The Talent Development Hot Seat - The #1 podcast for L&D Professionals

Andy Storch
  • 4.9 (133)
  • Management
  • Updated Semiweekly

The Talent Development Hot Seat podcast is a show dedicated to helping you develop the most important part of your organization – the people! Each week, Andy shares interviews with Talent Development professionals, thought leaders, and experts to share best practices, learn about the latest trends and find out what has been successful in the world of talent development. This podcast and community are designed to enable you to be successful in the world of Talent Development. If you work in Learning and Development (L&D) this is the podcast for you Be sure to check out our website and join our membership community to learn more and connect with other exceptional talent development professionals. http://www.talentdevelopmenthotseat.com/

  1. 2d ago

    FutureReady #1: AI and the Workforce: Redesigning Work for What's Next with Clémentine Al-Elimat

    This episode is part of FutureReady, a special series produced in partnership with Emeritus, exploring how organizations are rewiring themselves for performance in the AI and skills economy. Andy Storch sits down with Clémentine Al-Elimat, who leads HR for Schneider Electric's Power Systems business — a €9 billion, 13,000-person global organization. Before this role, she led the people side of building Schneider's Energy Management Software and Services division from scratch: an AI-native, digital-first business of more than 7,000 employees. Clémentine shares her three-stage model of AI adoption, why "AI plus" beats "plus AI," and how Schneider has organized around AI with an AI leader, function-level AI champions, and even an AI steering committee. She gets candid about the three fears employees bring to AI transformation, why HR and leaders need to own the company's AI narrative, and why cutting graduate hiring in favor of AI would mean sacrificing a generation. It's a practical, grounded look at what it takes to move from AI skilling to genuine AI-enabled work redesign. Resources Mentioned: Emeritus: https://emeritus.orgConnect with Clémentine Al-Elimat on LinkedIn About FutureReady: FutureReady is a podcast series produced in partnership with Emeritus, featuring HR and talent leaders navigating the shift to skills-based organizations and AI-enabled work. Full episodes are also available on the Emeritus Insights app. Work With Andy: Is your organization stuck between "we rolled out the AI tools" and "people are actually redesigning how they work"? Andy's AI Kickstarter Workshop is a hands-on, 90-minute session that helps teams move past fear and into real, everyday AI use. He also delivers a Career Ownership and AI Keynote for audiences figuring out what AI means for their own careers. Reach out at andy@andystorch.com or visit andystorch.com. Connect with Andy: Connect on LinkedInWebsite: andystorch.comEmail: andy@andystorch.com

    FutureReady #1: AI and the Workforce: Redesigning Work for What's Next with Clémentine Al-Elimat

  2. Oct 13

    AI for HR: Moving from Spreadsheets to Strategy with Violetta Drobot,

    What happens to the HR role when AI takes over the data crunching? In this episode, Andy Storch talks with Violetta Drobot, a Boston-based consultant who leads organizational transformation and systems projects at the intersection of HR, project management, and AI. Violetta explains how AI flips the traditional HR workload so that the strategic part of the job grows from 10% to 60%. She shares a simple rule for deciding where AI should stop and human judgment has to take over, and she explains why project management skills are becoming essential for HR. She also walks through how any HR professional can build a first AI agent this week, with no technical background required. In This Episode, You’ll Hear: Why Violetta added a PMP to her SHRM-SCP, and why she believes project management is the future of HRThe 60/30/10 flip: how AI moves HR from spreadsheets and data handling to strategy, governance, and trust-buildingThe courtroom rule: why any decision that could end up in front of a judge needs a human decision, not “AI told me to”Why the first answer from any AI tool is never the final answer, and how to push back to get better resultsThree ways Violetta sees AI changing HR: flatter organizations, faster performance feedback, and diversity of thought as a competitive advantageHow to pressure-test your ideas by asking AI to play your CFO, your CEO, or your legal team before you presentWhy HR leaders will soon be leading people and leading agentsHow to build your first HR agent in Copilot, including an onboarding agent that answers new hires’ questions from your own documentsRAG explained with a living-room rug analogy, and why it keeps answers specific to your company’s policies Resources Mentioned: Wispr Flow (voice dictation)PMP certification (Project Management Institute)SHRM-SCP certification Connect with Violetta on LinkedIn Connect with Andy on LinkedIn Work With Andy: If your team has AI licenses but isn’t really using them yet, Andy’s AI Kickstarter Workshop is a hands-on session that gets teams past the fear and actually building with AI. Andy also delivers a Career Ownership and AI Keynote for audiences working out what AI means for their own careers. Reach out at andy@andystorch.com or visit andystorch.com. Enjoying the Show? Please take thirty seconds to leave a rating and review. It helps more people in talent development find the podcast. Connect with Andy: Website: andystorch.comEmail: andy@andystorch.com

