The Future of AI-Enabled Leadership at Experian

Lesley Wilkinson — Chief Talent Officer, Experian. Lesley leads people strategy for Experian's 22,000 employees across markets including the UK, Australia, and Brazil. Under her leadership, Experian became one of the top 25 Great Places to Work in the world and has been among the earliest enterprise adopters of AI coaching — integrating Nadia into leadership development programs, performance management, and goal-setting at scale.

Parker Mitchell — Co-Founder and CEO, Valence. Parker leads Valence, the company behind Nadia, an AI coach deployed across dozens of Fortune 500 organizations to support leadership development at scale.

When Experian launched its first AI coaching pilot with 50 leaders, the team wasn't quite expecting what happened next: 100% usage within the first hour. That early signal has since grown into a full enterprise deployment — AI coaching woven into leadership development programs, goal-setting workflows, and performance management cycles across 22,000 employees worldwide. Experian Chief Talent Officer Lesley Wilkinson joins Valence CEO Parker Mitchell to share what drove that adoption, how they measure the impact, and what it actually looks like to make coaching continuous rather than an annual event.

Key Takeaways

• 100% usage on day one — because the AI spoke their language. Experian's first alpha pilot with 50 leaders generated complete adoption within the first hour of launch. The key unlock for their beta test: training Nadia on Experian's own characteristics of leadership, so coaches were speaking in the company's context and language rather than generic frameworks.
• Regular use of AI coaching produces a measurable 5% lift in leadership effectiveness. Experian tracks coaching ROI through its Great Place to Work scores, specifically the leadership effectiveness component. Leaders who are regular users of AI coaching see a 5% uptick in that measure — a concrete, business-level outcome tied directly to the coaching intervention.
• AI coaching solves the stickiness problem in leadership development. The hardest part of any development program is transfer — getting leaders to actually apply learning back in the flow of work. Experian uses AI coaching to send nudges, surface reminders, and prompt leaders to return to their peers, managers, and teams with specific follow-through conversations. The technology does not replace human interaction; it creates the conditions for better human interaction to happen.
• AI turns performance management from an annual event into a continuous cycle. Goal-setting, check-ins, and performance conversations do not have to be quarterly or annual. AI coaching can ask how a milestone went, prompt preparation for an upcoming manager conversation, and maintain a continuous thread of development — which is what a world of radical adaptability actually requires.
• The moment of promotion is the moment of peak professional incompetence. Leaders are often promoted based on individual success, then immediately placed into a far more complex role they are least prepared for. That gap takes 12 to 18 months to close — and is compounded every time a leader moves into a new context, team, or geography. AI coaching accelerates that readiness by helping leaders understand their context and what is required of them, faster.
• Scaling coaching to the entire talent pipeline is the goal — not just the top. Experian's mission is to provide the conditions for high performance for all 22,000 of its employees, not just senior leaders. AI coaching is the mechanism that makes that scale possible — bringing a personalized development experience to every layer of the organization, wherever people are, in the moment they need it.

Questions This Session Answers

How did Experian get 100% adoption of AI coaching on day one?

Experian's first AI coaching pilot with 50 leaders achieved 100% usage within the first hour of launch — a result the team was not expecting. The key to driving that initial engagement was designing the rollout in partnership with leaders themselves, running sessions to explain what they would get, and setting up clear measurement and feedback processes before going live. For the subsequent beta test, Experian trained Nadia on their own characteristics of leadership, so leaders could interact with the coach in their own language and organizational context — which further increased return usage.

How does Experian measure the ROI of AI coaching?

Experian measures the impact of its coaching interventions through its Great Place to Work scores — specifically the leadership effectiveness component of that instrument. By correlating coaching participation with per-unit leadership effectiveness scores, the team found that leaders who regularly use AI coaching see a 5% uplift in measured leadership effectiveness. This sits alongside standard feedback channels including net promoter scores collected immediately after programs and at three- and six-month intervals.

How does AI coaching work inside Experian's Enriching Leadership program?

Enriching Leadership is Experian's development program for leaders five to seven years into their leadership journey — a moment when leaders are looking to move from good to great. Nadia is integrated into the coaching component of the program from day one, helping leaders identify their learning objectives and focus on relevant content. Crucially, the AI coach is also used to send nudges and reminders throughout the program, prompting leaders to take learning back to their teams, peers, and managers with structured follow-through conversations. The technology creates the conditions for human interaction rather than replacing it.

