The adoption of AI in HR isn’t just accelerating—it’s outpacing our readiness.
New tools are entering the market every week. Vendors are making bold promises. Boards are asking hard questions. Meanwhile, HR teams are stuck trying to make sense of it all—navigating unfamiliar technologies, inconsistent guidance, and very real implications for their people.
As an industry, we face a choice: let transformation happen to us, or shape it with intention.
That’s why we created the Human-Centric AI Council—a collective of practitioners, technologists, and trusted advisors committed to guiding responsible, ethical, and human-first AI transformation in the workplace.
We’re not chasing hype. We’re not pushing product. And we’re not waiting around for perfect conditions.
We’re building a community that asks better questions, tests smarter ideas, and delivers practical resources that help HR leaders lead—confidently, ethically, and with people at the center.
This Council wasn’t built to react to the future. It was built to help HR shape it.
It’s a bold vision, and we’ve been hard at work since we announced our intention back in January. Today, I’m excited to share what we’ve been up to—including a few foundational things:
- Our Mission & Values
- Our Operating Principles
- The Pillars of Human-Centric A & Our Year 1 Agenda
- Our Founding Steering Committee
- Our Founding Underwriters
I also don’t want to bury the lede: We’re hosting our first-ever bi-monthly Town Hall on Thursday, July 31 where we’ll walk through everything–and introduce our Steering Committee. Register today and join us!
Fair warning: This post is a real doozy—but just imagine how many ideas we started with, how much we’ve distilled just to align on these things! But I just couldn’t wait to share… So here goes!
What Grounds Us: The Mission, Values, and Principles of the Human-Centric AI Council
Our Mission
The Human-Centric AI Council (HCAIC) is guided by a clear mission:
“To bring together industry experts, technology providers, and key stakeholders to empower HR leaders to lead responsible, ethical AI transformation through education, community, and best practices that thoughtfully balance workforce impact with business goals.”
This work isn’t just about what we build—it’s about how we build it. That’s why we’ve aligned around a shared set of values and principles that shape everything we do.
Our Values
- Be Bold, Be Practical. We champion ambitious ideas—but keep them grounded in real-world application.
- Build Bridges, Close the Gap. We strengthen the partnership between HR and Tech to drive smarter, more inclusive innovation.
- Be Direct, Be Productive. Candid conversations lead to better outcomes. We say what needs to be said—and listen deeply in return.
- Stay Agile, Stay Ahead. We move fast with purpose. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress.
- Champion People, Pursue Impact. We advocate for AI that empowers people and drives meaningful outcomes—not just efficiencies.
- Lead with Integrity. We draw a hard line: no ethical shortcuts, no compromise on accountability.
These values aren’t branding. They’re our operating system.
Our Operating Principles
These five principles are what turn our values into action:
- Champion Human-Centric AI. We prioritize ethics over economics. We center workforce capability and experience—not just performance metrics.
- Integrate Ideas, Keep the Door Open. Great solutions come from collaboration. We connect HR teams, stakeholders, and solution providers to co-create real-world answers.
- Design with Integrity. We embed transparency, explainability, and responsibility into everything we deliver—resources, toolkits, and research alike.
- Deliver Utility, Temper Hype. We value clarity over novelty. Practicality over perfection. Substance over buzzwords.
- Experiment Transparently, Iterate Often. We treat innovation as a cycle of learning, not a finish line. We test openly, invite feedback, and improve together.
The Pillars of Human-Centric AI: Where the Real Work Happens
To be clear: The HCAIC isn’t a think tank. It’s a do tank—with a clear moral compass.
As we begin ideating on our purpose and operating guidelines, however, we also identified a number of distinct tensions HR leaders are grappling with—education and hype, governance and agility, innovation and impact…
So we set out to organize our efforts intentionally to ensure we had both comprehensive and focused programs where we could build practical, human-centered solutions together.
We’re calling them Pillars.
Each of our five Pillars addresses a distinct tension HR leaders are grappling with—education and hype, governance and agility, innovation and impact—and gives us a focused path to build practical, human-centered solutions together.
These aren’t just topic areas—they’re the engines of our work. Each Pillar is supported by practitioners and experts who are actively building tools, curating resources, and facilitating dialogue to help HR teams lead AI transformation with confidence and clarity—and each Pillar is led by a Pillar Manager, who is committed to supporting the objectives we’ve set.
Here’s what we landed on—and who volunteered to lead the charge:
AI Literacy & Education
Demystify AI. Build foundational understanding. Equip HR to lead.
This Pillar focuses on delivering structured learning and practical tools that help HR professionals cut through noise, build confidence, and engage meaningfully in AI initiatives. We’re not assuming a tech background—we’re meeting HR where they are and giving them what they need to move forward.
