Josh Bersin

What does it look like when one of the world’s most innovative tech companies decides to write the playbook for agentic HR — from the inside? Brandon Roberts, Global VP of People Product, Analytics and AI at ServiceNow, joins Kathi Enderes for a conversation that crackles with real-world urgency and hard-won insight.

Under the bold leadership of CHRO Jacqui Canney – whose title as Chief People and AI Transformation Officer signals just how seriously ServiceNow is taking this moment – Brandon and his team have made a defining bet: empower every HR professional to experiment with AI, then ruthlessly prioriti...

Today, as we read more stories about various layoffs (often using AI as an explanation), I’d like to suggest a big idea. AI Agents, defined as “Talent Redeployment Agents,” may be one of the most powerful new use-cases for AI in HR.

No I’m not talking about AI randomly selecting people and zapping them by email based on financial results (that could happen I suppose), but something much bigger. Listen in as I explain how the “decoupling” of workers from their employers has led to a new era of dynamic employee redeployment, which is only possible wit...

Today I want to give you a peek into the huge topic of “building AI literacy.” We work with hundreds of companies and vendors that offer many types of training so I wanted to give you an overview.

This is a fast-changing topic because there’s a raging debate about what “skills” AI users need (ie. complex thinking? business acumen?). I do know AI learns from language so if you can’t put your needs or wishes into logical statements, you won’t get the most out of AI. But, as I explain, there are a range of other issue...

This week I share my conversation with Ashutosh Garg, founder of pioneering unicorn Eightfold. Eightfold was the first mainstream AI company focused on HR and recruiting, and as you’ll hear Ashu continues to innovate in many ways.

I ask Ashutosh to talk about the market, the change in the AI landscape, and his vision for the future of Eightfold and job seeking. He also explains his career and how he became so successful, and where his career has taken him with his digital twin company Viven.ai. (We use Viven and can attest to its enormous po...

Four big topics in this podcast. First I give you more detail on jobs and careers in the AI age, and explain why MORE jobs than ever are being created. (Read the details here.) Then I discuss the huge disruption about to take place in the software integration and middleware market. (A multi-billion dollar space for vendors and consulting firms.) Third I discuss the pioneering work by Findem and how human data labeling (and automated labeling) is the next frontier in search, recruiting, and talent intelligence.

Finally I talk about my sincere and humble “thank you” to all...

Today I move beyond a discussion of AI products and technologies to the real business problem: finding ways to USE AI to further your company’s particular, unique business strategy.

There’s a strange phenomenon going on: companies think AI itself will improve productivity “just because it exists.” Well nothing could be further from the truth. As these three examples point out, you should focus on “HOW” you’re going to use AI to forward the strategy, not build a strategy around AI.

As these tools become more common this will be clearer and clearer. And the AI ven...

Today we are introducing the Mars release of Galileo®, the AI Superagent for HR.

We’re calling it a Superagent because it’s now fully programmable, open to integration with Workday and other systems, and is even more intelligent with new models, new content, industry data, and exciting features for learning, content development, and orchestration. I explain what all this means in the podcast, so listen in.

Galileo is now used by more than 1,100 companies so it’s becoming the industry standard AI agent for HR, with lots of fans, new solutions, and features. And as a Su...

Today Workday unveiled its “Front Door to Work” strategy and products with Sana. Here is a brief overview and more to read below.

Additional Information

Workday and Sana Unveil A Bold Strategy for AI (detailed article)

Video Overview of Workday-Sana Announcements

The New, Wild, Redefined World of HR Tech (advanced AI use-cases)

Experience Sana Yourself: Galileo, the AI Agent for HR

HR Technology is on a collision course with AI companies, desktop productivity tools, and middleware providers. Where is all this going?

In this podcast I explain why this is a question of “back-end” vs. “front-end” and how the ERP software architectures of the past (present) are colliding with the AI tools and interfaces of the future. The bottom line is not “who wins” but rather how well do you think through the use-cases and employee experiences you want to provide?

Read this article for more details and stay tuned for a bunch of announcements this week that wi...

This week I discuss the AI, HR Tech, and consumer AI market in front of announcements next week at the Unleash Conference in Vegas.

I discuss how HR Tech is now becoming “Life Tech” (not just Work Tech) and the dynamics of big players like Microsoft, Oracle, Workday, SAP, ServiceNow, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and smaller vendors like Cornerstone, Findem, Lightcast, Maki People, Eightfold, WorkHuman and others who are vying for attention with their AI offerings.

Next week I’ll detail many of these announcements in my keynote and I hope to see many of you in Veg...

Oracle’s earnings announcement yesterday demonstrates the company’s shift to a new type of enterprise “software” company, challenging companies like SAP, Workday, Salesforce, and many others. In this podcast I explain this shift, the history of Oracle, and where AI is taking the enterprise software market.

