In this week’s podcast I discuss my meetings with many companies in Europe about “how to rapidly implement AI” to improve productivity and scale. And every single company is being asked to do this now, some with very mature and sophisticated plans.

So the first question I ask is “how do we implement AI to improve the productivity of the company” and then “how do we also do this within HR?”  Well now that we’re a few years into this journey, the land mines and lessons are becoming clear, and I discuss what’s going on in some of the largest companies in the world. And yes, everything you know about HR itself is changing at a rate I’ve never seen before.

The second question I discuss is “what is about to happen to Corporate Learning?” And in this case I walk through the large session I had at the L&D Tech conference and how radically L&D is about to be revolutionized. A big research report on this is coming soon, but in the podcast I discuss “the end of the publishing model” in L&D, and all that implies.

For those of you still a bit confused by AI and Agents in general, I urge you to Get Galileo, our ready-made AI assistant for HR. You’ll learn everything you need to know about agents and you’ll also have the world’s best “digital HR consultant” at your desk.

Come see us at Unleash Vegas or Irresistible over the next few weeks, and next week I’ll cover some more in-depth case studies I want to share.

Sound Bites

Additional Information

Microsoft Skills Agent Disrupts the Skills Tech Market

The Mercury Release of Galileo Signals a New Era for Intelligent Agents

The White Collar Recession Is Real: What Should We Do About It?

This week I discuss this massive shift toward “AI-Native” applications and systems which are radically different from traditional HR Tech, with a particular focus on L&D.  I also explain how new AI architectures are so completely different from our traditional types of HR platforms, and how vendors have to be more expansive with their thinking.  Vendors here include Sana, Degreed, Docebo, CodeSignal, Arist, Uplimit, Eightfold, and many other pioneers to come.

(I recorded this on a walk today so it sounds like I’m outside, but hopefully you enjoy the new ideas here.)

I’m going to be diving into this at L&D Technology in UK this week and much more at Unleash Vegas the first week in May.

Additional Information

The Mercury Release of Galileo Signals a New Era for Intelligent Agents

A Revolution In Corporate Learning Begins, Join The Journey

Alfredo Thompson, Chief People Officer at Royal United Hospitals Bath, NHS Foundation Trust, talks with Kathi Enderes about how he is leading an end-to-end transformation of talent acquisition and onboarding for the Trust.

Built on principles of customer orientation and systemic HR®, the organization shifted recruitment from a compliance-oriented fulfillment center to a business growth function, using a combination of mindset shift, process redesign, technology enablement, and cross-functional collaboration.

The results are outstanding, significantly reducing the healthcare organization’s vacancy rates and increasing employee retention while also improving hiring manager and candidate satisfaction.

Additional Information

Emerging Trends in Talent Acquisition: Factbook

Talent Acquisition at a Crossroads

Systemic HR Overview

Transforming the NHS, by Sonia Mooney

This week I detail the whole story: how the $360 billion corporate learning market is being blown up by AI.

This tidal wave has now arrived, with every major company asking “how can I get rid of a third of my training department and deliver skills faster in the flow of work?”

What happens to the Chief Learning Officer? What happens to the LMS? Is Instructional Design going away? What happens to needs analysis? And What are the new jobs in L&D being created?

And in this new world, will we even call it “Learning and Development” any more?

In this podcast I explain the history, the new role of AI, and the ten top implications for L&D, training professionals, HR teams, and employees around the world.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI in Learning and Development

Additional Information

The Mercury Release of Galileo Signals a New Era for Intelligent Agents

A Revolution In Corporate Learning Begins, Join Us On The Journey

New Research: Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO

Artificial Intelligence in HR (Josh Bersin Academy)

The Rise of the Superworker: Delivering On The Promise Of AI

Introducing the Galileo Mercury Release: a new reasoning model, extensive new data and information from Lightcast, the Universal Competency Framework from SHL, and our first “consultant mode” feature, Intelligent Benchmarking.

Galileo is now the essential AI tool for HR professionals around the world. Get Galileo Today!

This week the economic environment changed, with new US reciprocal tariffs launched on 180 countries. The net impact, which is hard to predict, is lots of strategy discussions about manufacturing, redeployment of resources, price increases, and possible economic slowdown. In today’s podcast I explain what this means to you, as an HR leader or HR professional.

Additional Information

The White Collar Recession Is Real: What Should We Do About It?

The Rise of the Superworker: Reinventing Jobs, Careers, and Organizations

The Organization Design SuperClass (Certificate Program)

Systemic HR: The Lean, Mean HR Department

Jörg Dersch, CHRO at XPAY, joins Kathi Enderes to discusses innovation in HR and how CHRO’s can stay ahead. He also shares advice to CEOs about their role in HR issues.

He shares his journey into HR leadership and how HR leaders can become true strategic partners in their organizations. From navigating digital transformation to building business acumen, Jörg offers valuable insights into what it takes to succeed in today’s highly-innovative, tech-enabled HR landscape.

Jörg’s advice – “You own the company. Operate as if the company is your company” 

XPay is a fintech company that offers various payment solutions, including international payments APIs, embedded payment solutions, and white-label payment card solutions, aiming to simplify and streamline payment processing for businesses.

Additional Information

New Research: Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO

CHRO Insights Research Report

CHRO Insights Benchmarking Survey

CHRO Insights Video (Youtube)

CHRO Insights Program Overview

What’s the solution to political, economic, and global conflict? It’s not more anger and competition, it’s kindness. In this podcast I try to convince you that Kindness, the act of listening, caring, and helping, is a real secret weapon.

Additional Information

The World Happiness Report (which proves that trust and social connections matter more than money)

Edelman Trust Barometer 2025: Crisis of Grievance

Kindness at Work: Our Research and UC Berkeley Research

Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations (my book)

The Atlantic Article I mention

Today I wanted to briefly discuss the impact of US Tariffs on manufacturing talent. As many of you know, decisions about where to locate manufacturing are very big and very important. As you’ll hear, much of your company’s response may come down to talent and skills issues, since manufacturing skills are in short supply. I hope this conversation helps you think through the fast-changing economic issues our companies face.

Additional Information

New Certificate Program: Building A Skills Strategy That Works

Job Redesign Around AI: Work Intelligence Tools Arrive

Understanding Talent Intelligence: A Primer

How To Take A Pragmatic (and winning) Approach To Skills

Today I talk with Vijay Swaminathan, the CEO and co-founder of Draup, one of the most amazing data and insights providers in HR.

Vijay and his partner Vamsee Tirukkala were the original founders of Talent Neuron, a pioneer in talent planning. Now, with Draup, they’ve gone an order of magnitude beyond to build a data platform that identifies skills, technologies, competitors, labor market trends, and a myriad of financial and organizational data to help companies benchmark themselves, plan, hire, and prepare for AI transformation.

You’ll learn a lot about skills inference, workloads, and much more about the role of data and talent intelligence in all areas of HR.  For more information on AI transformation, read some of the links below and sign up for our new Josh Bersin Academy course “Building a Skills Strategy That Works.”

Additional Information

New Certificate Program: Building A Skills Strategy That Works

Job Redesign Around AI: Work Intelligence Tools Arrive

Understanding Talent Intelligence: A Primer

How To Take A Pragmatic (and winning) Approach To Skills