00:00  AI Coaching for Leadership Development and Recruitment

Das Rush: What are the AI initiatives that you've each been leading in HR? And then kind of what has the journey been specifically with AI coaching over the last twelve months? And then I wanna go to kind of what's changed specifically in the last six. 

Jonathan Crookall: So the journey that we've been on in Costa Coffee on AI has really started with using some of the normal tools like Copilot to help with efficiency of running general activities around meeting efficiency, supporting on generating documents. I mean, I think the Costa context is, you know, we employ just over 20,000 people across multiple markets, and where we found most, application of Nadia right now is in our UK store manager population. 

So we've got around 1,500 store managers, operating across stores in the UK. And their situation is, you know, they don't know in the morning when they're gonna come in and find out that their coffee machine's down or, you know, Sally hasn't showed up for work today or whatever. So they're so being able to schedule coaching support for a store manager in a, in a coffee shop is really tricky. 

So the, one of the significant advantages we've had of working using the Nadia tool is just that ability for store managers to take the time when they wanna take the time to get the support that they need to be a better leader. So we've had a big focus on leadership, and Nadia has been the big sort of unlock for that level of leadership in, in Costa. 

The other, the other use case that we've got for a different platform is helping us with recruitment. Again, in the high-volume areas, we're using AI-based tools to support our barista recruitment at the store level. And, again, we've only just started that, but it's already generating some great benefit both for the candidate, but also for the store managers who are doing the recruitment. 

Maree Prendergast: For us at VML, which is part of WPP, WPP obviously has a, you know, an enormous, interest in AI. We have our own, proprietary platform called WPP Open, which our employees work in and use as their operating model every day to deliver to clients, and, you know, that helps us deliver work, in a more efficient way, obviously, both operationally and creatively, etc. And so we wanted to find a way that we could use, AI tools within HR as well to, you know, help people take on that journey. It was part of an adoption process, not just for, you know, this particular tool, but across the board, like a cultural shift. But specifically, when we got introduced to Nadia, we're super excited about the opportunity to sort of integrate that really into our professional development, and I'd say leadership development strategy. 

So key for us was, and probably the best use case we have of Nadia is that we've embedded it in a program that we call Thrive at VML, which is all about career conversations. So it's those ongoing and annual career conversations. And, we have a bespoke tool that sits within Microsoft Teams, that our employees use, and we embedded Nadia into that app within Teams. So it's right in the middle of the workflow. So we didn't use it as, hey, here's a link that you can go and check out and get some coaching. We, from the, from the onset, wanted to embed it in the workflow. 

And I think that's probably, you know, the key takeaway from us. So, you know, as people are, as managers are looking at 360-review information, of course, they can use other AI tools to create summaries, etc., but Nadia really supports in how do I have this conversation around this particular person's development aspirations and some of the challenges, etc. Equally, for our employees, they can figure out how to talk about their own aspirations or talk about some of the challenges that they have or some of the goal setting that they have. And we found that to be, a really engaging partner. 

Das: Yeah. I love that in the flow of the work. And, Jennifer, how about you? ADI, what's been the journey of the last twelve months? As I know you spoke at the summit in last November, what's really specifically changed in the last six months for you? 

Jennifer Carpenter: At ADI Analog Devices, we are a deeply technical workforce. So we employ thousands of engineers. And over the last twelve months, we've been rapidly experimenting with a number of generative AI tools, Copilot 365, GitHub. We've actually customized our own agents within ADI to support things as simple as writing feedback in our annual performance cycle. What's really unique about Nadia and AI coaching specifically is we now have over 4,000 employees across 31 countries utilizing Nadia. And you know I'm all about measurement. 

So we introduced Nadia as just one more example of how employees can build up their skills and experience partnering with generative AI. And we've been asking them, why are you using AI coaching? What's in it for you? And what's interesting, two-thirds of that audience tell us they're using AI coaching for fresh perspectives throughout their professional or personal development, just having fresh perspectives. Another half are telling us they need a problem-solving partner. So they're looking to solve problems. 

And then a solid third, just as looking at Nadia or AI coaching in general as a leadership gym that they can visit anytime to help them develop their leadership skills. 

Das: Just like a few bicep curls on, like, active. 

06:07  Surging AI Adoption Over the Past 6 Months

Jennifer: Like, a few reps at the gym. But when you think about where we are over the last twelve months and even the last six months, is we're looking across all of these experiments as just that, reps in the gym to help prepare the workforce for what's coming next. In the last six months, specifically, I've just seen adoption kind of do a little bit of a hockey stick regardless of the tool that we're talking about. 

