Shift Not Slash – AI‑Driven Productivity & ROI at Seagate

Seagate's 35 000‑strong workforce faced acute 'time‑poverty', with 95 % of leaders struggling to focus on value‑adding work. In response, the cross‑functional People & Places organisation secured budget and remit to deliver Copilot licences to every knowledge worker and build a behaviour‑change engine grounded in skills transparency, cross‑functional cohorts and agentic AI. This session unpacks the transformation framework, adoption tactics and early business outcomes – including meeting hours down 10 %, Analytics CoE output up 22 % and a sub‑14‑month payback. Attendees receive the metrics, governance guard‑rails and toolkit needed to convince the CFO, mobilise the business and shift work – not slash it.

• People & Places mandate – scope, AI Leadership Council structure and C‑suite sponsorship.
• The four‑pillar framework: skills visibility, licence equity, cross‑functional cohorts and agentic roadmap.
• Repeatable adoption playbook that shifts tasks, not head‑count, and curbs Shadow GPT.
• Early impact KPIs – productivity, hiring cycle time and EHS hazard closure.
• Cost–value equation proving payback in under 14 months.
• Lessons and surprises in tool‑sprawl, data quality and ethics.

• Structure an enterprise AI initiative under HR that wins CFO and board backing.
• Apply Seagate's cohort‑based playbook to accelerate Copilot adoption without redundancies.
• Benchmark productivity, recruiting and safety KPIs that demonstrate AI ROI.
• Anticipate and mitigate risks in licence sprawl, data quality and ethical use.

Patricia Frost

SVP, Chief People and Places Officer · Seagate Technology

Rising licence costs and board‑level pressure to prove generative AI value mean CHROs and analytics leaders must deliver concrete productivity gains, not hype. Seagate's case shows how democratised Copilot access, robust governance and people‑centred adoption convert AI spend into measurable growth, faster hiring and safer operations – lessons urgently needed across industries.