Time for Growth - AI Bootcamp FROM FASTCO WORKS AND SAP
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Welcome, and thanks for tuning in to this session about how AI efficiencies can unlock human potential. I'm Julianne Pepitone, and I'm happy to be your moderator for this event, AI Bootcamp: A Fast Company in Ink Series in Partnership with SAP.

Throughout this AI boot camp, we are talking about this concept of AI taking over tasks so humans can focus on the real human high-value work. This is the core promise of AI, and yet for us to achieve that, it does require a lot of intentionality. It works only if organizations shift strategies, leverage that time saved, and create efficiencies all across the business.

Question is then, how do we do all of that? Here to discuss, I'm thrilled to introduce our panel, Dr. Walter Sun, SVP and Global Head of AI at SAP, Dr. Kevin Jones, Associate Professor of Management at Indiana University Columbus, and Dr. Amy Dufresne, Chief Executive Officer of HR Certification Institute. Thanks so much to you each for being here. As I mentioned, what we're talking about today really goes to the core promise.

of AI, transforming how the business operates and the fundamentals of how work itself gets done. So this will likely also require shifts in talent strategy. What does that look like right now? How should business leaders and HR leaders in particular be thinking about AI now and in the future? Amy, if you could begin. Super. Well, this is

concept of HR and AI is near and dear to my heart. I've been in HR for more than 30 years. Hard to believe I know I don't look like that at all. But I think about how HR is transforming right now by the use of AI. I've had conversations with CHROs from large and small organizations about what it is and how they're including AI in their organizations.

They're doing first drafts of employee guidelines or policy handbooks, employee surveys. They're processing documents. They're doing those sort of repetitive tasks, those menial, rote things that aren't really meaningful to the business. They're really using AI to help to move those things forward. And when I think about this,

the HR piece of this, you think about the company culture. And the HR function needs to be at the forefront of this transformation of creating a culture of creativity, innovation, efficiency, so that the whole organization is open and ready to take on and use responsibly AI to achieve some of these goals that the organization has. And finally, I think it's thinking about

humans with utilizing machines versus humans versus machines. HR needs to help companies to think through this bigger concept of impacting HR from job reskilling, which is really key right now, employee morale. We've done and participated in some surveys where we've talked to HR leaders about

about their feelings around AI and they're talking about, oh, how excited they are. And then there's this trepidation and there's this fear. So not only is that in HR, it's across all of our organization. Everyone is feeling that way. So we need to help to transform our cultures, make sure that they're understanding that we are going to work with our teams to upskill them and right skill them as we're transforming and utilizing AI more.

Kevin, you know, from your management perspective, how can HR leaders work with other business leaders and how should people in leadership roles be thinking about AI in their cultures or companies right now? Well, first is for us to understand that it is not the technology that we focus on. We do need to focus on people and processes.

And first, I want to say focus in on people. As Amy said, you know, it's about human computer interaction. It's how people are able to work with the technology. Again, how people are able to work with this technology. So there are some skills that are the same that we need to emphasize even more. Critical thinking, problem solving.

Those are old skills that we always want. They become even more important as AI becomes part of this equation. But then there's the new skills such as, yes, acceptance of changing roles, acceptance of changing processes.

Change is hard, right? Change can be especially hard at an organization that has long instilled processes and roles. And this is the way things have always been done. When it comes to change, we always recognize that change is difficult. But this is fundamentally transforming how we work. So what that requires is something that is hard to say in business, patience. Yeah.

Yes, it's a virtue, a difficult one sometimes. Walter, same question for you. Yeah, I like what Amy is talking about upskilling. I think Kevin is talking about being willing to accept change. There's a saying I've heard where it says, you know, all this new generative AI technology isn't going to replace your job. The people who are going to replace your job are people who actually are learning how to use this AI technology. And I think that speaks to the upskilling, speaks to the acceptance of change, you know, that both Amy and Kevin were talking about. You know, we want to

as leaders, upskill our employees to leverage new generative AI capabilities, but on top of that, to build more efficiencies and productivity. In my organization, we actually have the tools internally where people can try out large language models, try it for their own sake, whether for their own personal uses or for work uses.

