Enterprise AI adoption has officially moved past the hype phase—and HR leaders are now dealing with the harder question: what actually works in practice?
Bright Talent, Inc., an HR consulting firm founded by former HR executives, is addressing that gap with a new free micro-webinar, “Theory vs. Practice: Lessons Learned from Enterprise AI Adoption…Thus Far.” The 30-minute, podcast-style session will feature Rachelle Snook, Vice President of Global Talent at WD-40 Company, in conversation with Brenan German, founder and president of Bright Talent.
The live webinar and Q&A will take place Friday, February 20, from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m. PT, and registration is now open.
Unlike many AI webinars that focus on future possibilities, this one is grounded firmly in experience—specifically, WD-40’s ongoing journey of deploying AI at enterprise scale.
Why This Conversation Matters Now
AI has rapidly become a board-level topic, but HR leaders are often caught in the middle. They’re expected to drive adoption, manage risk, upskill the workforce, and rethink workflows—all while many of the rules are still being written.
Early experimentation with generative AI tools is now giving way to more serious questions around governance, security, capability building, and organizational readiness. As a result, HR teams are being asked to move from curiosity to competence, and from pilots to platforms.
Bright Talent’s latest micro-webinar reflects this shift. Rather than theorizing about AI’s potential, it focuses on what enterprise adoption actually looks like when the rubber meets the road—including missteps, tradeoffs, and cultural challenges.
Learning from WD-40’s AI Journey
WD-40 Company is not a Silicon Valley startup, which is precisely why its experience is relevant. Like many global enterprises, it has had to integrate AI into established systems, processes, and ways of working—without disrupting trust, compliance, or culture.
During the session, Snook and German will explore two core dimensions of WD-40’s AI adoption so far.
The first centers on lessons learned. Topics include how the organization set priorities in the early stages, why security emerged as a critical starting point, and how initial use cases were identified. Just as importantly, the discussion will examine the organization’s willingness to redesign workflows and deliberately capture new knowledge rather than simply layering AI on top of old processes.
The second focuses on building a learning organization. According to Bright Talent, large-scale AI adoption isn’t primarily a technology challenge—it’s a learning challenge. The webinar will unpack why AI capability has become non-optional for both leaders and employees, how learning and development has moved to a CEO-level priority, and why mindset matters as much as skillset when deploying AI across the enterprise.
Together, these themes speak to a broader reality: AI transformation is less about tools and more about people.
HR’s Expanding Role in the Age of AI
For decades, HR leaders have been responsible for designing people practices and selecting the technologies that support them. AI changes that equation by introducing systems that don’t just support work, but actively shape how work is done.
“As HR leaders, we’ve spent most of our careers building and managing people practices and the technology that support them, but those efforts take on a different dimension in the age of AI,” said Brenan German. “We’re tapping into one of the leading minds in HR to learn from her company’s journey toward successful AI adoption.”
That “different dimension” includes new responsibilities: ensuring ethical use of AI, managing workforce anxiety, redefining roles, and helping leaders understand what good AI-enabled work actually looks like.
The WD-40 case offers a practical lens on these challenges—one grounded in lived experience rather than abstract frameworks.
From Pilots to Enterprise Reality
One of the most common pain points for HR teams today is the gap between small-scale AI pilots and enterprise-wide adoption. Early experiments may show promise, but scaling them responsibly introduces new concerns around data privacy, security, change management, and skills readiness.
According to Bright Talent, this is where many organizations stall. They test AI, but struggle to operationalize it.
By focusing on how WD-40 approached security first, rethought workflows, and treated AI adoption as a learning journey, the webinar aims to give HR leaders a clearer roadmap for moving forward—without pretending there’s a one-size-fits-all solution.
A Micro-Webinar by Design
The format itself reflects the realities of today’s HR leaders. The session is deliberately short—30 minutes total—and designed as a conversational, podcast-style discussion rather than a slide-heavy presentation.
The final portion of the webinar will open to live audience Q&A, allowing participants to engage directly with the speakers and test the lessons against their own organizational contexts.
For HR professionals navigating AI strategy alongside day-to-day operational demands, that combination of brevity and depth may be part of the appeal.
Who Should Attend
The webinar is positioned for:
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HR leaders responsible for AI strategy or governance
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Talent, L&D, and people analytics professionals
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Executives supporting enterprise-wide AI adoption
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HR practitioners looking to move beyond experimentation
In other words, anyone trying to separate AI theory from AI reality.
The Bigger Takeaway
As enterprise AI adoption accelerates, HR’s role is expanding—not shrinking. Organizations are realizing that successful AI deployment depends as much on learning culture, leadership capability, and workforce readiness as it does on algorithms.
Bright Talent’s latest micro-webinar underscores that shift. By spotlighting WD-40’s experience, it offers HR leaders something increasingly rare in the AI conversation: a grounded, experience-based look at what adoption actually entails.
For organizations still figuring out how to turn AI ambition into business and people impact, that perspective may be the most valuable takeaway of all.
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