30-Year HR Tech Veteran: AI Adoption Must Stay Human-First
Mark Stelzner has been co-leading IA, an independent advisory firm, for 20 years and guiding organizations through times of transformation for 30 years. Safe to say that this current technological shift is not his first rodeo.
AI makes human leadership more important, not less: AI can automate tasks and surface insights, but it can’t replace judgment, trust, or empathy. The leaders who thrive are the ones who double down on transparency, relationship-building, and ethical intent—using AI to create space for more meaningful human work, not to avoid it.
Successful AI adoption is a people and process journey, not a tech rollout: Treating AI as “just another tool” creates fear, resistance, and misalignment. HR leaders must anchor AI initiatives in empathy, clarity of purpose, and honest conversations about how roles, skills, and structures will change—bridging the gap between leadership excitement and employee anxiety.
Curiosity beats control in the age of AI: The most valuable AI outcomes come from asking better questions, not chasing speed. Using prompts like “Imagine…” (to add context) and “Challenge me…” (to expose blind spots) keeps critical thinking alive and prevents blind trust in outputs. Going slow to go fast builds trust—and trust accelerates transformation.
We sat down with Mark to understand the good and the bad of AI in HR. Above all, he shared that AI requires leaders to double down on what makes us human.
The intersection of HR and tech
My name is Mark Stelzner, and I’ve spent most of my career helping organizations shape the future of work for their people. I co-lead IA, an independent advisory firm I founded nearly 20 years ago, which partners with companies of all shapes and sizes that are navigating through significant moments of change.
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My leadership journey has been anything but linear. Although I studied aerospace engineering, my career ultimately focused on the intersection of HR and technology, with a bit of voice acting and public speaking along the way. I became fascinated by how processes and systems could help, or sometimes hinder, human potential.
And over time, I learned that real transformation doesn’t come from shiny new tools and tech. It comes from those who feel seen, heard, and valued. And that realization has completely changed how I lead.
I’ve been fortunate to advise leaders across industries and around the world, but at the heart of it, my work has always been about human empathy and meaningful connection. I try to lead with curiosity and humility, knowing I don’t have all the answers. My job is to listen deeply, ask good questions, serve as a reflective surface and sparring partner, and ultimately, help others find the clarity and confidence they need to move forward.
Over time, I learned that real transformation doesn’t come from shiny new tools and tech. It comes from those who feel seen, heard, and valued. And that realization has completely changed how I lead.
Why AI demands more human leadership, not less
AI in leadership is changing everything about how we lead — and not because it replaces the human side of leadership, but because it demands more of it. That's why AI hasn’t made me less human; it’s made me more intentional about what it means to be one.
When we first started experimenting with AI, I assumed, like many, that it would drive productivity by helping us move faster, automate the routine, and get to insight more quickly. And it has done that.
But I didn't expect the effect that it would have. It’s given me space to focus more on relationships, creativity, and meaning. It has also reminded me that technology is only as powerful as the intent and integrity behind it.
And in the process, it sharpened my awareness of what can't yet be automated — like judgment and trust.
So, in my opinion, the leaders who will thrive in this new world will be the ones who stay deeply human, who can build trust in the face of uncertainty, and who are highly comfortable with transparency.
Why two particular prompts are critical with AI
I was chatting with my 11-year-old the other day, and his point of view was that access to tools like AI makes him smarter than most of the adults he encounters. His hubris aside, he is partially right, but his blind trust in what his prompts return often means a lack of curiosity as to sources, a dulling of critical thinking, and a bias toward the quickest path over the path never explored.
I use some form of AI almost every day, and I've learned that there are two critical prompts one must employ to ensure the outcomes are truly valuable:
- "Imagine...": Giving your favorite tool the sense of setting, the actor or actors, the environmental conditions, and the overall context makes for richer responses from the point of view you're seeking when using AI in decision making.
- "Challenge me...": Giving that same tool permission to point out your blind spots, errors in thinking, poor or incomplete sources, and inference ensures that a technology that just wants to be helpful can also be constructive.
Overall, the impact has been both humbling and energizing. And it suggests that the best use of AI isn’t control; it’s curiosity.
How AI is changing organizational structure and hierarchy
Speaking of control, one assumption I’ve had to let go of is that structure and hierarchy are stabilizers. The truth is that with AI in organizational design, information flows differently, decisions happen faster, and leadership can’t be confined to a few people at the top. Everyone has access to power tools, and that changes how value gets created and who gets to create it.
