Future Proof HR Podcast

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Stephanie Leal, Director of HR Learning and Development at Mission North. Stephanie is leading a company-wide initiative to build AI fluency, not just within HR but across client-facing teams serving some of the most innovative tech brands. What began with a simple usage survey has evolved into a structured learning program—Navigating AI—that combines show-and-tell sessions, AI principles embedded into onboarding, and ongoing cross-functional training.

Stephanie shares how she shifted from AI skeptic to champion, helping Mission North employees transform curiosity into practical skills while balancing excitement with caution around data privacy and security. Her story offers a model for how HR and L&D leaders can drive adoption without mandates, creating a culture of experimentation and trust.

Topics Discussed:

• How a baseline AI survey revealed 73% of employees were already “explorers.”
• Why mandates spread fear while experimentation spreads innovation.
• Building Navigating AI, a cross-company learning journey with measurable outcomes.
• Embedding AI principles into onboarding and company culture.
• Using show-and-tell sessions and super users to drive grassroots adoption.
• Balancing security, transparency, and responsible AI use.
• How L&D can leverage AI to create more personalized and scalable learning experiences.
• Why curiosity and continuous learning matter more than prior AI skills in hiring.
• The future of L&D: moving from manual training tasks to AI-powered content creation and strategy.

If you’re looking for a practical guide to building AI fluency across your organization while keeping HR at the center of trust, learning, and culture, this conversation with Stephanie Leal is packed with insights you can use today.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Stephanie Leal on LinkedIn
• AI Creates Major Knowledge Gap

OpenAI has released its largest-ever study on ChatGPT usage—analyzing over 1.5 million messages from 130,000 consumer accounts—and the findings are eye-opening. In this episode of Future Proof HR, Thomas Kunjappu, CEO of Cleary, unpacks the data and translates it into seven key takeaways every HR leader needs to know.

From demographic shifts (like women now making up the majority of ChatGPT users) to the rise of task-based AI usage at work, Thomas explores what the numbers really mean for HR teams, compliance, and workforce transformation. You’ll hear insights on:

• Why AI adoption is spreading across every age group, industry, and region
• How employees are already using AI to offload routine tasks—even on personal accounts
• The opportunities (and risks) this creates for HR policies, training, and skills development
• Practical ways HR can capture early wins, align AI initiatives with business strategy, and avoid being left behind

Whether you’re just beginning to test AI pilots or scaling enterprise adoption, this episode highlights why HR has a critical role to play in shaping how organizations leverage AI.

Listen in to learn how you can keep pace, train inclusively, and seize the advantage in an AI-powered workplace.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Diana Valler, Chief Human Resource Officer at TravelBrands. Diana’s journey is a masterclass in crisis leadership; she joined the company post-acquisition and mid-pandemic, tasked with building an entire HR function from scratch in the hard-hit travel industry. With no systems in place, she faced the ultimate "trial by fire" and emerged with a playbook for building a resilient, people-first organization.

Diana shares the powerful story of how she transformed a fragmented organization into an award-winning "Great Place to Work" by leading with love, empathy, and radical transparency. From conducting one-on-ones with every single employee to maintaining communication with a laid-off workforce, Diana proves that a deep focus on the human experience is the ultimate strategy for navigating disruption—whether it’s a pandemic or the rise of AI.

Topics Discussed:

• Unifying culture and building trust after a chaotic post-merger period.
• Key lessons from navigating the pandemic in the hard-hit travel industry.
• Building a complete HR function from a single sick day policy to full trust.
• The strategic impact of conducting one-on-one meetings with every employee.
• How navigating extreme challenges can forge an adaptable, AI-ready culture.
• Fostering a mindset of co-creation by treating HR as an "innovation lab."
• A framework for communicating layoffs and organizational change with humanity.
• How to enforce HR policy while still leading with empathy.
• Turning a people-first strategy into a tangible asset like a "Great Place to Work" certification.

If you’re looking for a story of true resilience and a practical guide to putting your people at the center of your strategy, this conversation with Diana Valler offers a powerful and inspiring vision for what HR can achieve.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Diana Valler on LinkedIn

In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Bernard Coleman III, SVP of People at Swing Education, whose career spans presidential campaigns, DEI leadership, and people operations in high-growth tech. Bernard brings a pragmatic and systems-oriented perspective on how HR can lead the charge in building AI fluency across organizations without panic, chaos, or gimmicks.

From getting introduced to AI by his seventh-grade daughter to implementing department-level AI adoption strategies, Bernard shares how HR can play a central role in change management, tool selection, onboarding, and workforce empowerment. He makes the case that adaptive intelligence—not just artificial intelligence—is the true currency for future-ready teams.

