Key Takeaways

• AI coaching is the first concrete step in Gilead's enterprise growth transformation: Growth at Gilead is a multi-pillar framework designed to personalize employee development at scale — amplifying individual impact, empowering people leaders, preparing the organization for the future, and integrating fragmented systems into a unified growth hub. Nadia is the foundational first move in that transformation, chosen because it can help employees understand what growth means, where they are, and what they need to improve — immediately and personally.
• Pilots that get users into the tool immediately drive the strongest early results: Gilead's onboarding approach — getting pilot participants directly into a Nadia session within the first ten minutes — generated immediate aha moments. Some participants lost track of time mid-session because the conversations were so engaging. The lesson: adoption is an experience design problem, not a communication problem.
• More than 30% of Gilead's C-suite proactively requested early access to Nadia: Rather than waiting to be told about the tool, senior executives asked to be first adopters. This level of top-down enthusiasm — in a decentralized learning organization — is being activated deliberately as a function-by-function change management lever, with leaders in each function role-modeling the behavior they want to see from their teams.
• Helping employees understand coaching AI vs. answer-giving AI is a critical and underappreciated adoption challenge: Employees familiar with Copilot — which delivers fast, direct answers — sometimes approach Nadia with the same expectation. Gilead is actively working to help its workforce understand that AI coaching is designed to facilitate thinking, not provide answers, and that the two tools serve fundamentally different purposes. This distinction requires deliberate, repeated communication.
• IT and tech partners need to be brought into the AI coaching value conversation — on their terms: IT teams are trained to measure tool value through usage frequency and return rates. AI coaching, by its nature, delivers value differently — in the depth and quality of individual conversations, not in raw click volume. Kerry identifies IT alignment as a critical and often overlooked change management challenge in AI coaching deployments.
• You can never over-communicate — and functional embedding, not central mandate, is how AI coaching sticks: Gilead's decentralized learning structure means adoption looks different in every function. Kerry's approach is to involve function-level learning and development partners directly in change management planning, giving them ownership over how Nadia is embedded in their specific context rather than pushing a one-size-fits-all rollout.

Full Transcript

Growth at Gilead: The Strategic Framework Behind the AI Coaching Decision

[00:00:01.000]

Sara: I am really excited to be here. Kerry and I chat nearly every day — but this conversation is a little different, where we get to share the journey that Gilead has been on. Before we get into that journey, I'd love to have Kerry share a little more about her role and day-to-day at Gilead.

[00:00:31.079]

Kerry: When I saw that question, the first thing that came to mind was chaos. I look after employee growth for Gilead — every single employee, and how we help them grow and develop. I also look after learning enablement globally. My team supports from design right through to delivery and ongoing sustainment. I'm in the fortunate position of really connecting the dots and seeing the interconnectedness of everything we do — which sometimes creates a bit of chaos.

[00:01:09.400]

Sara: One of the pieces that you and the team have been working really hard on is Growth at Gilead. Can you share more about what it is and why it's so important?

[00:01:22.159]

Kerry: We're very much at the early stages. This is something we're literally about to launch to our full employee population over the next couple of months. We've talked a lot about AI — where it is, where it's going — and we're now at that inflection point where we can truly make changes we've always wanted to make. I've always wanted to personalize learning. I've always wanted it to be like your Apple Watch — where you're actually tracking your own growth easily, every day, in whatever activities you're doing. We're now at the place where we can get there.

Our pillars: we want to amplify individual impact. We want every employee to understand what growth means — both in the near term in their role, and in terms of their performance. We believe firmly that even if we get employees to grow just 1%, the impact on how we innovate and how we reach our long-term goals — 10 transformative therapies — is enormous.

We've also been on a journey over the last couple of years to amplify people leader accountability. Our people leaders are time poor, spans of control are increasing. We found we had many people leaders with just one direct report, so we've been making changes. We want to take leaders on that journey around owning their own growth first — so they experience it for themselves — and then help them understand their role in facilitating growth for others.

Being future ready is another pillar — our people, our systems, our performance management, our annual talent programs. And a major pain point at Gilead is integrating our underlying systems. People spend too long trying to access growth opportunities. The growth hub on our left-hand side of our framework is where we ultimately want to get. The first step on that journey — and we're delighted to be taking it — is Nadia. We see this as a game changer as we start this journey: helping people understand growth, where they are, what they're good at, what they need to get better at. We're in pilot right now. A thousand people over about six to eight weeks. Then we roll out to people leaders first, then all employees, with an aim of having that out there by June or July of this year.

▶ How Gilead Sciences Built Its AI Coaching Strategy Around a New Growth Philosophy

Gilead Sciences' Growth at Gilead framework is a multi-pillar enterprise transformation designed to personalize employee development at scale — amplifying individual impact, empowering people leaders, building future readiness, and integrating fragmented learning systems into a unified growth hub. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, is the first and foundational move in that transformation. Gilead's head of employee growth Kerry describes the goal as making growth as intuitive and continuous as tracking health metrics on a smartwatch — something AI now makes possible for the first time at enterprise scale. The full workforce rollout is targeted for mid-2025.

Early Pilot Results: What Gilead Is Learning in the First Weeks

[00:05:01.259]

Sara: We call Nadia the 'Growth at Gilead AI Coach.' The idea is to bring Nadia to people leaders first, then to the rest of the organization, so leaders can role model the behavior. You mentioned we just launched in January. How is the pilot going? What are the early learnings?

