A webinar hosted by the CHRO Association featured Ashley Goldsmith, Chief People Officer, Workday, Inc. in conversation with Professor Stefano Puntoni, Co-Director, Wharton Human-AI Research, discussing the 2025 Wharton/GBK Collective survey on generative AI adoption trends, early ROI indicators, and strategies for effective enterprise-wide integration.
A webinar hosted by the CHRO Association featured Ashley Goldsmith, Chief People Officer, Workday, Inc. in conversation with Professor Stefano Puntoni, Co-Director, Wharton Human-AI Research, discussing the 2025 Wharton/GBK Collective survey on generative AI adoption trends, early ROI indicators, and strategies for effective enterprise-wide integration.
Gen AI usage spiking across all organizational sectors: Throughout the webinar, Professor Puntoni shared the results of the Wharton/GBK Collective’s third annual survey on how business leaders are actually using Gen AI, including expectations of the technology’s future business applications. Respondents included nearly 800 senior decision-makers at large U.S.-based companies.
-
Gen AI usage has increased drastically from “dabbling” – the most common response in the first two years of the survey – to daily usage and productivity in the latest edition.
-
Usage has increased significantly across all departments, with HR seeing one of the biggest year-over-year jumps after initially low take up.
-
Ms. Goldsmith added that she uses Gen AI every day in her role as CPO, and that Workday is striving to have every one of its employees using it daily. “We see HR as an especially big user, and leading the organization in some cases.”
Productivity boosts in the short term, value creation in the long term: Professor Puntoni noted that half of the top ten use cases for Gen AI directly boost employee productivity, including data analysis, documentation, and report creation. However, he emphasized that idea generation – which is not about saving time, and more about creating value – has seen the biggest usage increase over the last year, providing a window into the longer-term potential of Gen AI that goes beyond simply maximizing efficiencies.
ROI optimism: Ms. Goldsmith and Mr. Puntoni also discussed the growing optimism regarding Gen AI’s ROI, despite continued difficulties in effectively measuring such returns. 75% of Wharton’s survey respondents reported positive ROI, which is more pronounced among smaller companies. Professor Puntoni noted that leaders at the top of the organization tend to be more optimistic about Gen AI’s ROI in general.
Leading and managing change: Professor Puntoni noted that more than 60% of surveyed companies now have Chief AI officers, while emphasizing that this role needs to be distinct from the traditional Chief Technology Officer, the latter of which should be focused more on vendor relationships, data security, and cybersecurity.
-
Ms. Goldsmith observed that in many organizations, the CHRO is effectively becoming the Chief AI officer, in name or by default.
-
“HR being in the driver’s seat of AI change is a newer development, which speaks to the way AI is becoming much more people focused, and much more of a people-first issue,” added Professor Puntoni.
Miss the session? You can find a recording of the webinar here.
