Donna Brown
Founder
Cultivation HR
Episode 42
Beyond Busywork: HR's AI Leap for Strategic Impact & Employee Experience
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleSeptember 26, 2025 · 17:58
Thesis
“HR must strategically adopt AI and flexible resourcing models to overcome operational burdens, drive business growth, and improve the employee experience, rather than merely reacting to everyday demands, especially in small to medium-sized organizations.”
Show notes
For most small HR teams, year-end isn't just busy — it's a pressure cooker that leaves no room for the strategic work that actually matters. Donna Brown has spent her career figuring out how to change that. As founder of Cultivation HR and a veteran of both HR and technology leadership, she brings a practitioner's clarity to the question every lean HR team is quietly asking: how do we do more with what we have?
Donna makes a compelling case for AI as an enabler of capacity — not a replacement for human judgment, but a force multiplier that lets small teams punch above their weight. She digs into how HR leaders can responsibly navigate AI adoption without sacrificing fairness, compliance, or the human relationships that make HR meaningful. And she challenges the assumption that adding headcount is the only answer to bandwidth problems, offering a sharper framework: think creatively about external partnerships, technology, and what you actually need to own versus outsource.
She also takes on the perennial pain point of performance reviews — arguing that the annual cycle is broken by design, and that continuous coaching is both more humane and more effective. If you lead an HR function that's perpetually under-resourced, this episode is a direct conversation about how to move from reactive to strategic.
- How AI creates genuine capacity for HR teams — the specific tasks worth automating first
- Balancing innovation with governance — ethical guardrails for responsible AI adoption in HR
- Why the annual performance review is structurally broken — and what continuous coaching actually looks like in practice
- Strategic resource allocation for lean teams — thinking beyond FTEs to partnerships and platforms
- How to decide what HR should own vs. outsource — a framework for extending your function's reach
Previ is an employer network that provides private pricing for employees — saving the average employee $2,200/year on essentials like cell phone service and insurance, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1Successfully adopting AI in HR requires a balance between innovation and robust governance to protect fairness, privacy, and compliance.
- 2HR teams, particularly in small to medium-sized companies, must actively combat operational 'noise' to create capacity for strategic initiatives.
- 3Moving beyond outdated annual performance reviews to continuous, coaching-focused performance management, often supported by AI tools, is crucial for effective employee development.
- 4When experimenting with AI tools, always disable the 'use this information to improve my learning' setting to protect sensitive data.
- 5Small to medium-sized HR departments should leverage diverse resourcing models (e.g., fractional HR, consultants) to expand capacity and bring specialized capabilities to their organizations.
What most organizations get wrong
- •HR must proactively 'step in' to operationalize AI within the workplace, as product and engineering teams often overlook ethics, bias, training, and job impact in their focus on product development.
- •Annual performance reviews are outdated and ineffective, and companies should move towards continuous, coaching-focused performance management systems.
In Donna's words
“Without a doubt, it's AI. You know, HR professionals are wrestling with how to embrace AI's efficiencies while protecting against risks.”
Highlights the central challenge and dual nature of AI adoption in human resources.
“Q4, um, you know, is definitely a hair on fire time for HR people.”
A vivid description of the intense pressure HR faces during the year-end and strategic planning period.
“I think performance reviews are the bane of everybody's existence.”
A strong, relatable statement on a common pain point within traditional HR processes.
“If you're gonna experiment with AI, um, in all of the tools in your settings, there is a little toggle that's gonna say, use this information to improve my learning. Turn that off.”
Provides a crucial, actionable security tip for HR professionals using AI tools.
“Don't settle for what your internal team can deliver because you're constrained by that capacity. Think broadly about who else can you bring in and who can you partner with to either extend that capacity or extend capability.”
Advocates for a flexible, modern approach to HR resourcing beyond traditional internal teams.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations struggle with balancing AI innovation in HR with critical governance, privacy, and ethical compliance considerations.
- •Routine HR operational tasks (e.g., recruiting logistics, basic inquiries) often consume significant time, preventing HR teams from engaging in strategic initiatives.
- •Traditional annual performance review processes are often ineffective, leading to a lack of continuous feedback, unclear goals, and employee surprises.
- •Small to medium-sized HR teams face severe capacity constraints, limiting their ability to deliver comprehensive strategic HR services and support business growth.
- •AI-native companies may overlook crucial HR-related AI implications such as ethics, bias, training needs, and job impact, focusing primarily on product and engineering.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You've been working in HR and technology leadership roles for over 20 years
WSJD Live: The Challenges of AI in HR
What are some HR tasks that AI could help with or aren't feeling strategic
The Strategic Goal of HR
Typically the fourth quarter for businesses and HR is a duality
What's HR's busy time in Q4?
HR can help companies make AI both ethical and practical in operations
What HR Needs to Know About AI
What other tools or partners are kind of most critical to you today
What other tools or processes are critical to your HR workflow?
Shana: HR departments are usually pretty small wherever you go
Built by People: The Future of HR
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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