I imagine, is that kind of a safe experimental sandbox environment where they're able to experiment with it, but they're not kind of implementing it, you know, out into the whole organization? Exactly. You basically can get input and output for yourself. It's not meant to be a product. It's meant for yourself. Let's say, Julianne, if you want to send me an email, you want to say, hey, let me send Walter an email using this model, see how good it does.

you get the output, it simulates what you would send to me. And then you can decide if you want to send it or edit further. And so these type of things allow people to learn a little bit more about new technology, feel more comfortable about it. You know, I think the patients Kevin mentioned is like, people need to understand what it is, not be scared about it, see if it works.

And then, you know, by doing so, offering these tools, we actually learn how humans can interact with machines better. And then this education gives employees comfort, what the technology can enable. It continues to incrementally be used more and more. And then people won't be like really scared about all this new technology doing things they don't understand, but rather they've been experimenting with it.

They try it. Always understand that the company, the leaders, the HR department, they care about growing their skill set and making them do things that are more productive. Julian, building what Walter is saying, let me take you back to the dark ages when people started first using computers. One of the great trepidations was they were scared that if they used it, something bad would happen. If they pushed the wrong button or something like that.

And we were able to show them, well, like, for example, if you're in a document and you push the wrong button, it erases where you can bring it back.

Little things like that. So it's the same type of thinking here is people are sometimes even afraid to use them because they don't know what will happen if I use it. So we can help people by that point that Walter made about allowing experimentation, allowing us to try some things without consequence. The sandbox is an important concept.

Right, because fear is such, no one's going to innovate if they're scared, right? Or trying new things. We're certainly not ever going to innovate or change our cultures at large if we're terrified. So Walter, we've all talked about changing some of the types of skills that are needed in different parts of the organization. Talk to me a little bit more about

out those skills? And does this change the type of education that leaders and HR need to provide? Great question. I think that with large language models, there's this whole idea that writing code or creating instructions for machines has gotten easier and easier over time. And so I think it's quite a good thing because it democratizes coding. And so, you know, years ago, let's say even before my time, you needed to use punch cards to communicate with machines. So a very small set of people in this world knew how to talk to machines. Then they created assembly and

which is a little more user-friendly, if you will. But by today's terms, it's very archaic, right? But every new generation, something came out that was a little simpler. We went from that assembly to C Sharp and Java, and then now to more interpretive languages. And over time, it gets easier and easier to communicate with machines. And now to the point where you can actually use natural language. So in the old days, if you wanted to say, write me a piece of code that lets me count from one to 100, that I can just

say this right now in words, but a machine requires years and years of training. Nowadays, you can actually create instructions and build programs with natural language. And that's what's really happened, I think, is that more people can write code. Code meaning write algorithms and programs to execute on machines. It removes the barrier to entry of developers of four years of coding experience in college. It lets you build and create on your own in an

people who are younger, you know, children can try out and do more and they can become more creative and produce. So it's actually, I think the biggest change in skill set is that more people can create and you can actually do it through just understanding how to speak to a machine with natural language. Amy, you know, from your HR point of view again, how is this changing the types of skills needed? What do HR leaders need to know? And what do employees need to know about, you know, the types of education and upskilling work that they should either be doling out or seeking out?

So I think that back to a concept that I didn't coin the term, but Gay Hendricks did, which is the zone of genius, which all of us want to operate in our zone of genius. And I think employees want to operate in that zone. And leaders want your team members to operate in that zone, to do the things that really give you a spark in your eye. And it may not be your entire job, but it's at least part of your job.

And if you want to keep those pieces of the job that are exciting, not things that can be wrote and done by AI or kind of machine learning, but giving those opportunities for employees to operate in that zone of genius. I think we want to make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to participate in and play around with the generative AI tools that are out there. So creating that safe space.

Highlighting what you're doing within the organization to integrate AI into all of the functions within your organization, talking about it as an organization, creating town halls where you can share with your colleagues how you're utilizing AI. I think those are all ways that you can get the company culture kind of moving forward and around this.

