New tools drop weekly, candidates ghost faster than your CRM can track, and every vendor is suddenly âAI-poweredâ (spoiler: most arenât).
So how do people ops leaders stay ahead of the chaos?
I sat down with Martin Hauck, co-founder of Purple Umbrella and community builder behind The People People Group, for a spicy episode of What the FTE?, and it turned into a masterclass on whatâs really working in people ops, tech, and hiring in 2025.
Here’s what we unpackedâŠ
The HR Tech Gold Rush: Why âShinyâ Doesnât Mean âStrategicâ
Anyone can spin up a sleek website with flashy testimonials and pixel-perfect UI. Thanks to AI tools, vapourware looks legit, but peel back the demo and half these products are still in beta⊠or already obsolete.
Martin put it best: âItâs harder than ever to separate top tools from noise. Itâs not about the marketing anymore, itâs about actual functionality.â
Thatâs why at Certn, weâve adopted a âmonthly-firstâ mindset for AI tools. Why lock into annual deals when the landscape reinvents itself quarterly? If your HR tech stack isnât agile, youâre paying a premium to fall behind.
Pro Tip: Create an internal scorecard for evaluating tools.
Certnâs AI Tool Evaluation Framework:
- Does it eliminate manual work?
- Does it integrate with your existing stack?
- Does the product roadmap show regular improvements?
- Can your team adopt it without extensive training?
If the answer is ânoâ to most of the above, move on.
The Rise of the AI-Ready Team (and Why Itâs Non-Negotiable)
As I share with Martin, at Certn, we now assess every role for AI proficiency, the same way you’d expect basic Excel or G Suite literacy five years ago.
HR leaders arenât just managing humans anymore, theyâre managing AI operators. That means onboarding people who can co-pilot with automation, tweak workflows with Zapier or Make, and prompt ChatGPT like itâs second nature.
As Martin said, âIf youâre not spending time testing new tools monthly, youâre chopping trees with a dull axe.â I couldnât agree more. SHRMâs Org Chart of the Future piece has more insights on this.
Certn’s Tip: Assign âtech scoutsâ within your team. You already know who they are, the ones DMing you new SaaS tools on a Tuesday night. Empower them. Have them demo, test, and report back.
What Is an AI-Ready HR Team?
Hereâs where most HR leaders drop the ball: youâve bought the Ferrari (that fancy HRIS or ATS), but your teamâs still driving it like a Corolla. Why?
Tech without training is just shelfware.
Smarter Software â Smarter Teams
In 2025, HR isnât just managing peopleâitâs managing people and AI. Leaders who invest in enablement-first strategies are the ones who actually unlock the ROI their tech stack promised. They turn tools into productivity engines, not clutter. That means time blocked for tooling refreshes. That means monthly âuse what you buyâ audits. That means building better relationships with your vendors, not just your sales reps, but their product managers, implementation teams, and customer success partners.
At Certn, we now assess every role for AI proficiency, just like we once did for Excel or G Suite. Why? Because AI tools only work if your team knows how to co-pilot them.
What makes a team AI-ready?
- Comfort with prompting tools like ChatGPT
- Familiarity with workflow builders like Zapier or Make
- Willingness to test and trial tools monthly
No one needs more logins. What you need is adoption, confidence, and consistency.
Practical Move: Set a recurring internal “Tech Stack Auditâ day. Evaluate what youâre using, what youâre not, and what needs upgrading. Trust me, your finance team will thank you.
The New Power Couple: HR + IT
Itâs no longer just about collaborating to issue new hires laptops or provisioning Slack accounts. In 2025, the best HR teams are partnering with IT to build âsuperhuman stacks,â a blend of automation, AI, and ops tools that multiply team output without burning people out.
Martin nailed it: âYou need a person, even just one, dedicated to optimizing how your org uses tech. That hire will pay for themselves five times over.â
At Certn, weâre doing just that, building roles focused purely on internal automation. The ROI is massive: fewer errors, happier teams, and more brainpower pointed at strategic problems instead of busywork. Not sure where to start? Try mapping out your most repetitive processes and challenge your team: How would AI do this in 10 minutes instead of 10 hours?
Automate First. AI Second. Then Innovate.
Martin makes a good point in our conversation, which you can watch on Certn’s YouTube. AI is cool, but automation is essential.
If your team hasnât even linked your ATS to Slack or automated quarterly report reminders, donât start with generative video onboarding. Start with Zapier. Or Make. Or even a decent email parser. You donât need to be stuck in spreadsheet land.
2025 Challenge: Automate three time-wasting tasks this quarter. Report reminders, interview scheduling, referral tracking, pick your pain point and solve it with no-code.
đ Remember: You donât need AI before you have automation. Start with whatâs repeatable.
Final Thoughts: HRâs Real Competitive Advantage? Curiosity.
The pace of change is brutal. The hiring market is volatile. But what separates the great HR leaders in 2025 isnât tech, itâs curiosity. The willingness to explore, to test, to learn. To sharpen your axe.
So hereâs your nudge: Block time every month to try something new. Read that product update. Test that AI integration. Talk to your âtool nerds.â Build bridges with IT. And if you’re still sending background checks manually⊠letâs have a chat. đ
Because in a world where everythingâs changing, one thing isnât: People are still your edge. You just need to give them better tools.
Have a tool your team canât live without? DM me on LinkedIn. Always scouting, always building.
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đ§ Hungry for more real talk? Check out the full back catalogue of What the FTE? â our podcast where HR leaders, tech builders, and bold thinkers break down whatâs actually working in hiring, background screening, and the future of work.
