Workday CMO Emma Chalwin sits down with John Bruce, vice president of people technology and innovation at OneDigital, for a conversation that explores the transformative role of AI in the future of work—one that is collaborative, not authoritative.
Emily Faracca
Multimedia Content Writer
Workday
You can listen to this episode as audio only on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In an environment filled with headlines about automation anxiety and job loss, the rapid introduction of AI can feel like a binary choice between people and progress.
But for those using AI intentionally, the story is different. It’s not about machines doing our jobs for us, but rather, machines helping us do our jobs better.
This optimistic mindset was the theme of a recent Future of Work podcast conversation between Workday CMO Emma Chalwin and John Bruce, vice president, people technology and innovation at OneDigital.
The topic was AI: its evolution, its promise, and the tension many still feel about where it’s taking us. But there was no talk of replacement or displacement. No narrative of humans getting pushed aside.
Instead, the two offered a perspective that was firmly rooted in trust, empowerment, and tangible results.
They shared an outlook on AI being collaborative, not authoritative—something that helps people do their jobs better, faster, and with more clarity. For OneDigital, that’s exactly what their AI tools are already accomplishing: removing friction, increasing visibility, and giving teams more time to focus on the work that matters most.
Bruce shared five concrete ways that OneDigital’s HR organization puts that mindset into practice.
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Instead of cold, transactional chatbots, AI can now act as a warm first point of contact for candidates. Through Paradox, OneDigital introduced “Olivia,” an AI assistant that has scheduled hundreds of interviews while delivering a seamless, human-feeling experience.
“She’s now the face of the company,” said Bruce. “The interface to [the] brand.”
As a result, a candidates’ first interaction with OneDigital is, as Bruce put it, “automated with purpose.” For the candidate, this looks like:
When it comes to the business side of recruiting, Bruce remembers a moment clearly that made the necessity of AI undeniable.
His team had just opened a posting for an entry-level role. Nothing unusual—just a standard listing, live for less than a week. Within four days, they had 360 applicants.
It seems unbelievable, but for HR professionals, this kind of volume has become the norm. Without support from automation, reviewing that many resumes isn’t just time-consuming—it’s humanly impossible to do with any real depth.
“There’s no way to meaningfully analyze 350 resumes by hand,” Bruce shared. “It’s not a question of if we’re missing strong candidates, it’s how many.”
When a single role attracts hundreds of applicants in a matter of days, something has to give.
That’s where AI adds real value. Not by making hiring decisions, but by helping recruiters focus their time and attention on the most relevant candidates.
AI doesn’t have to be disruptive to be effective.
In fact, Bruce says some of the most meaningful changes come from small, quality-of-life upgrades such as autocorrect features or smarter search functionality.
“I got an email from one of our talent partners who said, ‘Thanks for whatever you turned on. Now when I type like a third grader, it actually understands what I mean,’” Bruce said.
These subtle changes eliminate friction, reduce cognitive load, and let people move through their tasks with more confidence. Not every innovation needs to be headline-worthy. Some just need to make the day better.
Bruce’s team doesn’t adopt AI lightly. For example, when they chose HiredScore, which is an AI recruiting tool, transparency was non-negotiable.
“What stood out is that they not only do anti-bias testing—they publish the results,” he explained.
That openness was a key reason they moved forward. It allowed his team to trust the tool, and more importantly, to train users on how to interpret its suggestions.
When used correctly, Bruce explained, AI becomes another helpful lens, not a final judgment. “We tell people: this is a data point. It’s not the answer.”
For Bruce, the value of AI comes down to one question: what could your team be doing if they weren’t stuck working on repetitive tasks?
“Sometimes it’s not about the cost of the time you’re spending, it’s the opportunity cost to the business,” he said.
By handling scheduling, filtering, search, and admin tasks,
AI gives HR and talent teams more time to build relationships, collaborate across the business, and solve bigger problems. In speeding up automated efficiency, it creates the capacity for more meaningful, strategic work.
“That’s the win,” Bruce shared. “More time for the things only people can do.”
What Bruce makes clear—story after story, example after example—is that AI’s value isn’t in what it replaces. It’s in what it returns.
By using AI intentionally, organizations like OneDigital are proving that human-centered innovation is a requirement in an increasingly AI-powered world.
As a result, the future of work isn’t less human, it’s more human—because the tools are finally starting to work with us, not just around us.
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