Human First. AI Forward. How to Turn AI Buzz into Meaningful Impact in 2026
[Sigh] Are We Still Talking About AI?
If you’ve had this thought in the last few weeks or months—whether spoken out loud or in your head—welcome to being a human on planet Earth in 2026. You’re in good company.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative AI, has flooded our news and social feeds, elbowed its way into our conversations with friends and family, and landed abruptly on many a project list or set of KPIs.
In all these places, it’s captured the best and worst of our imaginations, hopes, and fears.
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of workers are worried about AI’s future in the workplace and 33% report feeling overwhelmed by it, underscoring the growing fatigue with constant AI buzz.
So even if you’ve tried to ignore AI or dismiss it as “just a tech-y thing” or “a passing fad,” you (and your people) have probably been only minimally successful.
Here’s what I know as a 20+ year HR and benefits innovation and communications professional who has guided hundreds of organizations to understand, adapt to, and apply new technologies to reach and engage their people:
Now Is the Time to Turn AI Buzz into Meaningful Human Impact
AI’s power and potential are accelerating and expanding faster than any new tech we’ve encountered in our lifetimes. (It is, indeed, quite buzzworthy!) McKinsey estimates that AI could unlock up to $4.4 trillion in productivity growth across industries, making it one of the most transformative technologies since the steam engine.
Realizing AI’s full potential and value requires caring for it as an ongoing people-, culture-, and process-focused evolution—not your basic new tech implementation.
If we’re going to optimize its benefits and mitigate its risks, we must turn all that buzz and noise into real action and positive impact that humans can feel and see in our day-to-day lives and work. And soon.
If we fail to act now, the still-significant worry about AI’s accuracy and cybersecurity risks, job and workplace disruption, and continued “shadow use” of AI could erode your people’s trust, leaving them feeling unheard, unprepared and unsupported, and slow or derail any positive organizational or personal impact.
So if you’re a people-focused professional (I’m looking at you, human resources and benefits pros and communicators of all kinds), this is your moment to shine and lead. You are uniquely able to:
- Shape a clear and inspiring vision of what’s possible (not just for your org, but for its people)
- Orchestrate cross-functional collaboration
- Embrace and educate on the new and unknown
- Flex your empathic instincts and change-savvy
- Mitigate risks and care for compliance
- Be the change you want to see in your organization—and the world
What if Leading AI Change Isn’t a ‘Must Do,’ but a ‘Must Do’?
I joined Segal Benz in early 2025 to help build and lead a new Insights, Innovation, and Impact team. And accelerating our AI business transformation, reimagining both how we work (our people, culture, and processes) and the value we deliver to clients (our POVs, services, and solutions) in this rapidly evolving age of AI, was the first of our big endeavors.
From the moment I first played with ChatGPT back in 2023, and it whipped out a quantity and caliber of content in seconds that would have taken me hours to produce on my own, I knew we’d arrived at a huge and disruptive inflection point for the communications profession. So, I jumped at the chance to help Segal Benz reimagine a communications consulting firm for the age of AI, especially a firm with such a passion for supporting its own and its clients’ people.
Our practice started supporting clients with generative AI as early as 2023, but in 2025 we made an enormous and important leap. Now we’re living and breathing AI, day in and day out.
This past year we met with multiple AI tech startups, attended and led hours of training, conceptualized new AI-forward solutions and services, presented at conferences, led AI discovery sessions with new and existing clients, redesigned internal workflows, and partnered closely with IT to mitigate risk and establish responsible and ethical AI governance.
In 2025, we hit a huge milestone: delivering our first AI-assistant-driven web experience for a client, which resulted in remarkably high employee engagement, positive HR and user feedback, and a 70% reduction in HR tickets during open enrollment. We also consulted with clients on how to ready their HR and benefits content, vendor ecosystems, and digital communications strategy and experiences for the age of AI. We’re excited to have numerous AI opportunities in the pipeline.
It’s been exciting, rewarding, frustrating, and yes…exhausting at times. But it was worth it.
Embracing AI isn’t just about rolling out flashy new tools, it’s about actively leading and shaping the future, right now. Deloitte’s 2025 “HR Reimagined” report calls on HR leaders to become architects of the future workforce, emphasizing that AI should be used to unlock human potential, not replace it.
Our leaders have embraced AI not as a “should do” but as a “must do” that enables human potential and serves a greater good in our profession and industry.
We believe AI change is core to our purpose and calling, as HR, benefits, and communications professionals, as a firm, and as humans. It’s essential to delivering value for our clients, helping them grow and thrive in an increasingly AI-forward and AI-powered world.
(Are you hearing your own call, your own “must do,” however faint it might be?)
An Invitation to Resolution: Human First, AI Forward
If I were asked to set an AI resolution for 2026, it might be: less AI buzz and noise and more time spent with fellow humans—learning, sharing, visioning, shaping, and tending the enormous power and potential of AI for good.
If you’ve read this far, no matter where you and your organization are in your AI evolution, I invite you to share in this resolution. Or write your own.
To act on your new resolve, start simply: Reach out to your trusted colleagues, partners, and advisors, including Segal Benz. We can help you understand AI, explore what’s possible, and begin shaping the AI-forward communications strategy, workflows, and user experiences that will engage and support your people, and deliver results for your organization.
Safely, responsibly, ethically. For humans. For good.
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Kaulen Taylor Pickell, VP of Communications and Insights, Innovation, and Impact Leader, has over 20 years of experience in employee engagement, behavior change, and strategic HR and benefits communications.
