Summary
What happens when a CHRO treats AI like a brainstorming wall instead of a threat? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukherjee sits down with Jason Desentz, Chief Human Resource Officer at Toshiba America, to unpack why AI is an enhancement story, not a replacement story. Jason shares the history lesson behind his optimism, from direct deposit to factory robots to Ford's reversed AI layoffs, then goes inside Toshiba's HR Shark Tank, where cross functional teams built working Copilot agents like Payroll Princess and Time Tamer in 60 days. He also lays out his two goalpost framework for every AI decision and warns about the integration trap that could fragment HR tech stacks all over again. A practical conversation for HR and operations leaders who want to experiment with AI without disrupting the business.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:45 From police academy to CHRO
05:50 Why AI will deepen HR expertise instead of replacing it
08:50 The direct deposit lesson
13:55 Starting small with proof of concept
16:35 Inside Toshiba's HR Shark Tank
20:00 Build, borrow, or bot
21:30 The two goalposts and the integration trap
28:55 FOBO and getting people AI ready
32:55 From curious to cautious

Takeaways

-AI will change how HR work looks, not whether it exists. Like computers, direct deposit, and factory robots before it, it enhances the function and creates new work.

-Start small instead of trying to do everything at once. Pick one proof of concept and give it a full cycle, a year to 18 months, before judging whether it worked.

-Cross functional experimentation multiplies value. Toshiba's HR Shark Tank mixed payroll, field HR, business partners, and L&D to build real -Copilot agents on top of their day jobs.

-Every AI decision has to pass two goalposts: little to zero disruption to the business and a genuine improvement to the employee experience.

-Watch the integration trap. HR spent 15 years consolidating eight systems down to three, and bolting on AI point solutions risks recreating the same fragmentation.

Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-desentz/
Website: https://www.toshiba.com/

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

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary

Payroll problems were blowing up Slack channels at SurveyMonkey, and employees weren't taking them to finance. In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji talks with Becky Cantieri, Chief People Officer at SurveyMonkey, about the decision to hit the blow-up button and move payroll out of finance and into HR, how a willing CFO and one simple question (who is willing to talk to the employee?) made the handoff a slam dunk, and why the defining skill for HR leaders right now is metabolizing change: finding signal in noise fast enough to prioritize, pivot, and keep up in the AI era. A practical listen for people leaders, HR operations teams, and anyone rethinking who should own the employee experience.

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

01:16 From the Nordstrom sales floor to CPO

06:37 Fifteen years of reinvention

09:26 Metabolizing change

14:22 The payroll problem

18:31 Winning over the CFO

21:44 Rebuilding the team

28:03 The AI champion at SurveyMonkey

32:51 Refusing to wait in the AI queue

35:21 Permission, capability, agency

Takeaways

-Employees don't think in org charts. When something breaks, they go to whoever usually answers, so design ownership around the employee experience, not department history.

-The team willing to talk to employees should own the employee-facing function. SurveyMonkey moved payroll into HR when it became clear finance didn't want those conversations.

-Make handoffs safe with data: SurveyMonkey's HR team committed to SLAs and email volume reporting while banking controls stayed with finance.

-The defining HR skill right now is metabolizing change: finding signal in noise fast enough to prioritize, pivot, and keep up with AI.

-Metabolizing is teachable. It starts with curiosity, a growth mindset, and the willingness to throw out a process you built and are proud of.

Connect with the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-cantieri-85654a/

Website: https://www.surveymonkey.com

Sponsor

Summary

What happens when a CEO hands unlimited AI access to every employee, and adoption still stalls? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji sits down with Kimberly Nerpouni, Global VP of People & International Operations at Pearl, the parent company of JustAnswer. Kimberly shares why AI transformation is a human enablement problem rather than a technology problem, how her People Ops team built Pearl's AI accelerator and a 1 to 10 adoption scale with no bad scores, and her three levels of work framework for deciding what AI should absorb first. She also explains the feedback facilitator agent her team is building, the hard line she draws (AI never gives feedback, it helps managers facilitate it), and why PIPs don't exist at Pearl. This conversation is for people leaders, HR teams, and anyone navigating AI adoption inside their organization.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:45 From IT manager to people operations

04:25 JustAnswer, Pearl, and human plus AI

06:15 Inside Pearl's AI accelerator

10:55 Build, buy, or borrow

13:15 The three levels of work

17:05 AI that facilitates feedback instead of giving it

19:50 The AI agent hub and transparency

23:35 Why PIPs don't work and what replaces them

35:05 Don't wait, just do

Takeaways

-AI adoption is a human enablement problem, not a technology problem, and people ops is uniquely positioned to lead it.

-Move AI into level one work first, the tasks that don't require your expertise, so your team can focus on level two and level three work.

-Build, buy, or borrow: piloting with AI startups can reveal exactly what's worth building bespoke in-house.

-AI should facilitate feedback conversations by scanning context and prompting managers, but it should never give the feedback itself.

-Front-load clarity with job descriptions, career ladders, and employee-owned development plans so PIPs are never needed.

Connect with the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlypignolet/

Website: https://www.pearl.com

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

See more at kinfolkhq.com