[00:05:42.319]

Kerry: We started small with the first pilot, and we're about to start the next one next week — over 300 people. Even in the initial onboarding, the feedback from Valence was: get people into Nadia straight away in the onboarding session. Absolutely the right thing. We gave people about ten minutes to play around, and immediately people were saying, 'I've got aha moments already.' Some people didn't come back to the session because they were still talking with Nadia. They'd lost track of time. They were going, 'I was actually in there progressing the conversation.' The early feedback is really positive.

We're also seeing some nuanced challenges. People who are already very comfortable with coaching are interacting with Nadia more naturally. We're learning how to help those who don't fully understand what coaching is — and who may not yet understand that Nadia isn't there to just give them an answer. It's there to facilitate their thinking. But you can see the aha moments already: participants like that it was getting to know them, that it felt personal immediately, that it was already starting to give them insight.

▶ What Gilead Sciences Learned in the First Weeks of Its AI Coaching Pilot

Gilead Sciences launched its Nadia AI coaching pilot with a deliberate onboarding design: get participants into a live Nadia session within the first ten minutes. The result was immediate — some participants lost track of time mid-conversation and did not return to the group session, because the coaching interaction was so engaging. Early feedback highlighted the personal quality of the experience: participants felt Nadia was getting to know them and providing genuine insight quickly. One emerging challenge: employees unfamiliar with coaching as a practice need additional support to understand that AI coaching is designed to facilitate thinking, not provide direct answers.

Earning C-Suite Buy-In and Functional Embedding

[00:07:13.939]

Sara: In addition to the pilot itself, you spend a lot of time in deep conversations with function leaders and others to bring them along the journey. What reflections do you have on that work, and why is it so important?

[00:07:40.980]

Kerry: You can never over-communicate. It's really important that we get our HR business partners and our HR community understanding Nadia and using it personally — but also thinking about the use cases for the people leader population and individual contributors. We're talking to the C-suite. More than 30% of our C-suite have said, 'I want to try Nadia out. I want to be one of the first adopters.' That's going to be a game changer in terms of how we move across functions. People listen to the leaders of their function.

We have a decentralized learning model — learning and development sits in every function across Gilead. So bringing function-level L&D partners in, involving them in the change management approach, and asking them: how do we really embed this and drive adoption in your function? We recognize it's not one size fits all. The approach for manufacturing, for example, is going to look different from a corporate function.

We're also trying to be very intentional about making people feel invited — not compliant. It isn't about compliance. How do we create an environment where people feel safe to practice and experiment? And we're hearing that clearly: people want to know what's happening with their data, that it's safe, and that they can experiment freely. Doubling down on that trust-building is important.

▶ How Gilead Sciences Is Using C-Suite Advocacy to Drive AI Coaching Adoption

More than 30% of Gilead Sciences' C-suite proactively requested early access to Nadia — before any organizational mandate — making them among the company's first AI coaching adopters. Kerry, Gilead's head of employee growth, is deliberately channeling this top-down enthusiasm through the company's decentralized learning structure, activating function-level leaders as local change agents rather than pushing a single centralized rollout. The approach recognizes that AI coaching adoption looks different in each function, and that invitation — not compliance — is what creates lasting behavior change.

Practical Advice for HR Leaders Scaling AI Coaching Adoption

[00:09:28.559]

Sara: You've shared so many nuggets about bringing people along the journey — functional buy-in, leadership role modeling. Is there any other advice for HR leaders in the room on a similar journey?

[00:09:59.000]

Kerry: First, help people understand how they can use AI coaching in their specific environment — especially those who are new to it. How do you help them understand the ways to use it? What you really want to do is drive experimentation. That's what we're trying to do.

Second, educate leaders and particularly IT teams. The traditional model of measuring tool value is usage — how many times did you go back, how many logins. But as Scott was describing earlier, that's not the right lens for AI coaching. IT partners need to come away understanding that Nadia is adding value in ways their dashboards don't currently capture. We have work to do there.

Third, help people understand how all these AI tools coexist. We're using Copilot right now, and some people are getting very comfortable with it — it's more instant in delivering an answer. How do we help people understand that Nadia and Copilot serve different purposes? The world we're going to is a range of AI tools supporting you — and it's not about getting comfortable with just one. Helping people understand the use cases for each, and how they could work together, is something we're actively working through.

▶ Three Practical Lessons from Gilead Sciences' AI Coaching Rollout

Kerry, Gilead Sciences' head of employee growth, identifies three lessons for HR leaders scaling AI coaching adoption. First, help employees understand how to use AI coaching in their specific context — drive experimentation rather than instruction. Second, bring IT partners into the value conversation on their terms: traditional usage metrics do not capture the value of AI coaching, and IT teams need a new framework for assessing it. Third, proactively address the coexistence question: employees using answer-giving AI tools like Copilot need clear guidance on why AI coaching serves a different and complementary purpose.

[00:11:49.720]

Sara: Brilliant. Kerry, thank you so much for sharing the experiences and the journey that we're on at Gilead. I know folks are on similar journeys. Excited to continue the conversation.

[00:12:07.299]

Kerry: I really want to call out, and I know for those of you working with Valence — we've had many vendors. This is an awesome partnership. As we go on a journey that is somewhat very new and very uncertain for us, Valence is with us every step of the way. I have 100% confidence that they've got our back and are giving us the best advice. I want to call that out because I'm sure you have experiences with vendors who say all these things and then don't deliver. This has truly been a fantastic partnership.

Sara: Thank you, Kerry. Likewise.