    AI for HR: Moving from Spreadsheets to Strategy with Violetta Drobot,

  3. Oct 6

    Logins Aren't Adoption: What Real AI Transformation Looks Like with Chrisa Hill

    Christa Hill is back on the Hot Seat, four months (a lifetime in AI years) after her first appearance. Christa is Chief AI Learning Officer at LearnIt and co-founder of Tacit Edge. She tells Andy what she's seeing inside companies now. Organizations are tired of rebuilding workflows every time a new model drops. Boards are in the "show me the money" phase. And the definition of AI adoption is changing, from a few power users to whole teams getting better together. Christa explains why logins and token spend tell you you're getting bills, not results. She shares how she measures real adoption by baselining the actual work first, and why she now only trains teams, not individuals. She also covers why the prompt-engineering era is over, and why anyone leading AI implementation needs strong coaching skills. She offers a simple way to take the fear out of data. And she shares how she's raising a 14-year-old who built her own business with AI. If you've been worried your organization is behind, Christa's message is clear: you're not too late. You're right on time. Resources Mentioned: Christa Hill on LinkedInLearnIit: https://www.learnit.com/andyChrista's first Hot Seat episode (Episode 623)Co-Intelligence by Ethan MollickHoly Moly Goalie, built by Christa's daughter: holymolygoalie.com Work With Andy: Did your team get the AI tools but still isn't seeing the value? Andy's AI Kickstarter Workshop is a hands-on session that helps teams move past fear and into practical, everyday use of AI on their real work. He also delivers a Career Ownership and AI Keynote for audiences navigating what AI means for their own careers. Reach out at andy@andystorch.com or visit andystorch.com. Enjoying the show? Take thirty seconds to leave a rating and review. It helps more talent development professionals find the podcast. Connect with Andy: LinkedInEmail: andy@andystorch.com

    Logins Aren't Adoption: What Real AI Transformation Looks Like with Chrisa Hill

  4. Sep 29

    AI Transformation & Cognitive Governance with Giovanni Giamminola

    This week I'm speaking with Giovanni Giamminola about using AI to strengthen (not surrende) human judgment. Giovanni explains the difference between cognitive offloading and cognitive surrender, why AI fluency can create false confidence, and how cognitive governance helps organizations decide when people should lead the reasoning and when AI can productively support it. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN • The distinction between delegating a task to AI and delegating your thinking. • Why fluent, confident AI output still requires human evaluation. • The four AI work postures: exploratory, generative, critical, and operating. • How “System Zero” creates a deliberate pause before a decision is made. • Why job redesign should focus on decision ownership, not just automation. • How L&D teams can move beyond tool training and build real cognitive capability. • The difference between model risk and cognitive risk. • Why leaders need participation—not merely sponsorship—to lead AI adoption. • How AI can give people more room for relationships, trust, values, and judgment. Giovanni Giamminola is an AI transformation strategist focused on the human and organizational side of AI adoption. His work explores cognitive governance, decision-making, and how leaders and learning teams can build the capabilities needed to work thoughtfully with AI. Giovanni is also the author of The Augmented Manager - get here on Amazon. Enjoy the episode? Follow Talent Development Hot Seat and share it with a leader or learning professional navigating AI transformation. You can also follow Andy on LinkedIn for more insights. Looking for a dynamic speaker for your next event or someone to inspire your people to own their careers in the age of AI? Check out my website or reach out to me today: andy@andystorch.com

    AI Transformation & Cognitive Governance with Giovanni Giamminola

  5. Sep 22

    The Transformation Triangle: How L&D can Thrive in the Age of AI with Donald Taylor

    Don Taylor chairs the Learning Technologies Conference in London and has run the L&D Global Sentiment Survey for more than a decade. In this conversation, Andy and Don dig into the 2026 survey findings and Don's latest research with co-researcher Egle Vinauskaite, The Transformation Triangle, the fifth report in their AI in L&D series. Don explains why AI hype has peaked and become part of the L&D toolkit, and why L&D professionals are more anxious than ever to prove their value now that content production is no longer a safe differentiator. He then walks through the three directions L&D teams are moving in, the three "drags" that hold them back, and what it takes to build a function that keeps working after its leader leaves. The conversation ends with Don's advice for setting yourself up for the future. Resources: Get Don's free reports >>> hereLearning Technologies Conference, LondonCo-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick (mentioned by Andy) Take the Next Step: Listeners: Download Don's reports and share this episode with an L&D colleague who's worried about their team's future.L&D and HR leaders: Ask yourself Don's three questions: What's the most important problem you could own? What will the business support? What do you bring?Ready for real AI adoption? Andy's 90-minute AI Kickstarter Workshop gets your team hands-on with AI right away, in the same "go and try it" spirit Don describes. Reach out at andy@andystorch.com.

