Staying Human In An AI-First Workplace Ft. Laura Thiele, CPO At Optimizely

In this episode of TechDogs Discover Dialogues, host Vikramsinh Ghatge sits down with Laura Thiele, Chief People Officer at Optimizely, to explore how organizations can stay human while adapting to an AI-first world. The conversation moves beyond AI adoption and into the deeper people challenges behind transformation: culture, learning, empathy, accountability, workforce planning, leadership behavior, and the skills that will define human contribution in the next decade.

AI is moving from conversation to execution. It is entering workflows, changing roles, influencing decisions, and reshaping expectations across organizations. Yet for many employees, this shift is not only technical. It is personal. People are asking how AI will change their jobs, what new skills they need, how quickly they must adapt, and whether they will be supported through the transition.

Laura brings a people-first but business-grounded lens to this challenge. Her view is clear: leaders who want AI transformation to succeed must understand the amount of change employees are being asked to absorb. They must create space for learning, experimentation, mistakes, dialogue, and support while still holding teams accountable for outcomes.
 

Learning As The Foundation Of Leadership

Laura’s own career has been shaped by learning. From her early HR leadership development role at Lockheed Martin to her time at SAP and now Optimizely, her professional journey has consistently centered on taking opportunities that broadened her skill set and challenged her thinking.

Her early experience implementing PeopleSoft at Lockheed Martin helped her fall in love with the intersection of HR and technology. Later, at Optimizely, large-scale implementation work such as SuccessFactors reinforced the importance of team alignment, transformation readiness, and the ability to motivate people through complex change.
 

What Leaders Underestimate About AI Transformation

One of Laura’s strongest points is that leaders often underestimate the human absorption required for AI transformation. Becoming AI-first is not just about adding agents, automating workflows, or redesigning business processes. It requires people to learn new tools, rethink old habits, overcome anxiety, and develop confidence in unfamiliar ways of working.

Some employees will naturally experiment with new technologies. Others may feel intimidated or uncertain. Some may need more encouragement and practical support. Laura believes leaders must avoid assuming that employees already have the skills or confidence to make the shift. Instead, they need to create environments where curiosity is encouraged, mistakes are allowed, and learning is treated as part of the work.
 

Culture As The Inner Glue During Transformation

Laura describes culture as the force that keeps people connected, inspired, and motivated during periods of rapid change. In her view, culture shows up in how teams give feedback, how employees experiment, how colleagues motivate one another, and how leaders create space for learning.

A strong culture does not remove uncertainty, but it helps people move through it together. When employees see peers experimenting with AI agents, building new workflows, or trying new approaches, it can create a network effect of learning. That kind of peer influence becomes especially powerful when organizations are trying to build new capabilities quickly.
 

HR’s Role In Business Strategy

The people function is moving closer to the center of business strategy. Laura explains that HR leaders are no longer expected to focus only on talent strategy. They must influence business strategy through a human lens.

Workforce planning, leadership capability, role design, employee engagement, location strategy, and skills development all connect directly to business outcomes. Whether the goal is profitability, sales conversion, bookings, renewals, or customer success, the talent behind those outcomes matters.
 

Human Skills In An AI-Driven Workplace

As AI takes on more repetitive, analytical, and operational tasks, Laura believes distinctly human skills will become more important. Judgment, critical thinking, creativity, empathy, adaptability, and the ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs will be essential.

The human role may become harder, not easier. As AI produces more information at greater speed, people will need to assess whether that information is accurate, relevant, ethical, and useful. Humans will remain accountable for what AI produces, which means they need stronger judgment and deeper contextual understanding.
 

Empathy With Accountability

Leadership in an AI-driven workplace requires a careful balance between empathy and accountability. Laura acknowledges that leaders must listen to employees, understand their concerns, and support them through pressure and uncertainty. However, empathy cannot become an excuse for avoiding performance conversations.

The right balance is to understand the roadblocks employees are facing while still setting clear expectations. Leaders must help remove barriers, provide support, and create space for dialogue, but employees still need to execute within a clear framework.
 

The Mindset Needed To Stay Relevant

For professionals trying to stay relevant in an AI-changing world, Laura identifies several non-negotiables. The first is learning agility. People must want to learn, not simply feel forced to learn. The second is experimentation. Progress matters more than perfection, especially when new tools and workflows are still evolving.

She also emphasizes communication and prioritization. In a world where many AI agents, tools, and experiments may emerge at once, professionals need to explain what they are building, why it matters, what problem it solves, and how it creates value.
 

Key Takeaways:

 

• Leaders often underestimate how much change employees must absorb in an AI-first transformation

• AI adoption requires business process redesign, emotional support, and learning infrastructure

• Culture becomes the inner glue that keeps people connected during rapid transformation

• A learning culture is built through experimentation, feedback, peer inspiration, and psychological safety

• HR leaders must influence business strategy through workforce planning, talent capability, engagement, and business outcome alignment

• Human skills such as judgment, empathy, creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking become more valuable as AI expands

• Leaders must balance empathy with accountability to support people without weakening performance expectations

• Learning agility and experimentation are non-negotiable skills for staying relevant in an AI-driven workplace

• Progress matters more than perfection when teams are learning new tools and ways of working

• People must want to learn AI, not simply feel forced to use it

 

About Laura Thiele

Laura Thiele is the Chief People Officer at Optimizely, where she leads people strategy, culture, employee experience, leadership development, workforce planning, and organizational transformation. With nearly 30 years of experience in HR, Laura has worked across global technology organizations including Lockheed Martin, SAP, and Optimizely.

Her early career began in an HR leadership development program at Lockheed Martin, where she gained experience across recruiting, compensation, and HR generalist roles. She later developed a strong interest in HR technology through systems implementation work before returning to broader people leadership roles. At Optimizely, Laura focuses on building a learning-oriented, human-centered culture that supports business growth, AI readiness, and employee development.