What SHRM’s Latest Discussion Reveals About AI for HR

SHRM’s AI+HI Project recently released a podcast covering trends, data, and AI insights in HR technology. In this episode, Alex Alonso, SHRM’s Chief Data and Insights Officer, chats with Zachary Chertok, Senior Research Manager of Employee Experience at International Data Collection. Below, we break down the highlights and key takeaways most relevant to Team Engine customers—especially around the adoption of AI in HR, major milestones in HR tech evolution, where AI is succeeding, and what the future looks like for AI-powered HR tools. 

(If you want to dive deeper into the full conversation, watch the video embedded below.)

Advice for Businesses Adopting HR AI

Chertok’s number one piece of advice? "Question everything."

AI tools are powerful, but they aren't magic. Business leaders need to be thoughtful and intentional about how they bring AI into their HR processes. Here's what he recommends:

Start at Your Own Pace

Small businesses still have a major advantage: strong human connections across the team. Don’t feel pressured to overhaul everything overnight. Instead, start small—layer AI solutions into your existing workflows where they make the most sense. 

For example, Team Engine customers often start by automating applicant screening and candidate outreach before expanding into more advanced workflows like onboarding and employee communication. The goal is to support human connection, not replace it.

Focus on Clean Data

As Chertok emphasized, AI systems are only as good as the data fed into them. Before implementing any new tools, take the time to ensure your employee and applicant records are accurate, consistent, and well-organized. 

HR technology tools like Team Engine help by centralizing and syncing employee and applicant data updates across platforms automatically, making it easier to maintain a clean and reliable dataset that fuels smarter automation and better hiring outcomes.

Partner with IT (Even If You Are the IT Department)

Whether you have a full IT team or you're making technology decisions yourself, building a strong foundation is critical for successful AI adoption. That means thinking like IT: questioning the data, validating the process, and setting a clear plan for how new technology will fit into your operations.

Zachary Chertok summed it up best:

The day we stop questioning things is the day society grinds to a standstill. You have to know the data that went into it, know the process and methodology, and test the outcome.

At Team Engine, we believe the same principles apply when adopting new HR technology. Successful implementation starts long before you log into a new system. As we discussed in our article Key Steps to Successfully Implement New Technology, the first step isn’t picking the software—it’s identifying the right problem to solve.

As John Henne of Midwest Landscape Industries explained in that article: "Once you have identified bottlenecks, you should think about how you can leverage technology to alleviate those pain points.”

Instead of buying flashy features or following the newest trend, businesses that succeed with technology first map out their processes, identify real bottlenecks, and choose solutions that directly address those needs.

That’s why Team Engine is designed to integrate easily into your existing workflows—without requiring a disruptive system overhaul. Whether it’s hiring automation, employee communication, or feedback collection, our platform fits into the way you already work while making it faster, easier, and more consistent.

When you approach technology adoption the way IT would—with clear goals, a thoughtful rollout, and strong support—you don’t just add a new tool; you gain a true strategic advantage.

Big Milestones in HR Tech Evolution

Over the past 10–15 years, HR technology has gone through a major transformation. According to Chertok, one of the most important breakthroughs—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—was a shift toward truly listening to employees.

Before the pandemic, many companies talked about employee engagement, but few actually used data to inform action. Feedback surveys often felt like a box to check rather than a tool to drive change. HR systems were largely designed to automate administrative processes, not to improve workforce experience or business performance.

COVID-19 forced organizations to operate in new ways, and with that came an urgent need to understand and respond to employees’ real needs. Suddenly, employee feedback became critical to organizational survival, not just a nice-to-have.

Chertok explained it this way:

What voice of the employee did was transform the organizational landscape. It created a connection between executive goals and the reality of employee experience.

This shift marked a major milestone: HR moved from being process-driven (focused on forms, compliance, and administrative workflows) to being performance-driven (focused on enabling employees to succeed and drive business outcomes).

Today, tools like Team Engine are built with this new mindset. Our platform is designed to transform your employee’s feedback into actionable processes—helping organizations not just track what’s happening, but improve it.