How is AI coaching being used in performance management at Experian?

Experian has trained Nadia on its performance management process to help leaders with the parts of goal-setting that tend to generate friction — the refinement, packaging, and articulation of goals. Rather than replacing the human performance conversation, the AI coach handles the preparatory work so that leaders arrive at those conversations with a refined set of goals and the thinking behind them already clarified. The coach also maintains continuity between formal review points — checking in on milestones, prompting preparation for upcoming conversations, and making the performance cycle a continuous process rather than an annual or quarterly event.

What is the challenge of scaling leadership coaching across a global enterprise?

Experian operates across 22,000 employees in markets from Australia to Brazil, with a mission to provide the conditions for high performance for all of them — not just senior leaders. Traditional executive coaching is effective but impossible to scale: it is costly, relies on face-to-face relationships, and cannot reach every layer of an organization in the moment of need. AI coaching is the mechanism that makes scale possible, bringing a personalized development experience to every leader and employee, wherever they are, without the cost and capacity constraints that limit human coaching programs.

Full Session Transcript

What are the leadership challenges that Experian's people leaders face — and why is that getting harder?

Lesley: We trained Nadia on our characteristics of leadership. And we weren't quite expecting what happened next, which was 100% usage. This is an enabler of our business strategy. We see a 5% uptake in a leader's leadership effectiveness with regular use of Nadia.

Parker: One of the topics you and I have exchanged a lot on is the role of a manager, the role of a leader, and how difficult that is — and how much more difficult that's becoming. Can you share more about what the challenges look like for leaders at Experian?

Lesley: Leadership has always been challenging. On one hand, it's a tremendous privilege to serve others. On the other hand, it's always been hard. I think what's different now is the pace — the need for really radical adaptability, and that pace has been driven by technology.

Parker: One of the expressions I've used recently is that the moment you become promoted to be a manager is potentially the moment of your peak professional incompetence. Because you have been successful all the way through your career — and that's why you were promoted. And suddenly you've been asked to do a far more difficult and complex job, and that's the moment you are least prepared for it. You spend 12 to 18 months trying to catch up to the skillset. And I imagine those challenges are just accelerated when technology is changing what the job is.

Lesley: I fully agree. And I think it's not just that first moment — it's every moment. It doesn't have to be a promotion. It's every moment of transition. How do I quickly understand my context, what's required, what the skills are, and how do I adapt? It's that radical adaptability, and doing it now at much greater speed.

Parker: Leaders are no longer just statically leading one single team in one area, one geography, for a long period of time. They're working with many colleagues across an organization, across many teams, and being able to understand context as quickly as possible is just crucial for good leadership.

Lesley: Yes. And understanding our customers. The world is changing for our customers and clients, and being maniacally focused on them and their changing need — really being with our customers, listening with passion and understanding. Our mission is to give financial power to all. We're passionate about financial inclusion and empowerment for all of our customers and clients. That means we have to continually produce excellent product and innovative platforms that scale.

As Chief Talent Officer, my job is to ensure that all of our people have the conditions to deliver that high performance — and in a way that can scale. We have 22,000 colleagues around the world, from Australia to Brazil. If my role is to provide the conditions for performance for all, there's a fundamental question of scale. We know coaching — executive coaching — works. There's plenty of evidence that it has an impact for the individual and for the organization. But it's hard to scale. It's costly. It involves face-to-face human relationships. So we constantly think about how do we bring products to the entire workforce that meet their need, where they are, in the moment of that need. AI was clearly going to be a part of that. It's an enabler of our people strategy and our business strategy. And that's how we came across Valence. We saw Nadia, and we thought: we're going to have a go at this.

How did Experian design and roll out its AI coaching pilot — and what happened on day one?

Lesley: We design our products the same way our business does — heavily focused on our customers, so our leaders and employees design with us. Everything is based on their input, their testing, their needs. It was really natural on that basis to bring in Nadia and to do our first experiment with 50 leaders. We ran a two-month alpha, ran sessions with leaders to explain what they were going to get, set up a measurement and feedback process, and then we turned it on. And we weren't quite expecting what happened next: 100% usage within the first hour of launching. There was clearly something here.

