Thomas Forstner, VP of People and Talent at Juro, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about building an AI-native company, why HR should own workflows not just the workforce, and how people teams must evolve from playbook followers to visionary architects of the modern org.

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(06:32) Thomas’ origin story: from psychology to global work experiences

(09:52) How he ended up at Juro and grew with the company

(11:03) What Juro does and how it’s changing legal and HR workflows

(13:05) The state of HR today and the growing gap in AI adoption

(14:33) Why giving ChatGPT access will soon be like giving email

(16:22) The emerging core AI tech stack every team needs

(18:27) How Juro is enabling AI experimentation across teams

(20:33) Their “how to AI” rituals, lab reports, and internal AI philosophy

(23:40) Why making their AI principles public is a competitive advantage

(25:15) Why IT now reports to People at Juro: owning the workflows

(26:57) What “WorkTech” means and the rise of the Chief Work Officer

(29:12) How AI tools reshaped Stephen’s view on HR and product

(32:18) HR as the company OS: When it’s good, everything flows

(34:23) Parallel thinking: Sales teams, onboarding, and internal design

(37:02) Should you rebuild your HR tech stack? Custom vs. off-the-shelf

(39:47) The power of documentation and training AI agents

(41:13) Building internal tools with low/no-code: Just try things

(43:30) Automating personalized rejection emails with custom GPTs

(44:47) Is PeopleOps as a Product evolving into something new?

(47:48) People leaders as shape shifters, AI engineers, and CSMs

(50:09) Stop chasing playbooks—start building your own operating model

(51:17) Setting a clear vision: Juro’s “Company OS” and annual rewrites

(54:41) Rapid fire questions: advice, favorite resources, and dream strategies

(58:42) What Thomas would steal from Dropbox

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