UNLEASH America Day Two: Top 10 takeaways from Josh Bersin to Ethan Mollick

Day Two of UNLEASH America has officially come to a close – and wow, what a lot to take in!

But, in the very unfortunate case that you were unable to attend (maybe you’re saving yourself for tomorrow?), we don’t want you to be feeling too much FOMO. 

So, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 sessions that took place, so you can catch up on all the action, news and updates you missed out on.

Of course, this list barely scratches the surface, so make sure you join us tomorrow for Day Three… And, while you’re at it, why not book tickets for next year, too?

Diving into the transformative realm of AI with Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick

To put it mildly: ChatBots are powering the world.

And Ethan Mollick is here to celebrate them. 

With the pivotal role of kicking off UNLEASH America 2024, Mollick began by stating: “You can’t trust everything you see or hear,” as he showed a video generated by AI of him introducing himself in English, Spanish, and then Hindi.

Using the case study of ‘Steve’, Mollick demonstrates live how leaders can generate performance reviews, as an example, as to how AI can quickly and accurately complete tasks. 

His session, titled, From Disruption to Opportunity: Embracing the AI Revolution, also addressed the all-important question – How can we thoughtfully and consciously embrace AI to propel innovation and shape our future? 

To provide answers, Mollick took the audiences on an exploration of the boundless opportunities and incredible possibilities in this era of AI revolution.

He then discussed the ‘secret cyborg problem’, stating: “People in your business will be using AI for all sorts of things – but they’ll only tell you if it benefits them. They won’t tell you if it will impact their work, or put them or the colleagues at risk of being laid off.”

Closing, Mollick asked the audience to consider four principles: Inviting AI to everything they do, how to be the human in the loop, to tell AI who it is (and treat it like a person), and last, but not least, to remember that this will be the worst AI we ever use.

Heart or head – which do you lead with?

Do you lead with your heart or your heart – an age-old question that is hard to definitively answer.

However, Dr Kirstin Ferguson took to the main stage to challenge the audience to find how they can achieve the ‘perfect’ balance.

Through the session, Dr Ferguson gave exclusive insights into how this can be achieved, sharing: “Leadership is simply a series of moments.

“The key is mastering what is needed and when. 

“We might go into a meeting thinking we know what it’s about, but half way through, it may go off the rails, meaning you need awareness and humility to know when to exercise it.”

Concluding, she highlights the term ‘word-to-wisdom ratio,’ where she asked the audience to consider how they’re contributing to each conversation, in relation to their amount of knowledge.

Undoubtedly, this inspirational session left the audience with three questions: Do I lead with my heart or my head? What’s my word-to-wisdom ratio? And, how can I learn more?

Dr Ferguson

Hiring transparency with Greenhouse’s John Stross

Ever heard of love bombing during the interview process? 

Well during this session, Jon Stross, Co-founder and President at Greenhouse explains how candidates are experiencing heightened interest, often being oversaturated with praise, to then be met with an offer that doesn’t quite meet expectations. 

If you’re a candidate looking for a job right now, it’s a pretty painful situation to be in,” he said, as he explained just some of the many difficulties of navigating the job market. “And it’s also painful from a recruiting point of view, as they know they’ll be ruining someone’s day whenever they pick up the phone to tell them they haven’t been given the role.”

Using data to support his argument, Stross remarked that 54% of candidates have faced discriminatory interview questions, 53% have been ‘love bombed’, and 52% have been ghosted throughout the interview process.

Stross continued to identify a number of ways in which these can be avoided, to ensure a more transparent hiring process for all.

Mastering AI-powered talent actuations with Pfizer

AI is about enabling people to make better decisions, and to help people to do their jobs even better, that was the message from Wendy Mayer, VP of Candidate Experience at Pfizer. 

The pharma giant is in the transition phase of AI adoption – it is all a work in progress – but there are some lessons Pfizer has learnt so far. 

According to Mayer, the top one is the randomness of AI – this goes back to what Mollick said about the jagged edge of AI.

You’re not always going to get predictable outcomes, so if you need that for your use cases, then have a think. 

Also, rather than building everything from scratch yourselves, work with vendors to leverage expertise, but make sure you really understand how the algorithms they use work, and what data they pull from. 

Viva Las Vegas: MGM Resorts International, The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment

Drum roll please, for one of UNLEASH America’s most memorable panels to date, consisting of Caesars Entertainment’s Chief Administration and Accounting Officer Stephanie Lepori; The Venetian Resort Las Vegas’s CHRO Matt Krystofiak; MGM Resorts International’s CPO Jyoti Chopra; and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s Senior VP People & Culture Nadine Jones.

The four panelists joined forces to reveal the secrets behind Las Vegas’s iconic resorts in mastering the art of employee satisfaction and career advancement in the fast-paced world of hospitality and entertainment. 

Chopra opened: “Culture isn’t something that evolves overnight. It takes time. It’s about the history and heritage, the moments that are defining the milestones and the building of your organization.

“At MGM, we learned that employees that want to come to work for us because of the brands we represent. They wanted flexibility in their schedule, for example. So, we wrote some of those attributes into our composition, which is now part of our values and culture.”