Objectives:
· Build and maintain foundational AI knowledge across the HR function
· Deliver practical resources that support AI understanding and application
· Foster a vibrant HR learning community
Who’s Leading the Charge: Rachel Bourne is a global HR executive and talent strategist with 20 years of experience leading transformation across the Fortune 500. As host of The Shift Show, she helps professionals navigate AI and the future of work. Rachel brings a human-centered perspective to AI strategy, blending systems thinking, innovation, and inclusion to design better experiences for the people doing the work.
AI Trust & Safety
Ethics and accountability start with HR—even if AI governance doesn’t live there.
This Pillar equips HR leaders with the frameworks, language, and practical tools to evaluate AI solutions through a lens of fairness, transparency, and compliance. We’re making it easier for HR to ask the right questions, partner with Legal and Risk, and become credible stewards of responsible AI use.
Objectives:
· Define practical standards for ethical AI in HR
· Enable HR to advocate for responsible AI adoption
· Curate and contextualize global AI regulations for practitioners
Who’s Leading the Charge: Susan Jackson is a talent operations and strategy leader at The Estée Lauder Companies, where she drives enterprise-wide workforce transformation. With deep experience aligning people, process, and technology, she focuses on scalable innovation that enhances employee experience. Susan brings a curiosity-driven, systems-thinking approach to building modern, human-centric HR solutions that deliver lasting impact.
AI Value Realization
Make the case. Measure what matters. Maximize the people impact.
This Pillar helps HR teams articulate the business value of AI—without losing sight of the human impact. From vendor evaluation to ROI storytelling, we’re building and sharing tools that make it easier for HR to say, “Here’s what this is for, and here’s how we know it’s working.”
Objectives:
- Build and activate compelling, people-centered business cases
- Curate and contextualize proven AI use cases
- Provide tools to evaluate and manage AI solutions responsibly
Who’s Leading the Charge: Lydia Wu, an experienced HR strategist with a background at Accenture, Deloitte, and Panasonic. Lydia is known for translating complex technology into accessible, people-positive strategies. She brings deep expertise in HR tech evaluation, adoption, and experimentation.
AI Adoption & Change Management
AI implementation doesn’t fail because of the tech—it fails because of the change.
This Pillar supports HR teams through the messy middle: from piloting to scaling, from initial buy-in to lasting behavior change. We’re creating, curating, and exploring adoption roadmaps, stakeholder alignment guides, and workforce impact playbooks to help HR manage the human side of AI transformation.
Objectives:
- Provide guidance for assessing and growing AI change readiness
- Deliver roadmaps for stakeholder alignment, piloting, and scaling
- Support planning for workforce impact and job transformation
Who’s Leading the Charge: Alicia Miller is a strategist and behavioral science expert with over 15 years of experience leading innovation, analytics, and organizational change. She co-founded a global behavioral insights community and advises on AI, transformation, and experimentation. Alicia blends data and empathy to design solutions that balance human behavior, user experience, and long-term impact.
Forward-Thinking & Future-Ready AI
Help HR anticipate what’s coming—and prepare accordingly.
This Pillar looks ahead. Through curated insights, expert conversations, and emerging trend analysis, we’re helping HR leaders interpret where technology is headed and how it will reshape work, teams, and talent strategy.
Objectives:
- Surface emerging trends shaping the future of HR and AI
- Convene cross-disciplinary dialogues with tech and scientific experts
- Inspire proactive planning and experimentation in HR
Who’s Leading the Charge: Bob Pulver is a technology strategist and AI advisor with a career spanning IBM, NBCUniversal, and Talent Tech Labs. He leads Elevate Your AIQ, where he helps organizations adopt AI responsibly through advisory, education, and compliance. With deep experience in digital transformation, Bob brings a systems-thinking lens and a passion for making AI more ethical, explainable, and human-centered.
Each Pillar is more than a content bucket—it’s a shared commitment to solving real problems, not just admiring them. And together, these Pillars form the architecture for everything we’ll deliver in Year 1.
Our Year 1 Priorities: From Vision to Action
Each of our five Pillars is anchored by one simple commitment: we’re here to deliver real, useful work. But there’s a lot we could dig into… So we needed focus, we needed to prioritize and establish workstreams.
At the highest level, our Year 1 priorities are to create tangible tools, frameworks, and insights that HR leaders can actually use—whether they’re just getting started or trying to level up existing AI initiatives.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s field-tested, practitioner-led, and community-informed work—built by people who’ve been in the seat. And we’re seriously committed to delivering—which is why we have dedicated Workstream Leaders managing projects aligned to these priorities.
Here’s what we’re focused on delivering in Year 1—and who’s going to make sure we get everything done:
HR AI Literacy Toolkit
Goal: Equip HR professionals with foundational knowledge and practical tools to engage confidently with AI.
