People Analytics: First Stop on the HR–AI Highway

A 75,000-person, highly regulated firm used its People Analytics team as the launchpad for HR–AI. This session shows why PA's access, analytics and authority make it the logical first stop, then walks through the data foundation, governance and the 4-in-a-box partnership model. We unpack two pilots scaled to enterprise services – a policy assistant and a skills-to-roles bot – and the five-step playbook that made them repeatable. Attendees leave able to quantify value in CFO terms, cut time-to-insight, and navigate Works Councils, privacy and ethics. Tools provided include a reference architecture, model-card template, ROI calculator and negotiation checklist.

• Cold open and market picture – an AI journey at a 75,000-person, regulated life-sciences firm, plus a readiness gap snapshot.
• Why People Analytics leads – access, analytics and authority, with churn-prediction ROI evidence that unlocked mandate.
• AI-ready data foundation – warehouse to feature store to Gen-AI layer; data contracts, lineage and data quality improvement.
• Cross-functional delivery – the 4-in-a-box model with cadence, funding, decision rights, shared OKRs and embedded engineers.
• From pilot to platform – policy assistant saving 5,000 legal hours and a skills-to-role bot driving 12,000 moves and 22% higher fill rate, delivered via a five-step playbook.
• Risk, ethics and regulation – Works-Council negotiation, GDPR-plus model cards, bias and robustness audits, and the three-line defence with human override.
• Impact scoreboard and call to action – NPV of saved labour, productivity delta, time-to-first-answer cut from 6 weeks to 2 days, brand sentiment lift, and take-home toolkit with QR links.

• Explain why People Analytics is the logical origin for HR–AI and how to secure executive mandate.
• Sketch an HR–AI reference architecture and define data contracts, lineage and quality metrics.
• Set up a cross-functional 4-in-a-box model with clear cadence, funding and decision rights.
• Apply a five-step method to take pilots to hardened, enterprise-scale services.
• Quantify value in CFO terms – NPV, productivity uplift, risk-adjusted cost and time-to-first-answer.
• Anticipate regulatory and ethical requirements, prepare Works-Council briefs and model cards, and run bias and robustness checks.
• Use the provided toolkit to align stakeholders and build a credible business case within days.

Jeremy Shapiro

AVP, Workforce Analytics · Merck & Co

Boards expect AI productivity gains while regulators tighten scrutiny. HR must unlock value without breaching privacy or trust, and needs credible business cases framed in financial metrics. People Analytics sits at the junction of data access, statistical skill and executive credibility, making it uniquely placed to de-risk experimentation, prove value fast, and turn pilots into reliable enterprise services.