Here is the source article to read, and I look forward to further discussions on this topic with our clients and vendor partners.

Reference Information

Oracle’s Earnings Prove That AI Infrastructure Is Eating Enterprise Software

Nvidia Explains The New Software Stack (5-Layer Cake)

Orac...

Today I’m publishing a bonus episode with a discussion of the US Job Market and also explain why Anthropic’s new AI-Job destruction research is misleading.

I also discuss the whole idea of “job-task analysis” and why “AI exposure” (Anthropic’s methodology) doesn’t really reflect how AI transforms jobs, companies, and the economy.

Let’s discuss all this at Irresistible 2026 or read my substack article on this topic and we can discuss there.

Like this podcast? Rate us on Spotify or Apple or YouTube.

Additional Information

New Anthropic Report on Job...

This week I tackle the situation where AI tools are exploding everywhere while ROI and economic productivity is hard to find. I also discuss the “commoditization” of AI “features” and the shift in value to “AI applications,” which is good for all corporate buyers and users.

You’ll understand how important it is to build a long term strategy, despite all the experiments going on (contact us to see our HR Blueprint).

I also discuss the Galileo Everywhere strategy and how we’ve been expanding Galileo to support employees and leaders, not just HR.

Remember to co...

Understanding the Frontline Workforce. As our research point out, more than 70% of all US workers (80% Worldwide) work in a frontline (customer facing or operational facing) role. We all have teams in these positions so it’s important for business and HR leaders to understand this space.

This is the first podcast in a series with Josh Secrest, the head of marketing at Paradox, a Workday Company, that pioneered conversational recruiting from end to end.

Josh Secrest brings deep frontline expertise from previously leading Global Talent Strategy and Talent Acquisition at McDonald’s and leading Talent and...

This week I discuss the real possibility that AI Agents could “turn evil” citing the example of Scott Shambaugh, a software engineer, who was attacked by an OpenClaw agent called MJ Rathbun.

Just so you understand: Scott is a real person but MJ Rathbun is an AI. Yet MJ took upon itself to openly attack Scott online, presumably for not accepting his open source code.

It’s a fascinating (ongoing) story, but it begs a bigger question: when a “human” (or agent) has total authority and power, does it then become evil? We saw this in the fam...

Today I discuss the new economics of AI for us as business and HR leaders, and how this impacts vendors, HR buyers, IT, and investors. I also discuss how Agents, which are the new building blocks for our re-engineered companies, are now the nucleus of your world in HR going forward.

As I explain, this new world is clearly coming into focus but you need to prioritize your energies, and our Systemic HR AI Blueprint (explained) is here to help.

Stay tuned for a barrage of announcements about Galileo, which now has more than 1,100 enterprise...

Coming out of the pandemic almost every company started hiring globally, giving rise to the EOR (Employer of Record) market. An EOR enables companies of any size to easily hire, manage, pay, and reward employees in any country, and today more than 40% of all global employers use an EOR.

One of the leaders in this market is Oyster, a fast-growing company founded as a B-Corp, dedicated with a mission to make global employment a single, seamless marketplace. The founder of Oyster, Tony Jamous, is a fascinating entrepreneur who has a unique way of describing global employment. In...

This week I explain some of the very cool things going on in AI-Fueled Recruiting (hot space), and also discuss how to start integrating all your talent acquisition tools. I also explain AMS One, the Workday Agent System of Record (ASOR), and why and how all these amazing AI agents are going to enable you to really rethink the operating model for talent acquisition.

This is a trillion dollar space and we all deal with it, and it’s also the area of HR where AI is the most mature. And as I explain, every innovation that ta...

Alim Dhanji is a seasoned business executive (ex-President of Adidas Canada) who came back to HR with a fresh perspective on the business value of HR.

In this discussion Alim clearly articulates where and how he creates business value as a CHRO. This is a fascinating discussion about the value drivers of HR and AI and the process for redesigning work. He explains what he learned about the value of HR as a CEO, and how he then took that knowledge back into HR.

Sample Quotes:

“True change happens at the manager level, an...

After many weeks of work with corporate HR leaders, technology companies, and implementation teams I’m realizing the word that describes AI is “confusion.” Too much going on, too many unanswered questions, and no clarity about what to do. And many of you have been asked (or told) to lead the “AI Transformation” (which is the wrong phrase, as I explain) to reduce cost.

Well I hope today’s podcast gives you some clarity. Obviously the space is changing quickly, but there is a clear strategy emerging. I discuss the technology market, vendor strategies, and most important of all, how...

This week we introduce our massive new research “The Definitive Guide to Corporate Learning: From Static Training To Dynamic Enablement.”

