In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Jim Kanichirayil sits down with Abby Landreneau, Director of HR Compliance and Contracts at AG-CON LLC, a rapidly growing construction company, to talk about using AI and automation in a high-volume, compliance-heavy HR environment.

Abby shares how rapid growth, seasonal hiring, field-based teams, and tight project timelines forced HR to replace informal processes with structured, mobile-first systems. She explains why the most useful AI applications are not about handing decisions to a model. They are about helping a lean team redesign forms, reduce preventable errors, build repeatable workflows, and spend less time on manual formatting and follow-up.

The conversation covers how Abby's team adapted monday.com into a shared hiring and onboarding pipeline, moved paperwork online, coordinated safety, payroll, HR, and project management around the same start date, and used Lean Six Sigma principles to keep required steps from being skipped. Abby also explains why AI-generated policies, forms, and legal information still require knowledgeable review, fact-checking, and access to subject matter experts.

Her central message is practical: do not wait for a process to be perfect before improving it, but do not confuse speed with permission to remove controls. AI can help HR move faster and create more consistent processes, while human judgment remains essential for compliance, context, and accountability.

Topics Discussed:

• How rapid growth changes the structure an HR team needs
• Why change initiatives need clear reasoning, employee input, and positive intent
• Designing mobile-first HR processes for field-based employees and managers
• Using AI to error-proof forms and improve existing workflows
• Why HR should not use AI to build unfamiliar compliance processes from scratch
• Recruiting and onboarding candidates who may not submit traditional resumes
• Adapting monday.com into a shared candidate and employee pipeline
• Coordinating HR, payroll, safety, and project teams around fast start dates
• Applying Lean Six Sigma controls to prevent required steps from being skipped
• Using AI to create more tailored performance review questions and formats
• Automating performance review distribution and tracking through an HRIS
• Why AI outputs, sources, and links still need human fact-checking

If you lead HR in a growing, field-based, seasonal, or project-driven organization, this episode offers a grounded look at where AI can remove manual work, where process controls matter most, and why compliance still depends on experienced human judgment.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Connect with Abby Landreneau on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Kellie Shotwell, VP of HR and Operations at SMS Group of Companies, talks about applying AI and automation across the candidate and employee lifecycle. Kellie shares how her team improved staffing operations by building smarter workflows into systems they already used rather than starting over with an entirely new technology stack.

The conversation focuses on a central tension for staffing and HR leaders: how to automate administrative work without making the candidate experience feel transactional. Kellie explains how SMS uses mobile-first onboarding, personalized workflows, automated scheduling, skill-based candidate routing, and ongoing employee check-ins while keeping one recruiter connected to each candidate throughout the hiring process.

Kellie also shares the operational results behind the approach. SMS reduced time to fill by roughly 75 percent, increased the rate at which candidates were hired by clients by 35 percent, extended assignment lengths by about 40 percent, and brought hospitality no-show rates below 2 percent. These gains came from faster communication, automated reminders, better use of existing candidate data, and fewer manual handoffs.

The episode closes with a practical approach to AI adoption. Start with repetitive administrative work and compliance-heavy processes, involve frontline employees in workflow design, introduce changes gradually, and preserve human judgment when evaluating candidates. AI should move the process forward, but it should not replace the relationship-building that helps candidates feel seen and supported.

Topics Discussed:

• How to apply AI across both the candidate and employee lifecycle
• Balancing high-volume hiring speed with a personalized candidate experience
• Building mobile-first application, onboarding, and document workflows
• Using AI to route applicants to better-fitting jobs and recruiters
• Re-engaging passive candidates within an existing talent database
• Automating 30-, 60-, and 90-day employee and client check-ins
• Reducing manual work in payroll, tax documentation, and compliance reporting
• Introducing AI workflows without eliminating recruiter ownership of relationships
• How employee involvement and small pilots improve AI adoption
• The impact of automation on time to fill, assignment length, hire-in rates, and no-shows

If you lead staffing, recruiting, HR operations, or talent acquisition and are trying to identify practical AI use cases, this episode offers a grounded model for automating repetitive work while preserving the human connection that candidates and employees value.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Connect with Kellie Shotwell on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Jim sits down with Lindsay Castro, General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources at HCM Unlocked, to talk about how organizations can build AI governance that employees can understand and use in practice.