As a result, we all need to be prepared for the continuous restructuring of organizations, their structures, and the jobs that we occupy. HR leaders are focusing on this as we speak, with their OD and OE teams working around the clock to respond to this state of flux and material change. It's a good time to work in either OD or OE.
I’ve learned that there are two critical prompts one must employ to ensure the outcomes are truly valuable: “Imagine…” and “Challenge me…”
Why not all AI adoption motivations are created equal
Our clients are constantly experimenting with AI to find ways to improve how they work, but not all motivations are created equal.
On one hand, for many organizations, the simple truth is that AI is intended to materially reduce costs by either fractionally or fully eliminating human work. Given we are not reskilling workers at the same pace as displacement, I fear that many will be left behind during this massive acceleration of digitization.
On the other hand, we work with several organizations whose entire focus on AI is to amplify outcomes for their existing workforce, thereby allowing all boats to rise and new opportunities to emerge. Though to be fair, most of these are still figuring out what opportunities they intend to address.
Why AI must be treated as a people-and-process journey
Many organizations treat AI as a technology project instead of a people and process journey. That's a big disconnect.
There’s incredible promise in what AI can do, be it faster insights, streamlined workflows, or even new business models — but too often, the conversation starts with the tools instead of the humans who’ll use them.
We see this play out every day with our clients. Leadership teams are excited about efficiency, but employees are anxious about relevance, trust, and purpose. The gap between those two perspectives is where transformation either takes root or falls apart.
HR leaders need to bridge that gap. I do that by grounding every AI initiative in empathy and transparency. And by helping leaders articulate why they’re adopting these tools, how they’ll make decisions differently, and what it means for people’s roles, skills, and growth across the in-scope processes or use cases. The result is often a redesign of organizational structures and workflows to support more fluid, cross-functional collaboration.
However, most organizations we encounter simply aren't ready for AI enablement. This could be due to a lack of a cohesive and agreed-upon vision, an inability to focus on responsible AI leadership and governance, limited investments in data readiness and authoritative content sources, or simply ceding ground to external providers to define how AI might work for them.
How AI workflows are transforming people support and HR services
The most pervasive (and perhaps the most obvious) use case involves the deployment of an AI-enabled virtual agent for people support.
The ROI is measurable through the deflection of live support channels, but success requires authoritative sources of content — a dependency that often becomes a project itself, given the myriad of policies and undocumented processes.
More interesting and advanced scenarios for global organizations extend this capability to AI-translation services. And with latency improving almost daily, this means both parties can speak in their preferred language without an intermediary. When we include real-time AI document translation, organizations can now deploy their live support resources in any country of their choosing.
This is the tip of the iceberg, with virtually every end-to-end HR process eligible for some amount of orchestration and AI enablement. Experimentation is everywhere, with success criteria dependent upon the qualitative (e.g., employee sentiment) or quantitative (e.g., cost per hire) outcomes connected to each pilot and deployment.
Regardless of the area of focus, there are now a seemingly endless number of AI technologies looking for problems to solve, and certainly an endless number of organizations seeking some level of support.
Why leaders should go slow to go fast with AI transformation
My advice to others in my role is simple: Go slow to go fast.
In moments of transformation, the instinct is often to act in order to prove progress. But real change starts with listening.
Take the time to understand what people need, what they fear, and what they hope for. A well-documented and well-formulated hypothesis that's grounded in reality has a much higher likelihood of success, whereas speed without clarity creates chaos.
In my work, I remind clients that transformation isn’t a project. You can’t manage people through change; you have to lead them with trust. The best leaders help others see themselves in the future that they’re building together.
Why staying human is the most important AI leadership strategy
To all leaders, my advice is this: Stay human.
Technology will keep evolving, but empathy, honesty, and purpose never go out of style. People don’t expect perfection; they expect connection. If they believe you care about them and you’re being transparent about the journey, they’ll walk with you through anything.
We’re all navigating uncertainty, but that’s not new. What’s new is the speed and visibility of it.
The leaders who thrive now are the ones who stay grounded in values while staying flexible in approach, leading with curiosity, humility, and a belief that work can still be deeply human.
Follow along
You can follow Mark Stelzner on LinkedIn as he continues to lead human-centered transformation and AI adoption at IA.
More expert interviews to come on People Managing People!
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