This was about a year ago, when AI was just starting to get recognition as something that could have tremendous impact. What we learned from the alpha pilot was that we could capture people's attention — we could bring them into a development and learning experience. So, for the beta test, we had to think about how to make that stickier. We took it to 100 leaders, and this time we trained Nadia on our characteristics of leadership. Those characteristics are an expression of who we are as leaders — they're our language, our context. So, our leaders were able to interact with the coach in our own language, and she was able to coach against our context. That increased return usage significantly.

What does the ROI look like — and how do you connect coaching to business outcomes?

Parker: After the beta test, I know you were running ROI studies to try to see the connection between coaching at scale, the people strategy, and the business strategy. Can you share more about that?

Lesley: We test all of our offerings — on immediate customer feedback, and then three months out, six months out. We use a net promoter score. We also look at the impact on a number of people metrics. We know that for a number of our programs, we will see an increase in leadership effectiveness scores on an instrument called Great Place to Work. We are one of the top 25 great places to work in the world, and there's an element in that measurement specifically about leadership effectiveness. When we correlate our interventions with the overall Great Place to Work score per unit and by leadership effectiveness, we know that our leadership interventions lead to greater leadership effectiveness. And that is the same with Nadia. We see a 5% uptick in a leader's leadership effectiveness if they are a regular user of an online coach.

What specific programs is Nadia now embedded in at Experian?

Parker: What are some of the specific programs that Nadia is now helping you support?

Lesley: We have a fantastic program called Enriching Leadership, which is for leaders around five to seven years into their leadership journey. You can imagine that moment: you've tried a lot, you've learned a lot, and you really want to unpack how you go from good to great. Coaching is a core part of that intervention, as is really good peer interaction and strong content. We integrated Nadia into the coaching element. When you go through that program, you're introduced to Nadia on day one — she'll help direct you to your learning objectives and pull out the content you should focus on.

And then there's the stickiness question. We're investing in these leaders because we care about the impact they have on their teams and the business. How do we increase that stickiness — the ability to bring learning through into daily work? We use Nadia to send nudges, to send reminders, to encourage leaders to go back to their peers, their managers, their teams, and to support them in having conversations with those stakeholders. This is important: Nadia is not replacing the human. It's providing the framework and support to enable those human-to-human interactions to happen. The technology sends the learner back out to their peer group, their team, their manager — but supports the content and coaching of that conversation to make sure it happens, and happens with the greatest effectiveness.

Right now, we're also deploying AI to help in the performance management process. Preparing for performance management processes, goal-setting, the form-filling — that's not everybody's cup of tea. In any organization.

Parker: Every organization. Common refrain.

Lesley: What we want to drive toward is really good quality human conversations — conversations that drive alignment, drive capability building, and drive performance. So we started thinking: where is the technology that assists the bit we don't like, and really allows us to direct attention to the piece that adds genuine value? We trained Nadia on our performance management process. She will help you refine your goals, package them, coach you through goal-setting, so that what you come out with is a refined set of goals and the thinking behind them — ready to take into a conversation with your team, your peers, your leader, your stakeholders. Once again, it's not taking away from the human-to-human. It's enhancing it. But our aim is that it takes away the bit people like less, and maybe makes the whole process enjoyable.

Parker: And it refocuses on the parts that add value — the human-to-human connection, and the alignment with business goals.

Lesley: Yes. And it's not just about taking away what we like less. It's about making a continuous loop. The AI coach can say: "This was a milestone for you today. How did it go? Do you want to debrief?" Or: "Next week you have a meeting with your manager. Do you want to prepare?" It's there continuously, making the performance cycle not an annual or quarterly event, but a continuous one. In a world that requires continuous improvement and radical adaptability, we need that continuous cycle.

What does the future look like when every employee has access to an AI coach?

Parker: You've been early adopters of AI and have paid close attention to the technology landscape. Thinking about the future — what does it look like in a world where everyone could have an AI coach?

Lesley: I wish I knew the full answer to that. I think we're very close. Our 22,000 people can have access to Nadia right now. We'll have this conversation again in another three months, and we'll have evidence to say: what does it look like? The truth is, I think leadership is always going to be a challenge. It's always going to be a privilege, and it's always going to be a challenge. Our passion and our purpose is to provide the conditions that help our leaders and our employees as they grow. We want to power the entire pipeline — because it's the entire pipeline who are out there with our clients and customers every day. We want every one of them to be at their best.