Lindsay explains why AI tools will continue moving faster than policies, regulations, and legal precedent. Instead of freezing or banning every new tool, she recommends starting with an inventory of how AI is already being used, assessing the data and platform risks, and giving employees clear examples of what is and is not allowed.

The conversation covers confidential information, human review, discoverability, vendor contracts, embedded AI features, biometric data, and the risks of allowing AI-generated recommendations to influence people's decisions without proper oversight. Lindsay also shares how HCM Unlocked uses cross-functional ownership, tiered risk assessments, approved-platform controls, and employee feedback to govern new AI tools.

The central takeaway is that a policy alone is not governance. Organizations need clear ownership, a repeatable approval process, employee education, and a living playbook that can change as technology, business needs, and legal requirements evolve.

Topics Discussed:

• Why AI tools are moving faster than policy and legal precedent
• How to inventory the AI tools employees and clients are already using
• Why leaders should learn the tools before setting employee rules
• The baseline rule for keeping confidential and client data out of public AI systems
• How human review prevents confident but inaccurate AI output from becoming a business decision
• What to evaluate when approving AI platforms and recording tools
• How retention, discoverability, privacy, and vendor contracts affect AI risk
• Why embedded AI features can create new exposure inside existing HR systems
• How legal, HR, technology, and employees can share responsibility for AI governance
• How tiered risk assessments and approval workflows control new AI tools
• What organizations should do when AI adoption starts from the bottom up
• Why an AI playbook must remain a living document

If you are an HR, legal, compliance, or technology leader trying to support responsible AI use without stopping experimentation, this episode offers a practical framework for creating guardrails people can actually follow.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Lindsay Castro on LinkedIn

AI can help HR teams move faster, but Miranda Pokoy argues that it should never be the first answer to a broken process. In this Future Proof HR conversation, Miranda shares how her background in workforce planning, resource allocation, and HR infrastructure shaped her practical approach to building systems before adding technology.

The episode centers on a simple question HR leaders face right now: what are we actually trying to solve for? Miranda and Jim discuss why AI and automation are most effective when they accelerate a process that is already clear, measurable, and grounded in the realities of the business.

They also cover how Partnerize thinks about lean HR team design, the balance between finance-driven efficiency and people-centered optimization, and why "solve first, hire last" does not automatically mean "automate first." Miranda shares examples across hiring, learning and development, manager enablement, individual development plans, and employee growth.

For HR leaders deciding where AI belongs in their function, this conversation offers a useful lens: start with the pain point, tighten the process, define the outcome, and then decide whether technology can help.

Topics Discussed:

• Why HR teams need a strong process foundation before applying AI
• How workforce planning and resource allocation prepared Miranda for HR leadership
• The "what are we trying to solve for?" question as a prioritization tool
• Why automation can amplify chaos when the underlying process is weak
• How HR leaders can bridge finance's cost lens with people optimization
• What "solve first, hire last" looks like inside a lean HR team
• How Partnerize approached L&D without a full-time L&D resource
• Building ideal candidate profiles, competencies, and hiring scorecards
• Guardrails for using candidate profiles without creating rigid hiring filters
• How AI-generated resumes are changing recruiter workload and screening
• Making employee growth more intentional with career paths and IDPs
• Using technology to support manager-employee development conversations
• Why AI should be treated as an accelerant, not a cure

If you are an HR, people operations, talent acquisition, or L&D leader thinking about where AI should fit into your organization, this episode is a practical reminder to solve the right problem before choosing the tool.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Miranda Pokoy on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Jim sits down with Tammy Sergie, CHRO and Privacy Officer at Edgewood Health Network in Canada, to talk about what AI adoption looks like inside a healthcare environment facing funding pressure, staffing shortages, and constant change. Tammy explains why AI is not just a cost-control tool for healthcare teams. It can help people spend less time on repetitive work and more time on the human moments that matter most.