    The Transformation Triangle: How L&D can Thrive in the Age of AI with Donald Taylor

  6. Sep 15

    10 (More) Lessons on AI Transformation From the Artificial Intelligence Show

    In this solo episode, Andy Storch shares ten lessons pulled from The Artificial Intelligence Show's new AI Transformations series, which interviews leaders at companies that have gone through real AI transformations — Good Karma Brands, Zapier, HubSpot, and Peapack Private Bank. Andy connects each lesson back to what it means for talent development and L&D professionals specifically, and shares where his own AI Kickstarter and AI leadership work fits into addressing the people side of transformation. In This Episode, You'll Hear: Why AI adoption is an organizational and behavioral challenge, not just a technology one (Dan Slagen, Zapier)Why leadership — not the CIO — has to be the engine of transformation, and how Good Karma Brands' founder and HubSpot's CEO modeled that (Ty Boczek, Good Karma Brands; John Dick, HubSpot)Why individual speed gained from AI doesn't move the business unless the work itself gets redesigned — and how HubSpot's agents now book 10,000 meetings a quarterWhy structure beats enthusiasm: Good Karma's 50-person pilot and seven straight Tuesdays of onboarding, with each cohort teaching the nextWhy AI champion networks matter, including Peapack Bank's 29 embedded champions and Good Karma's full-time innovation specialist roleWhy the "curious generalist" may out-adapt the 20-year workflow veteranHow the bar is moving from using AI to building with it (Zapier's shift to apps, dashboards, and digital twins)Why re-engineering the workflow beats laying AI on top of a broken one — "don't pave the cow path" (Peapack Bank)Why every company in the series measures and publicizes adoption, not just tracks itWhy guardrails are the unlock, not the brake, in a regulated industry (Peapack Bank) Work With Andy: Andy is running AI Kickstarter programs to help organizations address the people side of AI adoption, plus a new AI leadership offering to help leaders build cultures of psychological safety around AI. He's also launching an AI for Career Acceleration program in October — join the waitlist at andystorch.com/ai-for-career-ownership. For corporate AI transformation or adoption workshops, reach out directly. Connect with Andy: Website: andystorch.comEmail: andy@andystorch.com Referenced in this episode: The Artificial Intelligence Show with Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput (Marketing AI Institute / SmarterX) — specifically their new AI Transformations series, featuring Ty Boczek (Good Karma Brands), Dan Slagen (Zapier), John Dick (HubSpot), and John Kowal (Peapack Private Bank)

    10 (More) Lessons on AI Transformation From the Artificial Intelligence Show

  7. Sep 8

    Turning Resistance Into Resilience in the Age of AI with Sue Bethanis

    In this episode, Sue Bethanis shares what nearly three decades of executive coaching have taught her about leading people through disruption, and why AI adoption is as much a human challenge as a technical one. Sue is CEO and founder of Mariposa Leadership, author of Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage, and host of Wise Talk and Wise Space. She has coached more than 400 executives at companies including Amazon, Apple, Cisco, LinkedIn, and PayPal, and co-teaches a course on moving from director and VP roles into the C-suite. She and Andy discuss what she calls the uncollar economy, why knowledge workers feel more exposed by this wave of change than any before it, and how fear and overwhelm are showing up in her coaching conversations at every level, including among leaders themselves. Sue walks through the three pillars of her framework, role, mindset, and practices, and makes the case that leaders need to consciously take on the role of change agent rather than letting change happen to them. She shares her sandpile metaphor for expecting disruption, the shift from blame to aim when teams push back, and why executives modeling their own learning, including the mistakes, matters more than any mandate. The conversation then turns to executive presence and influence, where Sue offers a practical framework for being heard in meetings, advice on interrupting gracefully, and her view on what actually separates leaders who get promoted from those who stall. I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon. Connect with Sue Bethanis: LinkedIn | mariposaleadership.com

    Turning Resistance Into Resilience in the Age of AI with Sue Bethanis

  8. Sep 1

    Rolling Out AI Enablement in Three Phases at ECI with Katie Tonda

    In this episode, Katie Tonda shares how she is leading a company-wide AI transformation and rebuilding leadership development from the ground up at ECI Software Solutions. Katie is Global Senior Director of Learning and Development at ECI, a private equity backed software company supporting around 2,400 employees globally, and she came there deliberately after building her career at two of the largest employers in the world, Verizon and Walmart. She and Andy talk about why she made that move, what best practices transfer from massive organizations to a lean team of three operating as a center of excellence, and her philosophy of being brief, being brilliant, and being gone. Katie walks through ECI's three-phase AI enablement strategy in detail, from a required baseline covering terminology, prompting, and hallucinations, through software-specific hands-on integration, to department-level work led by internal champions. She explains why her team builds custom AI apps in-house rather than buying off the shelf, including a career development tool that maps an employee's skills, values, and interests against future roles and generates a development plan. The conversation also covers how AI competency is now built into job descriptions and interviews, why L&D has to treat measurement like any other business decision, and her belief that the window to build a future-ready workforce has shrunk from five years to about eighteen months. I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon. Connect with Katie Tonda: LinkedIn

    Rolling Out AI Enablement in Three Phases at ECI with Katie Tonda
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The Talent Development Hot Seat podcast is a show dedicated to helping you develop the most important part of your organization – the people! Each week, Andy shares interviews with Talent Development professionals, thought leaders, and experts to share best practices, learn about the latest trends and find out what has been successful in the world of talent development. This podcast and community are designed to enable you to be successful in the world of Talent Development. If you work in Learning and Development (L&D) this is the podcast for you Be sure to check out our website and join our membership community to learn more and connect with other exceptional talent development professionals. http://www.talentdevelopmenthotseat.com/

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