Summary
L. David Kingsley, Chief People Officer at Illumio, joins Jeet Mukherjee on The WorkOps Podcast to talk about what AI is doing to the People function from inside a zero trust cybersecurity company. David spent 13 years in management consulting at Accenture and Booz Allen before a single moment changed his path: he asked a disruptive HR business partner to leave his account planning meeting, then started wondering what HR would look like if it showed up differently. Salesforce called soon after, and he has led People teams ever since.

The conversation covers the anti pattern he sees in early career teams, a 14 slide deck produced in 17 minutes that skips the learning that comes from building it yourself, and his rule that AI work should never take longer to read than it took to make. David explains how Illumio governs AI inside its own Copilot instance, why HR has to move from necessary evil to trusted advisor to earn a voice on the future of work, and how recruiting coordination has changed almost overnight. He also describes the month every member of his people team built and named an AI agent, from LL Coolpay in compensation to Ingrid in people operations, and his plan to put those agents on the org chart. For CHROs, People Ops leaders and anyone deciding where agents belong in the HR operating model.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:54 Welcome L. David Kingsley, Chief People Officer at Illumio
02:53 The day he asked HR to leave the meeting
07:57 AI slop and the learning early career people skip
15:52 Process maps in minutes, not weeks
18:50 AI governance inside a walled garden
23:20 From necessary evil to trusted advisor
31:16 The chief workforce officer and the new shape of HR
36:51 AI agents with cheeky names on the org chart
42:38 One front door for every employee

Takeaways
- AI can produce a polished 14 slide deck in 17 minutes, but early career people who skip the whiteboard to final draft process also skip the pattern matching that makes them credible in front of a board.
- David's rule for AI work product is simple: it should never take longer for someone to consume it than it took you to create it.
- Illumio keeps AI inside its own Copilot instance, steered by an executive AI committee and a working group, and would rather leave some value on the table than let company data into personal accounts.
- HR only gets a say in how AI changes the nature of work once it has moved from necessary evil to critical enabler to trusted advisor, by showing up as a business person first.
- Every member of Illumio's people team built and named an AI agent, and by the end of Q1 next year those agents will sit on the org chart reporting to each of David's direct reports.

Connect with the Guest
L. David Kingsley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldavidkingsley/
Company Website: https://www.illumio.com

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

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