Tammy shares how mental health and addiction care creates a unique talent challenge. The work is deeply human, often emotionally demanding, and difficult to scale when clinicians and nurses are in short supply. Against that backdrop, she explains how her organization is testing AI in call center triage, clinical note-taking, patient data analysis, and an HR support bot named Eva.

A major theme of the conversation is trust. Tammy talks about why AI initiatives need human oversight, clear guardrails, visible feedback loops, and communication that connects every change back to the employee experience and the patient experience. She also explains why frontline champions matter more than top-down announcements when organizations want AI to actually stick.

The episode is a practical look at how HR can lead AI adoption without losing sight of the people doing the work. For Tammy, productivity only matters when it gives time and focus back to employees and improves the care experience for patients.

Topics Discussed:

• Why Canadian healthcare funding creates pressure for HR and workforce planning
• How mental health and addiction care face different staffing realities than public healthcare
• Why do private healthcare organizations compete differently for clinicians and nurses?
• How employee experience becomes a talent strategy when compensation has limits
• Where AI is being used in call center triage, clinical note-taking, and HR support
• Why an HR bot can support employees in a 24/7 healthcare environment
• How change fatigue affects AI adoption on the front line
• Why executive alignment is not enough without frontline champions
• How feedback loops, pulse checks, and town halls make AI rollouts more visible
• Why guardrails and human oversight need to evolve as AI usage grows
• How to prioritize AI work around patient experience, employee experience, and productivity

If you are an HR leader trying to introduce AI in a high-touch, high-trust environment, this episode offers a grounded look at how to balance innovation, care, employee experience, and responsible adoption.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Tammy Sergie on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Nicole Dubois, Head of HR at Parallel ENT & Allergy, to talk about why human judgment still matters as AI becomes part of everyday HR work.

Nicole brings an operator's lens to the conversation. Before moving into HR, she led a region with a $60 million P&L, then moved through executive search, talent acquisition, startup people operations, and now full-suite HR in healthcare services. That path shapes how she thinks about HR's role in the business, not as a function that needs to prove its importance every day, but as one part of a larger operating system where finance, operations, IT, and people teams each have moments where they need to lead.

The conversation also covers Nicole's own shift from AI skeptic to regular AI user. She talks about using AI for note-taking, resume support, interview questions, and as a way to pressure-test her thinking. But she is clear that AI should complement HR judgment, not replace it. In healthcare, recruiting, employee relations, and compliance, people still need context, empathy, human conversation, and the ability to understand what a tool cannot see.

Nicole also shares how her remote HR team builds cross-functional awareness, why subject matter expertise matters when employees or patients arrive with AI-generated information, and where she draws the line in talent acquisition. AI can help surface resumes, refine interview cadence, and speed up the work, but Nicole still wants the full picture and the ability to double-check the tool's output.

Topics Discussed:

• How Nicole Dubois moved from finance operations into full-suite HR leadership
• Why an operator's mindset helps HR work more effectively across the business
• What it means for HR to have a seat at the table without treating every function as a competition
• How Nicole moved from AI skepticism to using AI regularly in HR work
• Why AI should complement human connection instead of replacing it
• How healthcare shows the limits of AI when trust, expertise, and care are involved
• How HR can respond when employees use AI or search tools to interpret workplace issues
• Why subject matter expertise still matters when people arrive with partial information
• Where AI can help in recruiting, interview design, and resume review
• Why AI-only hiring creates risk, especially in human services and healthcare roles
• How HR teams can build broader internal knowledge through shared context and collaboration
• Why Nicole still wants to double-check AI's work before making people decisions

If you are an HR or People Ops leader trying to use AI without losing the human judgment behind good people decisions, this episode offers a practical look at where AI can help, where it should be checked, and why real conversations still matter.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Nicole Dubois on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Katrina Ali, Head of Human Resources at Freebee, to talk about how HR can move from AI skepticism to practical action while keeping people at the center of the function.