And I think that you're reducing that fear for people around what's to come. You need employees. I mean, we all know there is a shortage of talent. So we've got to make sure that we're doing whatever we can to reskill people for the jobs of tomorrow. And that means that we're going to

need to give them more time in their jobs each and every day to experiment and play and innovate and learn, not do those repetitive things over and over again, but to be able to do some things to move our businesses forward.

And Kevin, from kind of a managerial and process perspective, how should managers and leaders implement what Amy just spoke about? How do you make sure that that types of education and upskilling is available to your team and teams across the enterprise? And how do you make sure that's prioritized? Well, believe it or not, it's a pretty old practice, but it's called collaboration. I've heard of it. Yeah.

Some of the lessons from the past do actually come to the present. And in my way of thinking, it's even more important today for us to work with each other because each of us is going to have a different level of understanding, a different level of capability, a different perspective on new technologies.

So as we work together, we learn from each other. We build up each other. We can help each other, particularly if you're a manager. You are coaching your employees and giving them license to offer their voice and their experience. And then together, we can move forward as an enterprise.

with regard to the new tools which are coming. And then last but not least, very important, because no one person can keep up with all the different innovations that are coming through not just generative AI, but AI and other forms of technology. We need each other to keep us apprised. What have you learned? What have you seen? How's this work for you? Hey, here's something we should take a look at. Let's talk about it. So from a manager's perspective,

we now need to be more open than ever to listening to our people, people who work with us, people who work aside of us, and yes, even those who work in other places to learn.

Kevin, it's a great point. I mean, if you're talking about a true enterprise-wide transformation, a true culture shift that requires not just rethinking talent strategy, right? It's truly alignment across the business. So, you know, for the folks who are tuning in today who heard what you just said and feel, you know what, our HR and other business units could probably stand to work more closely together. There's either some kind of friction or they're a bit siloed or they just haven't gotten there yet.

How should they think about their approach to changing that, to improving that, including identifying the AI tools that can help? Kevin, we'll stick with you. Well, this is good old organizational change stuff, okay? You put everybody who is relevant in the room. Now, I'm not talking about everybody in the entire organization. I'm saying that you have HR in the room with finance.

in a room with accounting, in the room with strategy. You come together to talk about your take and your perspective on these different technologies, how it is affecting your particular organization, your take on this information. But again, it's through understanding how others see it is how we can begin to work collectively in how to manage it.

And also, when I say the word manage, manage is not controlling it. It is being flexible and being open to continuous change and, yes, creativity. An important differential. Thank you. Walter, same question for you. You know, advice for folks tuning in who feel that maybe their HR and other business units are somewhat siloed and probably could stand to work more closely together, especially in the need for alignment in this AI era. How should they think about their approach?

Yeah, I agree with Kevin's term of collaboration. I think the open line of communication where HR should understand, let's say, the risks and the potential privacy concerns that their employees are dealing with. And those are really valid issues. And so they can work through making sure that what's being done is appropriate, whereas a business unit can focus potentially on the engineering value or science behind it. And so they can each look at their perspectives and have regular meetings and collaborations. Sometimes you may have like a steering committee across the different divisions that

at the company, talk about the ethics of the AI, right? Is the work being done, is the privacy, security, everything in place? Let's say if it's using AI or technology in business units to do hiring or doing some kind of analysis, you wanna make sure that there's no biases, 'cause that's a very sensitive and serious issue to deal with. So HR would look at making sure they can provide a voice

to the businesses, right? The businesses are looking at building products that are valuable for customers. At the same time, HR is looking to make sure that employees are upskilled and looking to make sure that employees are doing things which are compliant. And so I think having the checks and balances actually a really good thing. And the main thing again is like, as Kevin was saying, the communication, the lack of communication means nothing really happens. One side blocks the other side. The collaboration means one side looks at the concerns, the other side builds something and it discusses to make sure that what's being built satisfies the compliance and privacy and security protections that, you know, HR and other companies

groups in legal, for instance, are looking after. Okay, just jumping real quick with one thing, and that is, and today bringing everybody in the room is not bringing anybody in the room physically. We have so many tools for us to be together. We can be together at any time, no matter what the time zone, no matter what the city, we can be together. So the idea that we can't come together at different times is fallacious. So we can do that. Excellent point.

