Ep 261 – AI Confessions: What HR Is Really Saying | MPL Team

1. Custom GPTs are breaking under their own weight

Bob and McKenzie Clement (Director, Compensation, People Systems, & Analytics) from Articulate shared what happens when enthusiasm runs ahead of strategy. Their team dove into custom GPTs for org charts and HR info — only to find themselves overwhelmed by maintenance.

“Someone made a custom GPT to query the org chart… and it was out of date instantaneously. Somebody got a promotion the next day.”

The key takeaway: without a live data source or internal “org brain,” AI tools quickly lose value — and keeping them updated becomes someone's full-time job.

2. The biggest blocker? It’s not the tools — it’s the tech debt

AI isn’t limited by potential — it’s limited by systems that can’t talk to each other. As McKenzie put it, the dream isn’t just AI that answers questions — it’s AI that can trigger workflows and automate real work across your stack.

“If everything happens independently, it’s just not actually making our life easier yet.”

Until that connectivity improves, most teams will keep getting stuck at proof-of-concept.

3. Want to use AI? Better re-skill your entire HR team

Sarah Bernstein, VP of AI Workforce Transformation at Lumen, put it bluntly: AI is a transformation. And transformations don’t succeed unless leaders create space for experimentation and upskilling.

“There’s a maturity curve… and a need to allow people to learn. You’ve got to help leaders, managers, and individuals step into this.”

Her advice? Think like a product team: pilot fast, support managers, and expect different adoption curves across org functions.

4. Forget the hype — agentic AI isn’t here yet

Agentic AI isn’t here yet. What’s actually being used today are simplified workflows — automated sequences that replace 10 clicks with two, not fully autonomous agents.

Sarah nailed it:

“Right now, your parent agent isn’t that smart. We’re imagining a world where agents talk to agents — but it’s not here yet.”

Until then, most “AI-powered” features are just streamlined workflows dressed up with a better UX.

5. AI won’t replace you. But it will require you to level up

Everyone we spoke to shared some version of the same truth: AI isn’t here to take your job — but it is here to change it. And that means people leaders need to re-orient their work now.

Sarah shared:

“It’s scary because it means personal change or work change. But we have to be thoughtful and caring about that.”

The future of HR isn’t just about using AI tools — it’s about becoming the kind of leader who can navigate what comes next.

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Thanks for reading. See you next time!

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