What a difference a year makes. One year ago, many HR and business leaders were cautiously curious about AI.
This year at Eightfold Cultivate, the shift was unmistakable:
The room was full of C-level executives, global HR leaders, and talent strategists—and the question is no longer if AI will be adopted, but how fast and how deeply it can be embedded across the talent lifecycle.
The conversation has shifted from fear and uncertainty to excitement, strategy, and impact.
This event was a signal of what the future of talent looks like—with action plans, not just ideas.
Four highlights for me:
- Microsoft and HP panel. I was fortunate to moderate a panel with HR leaders from Microsoft and HP on shifting to a skills-based approach, finding the right partner, and executing on a change management strategy. We explored how these companies are:
- Unifying talent acquisition and talent management under one platform. TA and TM are two sides of the same coin. If you are looking at a skills-based approach, companies need to consider a provider for both.
- Using a single system of intelligence to align hiring with reskilling.
- Communicating and aligning with senior leaders, HR business partners, and employees in advance.
- Ensuring success through four pillars: implementation, communication, consistency, and commitment
- Empowering employees to see change as opportunity, not risk
Skills-based transformation isn’t a tech project—it’s an organizational mindset shift, and it only works with the right partners, frameworks, and long-term leadership buy-in.
2. Sachit Kamat’s Product Keynote. Eightfold announced several product updates including the AI Interviewer:
- It is redefining early funnel workflows, saving time, and improving recruitment efficiency
- AI is now conversational, contextual, and fully embedded across the employee journey
- Automation meets human intelligence—with hiring managers and recruiters staying in control, but finally freed from friction and delay
These aren’t traditional demos. These are live capabilities, already saving time and improving outcomes.
3. Salesforce Panel on Building Agents Responsibly and Managing Agent Sprawl. I loved this panel and the practical advice to any company looking at building or buying agents. Key takeaways to ensure governance:
- Cross-functional governance councils with HR, legal, sales, and business leaders
- Technical and ethical reviews for every agent initiative
- Pushback from legal is expected—but when concerns are unpacked, they become actionable requirements
- Sometimes you absorb the risk in the name of innovation—with legal aligned on the business rationale
- Agents are now part of workforce planning—balancing humans and AI in org design
- HR must be involved to understand impact and lead upskilling, with tools like Eightfold supporting the transition
- Always stay grounded in the business problem—avoid abstract AI deployments
And my favorite- you can start small! They started with an agent to answer simple benefits questions.
4. Digital Twin. Ashutosh Garg introduced the concept of digital twins for employees, enabling managers to access historical context and ensure continuity during transitions. a system designed to capture and preserve the context of an employee’s role, skills, and contributions. When a critical employee leaves, the Digital Twin allows their manager to generate a tailored 30-60-90 day plan for the incoming replacement. This approach reflects a broader shift in how organizations think about productivity—not as something isolated to individuals, but as something embedded in systems, relationships, and workflows. As Ashutosh Garg put it:
“We’re going from an influential view of the worker to a three-dimensional understanding of the work itself.”
There are clear upsides:
- Managers gain a referenceable history of work and skills
- Successors start with structured guidance
- Organizations avoid starting from scratch every time someone moves on
At the same time, digital twins raise important questions about data ownership, transparency, and how context is defined.
