HR, We Have a Problem - The agentic workforce is here and these are the questions HR leaders must ask before it goes rogue.

[00:00:00] Yeah, and it may have been some of the frightening if you will because the reality is the component parts of Galaxy are still very relevant today. We shared that architecture, if you will, architectural diagram. The realities of us offering learning and talent and intelligence solutions are what we've been calling learn at it and those are still very much there on a modern VWACs available across devices.

[00:00:28] And then at the base layer, the trust and governance and the skills engine and the infants tech from Swahov, that's all very real and very today and we can take advantage of it. It's just now we've mastered the right with the context graph that we've introduced to people graph. That powerhouse with the skills engine now to take all the data, if you will, and work, but move it through that skills engine that we found,

[00:00:55] makes all those capabilities all the more powerful than we've had in the past because it has more high-techs and an understanding of the workforce. Welcome to the HR Huddle Podcast presented by Sapient Insights Group, the ultimate resource for all things HR. It's time to get in the huddle.

[00:01:25] Sudeep Kharian, lead product marketing, Gary Korp, a handful of times. Well, I've been reading everything. Yeah, absolutely. It's had a great season. Yeah. How's everything going on? You know, it's been, it's going well. We've been really bringing a lot of this that we've been holding inside to life. I mean, Stacey and her team have been great partners. I do stuff with Ray.

[00:01:45] See it on the walls to see and to have the conversation, just having lunch with a few of our customers, just hearing them the way they want to take their works and seeing where we can fit in with Fullal is pretty amazing. So yeah, that's the most interesting thing to me is the customer perspective. I want to talk a little bit about that, bringing the analyst stuff and getting their perspective and sort of trying some stuff out. I think that how has been their reaction to the sort of workforce? Yeah.

[00:02:15] Because I, I could hear some concern from Haman Shurits and others. So like, you know, is this, you know, too much too soon after, you know, we just kind of let them know galaxy would be bringing everything together. And now is that seeing a very split up? How has been their thoughts on it? Yeah. And it may have been something that frightening if you will, because the reality is the component parts of galaxy are still very relevant today. I played a few and we shared that market texture, if you will, architectural diagram.

[00:02:43] The realities of us offering learning and talent and intelligence solutions are what we've been calling learn. I didn't influence from them. And those are still very much there on a modern relax available across devices. And then at the base layer, the trust in governance and the skills engine and the infants tech from Spalhouse. That's all very real and very today. And we can play advantage of it.

[00:03:10] It's just now we've mastered the right with the, the context graph that we've been introduced about. People graph that powerhouse with the skills engine now to take all the data, if you will, and work. But maybe that through that skills engine that we found makes all those capabilities all the more powerful than we've had in the past. Because in Osmo, high techs didn't understand any of the workforce. But then on the top layer, you have the agents, right?

[00:03:37] Some of which are pre-built because we've spent that time with customers over these months to say, what are the outcomes? What are the challenges you're actually trying to solve? And it's been a bit of an unlock for not just us, but our customers. Like we're no longer just saying, hey, I'm trying to drive compliance. So like the more narrow, but important, you know, people or HR oriented things they're trying to solve against.

[00:04:02] But we can really have, especially when we talk to individuals outside of HR, we can really have a question, a conversation around what are you trying to, what makes it easier out of them? And then try to layer in where we go from there. So that top layer, if you will, would be agent, agent, as well as in the work at any piece. And that's another big part of the conversation with customers, including that lunchroom, which I can talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Without dropping any aims, you're allowed to tell me a little about that.

[00:04:29] And I also want to circle back to what you mentioned about the entry slayer. I want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. So, so this lunchroom is a media company and their struggle with right now is they've had, they know that AI will play back in transforming what they do. And they're missing in their organizations and people that can define the workflows. Missing that function in their people is the cheap people officer who started off with.

[00:04:55] So, like how do you bring in someone that really understands the workflow of these various businesses that then they can bring in the right technology or take advantage of agents in a way that we're the best at the right, if you will. And so it's just really interesting hearing that from an HR professional. Yeah. Versus someone on the, you know, IT side, if you will, or otherwise. And so hearing people really thinking about how do I best architect this? I don't make sure the right people are thinking strategically on how to set this up.

[00:05:25] And it's broader. It's modern as well. And so I was pleasantly surprised. Do I have the right people in place as I introduce these new agentex solutions that will have you? And then the other part of the lunch that was interested was when they were talking about the need for dynamic job, job attention, if you will. Yeah.