Topics Discussed:

• Why HR—not IT—should own the AI strategy playbook
• “Adaptive intelligence”: the other AI skill HR must build
• How HR can go from AI fear to AI fluency through hands-on adoption
• The power of onboarding to jumpstart company-wide AI literacy
• How to build department-level structure without killing creativity
• Measuring AI program impact: sentiment, adoption, and real output
• Why L&D teams must be AI-literate to design the future of work
• The role of incentives and gamification in upskilling programs
• How to get exec buy-in when budgets are tight but urgency is high
• Bernard’s practical roadmap for building AI-ready HR teams

If you’re leading HR in 2025 and wondering how to equip your team—and the rest of your company—for an AI-driven future without losing the plot, this conversation with Bernard offers the clarity, strategy, and humanity you’ve been looking for.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Bernard Coleman III on LinkedIn
• Bernard Coleman III Website

In this episode of the Future Proof HR Podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Anne Bosse, HR Director at Einstein Moving Company, who runs the people function as a team of one supporting over 300 employees. Anne shares candid insights on the unseen burdens HR carries, the balancing act between compliance and culture, and how she’s navigating the promises and pitfalls of AI without losing the human touch.

Drawing from her unique path across industries — from data analysis to recruiting to leading HR solo — Anne reflects on why HR is often undervalued, how to demonstrate its hidden value to leadership, and the realities of doing more with less in a changing world.

Topics Discussed

• Why HR is often the first to face cuts — and the long-term consequences
• The paradox of HR’s invisible value: you only notice it when it’s gone
• Balancing compliance, culture, and employee experience as a team of one
• The hidden costs of solo HR leadership and signals it’s time to expand
• Lessons learned from building HR expertise across industries and roles
• AI’s double-edged impact on HR: efficiency vs. risk and human judgment
• “AI-assisted, human-informed” — Anne’s guiding principle for the future of HR
• The role of community and peer networks when you don’t have an internal team

If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to carry HR at scale with limited resources, or how to balance the hype and hazards of AI while keeping people at the center, this episode delivers both practical strategies and thought-provoking perspective.

Additional Resources

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Anne Bosse on LinkedIn

Article references: 

• https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/unitedhealth-class-action-lawsuit-ai-care-denials-nears-key-decision/
• https://www.reuters.com/article/world/insight-amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK0AG/
• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/disabled-amazon-workers-discrimination
• https://www.workcompcentral.com/news/article/id/57ec4d067dd278523a8cb1978adb7458c4d41f5c
• https://www.lawandtheworkplace.com/2025/06/ai-bias-lawsuit-against-workday-reaches-next-stage-as-court-grants-conditional-certification-of-adea-claim/

In this episode of Future Proof HR Podcast, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Preston Lewis, SVP, Communications and Consultant at Segal Benz, to explore the widening gap in how HR teams approach AI adoption. Some are leaning in with strategy, structure, and reskilling. Others are holding back, risking inefficiency, wasted resources, and talent loss.

With over 25 years advising some of the world’s most recognized brands, Preston shares why communications leaders are often asked to lead AI change, the mindset shifts that separate innovators from laggards, and how to prepare HR and comms teams for rapid transformation without losing the human connection.

Topics Discussed

• Why some HR teams embrace AI while others stall
• The role of communication leaders in driving AI transformation
• Navigating shadow AI and employee use of unsanctioned tools
• Building trust, feedback loops, and psychological safety for change
• New roles emerging in HR and comms for the AI era
• A four-lens framework: Strategy & planning, systems & process, skills & capabilities, platforms & technology
• Balancing in-house skill-building with outside expertise
• Preparing for faster rates of change and evolving roles

If your HR or comms team is struggling to bridge the AI adoption gap, this episode offers a roadmap for closing it — while keeping people, trust, and strategy at the center. 

Additional Resources:

Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
Future Proof HR Community
Preston Lewis on LinkedIn

In this episode, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Marni Helfand, General Counsel and Chief Human Resources Officer at The Planet Group, to unpack what happens when legal risk, recruiting automation, and executive fear collide.

From her rare position at the intersection of HR and employment law, Marni explains why the biggest risk isn’t using AI—it’s not using it. She walks through her team’s real-world experiments with AI recruiting tools, how they discovered hidden weaknesses in job descriptions, and why even “safe” automation can backfire without human judgment in the loop.

This conversation goes beyond compliance. It’s about helping HR evolve from paralyzed to proactive—by starting small, learning fast, and staying human.

