1. HR leaders need to stop waiting for the CTO

Chelsea Kaden was blunt: waiting for your CTO to lead on AI is a mistake. HR should be enabling change, not watching from the sidelines.

“I kept waiting around for our CTO to do something — and that was my first miss. I finally said, 'We have to do something. Just come along with me.'”

Instead of focusing only on HR-specific use cases, Chelsea found that once she brought in the tech team, they got excited too. One tool she scoped as an HR support agent became a company-wide support channel.

“It was a larger cost to my budget, but a non-event for his. That was a big unlock.”

2. Productivity gains aren’t enough — value creation is the real unlock

Melanie Rosenwasser emphasized that time savings alone don’t tell the whole story.

“There's a difference between time saved and value created. Over 35% of employees who save time with AI are just using it to do the same work. That's not the point.”

At Dropbox, they studied top performers who were also happiest. Surprisingly, AI usage wasn’t what made them thrive — it was their ability to manage energy, protect boundaries, and stay connected across weak ties.

“You're leading the witness if you say AI unlocks productivity. It could be part of the story, but it's not the whole story.”

3. Don’t jump straight to digital twins. Start with trust.

Angela Le Mathon advised a measured approach. Building a digital twin of your org sounds cool — but it assumes your data infrastructure is solid and your people trust the systems.

“If you haven't built trust in your data, introducing sophisticated solutions just adds chaos.”

She recommends looking for boring, unsexy use cases where AI can eliminate high-burden tasks. Think compliance, scheduling, or support — things that won’t go viral, but will quietly build confidence.

“The cost of AI will rise fast. Start with the back office wins that create real savings.”

4. Don’t let budgets dictate innovation

Melanie shared how Dropbox runs Hack Week: an all-company sprint to solve problems with AI. No big budget. No fancy vendor.

“Our best experiments came from scrappy builds, not big-ticket buys.”

Chelsea echoed the sentiment. Without HR tech support, her team still led their first rollout. They kept it simple, piloted one thing, and measured what they could measure.

“Don’t try to do too much. Pick one thing. Start there.”

5. HR doesn’t need to be technical — but we do need to lead

Not everyone needs to be an AI engineer. But every HR leader needs to understand enough to steer the conversation.

“You don’t need to be the builder. But you need to know what good looks like.”

Angela laid it out simply: companies that rely only on tech to lead AI adoption will fail. This is a cultural transformation. That means HR is central.

“Treat AI like a new muscle. Start small. Build trust. Measure value. Repeat.”

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

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