[00:05:47] And how diverse, say these enterprises are and to either job families they have and the jobs that they have to do and the importance of. It's interesting because you kind of kicked off by saying, you know, or you're done. But one of the things that came up in our research, she said, it wasn't when we asked like, what was the hesitation to using that? Right. For those that weren't, it wasn't that they didn't feel like they were technically ready or, you know, security and privacy. Those are concerns.

[00:06:16] But number one is people just, if you don't know enough about it, you don't really have knowledge of what's going on with the housing and all. So it does make sense knowing that, right. To start from that, of course, back to saying, here's what, here's the whole view of what you've got. Right. That I certainly find the architecture. He is, you need some of the knowledge management strangely enough that came up. So some of that orchestration, you know, and the illustration layer that then starts to make a lot more sense of like, what is really happening here?

[00:06:44] As we're starting to see a lot more interesting. The same line of the illustration that you just figuring out that dynamic between the agent modeling and the sort of, I guess more traditional where the people fit in. Yeah. Absolutely. Because we had a lot of this sort of like people in the loop, but that's kind of meaningless in the back here, right? It's exactly where. That's right. That's right. And in fact, we have a breakout session to follow through your AI agents become secret agents. And it's, we're really trying to break this down.

[00:07:13] We'll try to meet people across a range of experiences that are, I think it might be soon after the keynote. Oh, well then I'll be able to make it. But it's essentially trying to get, right. As we have this burgeoning relationship right between HR and IT. We want to make sure our HR leaders that we, we have key relationships with asking those key questions. Who's accountable for the decisions that come out of these things? Or is there traceability, explainability?

[00:07:41] A series of like baseline questions that can just establish trust. So that when certain actions are taken on your behalf, that you've established the controls. And they've said to work on your business. And sometimes IT may not always know when it comes to people. And of what's required, where a human may need to be engaged. Otherwise it could go rogue, if you will.

[00:08:04] And you can hate to be in a situation where managers notify that someone has a development opportunity or what have you. But if you're asking the right questions. So we're trying to help with that, that language, that combination of what's had to talk. A little bit different on what you were talking. No, no, that's fascinating. It's something that has come up a lot, which is that, you know, we've kind of moved past the, I guess, maybe the first like year or two of AI. Of like, let's just look at the capabilities and figure out where we can plug it in.

[00:08:34] To thinking about where is this, what is the ideal situation? Where is we getting this value and the outcomes that we're driving with that? And just say, what is the possibility? So now it's like, okay, but what is, what are we doing? And something that, you know, folks say, see, and others talk about, which is, you know, HR is uniquely situated in the AI space, not because of the tech, but because of what you just said, like, of it going rogue or doing things it's not supposed to. That's a, that's an HR problem.

[00:09:02] That's what HR's job is to figure out why people do things. And then, you know, I take them easily figure any sort of IO type switch. Right. Right. Easily. But you get what I'm saying. That's our job is to figure out if then sort of scenarios. But the, if that is somewhat not the person, but someone like what we're seeing with IT or I'm sorry, AI. It's like, we don't know exactly what's happening. Was it the prompt that was bound? Was it the access points? Was why did it do this?

[00:09:29] And figure out almost like behaviors and motivations and that, and figure out what is the ideal outcome? And then how do we achieve that outcome without knowing all the steps you obtain? It's not a perfect. That's right. Right. And I think that the relationship will be a powerful one when done right. Cause you know, HR in my view has that empathy and understanding of how critical workforce decisions are. How high stakes are because it's people's careers, people's life ahead.

[00:09:55] And so putting the table already with the mindset that these are the questions we need to be mindful of through that process beyond just the tech. I'm so if we could bring that together. Hopefully it's. And then one last, I want to circle back to what you mentioned about the inference. Right. Because that's, that's been kind of the key thing that's been happening with. I, I at least seen that each HR space, HR text, which is anything relies heavily on inference, right?

[00:10:24] Or anything that's going to have to at some point, Bob or the hyperscaler or so on an immediate. Ah, inference models means that you start to get some variability in price. And I definitely know it for like, that's what trying to avoid, right? We've seen this for almost all the major, you know, all the ER keys and a lot of the other, you know, big names out there is that they're starting to go to usage based models or consumption. And it sounds like you guys are taking very deliberate stance away from that.

[00:10:52] So how you shielding yourself in the costs of inference, which could be variable, right? To like a standardized pricing model. You know, I think. Pricing models are what a lot are exploring, right? I know this is slightly outside of the product side. No, no, no worries. I mean, I think we're trying to be, we're almost trying to be customers first, if we will.

