What AI has taught me as a CEO - and how it’s shaping the future of work

Lately, I've been reflecting on just how much AI has changed the way I work. Being a CEO can, at times, be a lonely place. I've often felt pressure to have all the answers (a leadership myth I'm still working on). I continue to experiment with several AI tools, a few of which have become invaluable teammates: helping me prepare for meetings, analyse complex data sets, evaluate strategic choices, review a myriad of slide decks that come my way, and even bounce around concepts and ideas.

At ELMO, AI isn't just something we use – it's core to how we design our platform, build our teams, and support our customers. In today's market, empathy, communication, critical thinking, curiosity, and AI literacy are becoming premium skills. As an HR technology company, we're committed to walking the talk, embedding AI into our work and enabling customers to thrive in a fast-changing world of work.

Here's how we're making that happen.

1. Reframing AI from threat to opportunity

ELMO's Employee Sentiment Index shows almost one in three employees (31%) worry their jobs could be replaced by automation within five years. That fear is understandable, but it can hold back innovation and job satisfaction.

Leaders need to reframe AI as an opportunity. AI can create new career paths and free up time for higher-value work, experimentation, and customer focus. But reassurance isn't enough; it requires action and psychological safety.

We've reorganised teams to improve collaboration and flow of ideas. AI is streamlining processes and boosting productivity, but its real impact lies in giving people time to focus on creativity, strategy, and problem-solving.

The challenge is no longer implementing good ideas, but how quickly we can generate and test new ones. This is where AI accelerates the "speed of ideas."

We've also increased investment in internal mobility and leadership development - from mentoring to rotations and secondments - giving people the flexibility to build skills, move between roles, and grow their careers while meeting business needs.

2. Building AI confidence through learning 

Workforce upskilling is one of today's biggest organisational challenges. Healthcare, manufacturing, education, and construction are just a few sectors struggling to keep pace.

At ELMO, skills training is essential to future-proofing the business and supporting our people. Our ELMO Educate Days bring the company together with inspiring speakers, practical AI tools, and policy guidance. Our People & Culture team leads an ongoing program to strengthen AI and digital fluency across the organisation.

We've also invested heavily in change management to help people embrace transformation with resilience and confidence.

3. Encouraging thoughtful experimentation 

Employees should never feel they have to hide their use of AI tools. Experimentation benefits everyone when it's guided and supported from the top down.

At ELMO, our technology team, led by CTO Josh McKenzie, was empowered to trial tools like CoPilot, Claude, and Cursor. Using metrics and A/B testing, backed by strong governance, we identified the tools that added the most value.

We also created a Machine Learning Operations and Platform Engineering team, led by VP Ramesh Thiagalingam. This team acts as custodians of our AI ecosystem, ensuring adoption is coordinated, secure, and effective. Their goal: to enhance the customer experience at every stage, from adoption to full utilisation.

4. Using AI to strengthen talent insights

AI is also central to our platform, helping to remove friction from hiring and workforce planning.

From natural language queries to AI-generated job descriptions and resume screening, AI is reducing time and cost-to-hire. ELMO Assist, our AI-driven support tool, integrates Help Centre knowledge directly into the platform, cutting support tickets by helping customers find answers faster.

We are also working towards providing insight to our customers on ways AI can help anticipate staffing needs and org structure, equipping future-focused organisations that want to lead with AI. Beyond workforce planning, AI is transforming talent acquisition, making it faster, fairer, and more precise through better skills mapping, succession planning, bias mitigation, and data-driven matching. For instance, instead of relying on CVs alone, with the help of AI, HR professionals can identify hidden skills in their workforce, like the project manager with strong data skills who could step into an analytics role. But speed alone isn't the goal. Efficiency must be matched with efficacy, ensuring human oversight, accountability, and good governance remain central. 

The organisations that will thrive are those that combine the best of technology with the best of humanity, empowering teams with new skills, fostering curiosity, and leading by example. I've learned first-hand that AI can be a partner, not a threat. And with that mindset, the future of work looks brighter than ever.