Are You Feeding AI the Wrong Data? The Leadership Signals You’re Missing

Are You Feeding AI the Wrong Data? The Leadership Signals You’re Missing

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Tom Libretto, President at Workhuman

Summary

AI is only as powerful as the data behind it. As organizations race to deploy new AI tools, they may be overlooking one of the richest sources of workforce intelligence already available to them: the everyday moments that reveal how work actually gets done.

In this HR Happy Hour episode, Steve and Trish welcome Tom Libretto, President of Workhuman, to explore why traditional HR data often tells only part of the story, and how recognition data can provide a more human, contextual view of skills, collaboration, influence, leadership potential, and organizational impact.

Tom explains the value of zero-party data: information employees voluntarily share in their own words about the contributions they see happening around them. When recognition is specific and meaningful, those messages can become a powerful source of intelligence about the workforce—capturing signals that transactional HR systems were never designed to see.

The conversation also explores how AI can turn those signals into actionable workforce insights. Tom shares how Workhuman is using recognition data to identify potential future leaders years before promotion, surface “talent magnets” who consistently develop others, and help organizations better understand whether employees’ work is actually aligned with strategic business priorities.

Topics include:

• Why organizations need to think as carefully about what they feed AI as they do about the AI technology itself
• The limitations of transactional and declarative HR data
• What zero-party data is and why recognition can provide an unusually rich source of human intelligence
• How recognition reveals skills in action, collaboration patterns, influence, values, and contribution
• Why the quality and specificity of recognition messages matter when using the data with AI
• How AI and recognition data can help identify future leaders years earlier than traditional succession planning
• What HR leaders should consider as they build a richer, more trustworthy data foundation for AI-powered workforce decisions

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