As you’ll read, this $400 Billion market is going to change in a huge way, and the opportunity for value is massive. As I explain in this podcast, it’s time to change the paradigm of “skills development” and move to a model of dynamic enablement.

Traditional L&D is not going away overnight, but the new world of AI-Native Learning is very different: faster, less expensive, and far more useful and relevant to employees. And best of...

AI Agents promise to revolutionize how we operate our companies, but this is much more than just recording meetings and summarizing emails. How do you build an Agent (and Superagent) architecture to re-engineer HR and what is the role of your core HCM platforms?

Well this is the trillion dollar question challenging every business software provider, and it has a huge impact on your HR and overall AI strategy. In this podcast I explain this topic and describe how employee onboarding, as an example, could be entirely redesigned for speed, scale, and agility.

This is...

AI-driven recruiting is on the hot seat and it’s only getting hotter.

Most job seekers now experience AI-interviewers, AI-based screening, and even chatbots that can automate the entire process. And as this market grows, two new lawsuits (one against Workday, one against Eightfold) have emerged, indicating the “fear” job seekers have about this technology.

In the meantime, vendors are gobbling up these tools.

This includes Workday’s $1 billion acquisition of Paradox (and Hiredscore), SAP’s acquisition of Smartrecruiters, Outmatch’s acquisition of Pymetrics (renamed Harver), UKG’s acquisition of Chattr (renamed Rapid Hire), Radancy...

David Hughes, the Global People Leader for Costa Coffee (now at HSBC), discusses the company’s innovative approach to hiring using AI. Costa Coffee, a global brand with over 2,000 stores in the UK, faces significant hiring challenges due to high turnover rates and the need to hire thousands of baristas annually.

David explains how Costa has shifted its focus from hiring the “best” talent to finding the “best fit” talent that aligns with the company’s values and culture.

Using Sapia’s AI chat-based assessment, Costa has built a simple 5-question open chat survey that lets Costa ide...

In this podcast I talk with Nathan Perrott, VP of Innovation at Radancy. Radancy is a major provider of integrated recruiting tools, all integrated in what’s called the Radancy Talent Acquisition Cloud.

You may not recognize the name, but Radancy is actually one of the pioneers in talent acquisition, originally started as TMP Worldwide. Over the last 40 years the company has been involved in all aspects of technology-enabled recruitment, (including Monster.com), so they understand job advertising, social media, candidate experience, branding, automated screening, and now AI-powered interviewing. The company’s integrated platform is one of the...

The HR profession is about to go through its biggest transformation in decades. To use a new phrase, this is a “rupture” from the past as we shift to new world of AI agents and superagents automating much of what we do.

In this podcast I explain how 30-40% of AI jobs and roles will change, and how HR will become even more strategic as a result. And this is not a story of layoffs or cost reduction: rather we see AI helping to transform HR into a business function that accelerates scale, time to market, customer valu...

This week we launch our Imperatives for 2026, and I discuss the 11 top issues you face and how HR, as we know it, is going to radically change. Our research shows that 30-40% of today’s HR roles will go away, soon to be automated by AI agents and Superagents.

Read today’s news release for more details.

This podcast explains the transformative impact of enterprise AI on human resources, emphasizing the redefinition of HR roles, the emergence of super agents, and the future of work. It highlights the need for organizations to adapt to these chan...

This week, as part of our 2026 Imperatives launch, I discuss the explosive new world of agents and superagents, and explain why and how you, as an HR or business person, will be “building apps” and “building agents” at work.

I also explain why the Superagent architecture, which is explained in our Imperatives research, is going to replace traditional monolithic HR and other applications at a speedy rate.

Yes, we’re all going to be “Citizen Developers” and we won’t necessarily need Vibe Coding apps to do this. Galileo is an app-builder today and the upcoming Mars re...

As AI transforms our jobs, careers, and lives what happens to our sense of self? If an AI agent can do my job, what happens to me?

In this podcast I discuss the topic of purpose, identity, and mission and how we, as human agents, can keep ourselves happy and purposeful as more and more of our work becomes automated. Yes, these tools are amazing to see and use, but what happens when the career we spent decades building no longer really exists?

Reinventing yourself is scary but we all have to do it. In...

We are entering the year of Enterprise AI, and one of the imperatives we’re introducing is the need to think about your AI Architecture.

While much of our AI journey has been focused on individual productivity tools, now we have a much bigger opportunity: using AI to rethink how our HR, talent, leadership, and human capital processes are designed. As you’ll hear our new Systemic HR® AI Blueprint defines a new set of “Superagents” that help us think through the new workflow automations we can deploy.

In this podcast I explain the new AI archit...

Welcome to our new research on the Frontline Workforce.

