As of 2024, Spotify has over 10,000 employees globally. The company's workforce is distributed across various departments, including engineering, product development, marketing, sales, and content curation. Spotify has offices in major cities around the world, such as Stockholm (its headquarters), New York, London, Berlin, and Tokyo.

The company is known for its focus on diversity and inclusion, aiming to improve gender balance and promote underrepresented groups. In 2022, about 45% of its workforce identified as women, with a focus on increasing this percentage, particularly in technical and leadership roles.

It’s no secret that Artificial Intelligence is taking over the way we live and work more and more each day – and the HR + L&D sector is no stranger to this new tech. In particular, Generative AI (GenAI), a subset of AI technology that refers to systems capable of autonomously creating new content, has been taking the HR + L&D industry by storm.

Every day, we’re finding more use cases for this amazing technology in our field, and more organisations are jumping aboard the AI train everywhere we look.

AI and GenAI are now being utilised in every area of HR + L&D, from things as simple as assisting with payroll and data migration to situations as complex as team decision-making to improve performance.

It will come as no surprise, then, that AI, and GenAI in particular, will feature heavily at the HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest in Sydney this September.

On day one, you’ll get the opportunity to check out an Interactive Panel session, led by Jemma Hirst, Andrew Komoder, Jay Patel, Penny Beecham and Brendan Hill, discussing “Generative AI Use Cases for L&D Professionals”. Followed by another Interactive Panel session, led by Aman Kaur-Shaik and Silvia Cohen, discussing "Generative AI Use Cases for HR Professionals"

Michael Kim, Head of HR for the JAPAC & SAMEA regions at Spotify, will also be taking the time to answer the question: “How is HR Preparing for the AI Revolution?”

We got the chance to sit down with Michael and ask him more about his thoughts on AI in HR.

First and foremost, Michael told us he’s very excited about the upcoming HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest.

“What I love about this conference is that, regardless of what industry or company you work for, we’re all HR, so we’re all connected in that way. To be able to hear all my HR colleagues and peers talk about their insights and what worked and what didn’t, for me, it’s a learning experience.”

Michael says he’ll be discussing the very hot topic of AI in HR. However, rather than showcasing AI tech, he’ll be talking about how HR practitioners can prepare themselves for the AI revolution in a practical manner.

“I talk about it in a way that it’s applicable, regardless of what type of company you work for. You don’t have to be a multi-million-dollar tech company to do what we’ve done. I’ll really talk about the bread and butter of HR and how we align our HR best practices that we’ve always been doing and tweak them to the world of AI.”

He explains that one of the key messages is about letting go of the fear around it and embracing AI to stay ahead of the curve. Whether your AI journey consists of large leaps or small baby steps, moving forward is better than not moving at all.

“The other key message is, as HR leaders, how do we ironically use computer and robotic technology to enable us to be more human? Because what we need more than ever right now is for people to be more human.”

As for his advice on how you can stay ahead of industry trends and remain innovative in HR + L&D with AI?

“To stay innovative is to stay connected, and going to conferences like this and learning from other great minds is a great way to keep ahead of the curve.

But most importantly for me, it’s about taking big and bold bets. Don’t be afraid to fail. The only way we’re going to innovate in HR is if we do things that we’ve never done before.”

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For more information, check out the 2024 Agenda or the list of speakers at this year’s event on our website.

Get your tickets to the Sydney HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest today!

We hope this has got you excited about attending the HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest in Sydney on 25-26 September.

Remember, this is the event that is working to drive the industry forward and helping you stay ahead of the game.

So, don’t wait! Get your tickets today!

For more information, visit our website or check out the 2024 HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest agenda.

We cannot wait to see you there!