Jones then moved the conversation to discuss HR tech, where Lepori says: “I believe we’re really on the cusp of an exciting opportunity to leverage technology to improve the industry.”

Krystoflak then spoke about the benefit plans for the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, including childcare and premiums. He said: “Team members have the choice to subsidize 40% of their childcare costs, while also having access to an incredibly rich benefit plan that covers 100% of all premiums for both themselves and their families. These are two of the key identifiers for us.”

Jyoti Chopra, Matt Krystofiak, Stephanie Lepori

Josh Bersin on embracing technology innovation and AI

Josh Bersin, Founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, explained four primary use cases of AI for HR leaders. Speaking to a standing room only crowd, Bersin elaborated on how HR leaders can adopt and use generative AI tools for talent intelligence, recruiting, employee experience, and learning & development.

“We’re sort of at the beginning of a new industrial revolution around AI that is forming before our very eyes,” he told delegates. “But these are all use cases that I see happening today.”

You don’t have to be a computer scientist to understand this. The most important thing when you think about this domain is that you need to educate yourself; you need to become familiar with the nature of this technology and what it does. Look at the use cases that are out there and ask questions.”

Improve your company’s dating profile

Want to learn how to captivate top talent and build lasting connections?

Well, Davita Carpenter, VP of HR at HCA Healthcare revealed her playbook for employer branding success. 

“I thoroughly believe we, as businesses, need to date our employees,” she began, as she highlighted the importance of regularly auditing websites to promote transparency.

In this exclusive session, Carpenter continued to highlight how and why it’s important for businesses to market and brand themselves correctly to attract potential talent by likening business websites and social media platforms to dating profiles. 

Carpenter, therefore, shares her top tips on how businesses can make themselves more attractive to not only entice new talent, but you retain current employees too. 

“If you’re in a relationship and there’s no two-way communication, you’ll feel like your partner doesn’t care,” she says, “employment is no different.”

“Businesses need to continue to court their talent and reap the rewards from their investment. And don’t forget to put a ring on it.”

How is Gen AI shaping the HR world?

You may know what FOMO is, but do you know FOBO? 

Well, it means ‘fear of becoming obsolete’, which, as you can imagine, has piqued with the rise in AI. 

In this session, which specifically focuses on how AI is shaping the world of HR, three senior leaders discuss FOBO, as well as many other crucial topics.

And those three leaders were: Laura Knowles, Senior Advisor, AI Initiatives at US Office of Personnel Management; Tiffani Murray, Director, HR Tech Partners and Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn; and Marguerite Eastwood, CHRO at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

During their 30-minute session, the trio took a deep dive into understanding the intricacies of Gen AI, where they discussed how AI is shaping the HR function and revolutionizing the way organizations manage their most valuable asset – their people.

To round up the session, each panelist shared their best pieces of take-home advice, with Murray beginning: “The lesson I’ve learnt about AI is garbage in, garbage out.

AI will act in a way that we teach it to act. So, we need to be thoughtful about learning more and educating ourselves, particularly in terms of how we interact with AI.”

Next, Knowles took the mic: “I’d say it’s important to understand the notion of starting. Governance is necessary, but we also need to recognize the importance of letting the workforce play with AI and learn how to use it. 

“Also, it’s important to remember that AI isn’t appropriate for every problem, so we need to be confident in knowing what it can and can’t be used for. It’s about balancing out the risk and impact.”

Finally, Eastwood shared her thoughts, somewhat echoing the lessons of the other two panelists: “Think of generative AI as your intern. You need to give it a lot of time and energy to help it get the job done correctly.

“But I’ve also learnt that not everyone is embracing it – some people think AI is cheating. But we’re trying to share stories of how it can be used as a tool to utilize jobs, while also reminding individuals that AI won’t do the full job alone. 

“I’ve seen senior people embracing technology and AI, while getting really excited about it. To me, this shows that you can teach an old dog new tricks.”

Jon Stross

Achieving seamless internal mobility with JLL

JLL’s Global Head of TA and HR Services Jane Curran took to the stage to share that internal recruitment may be “complicated”, but there is some serious ROI from doing internal mobility better (not least driving down attrition). 

When asked how the business responded to this business shift to internal mobility, Curran added that leaders of the future are on board because they want to be sought after as a manager, they want to innovate and they want to have the best talent. 

She continues to explain how the good managers of the future are going to be beacons that people run to, making the comparison to natural selection. 

Finally, she shared the importance of HR being future ready, especially on AI. This is more essential than ever, as technology changes accelerate.

UNLEASH Startup competition winner announced!

Out on the Expo floor, the UNLEASH Startup Awards 2024 were also decided! Five HR startups went head-to-head in front of our industry judging panel and the crowd, with Chicago-based Manifest emerging victorious.

You can read all about why they won right here. The video of the winning startup sharing insights into their pitch will be shared here on unleash.ai soon.

Stay with us for the roundup of Day 3 tomorrow, including our star keynote, basketball and business legend Magic Johnson!