The challenge is no longer how long it takes to implement ideas, but how quickly we can generate and test new ones, writes Joseph Lyons, CEO of ELMO
What’s Happening: There’s a widespread underground movement of employees secretly using AI tools in their daily work. They’re doing this covertly because they fear being perceived as lazy, less skilled, or trying to cut corners.
Why It Matters: This shows AI adoption is not just technical but also cultural. By addressing fear, trust, and skills, ELMO models how companies can integrate AI responsibly. Their top-down, transparent approach highlights that the future advantage lies in amplifying human creativity, strategy, and customer experience rather than replacing people.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on just how much AI has changed the way I work. Being a CEO can, at times, be a lonely place. I’ve often felt pressure to have all the answers (a leadership myth I’m still working on).
I continue to experiment with several AI tools, a few of which have become invaluable teammates: helping me prepare for meetings, analyse complex data sets, evaluate strategic choices, review a myriad of slide decks that come my way, and even bounce around concepts and ideas.
Those are just a few of my personal examples. At ELMO, AI isn’t something we use – it’s now core to how we design our platform, shape our teams, develop our people and add capacity. Empathy and communication, along with critical thinking, curiosity and strong AI literacy, are fast becoming the premium skills in the job market. As an HR technology company, we’re committed to walking the talk. We help our customers thrive in this new world of work, through our guidance, support, and most importantly, the features our products and solutions deliver.
Here’s how we’re making that happen.
1. Reframing AI from threat to opportunity
ELMO’s recent Employee Sentiment Index found that almost one in three employees (31%) worry their roles could be replaced by automation or AI within five years. That fear is understandable, but it can stifle innovation, performance and job satisfaction.
The challenge for leaders is to reframe AI as an opportunity, showing how it can create new career paths, and free up capacity for higher-value work, experimentation and innovation. This requires action, not just reassuring words, and creating a sense of psychological safety.
We’ve reorganised our teams to work more collaboratively and improve the flow of information and ideas. AI has helped us streamline processes, saving time and boosting productivity. But the real value is in how it frees people up to focus on strategy, creativity, and enhancing our customer experience.
We’re starting to see this play out in practice: the challenge is no longer the time it takes to implement a good idea, but how quickly we can generate and test new ones. The excitement, and the opportunity, is shifting to the speed of ideas. That’s where AI has the potential to deliver lasting gains.
We’ve lifted our investment in internal mobility and leadership development, and focused on regular career discussions for all of our teams. We want to make it easier for people to move between roles, develop new skills, and respond quickly to business needs. Whether it’s mentoring, rotation programs, or secondments, this flexibility is building capability and engagement across the business.
2. Building AI confidence through learning and development
Workforce upskilling is one of the biggest challenges organisations face today (ELMO HRIB, 2025). Industries from healthcare (31%) to manufacturing (29%), education (28%) and construction (24%) are struggling to keep pace.
At ELMO, skills training isn’t viewed as a “nice-to-have”, but as an essential part of our strategy to future-proof the business and support our people. Our regular ELMO Educate Days are company-wide training days with inspiring speakers focused on building AI skills, from providing practical tools to explaining the policies we’ve developed. Our People & Culture team are leading an ongoing program to strengthen digital and AI fluency across the organisation.
Given how quickly roles and our organisation are evolving, we’ve also invested heavily in change management to help our people embrace change and lead with resilience and confidence.
3. Encouraging thoughtful experimentation with AI
I’ve read about employees quietly using generative AI tools for fear of being labelled lazy or less competent. This approach benefits no one, hinders innovation and creates risk.
That’s why I believe in a top-down approach to AI experimentation, where leaders empower their teams to use AI responsibly. Guided by our CTO, Josh McKenzie, the ELMO technology team was given the freedom to trial tools like CoPilot, Claude, and Cursor (among many others). They measured impact through clear metrics and A/B testing, backed by strong governance, to decide which tools delivered the most value.
We’ve also created a new Machine Learning Operations and Platform Engineering team, promoting a key ELMO leader, Ramesh Thiagalingam, to the role of VP. Under Ramesh’s leadership, the team acts as custodians of the AI tools ELMO is utilising. They are building a connected AI ecosystem that spans every function, driving adoption and breaking down silos so teams can collaborate more effectively. The team also leads the evaluation of each tool to ensure data security is carefully managed for both ELMO and our customers (in line with ISO standards). The ultimate goal is to enhance the customer experience at every stage, from early adoption through to full utilisation and advocacy.
4. Using AI to strengthen talent insights
While we are using AI to enhance our organisation, we’re constantly exploring smart ways to remove friction, building AI into the heart of our platform.
From natural language data queries, to AI-generated position descriptions and resume screening, AI is rapidly automating the hiring experience, reducing time and cost-to-hire. ELMO Assist, a personalised AI-driven tool integrates Help Centre knowledge into the platform. It’s cutting down our support ticket requests because customers can find what they need so much more easily.
We are also working towards providing insight to our customers on ways AI can help anticipate staffing needs and org structure, equipping future-focused organisations that want to lead with AI. Beyond workforce planning, AI is transforming talent acquisition, making it faster, fairer, and more precise through better skills mapping, succession planning, bias mitigation, and data-driven matching. For instance, instead of relying on CVs alone, with the help of AI, HR professionals can identify hidden skills in their workforce, like the project manager with strong data skills who could step into an analytics role. But speed alone isn’t the goal. Efficiency must be matched with efficacy, ensuring human oversight, accountability, and good governance remain central.
The organisations that will thrive are those that combine the best of technology with the best of humanity, empowering teams with new skills, fostering curiosity, and leading by example. I’ve learned first-hand that AI can be a partner, not a threat. And with that mindset, the future of work looks brighter than ever.
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