Just to build on that, collaboration, key, must have it within the organization. And whether that, Kevin, I think you said it beautifully, bringing people together to discuss how you're going to do that. You know, one of the things that I've done in our organization is...

Because we're all over the world, we've been bringing people together and having what we're calling 3D days where we can get together and collaborate and talk about some of these challenges that we're having. But they're coupled with fun things, too, because that's where you learn and you listen and you understand your colleagues. And I think that's something that is really missing right now from us today.

I encourage everybody, David Brooks has a new book out about how to listen to people that really understand somebody and really listen to them. And I think that's what we need to do as leaders with our teams. We've got to listen to them, not just the words that are coming out of their mouth, but what they're not saying to you. And being able to ask those right questions,

so that you can reduce the fear, you can reduce the anxiety and the friction that's happening within departments, different functions within the organization, et cetera. So I think, you know, collaboration is key. And clearly it's key for all the business units really to come together. There's many stakeholders. I'm curious, I'd love to home in on kind of the CIO and CTO office. How do they play a role in this conversation? And what kind of role should they play in this conversation? Walter? Yeah.

Yeah, I think that CTO, they should be thought leaders in terms of technology, right? And the CTOs that say, hey, look, I think this is kind of the way we think how work should be done. In this case, AI, generative AI, whatever you do, technology. I think working with a CIO together, understanding how do we deploy

deploy this to the company? How do we make, and we talked about sandboxes and playgrounds in general, about how you can think about a safe space to work. I think that there's this idea of like, how do you deploy something, try it out without it becoming a risk? And if it's a sandbox, if it's not in production, you can do that and get people access to it. At SAP, we have this AI playground that people can access and try alternative models. I think beyond that, then you kind of look at which business units are most progressive and we can have opportunities to say, let's have one team beta test

some technology. And so if they're willing and understanding to try, I'll try understanding the risks and opportunities. And once it rolls out, if it works out, you can expand it to everyone else. If it doesn't work out, then you can just stop it. And so I think that's kind of how you've got to go through the process of innovating and leveraging the new AI capabilities out there today.

And Kevin, your view on where CIO and CTO plays a role? The CDO or the CAIO, any of those. A lot of alphabet soup. Yes, Walter's right. You, in many ways, are doing the things that not everybody sees.

to make it easier and more effective, more efficient for us. But at the same time, you want to be transparent to let everyone know about what you're doing with privacy, how you're managing confidentiality,

how you are finding the best tools for us to use, how you're leveraging the cloud, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You want to communicate. And that's probably the watchword, the most important part for the CIO, CTO is communicate. And yes, perhaps help use judge of AI to help you communicate at the different levels of understanding because we,

When CTOs, CDOs are in the room together, they say one thing and then they run to some management person like me and I don't know what they're talking about. So the challenge is how do you communicate in a way that the whole organization recognizes how you are helping the organization and then be willing to listen and hear the ways you can help others to advance with AI.

Amy, we'd love to hear your thoughts on that again from the HR perspective. Super. So again, I'm going to say we're dreaming big, starting small. Really having those big dreams about how AI, you can use it to transform your business, but just start small.

Start with small projects, introduce the concepts to your teammates, your colleagues, get them to the opportunity to embrace it, understand what it is you're doing and they're doing and give them an opportunity to play. I think it's looking at that technology and deciding if you're going to build it,

You're going to license it. You're going to use something that's sort of homegrown. I think you want to make sure that people are using it in a safe and private space so that they can experiment with that sandbox. And finally, that makes sure that people are

really monitoring what it is that they're doing, that they don't use this for a company-wide newsletter, they don't read it and push it out, and there are mistakes, et cetera. So it's really giving people those opportunities to experiment before it goes live.

So I think this is just an exciting time to be in business and to be in HR because I think that, you know, as our businesses become more complex, as AI is becoming more complex, all of us are complex people in and of ourselves. So we in HR need to make sure that we're really utilizing technology

AI to make the most effective decisions for our businesses and our people. And that is it for our time today, unfortunately. But thank you so much to our panel of experts. Really appreciate your time and your insights today. And thanks to our audience for joining this session and the AI Bootcamp series. On behalf of SAP, Fast Company, and Inc., I'm Julianne Pepitone. Thanks for being with us.