In this introductory podcast I explain the importance and complexities of these jobs, and why the people in these roles take on enormous responsibilities in our companies and our economy. More than 70% of US workers are employed in frontline roles, generating more than $6 Trillion in wages and value.

While many business and HR leaders support the frontline, our research points out that the issues are far more complex than you may realize. In this podcast I detail some of these important management topics and I also...

AI adoption is accelerating and it feels harder and harder to keep up. I know many senior leaders feel confused by the rapid pace and college grads are worried about their careers.

What skills do we need to stay relevant in this new “All-AI” world?

Well there’s an answer to all this change, and it gets back to the five fundamental principles of your own professional learning.

In this episode, I unpack the five fundamental things to “learn” as the AI world accelerates at a quickening pace.

I do believe we’re bare...

Welcome to 2026, a year I coin “The Year of Enterprise AI.” As you’ll read about (and hear about) in our 2026 Imperatives launch, the coming year is all about AI moving from “assistants” to “agents” to “solutions.” And there are three big considerations to ponder.

First, the cost of AI is skyrocketing, so we’re going to have to focus on high-value use-cases and business-specific solutions. That’s not to say AI assistants and meeting summaries are not valuable, but once you start paying by the token you’re going to want to go deeper. As we discuss in our new Syste...

In this podcast I reflect on five big things we didn’t talk about much this year, and each falling into the “Human Capital” agenda. We spent much of our year worrying about AI, agents, productivity, and jobs, largely putting the “Human Capital” agenda on the back burner.

While AI is certainly the defining technology of our times, there are human capital issues to consider. As I discuss, these “soft” issues help us address the “socio-technological” impacts of AI. There’s no question that AI is amazing and it will change our lives. As business people, however, we need to remind ou...

This week Coursera announced the acquisition of Udemy, demonstrating the accelerating collapse of the 25-year old traditional online learning industry. As I explain in this podcast, this industry is not going away but it’s being quickly and radically transformed by AI.

The upside here is a new, highly personalized world of professional development ahead. While courseware, certifications, credentials, and online curricula won’t disappear overnight, the business model of providers is changing very quickly. In this podcast I explain this shift and also show you how our particular Galileo business model works.

As someone who...

Talent Acquisition is perhaps the most important but also complex part of business. In this podcast I explain the intricate details of this $750 billion market, which is now being transformed by AI.

As you’ll hear, recruitment is far more nuanced than you may think, so “experts” in HR can do some pretty amazing things. I hope this podcast helps you see the entire landscape and also understand where and why AI can have such an impact.

Many tech companies have tried and failed to transform the market (Google Jobs failed, Facebook Jobs failed), yet some t...

Tristram Gray, Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer at Kmart Group in Australia, explains how the retail giant is revolutionizing high-volume hiring with AI. Managing 55,000 employees across 450 stores, Kmart recruits 12,000 people annually while processing hundreds of thousands of applications.

Tristram shares how the company uses Sapia.ai to create a mobile-first, simulation-based AI assessment process that evaluates candidates on culture, values, and behaviors rather than traditional resumes, previous experience, or technical skills.

The results are remarkable: 73% reduction in time-to-hire (from 44 days to 11 days), 2.5 times longer retention, enhanced diversity, significant cost savings, and 9 out of 10 candidate...

Today I discuss the leadership theme of Arrogance vs. Humility. It’s a big topic and covers many parts of a company’s cycle of growth and variations in styles of leadership. Without judgement, I wanted to discuss the topic in this era of massive AI investment, huge bets on the future, and many ongoing layoffs. There are good reasons for arrogance and it also has its problems, so I decided to share my thoughts.

I also discuss our upcoming 2026 Imperatives research coming in January and give you some insights on the new features in Galileo to help...

In this podcast I describe our newest CHRO Insights research, based on 25,000 CHRO profiles and detailed analysis of their job history by Findem. What you see is that CHRO tenure has dropped by 20% in the last five years, the role is still primarily held by women, and the pay levels of CHROs have not kept pace with the pay of other C-level officers.

Despite these challenges, the scope, role, and importance of the CHRO has rapidly increased, leaving many CHROs to take on roles a Chief Transformation Officers, Chief Strategy Officers, and even Chief AI Enablement Officers...

This podcast is one I’ve been working on for months. Jane Hoskisson, Director of Talent, Learning, and Diversity for IATA (the world’s advocacy, support, and training provider for 300+ airlines). Jane is joined by Alina Aronberga, HR Aviation Leader (former SVP of HR for Air Baltic), who partnered with IATA and others in GAAST, The Global Aviation and Aerospace Skills Taskforce. (You will hear Jane and Alina discuss GAAST in the podcast.)

Jane and Alina discuss many things, including the rapid growth in airlines, the critical need for talent, skills, and diversity, and their comprehensive Future of W...