People are more willing to experiment and to use AI than they were even six months ago, and we're actually tracking sentiment within ADI. I think of this as their level of optimism that AI is going to help them improve the quality of their work or their own productivity, as well as their own confidence in their ability to use these tools. And in the last six months, we've seen a ten percent increase in positivity and agency, you know, that that personal belief in one's ability to navigate the tools. So we actually have seen that increase in in as little as four months worth of change. 

Das: Wow. Jonathan and Maree, is that similar to what you've also been seeing in the last six months? Or for you, what have you noticed is the difference? 

Jonathan: So I think in my, in our case, in Costa, the way I can track it is just by adoption. The idea of just looking at how people are adopting it, and as you've said, you've heard a couple of case studies that we've shared from some of our store managers that have, that have used Nadia with to great effect. So those stories we've obviously shared within Costa as well, and that in itself is generating that. 

I think you're right. There's this kind of sense of mystery and what is it gonna do and all the rest of it that's, that goes around the topic of AI because it's always talked about as kind of a cerebral theoretical construct. And I think the more you can get it into practical usage and people talking about those stories of, I used this tool and it's helped me to achieve this in terms of, you know, leadership problems that I'm dealing with, how do I generate better performance in my store, those are the stories that are getting people to get on board with, with trying it for themselves. 

Das: I have to say, I share the, more than probably any other story, the one of, I think, your store manager, Sharon. Is a store manager, went to a store that was kind of one of the lowest-performing within Costa's shop and, you know, one of their great managers, four weeks with Nadia as a coach, kind of daily sessions. How do I turn this around? How do I motivate people who are unmotivated? And within four weeks, had taken it in the peak holiday season from lowest-performing to top-performing store. And so just this idea of, like, on a very, like, local level, how this can transform the impact with a single manager. It's just one of my favorite stories. 

Maree, how about, how about you? 

Maree: I think similar to Jonathan, we've been looking at adoption, and we have about 2,500 people actively using Nadia on a daily basis. I mentioned, you know, the adapt different geographies around the world has been a huge game changer for us, but for us to be able to bring this at scale, to sort of, you know, countries, far away, has really been very beneficial for people. 

09:32  Driving AI Coaching Adoption: Strategies

Das: Yeah. That's amazing. And I think, you know, some of what I'm hearing in this, like, with this AI coach, you can suddenly, as HR, reach into parts of the organization that before used to be kind of outside of your reach. But even if you're reaching people, that's not necessarily the same as them adopting tools. 

Jennifer: So if you're all really pushing to reach frontline managers within different programs that you have, what's been effective in driving adoption? So what's interesting when you ask someone to try something new, some people are game and others are greatly skeptical. So one of the first tips that I always recommend, people to follow, because we did it the other way and it didn't work out so well, is start with an invitation instead of an expectation that someone will be required to use a tool that's new and different for them. 

We found that when we invited people to participate, we had much greater engagement. But we also wanted to listen to those that weren't game, that this wasn't their cup of tea, and we asked them why. And we found three patterns in our feedback on why people weren't adopting it. By far, the number one reason people are not adopting this is or so they tell us, is time. They just don't have it. And they view adoption of any new tool as one more thing that they have to make room for. And when I say it was number one, it was, like, seventy percent of the people we asked said time is the killer. 

So how we address that is in our marketing of these invitations. It saves you time. Find time back in your day by utilizing these tools to increase your productivity and to give you back time. So addressing that right out of the gates. The second reason why they said they're not adopting these tools is they're not sure how to use them or why they would use them. So if you can clarify how these tools can help, how AI coaching can help someone, that addresses the second reason why people aren't adopting. And the third is just trust. Would I trust a human to do this better than this tool? Is my data protected? Is this safe to use? So again, addressing time, what's in it for you, and the trust factor are the three largest barriers to adoption that we found that have been, that have made the difference for us in helping to increase our adoption. 

Jonathan: I was just gonna add a couple of other perspectives on it, and I think these are, so I think one of the drivers for us of adoption is the flexibility. So the possibility and the option to choose when you wanna use the tool, how you're gonna use the tool, not them to schedule in a third party to meet with you in a particular venue or at a particular time. And similar to Jennifer, I think one other thing that we've used in Costa is almost the sort of rarity factor. So, can I get signed up for this, for this program? So people kinda go, oh, I've not heard of this. What is it? How can I get on board? 

So I think that's, that's also driven adoption in some of our populations where people just get curious, and they wanna they're in your Jennifer, you're why not their cam rather than, I'm not interested. 

