Nate Sokolić started and sold companies in college, spent three years in executive search at Russell Reynolds, then led the firm's AI strategy, where he brought Findem in and rolled it out globally. He now works at Findem, helping HR leaders and talent teams adopt AI. Shane Driggers has spent close to 30 years in human resources, starting in Bay Area startups during the dot-com boom and most recently serving as Chief Talent Officer at T-Mobile. He now advises growth-stage companies. Most companies are already using AI. Employees report that they feel more productive, and budgets for tools and tokens keep climbing. Yet very few leaders can point to the result in product innovation or revenue. Nate and Shane argue that the problem is rarely the technology. Companies are adding AI on top of workflows and org structures that were designed for a different era, and they are letting the tools set the strategy instead of starting with the problem they want to solve. In this episode, Jessica sits down with both of them to talk about what it takes to make AI deliver measurable outcomes, why the people function has one of the biggest opportunities in the business right now, and how recruiting is changing from searching keyword profiles to getting verified, finished work back from AI agents. In this conversation, Jessica, Nate and Shane discuss topics such as: ◼️ Why "tech wags the tail of strategy" and how that derails AI programs ◼️ Why employees feel more productive while the business sees no gain ◼️ How to redesign work from a blank page instead of rebuilding the past ◼️ Why AI is creating a new wave of tech debt inside large companies ◼️ How to decide which work should be human-led and which should be AI-led ◼️ Why HR leaders must be human thinkers, business thinkers and systems thinkers at once ◼️ How the CHRO role quietly became the company's chief AI strategist ◼️ Why the best AI adoption starts small, proves ROI, then expands year by year ◼️ How recruiters can search for real experience, like a CFO who has taken a company public ◼️ Why shifting from SaaS tools to AI agents changes how companies buy and use software ◼️ How Findem Studio produces market maps, succession plans and talent inflow/outflow reports ◼️ Why every AI output needs to show its work before a leader can trust it ◼️ Why transparency is the most valuable currency a leader has in an anxious workplace This episode is sponsored by Findem. Findem is the AI infrastructure for people decisions. Its People Intelligence platform turns fragmented people data into context teams and AI can reason over, and act on. The 3D People Graph connects billions of data points across individuals, companies, and time. Expert labeling translates that data into consistent, evidence-backed signals about experience, capabilities, and relationships, with explainability behind every insight so teams can act with confidence. Findem's agents and enterprise applications run on this foundation, and partners can build on this infrastructure and bring the same intelligence into their own products. Findem is trusted by FedEx, Intuit, Nutanix, and Emirates. Learn more about Findem: https://www.findem.ai/platform Truth Works is hosted by Jessica Neal, bringing honest conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.