What’s included:
- A plain-language overview of AI in HR: what it is, how it works, where it shows up
- A myth-busting guide and terminology glossary
- Common AI use cases across the employee lifecycle
- A persona-based learning framework (so individuals can build knowledge at their own pace)
- Curated, crowd-sourced content to support learning and application
Who’s Running Point: Melissa Laswell, an accomplished talent leader with experience at Apple, Walmart, and Pitney Bowes. She brings deep expertise in talent development and a passion for inclusive, people-first technology. Melissa is focused on helping HR teams build confidence and fluency in AI.
Frameworks for Responsible AI Adoption
Goal: Support HR’s role in enabling ethical, compliant, and trust-centered AI use—even when they don’t “own” governance.
What’s included:
- Principles and policy templates for ethical AI use in HR
- A library of key AI laws and regulatory updates—curated and contextualized
- Tools to assess risk and reduce bias in AI applications
- Templates and guidance for aligning with Legal, Compliance, and Risk
- A practical change management guide to support rollout and adoption
Who’s Running Point: Tara Torres, a global HR executive with expertise in enterprise ethics, compliance, and workforce change. Tara has led people strategy and operations at scale, and is passionate about equipping HR to lead responsibly. Her work bridges legal rigor with practical, human-centered action.
AI Vendor Assessment Framework
Goal: Help HR teams engage, evaluate, select, and manage AI vendors with confidence and clarity.
What’s in scope:
- Templates for defining the business problem and aligning with strategy
- A build/buy/borrow/bot decision framework
- Market scan guidance and evaluation checklists
- Fit-for-purpose assessment questions
- A sample KPI dashboard to track post-implementation performance
Who’s Running Point: Lydia Wu, an experienced HR strategist with a background at Accenture, Deloitte, and Panasonic. Lydia is known for translating complex technology into accessible, people-positive strategies. She brings deep expertise in HR tech evaluation, adoption, and experimentation.
AI Impact Report: Workforce Planning & Job Transformation
Goal: Provide strategic insight into how AI is reshaping work—and what it means for HR.
What’s in scope:
- Analysis of emerging AI-driven workforce trends
- Shifts in HR and TA team structures
- Insight into job augmentation, automation, and reskilling needs
- Forecasts and “What’s Next” briefs
- Highlights from future-focused expert conversations
- Emerging trends in employee and candidate experience
Who’s Running Point: Kyle Lagunas, founder of Kyle & Co and architect of the Human-Centric AI Council. A former HR leader and tech strategist, Kyle blends research, advisory, and practitioner insight. He’s focused on helping leaders anticipate and act on the future of work with clarity.
Each of these initiatives reflects the same throughline: AI in HR must be ethical, intentional, and actionable. And our job is to give HR leaders the tools to make that possible—today, not someday.
We’re not building for buzz. We’re building for utility—and we need help. If you’re a senior leader with experience leading innovation and transformation initiatives, please reach out!
Powered by Partnership: Meet Our Underwriters
The HCAIC wouldn’t exist without the support of a select group of underwriters who believe in our mission—and are investing in doing things differently. In fact, this entire initiative was accelerated after a conversation I had with Charles Mah and Arhyun Moon at GoodTime. We knew things were moving faster than many HR and Talent teams could manage—and that we needed to do something about it.
Starting with GoodTime’s support, and then the addition of other underwriters, we’ve been able to take our aspirations to another level.
These organizations are not just funding the work behind the scenes. They’re championing a better path forward for AI in HR: one that values transparency over positioning, shared learning over sales decks, and long-term credibility over short-term noise.
In return, our underwriters gain:
- A front-row seat to the Council’s insights, outputs, and conversations
- Early access to research, frameworks, and community feedback
- A trusted channel for engaging with real practitioners—without the spin
They’re not here to sponsor the narrative. They’re here to support the work.
We’re proud to be building this with partners who understand that responsible transformation requires more than tech—it requires trust.
“This isn’t a pay-to-play community. It’s a co-investment in building something that lasts.”
We’re grateful for the support of our founding underwriters—leaders who share our belief that AI in HR must be ethical, intentional, and built around people.
Founding Underwriters
Interested in underwriting the Council’s work? Reach out to learn more about opportunities to support our mission.
Join Us: Our First Town Hall
We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes—and now we’re ready to open the doors.
On July 31, the HCAIC will host our first public Town Hall, showcasing what we’ve built, where we’re headed, and how you can be part of it. This event is for anyone serious about leading AI transformation in HR the right way: responsibly, ethically, and human-first.
You’ll get:
- A deeper dive into our Year 1 priorities and in-progress toolkits
- Insights from our Pillar Managers and Workstream Leads
- A preview of our State of AI in HR research
- Real conversation about what’s working, what we’ve learned, and what’s next
Whether you’re new to the conversation or already deep in the work, we’d love for you to join us.
If you’re looking for a no-fluff, high-signal conversation about AI in HR—this is it.