From Hiring to Growth and the Future of Workforce Strategy - with Meghna Punhani of Eightfold AI

Punhani explains how AI is fundamentally changing HR roles, revealing that Eightfold conducts 78% of interviews using AI interviewers that can handle thousands of concurrent interviews. She emphasizes the need to reengineer workflows and determine where humans versus agents should be involved, rather than simply automating existing processes.

• •AI interviewers at Eightfold handle 78% of screening interviews, enabling concurrent processing at scale versus 2-3 screens per recruiter traditionally
• •HR business partners and recruiters must evolve as LLMs can now provide coaching frameworks and candidate matching that previously required human expertise
• •Critical focus should be on reengineering workflows first, then determining human versus agent involvement, rather than automating existing processes
• •AI presents top candidates to hiring managers, but final decision-making remains with humans and hiring managers

Drawing from 20+ years in tech through mobile, cloud, and AI revolutions, Punhani argues that functional expertise (like financial analyst skills) matters less than deeply human capabilities. She emphasizes curiosity, learning agility, adaptability, collaboration, and risk-taking as the skills that will make humans valuable when AI can handle core analytical work.

• •Functional expertise is becoming less valuable as AI tools can perform core analyst work across finance, marketing, and other domains
• •Curiosity, learning agility, adaptability, collaboration, and risk-taking are evergreen skills that AI cannot replicate
• •The ability to ask the right questions and connect dots across groups matters more than deep domain specialization
• •Humans who enhance these deeply human skills while leveraging AI tools will be most marketable in the future

Punhani shares her non-traditional career path from textile design to development to HR leadership, illustrating how curiosity and learning agility enabled pivots across completely different domains. She emphasizes that confidence builds through seeing impact, which drives further learning and career evolution regardless of specific technical skills.

• •Career trajectory from BSc home science to developer to HR technology to CHRO demonstrates that curiosity enables learning any subject
• •Asking the right questions matters more than having specific skills when pivoting careers or learning new domains
• •Impact and momentum build confidence, which enables further learning and career growth
• •Interest and curiosity combined with willingness to go deep can overcome lack of formal training in any area

Beyond keeping humans in decision loops, Punhani identifies data privacy as a critical concern, noting how easily personal information like home addresses can be found through AI tools. She emphasizes proactive implementation of standards like ISO certifications, FedRAMP, and GDPR rather than treating them as checkboxes.

• •Data privacy is a major concern as AI tools can easily surface sensitive personal information like home addresses through simple searches
• •Proactive adherence to standards like ISO certifications, FedRAMP, and GDPR is essential, not just compliance checkboxes
• •Eightfold takes responsible AI seriously with comprehensive guardrails around reputation, privacy, and ethics
• •Reputational risk requires companies to go beyond minimum regulatory requirements, similar to insurance industry approaches

Punhani explains how AI uniquely empowers HR leaders to be strategic rather than reactive by providing direct access to insights without depending on subject matter experts. She describes co-creating solutions with CTOs and engineering leaders on workflow reengineering and organizational design, using AI to explain business impact in concrete terms.

• •AI gives HR leaders direct access to insights and business impact data, reducing dependency on technical subject matter experts
• •HR can now co-create solutions with CTOs and product leaders on reengineering work and organizational structures
• •Unlike previous technologies, AI enables HR to understand complex concepts quickly and contribute strategically to business decisions
• •Data and insights on fingertips allow HR to have a genuine seat at the table for driving business impact

Drawing from 17 years at Google, Punhani emphasizes how changing environments and functions accelerates learning more than staying in one role. She explains how movement between teams, industries, and company sizes (startup vs large company) develops skills that can't be gained through static experience.

• •Google's success came from hiring generalists and encouraging cross-functional mobility to develop diverse skill sets
• •One year at a startup provides equivalent learning to five years at a large company due to faster pace and broader exposure
• •Changing environments, working with people better than you, and taking risks accelerates skill development
• •Movement across functions and industries builds capabilities that staying in one area for years cannot develop

Punhani shares how Salesforce stopped external hiring and used Eightfold's AI to identify unique internal career paths, resulting in 51% of new roles filled internally and 40% increase in internal mobility. The AI proposed non-obvious career paths based on skills and impact that humans wouldn't naturally consider.

• •Salesforce implemented hiring freeze to test internal redeployment using Eightfold's AI platform
• •51% of new hires came from internal mobility, with 40% overall increase in internal movement
• •AI identified unique career paths based on skills and experience that weren't obvious to humans or candidates
• •System overcomes human bias toward traditional career progression by analyzing broader patterns of success