Maree: So I think there's probably three things that I can add. The first one was really actually leadership led credibility. So one of the things that we did with Nadia early on after we had done our own sort of piloting of the tool, etc., is that I gave it to our exec team and our CEO. And I said, you know, why don't you just try it out and see what you think? And, actually, it gave it a lot of credibility when we did introduce it because we had our CEO introduce it as something that, again, was very optional for people, but it was an available tool. But he really framed it as a strategic asset for people sort of rather than, as you said, something mandated or something that you have to adopt. And I think that overcame a lot of that potential skepticism. 

And in the local markets where we found people who are adopting and having them share some of their stories about how they're using it, etc., and then feeding that back to the population, that's created some really engaging moments. We recently had, you know, a global, what we call the career hack, like a career day where everybody could explore all sorts of different things. And AI was a big theme, and so we had a lot of people share their experiences in local markets. That sort of word-of-mouth, you know, adoption has helped as well. 

14:17  Integrating AI into Talent & Leadership Development

Das: One of the other things that we've seen being really key to, like, an effective rollout of AI within HR is that it's really tied into what you're already doing with talent development, with leadership development, with performance management. And that's something I think all three of your companies have done really well. 

So I'd love to click into some of these initiatives. And, Jonathan, I'm gonna start with you. 

Jonathan: I think the thing I would point to is we are a performance, you know, driven organization. We have numbers and data and facts flying around on an hourly basis, daily basis, weekly basis. So people are very honed into how can I perform better, how can I see the performance flow through? And I think that's where we've most connected use of Nadia, particularly with our store manager population to say, well, actually, in order to help you with your performance and your manager is gonna be part of that story. But, actually, we've got this additional tool that's gonna help you to drive performance in your store and drive a better experience for your customers, actually. 

So I think that's the, that's the biggest single hook that we've used within Costa. We are, we're in, we're on this journey actually, which I think is not an unfamiliar to many organizations where we have this kind of, post-COVID hiatus of lack of investment, and we've now been rebuilding all of our leadership frameworks off the back of that into, okay, we've now got some new tools that support leadership development in a very, across every type of leadership development. And, you know, this is one that's very specific particularly to our frontline teams. 

Das: Jennifer, at ADI, you know, you launched kind of globally to all employees and then followed up with some of your kind of specific integrations into talent moments. Talk a little bit about your journey there, with the performance management cycles and building into kind of ADI's value and action model. 

Jennifer: Sure. So, again, you can build it, but will they come? So what we've done is we have a monthly drumbeat of workshops that are timely and relevant to what employees and managers need to be doing. That might be performance discussions. That's already happening. Oh, hey. By the way, come to our workshop. We can show you how AI coaching can support you through that. We just rounded out our mid, midyear point. Let's reflect on our goals. Let's refresh our goals. Let's talk to our AI coach about how we can ensure our goals are relevant. We just wrapped our engagement survey. 

So our next workshop's gonna say, come talk to Nadia as you have conversations with your teams about your team engagement scores. We've also utilized Nadia's capability to make it as relevant to our employees as possible by training Nadia to speak about our culture and values in action. So Nadia knows the language in which we speak when we say you should be reflecting ADI values in action through your daily performance as we consider you for advancement, as we coach you for performance. 

So I do see Nadia as an extension of a preexisting talent strategy that just accelerates and allows it to hang nicely together.

17:42  Supporting Adoption Through Inclusive AI

And I think most importantly at ADI, we are a global workforce, and we have the diversity of culture and language. And something that I believe has driven adoption significantly is the ability to Nadia, to speak to employees in their native language. And where we see super users, and we define super users as using Nadia three times more often than the average, they are engaging with Nadia in local language. 

So I think it's removing that friction of engagement in the conversation that we know Nadia and AI coaching support so well. But the even better "if" is the fact that AI is being so inclusive to and comfortable for people to operate in their native language. When we widen the aperture of who's using it, we see about seventy percent are managers, thirty percent are individual contributors. But when we look at those super users, it's about fifty-fifty. Tools like Nadia are not just created for leaders or managers, but we can now open up access to leaders at all levels. And we're gonna continue to study these super users to understand through gender. We are seeing more women as super users than men, which is, again, another optimistic statistic because many studies are showing women are less inclined to engage and experiment with AI. Yet, as it relates to AI coaching, we're seeing the opposite. 

Maree: And I think for all the things that Jennifer was just saying as well, not just in, I mean, we are a global organization too. We're in, you know, fifty-three different markets. So we also have the language barrier, which has been very helpful because we haven't been able to, really be able to, as I mentioned before, penetrate those markets successfully in the past with something at scale. But I think the other thing and just touched on it then in speaking about women, not just women, but certainly people from diverse backgrounds and even not just diverse backgrounds. But that's where we kind of, when we did go through our pilot, we did test in those areas first, because we wanted to make sure that, you know, people felt extremely comfortable, that it was inclusive, etc. And I think that has actually supported adoption significantly because, you know, there is an intimidation sometimes talking to a coach or talking to a peer or talking to someone else. And Nadia has just proven time and time again, actually, that she's quite an empathetic coach as well. 

