Maura, the VP People Operations at a Series C SaaS company, is getting worried.
She's reading and hearing more and more about the impending SaaS-pocalypse. $300B in market value has evaporated across SaaS, data, and software-heavy investment firms.
The other execs at her company are concerned about how to incorporate AI into their product fast enough to stay ahead of changing consumer preferences and competitive pressure.
They're wondering if they need to switch from user-based pricing to usage or outcome based pricing, which would be a huge shift in how they monetize and forecast revenue.
All-in-all, it's a disruptive time to be in business. And, Maura is in charge of internal AI adoption at her company. Meanwhile, she feels like she's behind the curve on AI herself.
Sure, she's incorporated Gemini and Claude into her daily workflows, but she hasn't successfully built an agent and all of the AI impact tracking she's introduced is mainly activity-based, not outcome-based.
Even though she's partnered with the General Counsel closely, it feels like the governance around AI tools, especially for European team members and client data, is shakier than she'd like. But, she really doesn't want to be seen as slowing the company down when there's a huge AI push and terms like "governance" don't seem to be making anyone popular right now.
So, what should she do?
Well, this is an area where there isn't a tried and true playbook yet. We're all figuring it out together.
Getting involved in progressive people communities — like TroopHR, OpenOrg, CPOHQ, and SapienX — where the conversation about the evolution of AI is happening amongst real practitioners is a good first step.
From there, consider investing additional time in personal professional education so you can be sure to lead from the front and at least know the terms and core tools.
Experiment with prompt generation tools like Prompt Cowboy to improve how you're able to interact with generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.
Be sure to stay compliant with any company policies and — if you're in charge of writing the company policies — look up all the tools security settings by plan type (e.g., free, team, enterprise).
You'll likely want to make sure you and your team are using plans that do not train AI models with inputs (this setting can often be turned Off) and restrict access to data based on role-specific permissions (e.g., a new salesperson can't access the CEO's recorded meeting notes).
Consider creating a tool access model like:
- Universal: All team members get access to it
- Functional: Specific roles get access to it
- Experimental: Limited team members can trial it
- Restricted: No one across the company can use it
Here are some of the tools that a lot of HR professionals are adopting (or have a solid reason to):
- 2-3 use-case specific generative AI tools: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and DeepSeek are common options. Figure out what models work best for different types of tasks (e.g., Claude for writing, Gemini for image generation, ChatGPT for deep research). Subscribing to 1-2 AI newsletters, like How to AI, can be helpful to keep up with evolving trends.
- HR-specific generative AI tools: These are interfaces built on top of models like Claude Opus 4 that have been trained on HR-specific tasks and artifacts. The best example I've seen of this so far is OpenOrg's Gandalf. To access Gandalf, you have to have the OpenOrg Content Pass. This is usually £120/year, but as a Business of People reader, you can get 10% off with discount code BUSINESSOFPEOPLE if you check out here.
- Dictation software: For most people, writing is 4x faster than typing. New software like Wisprflow is dramatically increasing the pace at which people can work by enabling them to speak to type.
- Note taking software: Tools like Granola and Notion AI Meeting Notes make it much faster to take notes and action items. You can connect these notes via recipes or zaps from Zapier to populate other tools (e.g., Lattice Updates, Todoist tasks, etc.).
Expand your use of AI (and automations) by tackling specific projects that will deliver value to you and your team. Here are a few ideas:
- Job description, interview plan, and interview question tool: Train a CustomGPT or Claude project to help write first drafts using a combination of internal templates, historical populated examples, and deep research on the web for similar roles that are live.
- Access request form + Slack workflow: If you don't use single sign-on, you need a process to request and review access to tools. You can setup a GoogleForm + GoogleSheet together with a Zapier workflow that will tag tool-specific admins in Slack or send them an email when a new access request comes in for review.
- Learning & development utilization interface: Drive up usage of your learning & development (L&D) funds by using Replit, Cursor, Lovable, etc. to make an interface for team members to see their current L&D fund usage, funds remaining, and average utilization across their team and the company as a whole.
- Accrued PTO usage: Create a workflow that reviews time-off balances and pings team members who have more than X days accrued with suggestions of good future days to take off based on when other members of their team do/do not have days off.
- Decision or feedback coaches: Build an AI coach — I'd do this as a Claude Project — that is trained on the decision-making and/or feedback models that your company uses. Then, pilot and refine it with a small group before rolling it out more broadly. This can help standardize language used and create safe spaces for people to ask "dumb" questions or practice conversations before they have them in real-life. Remember to consider anti-bias measures.
Creating space for people to try, share, and fail at AI experimentation together is huge for driving up adoption. If you use Slack, consider setting up a company-wide and team-specific channels for people to post AI experimentation ideas and challenges (e.g., #all-ai, #eng-ai, #ops-ai).
As you're thinking about where to start, remember the Buy-Build-Partner Framework. AI does dramatically lower the cost to build something yourself, but the effort to take something from 80% to 100% quality is still notable. And, a lot of AI experimentation doesn't come with enterprise grade security and workflows in the first few iterations.
Be thoughtful about when you want to build something yourself versus when you wait to see similar (and perhaps even better) functionality rolled out in a tool that you already use.
Notion is one of the best examples I can think of right now where it makes sense to become a Notion ambassador to get early access to their roadmap and then just wait. The pace at which they're rolling out new high-quality functionality is amazing. There's no point in trying to replicate that with your own custom builds if your company uses Notion as your intranet/collaboration tool.
The Four-T Playbook
Every edition, I share a proven tip, trick, tactic, or template. This time, it's a:
👉 Tip: When the world is changing rapidly, it can be easy to ignore it. To stick your head in the sand and hope no one notices that you're doing your work exactly the same way today as you were five years ago. Don't do that.
Hold your head up high. Get out into the community. Ask for help. Attend conferences in real life. Listen to podcasts — like The Modern People Leader — to see how other professionals just like you are tackling and overcoming similar challenges. Evolve, even when it's uncomfortable.
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The Modern People Leader
by Daniel Huerta & Stephen Huerta
We’ve learned from the best HR leaders so you can lead like the best. Our newsletter brings you lessons from CHROs, Chief People Officers, and work pioneers who are reshaping the way we work. Through their stories, you’ll discover what’s working, what’s not, and how they’ve built their careers—giving you practical insights to shape what’s next for HR and for your own leadership. |
Final thoughts
How are you feeling about AI adoption? Are you ahead of the curve, woefully behind, or somewhere in between?
Feel free to reply back and let me know. And keep in mind, nothing in this newsletter is legal or financial advice. It's all simply the musings of a fellow HR professional who talks to a lot of HR professionals.
If you need to make a significant decision that impacts your company, talk to someone who understands your context, risk tolerance, and has all the required credentials (and contracts with your business) to give advice.
Until next time,
Melissa