Topics Discussed:

• How an AI recruiting tool rejected 100 candidates in 25 minutes—without human review
• Why HR’s real risk isn’t legal exposure—it’s fear and inertia
• A simple prompt that unlocks small wins: “Wouldn’t it be great if…”
• What Marni learned from running an AI recruiting pilot at a staffing firm
• Why most job descriptions are sabotaging your AI efforts
• A compliance-first approach to choosing the right AI vendors
• The HR cat-and-mouse game: AI-savvy candidates vs. AI screeners
• Why employee relations won’t disappear—but how AI can improve its output
• A call for mid-career HR pros to make the business case, not just wait for permission

 If you're an HR leader wrestling with legal risk, executive hesitation, or your own uncertainty around AI, this episode offers a practical lens for moving forward—without losing the human core of your work. 

In this episode, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Christopher Courneen, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at MSI, to explore how HR leaders can turn job elimination into career acceleration by embracing AI, upskilling, and redefining the role of HR.

Chris shares how MSI eliminated layers of work without laying off employees.  Transforming recruiter roles, redesigning onboarding, and creating a culture of adaptability at every level. His approach to HR as a profit center, not a cost center, challenges the entire function to think more like business operators than administrators.

Topics Discussed:

• The “job elimination paradox”: How automation wiped out a role and opened the door to growth
• Real-world playbook: Upskilling recruiters into higher-value work without fear-based messaging
• Why HR needs to stop hiding behind “magic black box” thinking and understand how LLMs actually work
• What happened when an intern’s AI research changed everything
• Why adaptability—not experience—is the new hiring filter
• A call for HR to lead AI transformation, not wait for permission
• Rethinking HR as a profit center: Translating people work into business impact
• Why continuous learning is now non-negotiable for every knowledge worker

If you're in HR and wondering how to lead through disruption instead of reacting to it, this episode offers a refreshingly honest look at what future-proofing really takes. 

In this episode, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Sue Newman, Senior Director of HR at ATW, to explore how HR leaders can transform AI anxiety into an organizational opportunity while supporting a multigenerational workforce through technological change. 

With over 20 years of HR experience spanning engineering organizations, public sector, and corporate transformations, Sue oversees both HR technology and learning & development for over 3,000 employees. 

When Sue's employees started expressing concerns about AI potentially taking their jobs, she didn't just address their fears; she turned it into a catalyst for practical AI adoption. 

Topics Discussed:

• Moving beyond "clickbait" AI layoff headlines toward practical understanding and action
• Real-world case study: Using AI to help a late adopter retain employment while closing skill gaps
• The "candles to electricity" analogy: Why AI adoption is inevitable and how to embrace it
• Scaling learning & development as a "team of one" using AI for custom content creation
• Why HR professionals need their own AI point of view before engaging with vendors
• The future of HR: Moving from administrative burden back to relationship-building
• How to safely introduce AI across different generations and comfort levels
• Essential advice for new HR professionals: Understand your organization's core business first

If you're an HR leader wondering how to address AI anxiety in your organization while leveraging technology to enhance rather than replace human capabilities, this episode provides both empathy and practical strategies for transformation

Additional resources:

Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot

Future Proof HR Community

Sue Newman on LinkedIn

In this episode, Thomas Kunjappu sits down with Courtney LaTurner, Senior Director, People Operations & HR Business Partner at SecurityScorecard, to explore how HR professionals can overcome AI anxiety and leverage automation to become more strategic business partners.

From navigating startup acquisitions to private equity spinoffs, Courtney shares her journey of building agile HR functions that adapt quickly to business needs. When suddenly tasked with payroll, benefits, and people operations. Areas she'd never managed before she discovered how AI tools like ChatGPT became essential for learning new skills and tackling complex challenges under tight deadlines.

Topics Discussed:

• Why HR has been slower to adopt AI compared to other functions (and the fear factors behind it)
• Two game-changing AI use cases: Excel formula mastery and coaching for difficult conversations
• How to safely introduce AI to your HR team and overcome resistance to change
• SecurityScorecard's "AI IRL" company-wide challenge that drove innovation across all departments
• The strategic advantage of getting through your backlog faster than competitors
• Why AI amplifies rather than replaces HR professionals' core value
• Building enterprise-safe AI practices with proper IT partnerships and data protection
• The future role of HR as strategic business advisors rather than process executors
• Essential advice for new HR professionals: be deeply curious and challenge the status quo
• How to position HR as a competitive advantage through automation and efficiency

If you're an HR professional feeling overwhelmed by expanding responsibilities or wondering how to leverage AI while maintaining the human element, this episode provides practical strategies for transforming your function into a strategic powerhouse.