One of those aspects is let's have the conversation with your manager. Let's have the feedback from your peers. Let's make sure you really get that. Nadia has supported managers, right in the flow of that career conversation work within Thrive to not only help them, you know, use the feedback in a constructive way, and how to position that in a constructive way, but help them avoid misunderstandings. And then it's certainly and it's made it efficient. Right? I mean, before, that would take a lot of work for a manager to sit down and do all that. 

And, obviously, Nadia has created an efficiency there so they can get to more, of their direct reports. And it's the same with employees who might feel, I can't really talk to my manager about this, or I don't know how to talk to my manager about this. So sometimes it's very challenging for people to have difficult conversations, and Nadia has really supported in creating a constructive environment for people.

21:18  AI Coaching for Change Management

And then another place, we had a mandated RTO of four days a week. Obviously, in some markets, this is fine. In many, it was not. And we had a pretty short time frame of sort of three months to get people back and comfortable. And, I'm sure anybody who has tried to do this has met with the same level of resistance that we were globally, for all very valid reasons. And so we used, we had an idea to use Nadia to help people understand, and have a reflective ability or perhaps have a third party, if you like, to talk to them about how they might, you know, introduce this back into their day to day. And, also, if they were having challenges, how they could talk to someone either within HR or their managers about it. 

So we loaded Nadia with all of our RTO policies. We loaded her with our FAQs, etc. We taught her about that. In addition, obviously, she's already very familiar with the values of the company, etc. And so she was able to help, coach that and frame it in a way that when we messaged RTO four days a week, we message it with significant flexibility. Right? But that is lost in the translation of an email or a leader coming out and saying that all people: you have to be back in four days a week. And I think Nadia really helped give the perspective of there is flexibility. If there is a need to, you know, to have flexibility, it's there, and this is how you get it, in a constructive way, and this is how you approach it so that people, can understand your particular individual circumstance, etc. 

So that was really helpful as well. It really helped people with sort of sensitive transitions, which we hadn't anticipated originally, but she worked really well for that too. 

Jonathan: There's a kind of fairness and consistency in the approach that that the tool can be used for, which I think really helps to drive trust in in the, in the, you know, the technology rather than a human who is naturally gonna have some biases and inconsistencies in the way, in the way that they operate. 

We've got the message across to people that this is actually a way of reducing bias. You can't remove it entirely, but, actually, you know, people are worried about, you know, is this gonna create some bias or a difference of view that's coming through the tool. And, actually, we've demonstrated to people that, actually, this is a way of reducing that level of bias that we naturally will carry with us. So that's one of the key messages that we've got across to help with trust. 

24:00  Future Vision for AI in the Workforce

Das: We've talked a lot kind of about your journey, what it's taken to drive adoption. I wanna look forward now. Twelve months from now, we're all back together again, either virtually or in person. We're having this conversation again. Where do you hope that you are within your organization with AI? 

Jonathan: So in terms of where Costa would like to be on AI in twelve months' time, I'd love to love to see that we've got some of the integration, that's been talked about on this call happening so that there's a, there's an interchangeability between different mechanisms and different processes and different tools to support people on their development, whether that's in person, whether that's virtual, whether that's AI. And I guess the biggest single thing will be, we're seeing performance improvement as a result of adopting the tools. And whether that's, you know, my career performance or if that's actual business performance because, ultimately, that's the goal that we all have. 

Maree: For me, you know, in AI tools in general, I think, you know, we just, we hope that they'll just become the normal part of workflow, right, that they're not something that's just sitting out that you might adopt here and there, or be an on-demand tool if you like. They become more habitual, and that's across the board regardless of what AI tool it is. I think specifically with Nadia, you know, I would hope that she becomes more of a habitual growth partner for people. 

Jennifer: I would just add to, the colleagues today on the call that Nadia is gonna be joining our org charts. So what I see in the first six or twelve months is we see a lot of individual use cases, and I'm monitoring team use. I think success will really be where people see Nadia as a part of the team interaction, not just an individual coach, but a resource for the team. And we'll see performance and productivity and engagement increase as a result of that. 

Das: Yeah. From experimenting to adoption and now from adoption to impact and kind of results in the next twelve months. Jonathan, Jennifer, and Maree, thank you so much for joining and kind of sharing your stories. It's been just a fantastic conversation. So thank you so much.