Three AI Adoption Lessons Every HR Leader Can Put to Work Today

As organizations continue to explore practical applications of artificial intelligence, success increasingly depends on more than selecting the right technology, said Kimberly Southern, assistant city manager of Greeley, Colo., and Kathy Jensen Watts, executive vice president and CHRO of The Heico Companies during a SHRM26 panel in Orlando.

While their organizations operate in different environments — one in municipal government and the other across a global portfolio of manufacturing and construction businesses — both leaders agreed that AI success requires investing in people first.

Here are three key ways HR can help ensure AI becomes a tool that augments employees rather than overwhelms them, allowing organizations to realize AI’s true business value.

1. Start With People — Not Technology 

Both panelists said that successful AI adoption begins with workforce readiness rather than simply introducing new tools.

Jensen Watts described how some professionals in her organization had already embraced generative AI, while others had little understanding of how it could support their work, producing uneven results. She realized that HR needed to step in and play a leading role in AI’s roll out.

"We need to control our own destiny," she said, stressing that HR cannot wait for IT or legal teams to define AI’s future in the organization. "We need to know what this is all about, whether it's generative AI or agentic AI. We need to figure out the solutions."

Southern had a similar realization. "If you allow technology to leave you behind, you're going to get left behind," she said. 

But rather than expecting HR leaders to become AI experts themselves, organizations should create opportunities for employees to gradually build expertise.

One approach, Southern said, was encouraging employees to learn and experiment with AI every Friday. That helped her employees freely channel their existing curiosity into productive learning instead of through pressurized, unsanctioned experimentation. 

"I'm not the [AI] expert," Southern said. "My job is to get my people to be the expert, so they can figure things out, and I can learn from them."

2. Solve Small Problems Before Chasing Big Transformations

Both Southern and Jensen Watts cautioned against trying to overhaul every HR process with AI at once. Instead, they found success by identifying targeted opportunities where AI could eliminate repetitive work and demonstrate immediate value. 

Southern’s employees began using AI to answer HR help desk questions, analyze collective bargaining agreements, and search policy documents that previously required hours of manual review.

"The conversation started to shift from 'How?' to 'Look at what I did,' " Southern said, describing how employees became increasingly eager to share new use cases with colleagues. 

For Jensen Watts, AI implementation first exposed foundational issues that had to be addressed before more advanced capabilities could deliver value. Rather than immediately deploying sophisticated AI solutions, her organization focused on standardizing HR processes, cleaning data, documenting workflows, and identifying functionality already available within its existing HR technology stack.

Those efforts are now paving the way for AI-powered HR service delivery and other automation initiatives. 

The lesson for HR leaders, Jensen Watts suggested, is that AI often reveals organizational weaknesses before it delivers transformational gains.

3. Cultivate Curiosity to Define Tomorrow's Workforce

Despite widespread concern that AI will replace jobs, neither Southern nor Jensen Watts said their organization was hiring specifically for AI expertise. Instead, they are prioritizing adaptable employees who demonstrate curiosity, critical thinking, and a willingness to learn. 

"Give me somebody who has that drive and I'll teach them AI,” Southern said.

Both also encouraged HR leaders to create environments where failure is treated as part of the learning process. 

"It's okay if somebody tries an agent and it fails miserably," Southern said. "That's how we learn."

Jensen Watts argued that AI should challenge HR professionals to rethink longstanding assumptions rather than simply automate existing work. 

"We're going to tackle human capital issues differently, because we are now challenging ourselves to think differently,” she said. “That’s going to be our future.”