In this episode of our podcast, Talent Draup, Brian Heger, longtime internal practitioner and founder of the blog Talent Edge Weekly, joins Tanya Early, VP of Sales at Draup, to discuss the evolving priorities of HR teams in a world that’s being rapidly reshaped by AI.
Brian, with two decades of HR experience in industries like telecom, retail, and pharma, says that HR should focus on addressing real business problems. AI initiatives should start by understanding business challenges, he says, as workforce planning has grown both urgent and complex. He highlights the importance of change readiness over traditional change management plans in fostering organizational resilience. Brian advocates for simplifying complexity through the creation of practical tools and leadership development to enable teams to take much quicker action.
---
Quotes:
“HR is heavily shaped from an internal HR practitioner standpoint, meaning […], we always start with how does this add value to the business with what we're doing?” – Brian Heger
“Don't start with the technology. Start with what's the business problem that we're trying to solve here.” – Brian Heger
“Complexity gets in the way of execution, and when […] people can't really understand the topic or the issue […] we can't move it into some type of action.” – Brian Heger
---
#aiinhumanresources #hrtrends #workforceplanning #talentmobility #organizationalchange #changereadiness #hrfutureofwork #hrstrategy #hrleaders #changefatigue #talentstrategy #hrinnovation #draup #hrpodcast #aiusecases #businessproblemsolving #hrinsights #workforceanalytics #leadershipdevelopment
---
Moments You Can’t Miss:
02:03 - The three HR priorities emerging globally: AI’s impact on work, workforce planning, and change fatigue
05:14 - Why AI prioritization must start with the business problem, not the use case
07:54 - AI as a “thought partner” in workforce planning and talent mobility
10:42 - The danger of not seeing the collective view of organizational change
12:55 - Moving from “change management plans” to building everyday change readiness
13:45 - How one-page frameworks help simplify complex HR topics and unlock execution
---
Key Takeaways:
- Start with the business challenge: AI should solve a validated business problem, not be adopted because it's available.
- Workforce planning is now harder and more critical: AI reshapes tasks, roles, and skills continuously, requiring scenario modeling and skill-based planning.
- Build change readiness, not more change plans: With employees facing 5–10 major changes at once, organizations need capabilities that help teams anticipate, discuss, and adapt to future scenarios.
- Simplification is a strategic skill: HR leaders who can cut through noise, frame issues clearly, and tell a compelling story can move execution forward faster.
- AI unlocks capacity for more strategic work: 2026 will mark a shift from experimentation to real implementation, giving HR teams more time for high-value priorities.
---
More About Talent Edge Weekly & Brian Heger:
Brian Heger is a longtime internal HR practitioner with experience across telecom, retail, and pharma. He writes Talent Edge Weekly, a leading HR newsletter with over 55,000 readers, where he shares practical insights on workforce planning, talent management, AI use cases, and organizational effectiveness. His work focuses on helping HR teams simplify complex issues and deliver high-impact business value.
More About Draup:
Draup is an AI-powered intelligence platform that supports over 200 global organizations in enhancing their talent and sales strategies. Draup enables enterprises to make informed decisions in workforce planning, talent acquisition, and account-based marketing by provi