Jason O'Neill
Chief People Officer
Pryon
Episode 94
Invisible HR: How AI Builds Trust, Productivity, and Innovation
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 23, 2025 · 18:54
Thesis
“HR's most impactful role is to create 'invisible HR' systems and programs that inherently improve how people work, fostering innovation and productivity without HR needing to be the center of attention. He advocates for leveraging AI to fundamentally rethink and optimize all business processes, especially in HR, to drive efficiency and effectiveness, emphasizing the importance of foundational principles like transparency, trust, privacy, and traceability in AI adoption.”
Show notes
Jason O'Neill trained to be a doctor before pivoting to HR — and he brings a clinician's mindset to both. His guiding philosophy: the best HR work is invisible. Not absent, not passive — invisible. HR that creates systems so intuitive and well-designed that people don't notice them; they just work better because of them.
At Pryon, an AI-first company, Jason has built this philosophy into the fabric of how HR operates. One example stands out: an AI agent that retrieves everything a predecessor contributed to an organization — Slack messages, documents, emails, calendar entries — and makes it instantly available to a new hire. The result is something close to what Jason calls "a perfect conversation with the person who just left the role." That's not a feature. That's a fundamentally different model of knowledge transfer.
He also makes the case for building AI usage policies early — not when they're perfect, but when they're needed, which is now. His framework is built on four pillars: transparency, trust, privacy, and traceability. And his closing advice, borrowed from Steve Jobs, is unforgettable: always finish the back of the drawer. The work nobody sees is often what unlocks the next opportunity.
- The "invisible HR" principle — and why the best HR systems don't draw attention to HR at all
- How Pryon's Institutional Knowledge Retention Agent transforms new hire onboarding
- How to build an AI usage policy that balances security with innovation — without waiting until it's perfect
- Why HR technology maturity should track business maturity, not lead it
- The Steve Jobs "back of the drawer" philosophy — and what it means for HR craftsmanship
This episode is brought to you by Previ — an employer network that saves employees an average of $2,200/year on the necessities they already pay for, at no cost to the company. Join at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1The most effective HR creates 'invisible HR' systems and programs that improve work without drawing attention to HR itself, fostering an environment where innovation thrives.
- 2Implement an AI usage policy early, even if imperfect, focusing on transparency, trust, privacy, and traceability, because employees are already using AI tools.
- 3Leverage AI agents to significantly improve onboarding and knowledge retention by instantly accessing and organizing scattered organizational data, replacing manual knowledge transfer processes.
- 4Re-examine every business process, especially within HR, for opportunities to integrate AI or automation to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and quality.
- 5Adapt HR technology implementation strategies to the organization's maturity level, building interconnected systems from the ground up in early stages and focusing on enterprise-grade integration at mature stages.
What most organizations get wrong
- •HR doesn't need to be the center of innovation but must create the conditions for innovation to thrive.
- •Don't aim for a perfect AI usage policy; build one quickly and iterate, as employees are already using AI tools.
- •Avoid maturing the HR organization ahead of the broader business maturity; HR maturity should align with overall business evolution.
In Jason's words
“I truly believe in this principle that someone coined called invisible HR. It's where the best work of the HR professional, our role is to create the systems, the products, and the programs that improve how people work without necessarily calling attention to us.”
This quote defines the guest's core philosophy of 'invisible HR' and its impact on the workforce.
“If you don't have one, build one as soon as possible. You can always iterate on it. Don't aim for perfection. Just build one. You need one because with or without a policy in place, employees are using this as we speak.”
Emphasizes the urgency and iterative nature of implementing AI usage policies to guide employee behavior.
“It's essentially an AI agent that can retrieve structured and unstructured data. So think again, Slack, email, documents, calendar, you name it, all of the information that the predecessor who had been sitting in that role may have had access to or may have contributed to. Okay. So isn't that cool? If you can all, it's almost like having a conversation, but a perfect conversation with the person who just vacated the role prior to you. And isn't that a powerful onboarding experience?”
Describes a specific, innovative AI application for institutional knowledge transfer and its benefit for onboarding.
“And I think that you'll find that the vast majority of workflows and processes can be improved with the leverage of technology by leveraging technology. And HR, of course, is no exception.”
Highlights the guest's belief that AI can universally improve organizational workflows, including HR.
“Always finish the back of the drawer... The back of the drawer is as important as the front, even though no one's going to see it. You as the artist, as the carpenter, as an employer, as an HR leader, will know that you did— you truly finished and did your best work, even when people don't know about it. And I love this concept.”
A memorable metaphor from Steve Jobs emphasizing dedication to quality and craftsmanship in all work, even unseen aspects.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Slow and inefficient knowledge transfer with no handoff when employees join or change roles, leading to wasted time and duplicated efforts.
- •Scattered organizational knowledge trapped in documents, Slack, emails, and meetings, making it difficult for employees and AI agents to access and utilize instantly.
- •Time-consuming, multi-step manual HR workflows (e.g., PTO requests, status updates, auto-replies) that reduce productivity and are often incompletely followed by employees.
- •Employees using unapproved public LLMs like ChatGPT with company proprietary data, posing significant security and privacy risks due to lack of policy and monitoring.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Dave Zirin shares a little bit about his career journey
How Microsoft's HR Executives Went From Startup to CEO
A Pryon solutions manager identified a classic onboarding challenge using AI
Invisible HR: The Onboarding Challenge
Jason Pryon developed an AI usage policy that balances innovation with security concerns
How To Develop and Implement an AI Usage Policy
How have you adapted your approach to HR technology implementation based on organizational maturity
Will HR Technology Maturity Be Evolving?
Jason: The vast majority of workflows and processes can be improved with technology
How HR Is Using AI to Improve Workflow
Jason Schneier: Always finish the back of the drawer at Apple
Apple's Steve Jobs on Finished Work
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
Expand transcript (0 words)
Transcript is not available yet.