• Automated employee surveys make it easy to gather real feedback from deskless and field-based workers—without pulling them away from their jobs.
• Text-based communication is more effective than email or phone calls, ensuring important messages are seen and responded to quickly—especially for field-based and deskless workers who aren't tied to a computer.
• Hiring workflow automation eliminates bottlenecks in recruiting and onboarding, ensuring that open roles are filled quickly.
• Smart messaging automation keeps employees informed, connected, and engaged across multiple locations, languages, and shifts.

It’s no longer about simply managing people—it’s about empowering them—giving employees a voice, removing friction from their work experience, and making workforce decisions based on real, timely data.

Where AI Adoption Is Strong (and Where It Struggles)

AI is already reshaping HR in meaningful ways, but not every area has embraced it equally. In the conversation, Zachary Chertok shared where AI has gained the most traction—and where businesses are still seeing pushback.

Strong Areas for Adoption of AI in HR Tech

Learning Experience Management (LXM)
One of the first HR functions to successfully integrate AI has been learning and development. AI tools are helping personalize employee training programs based on individual behavior, engagement patterns, and skills needs. Instead of static training paths, employees now receive content that adjusts to their goals, interests, and performance—making learning more relevant and effective.

Talent Acquisition
Another bright spot for AI is in recruiting. Automation tools are making it easier to personalize candidate communications, automate touchpoints like interview scheduling, and build smarter applicant tracking workflows. For Team Engine customers, this parallels how our platform uses automation to screen applicants, send next-step messages, and keep candidates engaged without adding manual work for hiring teams.

These examples show that when AI is used to enhance personalization and streamline time-consuming tasks, adoption tends to be much smoother.

Where Resistance Happens

Despite these successes, AI isn’t universally welcomed—and it's not about the technology itself. Chertok explained:

It's not any one area that resists AI. Resistance comes when it’s rolled out too noticeably or too fast, without bringing people along.

In other words, people resist AI when it feels disruptive—when it appears to take away control, autonomy, or familiar processes without enough communication or gradual change management.

That's why at Team Engine, we focus on building AI-driven tools that enhance the work people are already doing, rather than trying to replace it. Whether it's helping managers identify top candidates faster or automatically engaging employees with important communications, our goal is to augment human decision-making, not remove it.

Rolling out AI thoughtfully—at a pace employees can adapt to—is key to building trust and making the most of new technology.

The Future of AI in HR Tech

Looking ahead, Zachary Chertok believes we're at the very beginning of a major shift in how AI will shape HR—and it’s a future that Team Engine is already helping businesses prepare for.

Historically, HR technology focused on managing processes: payroll, compliance, onboarding, and basic communication. But the next frontier is performance-driven HR—using real-time data and AI insights to continuously improve workforce performance and directly impact business outcomes.

As Chertok put it:

We’re moving into an era where AI can relate both directly connected and seemingly unrelated datasets across multiple areas. HR, finance, and operations will all be tied into a unified business performance model.

In practical terms, this means:

• Workforce performance will be measured and optimized using live data, not just annual reviews.
• AI will help organizations predict when employees need training, support, or team changes—before performance dips happen.
• Strategic HR decisions will carry more weight at the executive table, right alongside financial and operational strategy.

For Team Engine customers, this vision is already taking shape. Our platform connects applicant data, hiring workflows, employee communications, and engagement feedback into a single system—giving businesses a clearer view of how their people strategies affect day-to-day operations. With features like automated candidate sourcing, workforce surveys, and text-based employee communication we help businesses build the kind of continuous performance insights that Chertok says will define the next era of HR tech.

The world of HR tech is changing rapidly, but the best path forward is clear: question everything, start with strong data foundations, listen to your people, and adopt technology that makes human interactions better, not less frequent.

If you want a deeper dive into the full discussion, be sure to watch the full video embedded below.

And if you're ready to start putting these ideas into action, Team Engine is here to help you combine smart automation with real human connection — exactly what the future of HR demands. 

→ View our pricing or book a demo today to learn more