HeyJaredThe Human Element
AI is reshaping leadership, strategy, and the very role of HR. In each episode, the host Barb Bidan explores how AI, innovation, and human insight are redefining people operations—offering practical ideas and strategic perspectives to help you lead what’s next.The Human…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Sep 15, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest episodes
How Illumio got its whole people team using AI (opens the original)
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Summary What actually changes when AI arrives in HR, and what stays exactly the same? In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan talks with L. David Kingsley, Chief People Officer at Illumio, whose career began implementing PeopleSoft from CD-ROMs at Accenture before leading people functions at MuleSoft, Alteryx, Intercom, and Salesforce. David explains why there has never been a time of no change, why 300,000 years of human brain development did not shift in the last nine months, and
Why Sweetwater treats AI like an Iron Man suit, not a replacement (opens the original)
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Summary How does a company whose entire business model is built on human relationships decide what to do with AI? In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Jeff Ostermann, Chief People and Culture Officer at Sweetwater, the largest online musical instrument and audio equipment retailer in the US. Jeff shares how Sweetwater drew an uncompromising line around the human element before adopting AI, why they treat technology like an Iron Man suit that gives their 600 sales
Data and Humanity Were Never in Tension (opens the original)
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Summary How do you build a culture with both high psychological safety and high accountability? In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan talks with Maura Stevenson, Chief Human Resources Officer at MedVet, about her 20-year case that data and humanity were never in tension. Maura built Starbucks' people analytics function from scratch in 2004, connected people data to restaurant performance at Wendy's, and now leads HR for 3,500 team members across MedVet's 45 veterinary hospitals.
AI Readiness Is a Culture Problem Before It's a Skill Problem (opens the original)
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Summary What does it actually take to make a workforce AI ready? In this episode of The Human Element, host Barb Bidan sits down with Miki Virtue, VP of Human Resources, to unpack why AI readiness is a culture problem before it is a skill problem (Miki's views and opinions are not associated with the company she works for, this episode represents herself alone). Miki shares why AI rewards curiosity and punishes certainty, why a workforce trained to never be wrong is a culture gap rather than a s
Where the Hard Line Sits Between AI and Human Judgment (opens the original)
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Summary Where exactly should the line sit between AI and human judgment? Emilie Schmitz, Chief Human Resources Officer at Ryze Claim Solutions, joins host Barb Bidan to answer that question inside a business built entirely on judgment calls. Ryze handles claims across auto, trucking, construction, and catastrophe response, and it holds one hard line: AI can support documentation, data gathering, and communication, but it never makes a decision, in claims or in HR. Emilie shares the training modu
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