[00:11:12] And, you know, while some have chosen to charge by usage of Google, some have chosen to, you know, charge customers for their own data, PI calls. We're trying to, in summary, be a little bit different at this stage in the game and really stay focused on the outcomes that people are trying to focus on. And, and, and forecast out what we believe that potential usage would be, but then make it a simple one.

[00:11:39] Like today, through our PEBI model, the subscription model, like that's an easier to understand in the world. How can we transition people to a simple value where you have a platform fee, pay for a category of agents, if you will, they could play. Hi, we're Meg and Amy from the Meg and Amy Show. We're not only tech execs and big picture thinkers, we're also best friends. We're curious learners.

[00:12:08] And on this podcast, we're challenging the status quo and activating the future. And we're going to give advice about work and leadership, right Meg? You know, we can't help ourselves, but this podcast is about exploring possibility, not being right. That sounds refreshing. For more, tune in to the Meg and Amy Show. Looking for my certain outcomes to you, the agent tax has been so far from talking about customers. It's, it's easier for them to get off.

[00:12:36] It makes it simpler with them not having the forecast on their side, how much does the center cost? It's a bit more predictable. Now is the risk of outside we're taking on? Absolutely. But we'd rather have that risk on outside as we explore with them. Does that mean it's going to be exactly the same three years from now? I don't think any vendor could probably say that with confidence, but we're trying to drive, like drive that adoption and keep people, keep the conversation boiling in and around.

[00:13:05] And, hey, what are we kind of saying for them? Yeah. And bring our 7,000 customers from the world that we know, the world that I'm going to, because what we're finding is talking about customers, it's difficult for them to even forecast. Okay. Tell me about the usage model. How do I, how do I budget? What should I be asking for that? And those, and so we, we've decided to take out some of that.

[00:13:31] So yeah, helping to kind of discover that, you know, going from, again, they were just, they don't know what they do now. Right. And they're aware of that way of helping them understand. Yeah. So it is pretty interesting. You definitely on the cutting edge of life, you know, that's what we all know. Sure. Discovery. Which makes sense for a, for a learning company. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I think that, Monshu said something to the point of, it's not that learning is going away. It's a methodology of our end is changing.

[00:13:57] Because I think Josh had made some supposition that, oh, learning's going to go away. And he said, oh, I don't know if that's true. Right. Right. Yeah. Learning. We strongly believe that learning's been around since dawn of time. Many people need to continue to learn and grow. It's just the, the mechanisms in which they're doing so. Yeah. Continue to, you know, I can see how that could be a provocative statement that would try a conversation. But the reality is I'm learning from this conversation. Right.

[00:14:27] And so it's just about opportunity to now better capture all of the learning that people are having through the engagements that they have at home, as well as then giving them that opportunity to further learn to continue that one. But we can now have, because of more of the touch points of listening, if you will, and observation. There's a better, there's more clarity of what is an individual, what is an organization, what does a team know?

[00:14:55] And then be more intentional. That is it. And I close those gaps. So. Thank you. Yeah. Not always. No, no, that's not. No, it's absolutely. So in the next, like, you know, six months to a year, I know you're not that excited about pricing models. What are you personally looking to open to see like customers get into or stuff that you guys are putting out? What, what for you personally, you look at. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:22] You know, well, I mean, short of, you know, after a decade at LinkedIn, like I was, I was really excited. Yeah. Three years ago. Is that they have. So I think what I'm most excited about is this broader platform that we're introducing the market. What that's going to, what problems that's, what's really going to unlock for the organizations. We talked about this context graph that, or what we're calling the commercial people graph that you're really excited about. By the way, it's when they're gratifying with some of these customers.

[00:15:52] If they talk about the possibilities that are unlocked now, my understanding of what affairs and sell six to 12 months, I'm hopeful that the nature of who we're talking to day to day is expanded. Now there's more, a lot of business leaders. There's more CEOs or more CEOs at the table because it's fundamentally. Answering bigger questions that they're trying to, you know, you talk about. Uh, this goes, we've made it for my best friend actually. How did they go about making that decision?

[00:16:22] How to structure that workforce through the future? How are they getting the right people in place? So if we are finding people finding cornerstone as that solution that help drive those larger decisioning, but also actioning against that to compare that. Well, that's going to be very good. I'm not a possibility. So now nine right now, right? Pre pre announcement, but, uh, moving back. Could we get that into a much better place? Uh, six to 12 months.

[00:16:49] So, you know, and that's nine without actually formally being a place. Yeah. I'd be excited if it catches on and we're driving change. Yeah. Thank you very much. Great to catch up with you. All right. All right. .