.

HR is not magic. But the #1 reason AI initiatives fail isn't the technology. It's people, culture, and alignment — which is exactly HR's domain.

There's also a subtler dynamic worth naming: psychological safety. When employees feel safe to experiment, ask questions, and even push back on AI decisions, adoption accelerates. When they sense surveillance or fear for their jobs, the culture cracks — and the whole initiative stalls. That kind of environment doesn't build itself. Someone has to architect it.

The three-pillar framework that's actually working

Recently, I had a fantastic conversation with Dr. Shayna Cook, Chief People Officer at Dominion Payroll, for the Built by People Leaders podcast. And she shared something that stuck with me.

When her company decided to go all in on AI, she didn't let the CEO's enthusiasm outrun the org's readiness. Instead, they started an AI task force — two groups, one focused on risk and governance, one exploring tools — and built a clear philosophy around three pillars:

If it's routine work, automate it. If it's creative work, augment it with AI. If it's empathetic work, keep it human.

(Sound familiar? We covered how Stanford maps this exact spectrum in a previous issue — go back and check it out if you missed it.)

What happened next was unexpected, even for Shayna. One of her implementation specialists took the task force's open invitation to explore AI and just started building. He created agents inside their Microsoft environment that fundamentally changed how the implementation team works, saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in tools they were about to purchase.

And this story is a clear example that when HR creates the right environment — with clear governance, psychological safety, and genuine invitation — people surprise you.

Want to hear the full story from Shayna — including how she built their AI task force from scratch and what she'd do differently? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube.

Listen to the episode

The real unlock

Technology is rarely the bottleneck. The people and process challenge is. And the organizations treating HR as a core partner in AI transformation are the ones building what the research calls a "human-machine collaboration framework" — the conditions that make AI actually stick.

Talk soon,

Daria

P.S. If you know an HR or L&D leader who'd make a great guest on the Built by People show, forward them this email — I'd love to connect.