Katrina shares how her perspective shifted as AI moved from a tech conversation to a workplace conversation. After hearing questions from employees and seeing uncertainty across the HR community, she worked with legal counsel and the C-suite to establish company-wide AI usage guidance and help employees understand how to use AI responsibly.

The conversation gets practical with examples from Katrina's HR team, including how they used automation in ClickUp to streamline onboarding and offboarding workflows. Instead of treating AI as a replacement for HR, Katrina frames it as a way to remove repetitive work so HR teams can spend more time on strategy, culture, manager coaching, employee experience, and trust-building.

Katrina also talks about what HR leaders need to prove to the C-suite in an AI-enabled workplace, why future HR talent needs both people skills and technology fluency, and how benefits and wellness investments can help growing companies attract and retain employees.

Topics Discussed:

• How Katrina moved from AI skepticism to action in HR
• Why AI conversations quickly became workplace conversations, not just tech conversations
• How HR partnered with legal and the C-suite to create responsible AI usage policies
• Why employees need clear guidance on when and how to use AI
• How Katrina challenged her HR team to find automation opportunities in their own workflows
• How ClickUp helped streamline onboarding and offboarding tasks
• Why removing repetitive HR work can make the function more human
• How HR can explain its value to operations-focused executive teams
• Why AI cannot replace human judgment, empathy, trust, and employee support
• What future HR leaders need to balance: technology fluency, data, strategy, and people skills
• Why HR professionals cannot leave AI entirely to the technology team
• How benefits, 401(k), and wellness programs support retention in a growing company

If you are an HR leader trying to move your team from uncertainty to practical AI adoption, this episode offers a grounded look at how to start small, build internal confidence, and use automation to create more space for strategic and human work.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Katrina Ali on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Sarah Chandler, VP of HR at Hensley Beverage Company, to talk about what it takes to keep HR high touch as AI changes the way work gets done.

Sarah shares why she sees HR as both a people function and a process function. For her, AI is not a replacement for the human side of HR. It is an efficiency expert that can help HR teams move faster on reporting, reminders, documentation, communication, and analytics so people leaders can spend more time on the moments that require judgment, trust, and connection.

The conversation covers how HR leaders can guide AI adoption across a workforce with different communication preferences, different levels of trust, and five generations working at the same time. Sarah explains why fear around AI cannot be dismissed, why early adopters still need guardrails, and why managers remain central to performance conversations, employee trust, and culture.

Sarah also shares practical examples from a blue-collar, 24/7 environment, including AI-supported employee complaint documentation, the limits of automated exit surveys, and why routing decisions still need human knowledge of stores, competitors, timing, and local context. The episode is a grounded look at what HR should automate, what it should protect, and how leaders can help employees think more intentionally about what parts of their work should stay human.

Topics Discussed:

• Why HR needs both people connection and process discipline
• How AI can act as the efficiency expert so HR can stay focused on people's work
• Why analytics, reminders, documentation, and reports are strong AI use cases for HR teams
• How HR can train employees to use AI safely while protecting confidential employee data
• Why do five generations in the workplace create different reactions to AI adoption
• How AI can amplify existing communication issues between leaders and employees
• Why managers still need human judgment in performance conversations
• What Sarah refuses to outsource to AI, including high-value exit and stay interviews
• How written complaint intake can save time, improve documentation, and reduce emotional escalation
• Why blue-collar operations still need human context even when AI can optimize routes
• How employees can assess what parts of their job should be automated and what should stay uniquely human

If you are an HR leader trying to use AI without losing trust, judgment, or human connection, this episode offers a practical look at how to rebalance the work of HR around the moments that matter most.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Sarah Chandler on LinkedIn