In our latest WhatWorks podcast, Samantha Garvie, HR Safety and Compliance Director at Rowley’s Wholesale, speaks with Kathi Enderes from The Josh Bersin Company.

Rowley’s Wholesale, a Michigan-based distributor of automotive and industrial products, has been in business for over 100 years and is currently in its third generation of ownership. With 125+ employees across three locations, the company utilizes UKG-Ready for its HRIS system, covering benefits, timekeeping, payroll, succession planning, and learning management.

The mobile app has been widely adopted by employees, enabling them to access important information and complete tasks remotely. Samantha shares insights on how technology is transforming the employee experience and discusses her plans to explore AI to enhance fatigue management, stress management, retention, and succession planning. This episode offers valuable lessons on leveraging HR technology to support a distributed workforce and drive organizational success.

Interviewee: Samantha Garvie, HR Safety and Compliance Director, Rowley’s Wholesale

Company: Rowley’s Wholesale, a US-based distributor of automotive and industrial products with 125 employees

This week Klarna, a buy-now pay-later company in Sweden, announced plans to terminate its Workday and Salesforce relationships and build it themselves. A bunch of tech pundits are big fans, but I have my doubts. As you’ll hear in the podcast, many big companies (much bigger than Klarna) have tried this, only to retreat to vendor solutions. And I do question the business strategy of putting high-powered engineering talent on commodity-like products like HCM and CRM.

Obviously AI is getting smarter and more capable by the minute. As I explain in the podcast, there are better ways to think about this problem, and this conversation opens up the door to a big discussion about the future of enterprise apps, agentic AI, and the role of large-scale incumbent vendors in our corporate IT stacks.

Additional Information

Klarna Cuts 50% of Workforce, Ends Partnerships with Salesforce and Workday Amid Generative AI Overhaul

Klarna Plans to ‘Shut Down SaaS Providers’ and Replace Them With Internally Built AI. The Tech World Is Pretty Skeptical

AI Agents, The New Workforce We’re Not Quite Ready For (Agentic AI)

Agentic AI is the next big wave in AI, where AI systems and chatbots can take actions on our behalf. These agents can perform tasks such as composing emails, creating documents, building courses, and even recruiting. They can be seen as virtual employees or teammates that can be trained and managed. These agents will change the technology landscape and the stack of tools in our organizations. They will require onboarding, training, and governance to ensure they are effective and secure. And Agentic AI has the potential to improve productivity and provide measurable ROI.

Keywords agentic AI, AI systems, chatbots, virtual employees, virtual teammates, training manager, recruiting agent, technology landscape, productivity improvement, measurable ROI

Takeaways

• Agentic AI allows AI systems and chatbots to take actions on our behalf, performing tasks such as composing emails, creating documents, building courses, and recruiting.
• These agents can be seen as virtual employees or teammates that can be trained and managed.
• Agentic AI will change the technology landscape and the stack of tools in organizations, requiring onboarding, training, and governance.
• These agents have the potential to improve productivity and provide measurable ROI.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Agentic AI 01:11 Agentic AI in Training Management 05:56 Agentic AI in Recruiting 09:03 Onboarding and Training Agentic AI 12:08 Changing the Technology Landscape with Agentic AI 16:31 Measuring the ROI of Agentic AI

Additional Information

AI Agents, The New Workforce We’re Not Quite Ready For

Artificial Intelligence in HR: Certificate Course From The Josh Bersin Academy

Introducing Galileo, The World’s First AI-Powered Expert Assistant For HR

Autonomous Corporate Learning Platforms: Arriving Now, Powered by AI