The AI Movement with Brooke
The AI Movement with Brooke, explores how entrepreneurs, founders, creatives, and leaders are navigating the rapidly changing world of AI.
Through real conversations with people building, experimenting, pivoting, and growing with AI, Brooke goes beyond the latest tools to uncover how this technology is changing the way we work, make decisions, build businesses, create, and define success.
The AI Movement with Brooke
How AI Is Changing Who Gets Promoted | Ximena Paul, Nala
Ximena Paul is the CEO and co-founder of Nala, an AI-powered HR platform focused on performance management, talent reviews, succession planning, and workforce planning. We talk about how AI could make employee feedback more useful, why quiet high performers may become easier to see, and how the manager's job changes when AI takes over more of the process work.
As AI gets better at tracking performance and spotting patterns across a company, it may start changing who gets promoted at work. Ximena believes AI can help make talent decisions more data-informed, but the final call still needs to belong to people.
If you manage people, lead a team, or are thinking about what makes someone valuable at work now, this episode gives you a clearer way to think about what good leadership looks like as AI becomes part of the workplace.
In this conversation:
- How AI can make employee reviews less dependent on one manager's opinion
- Why high performers can get overlooked when visibility matters more than results
- What managers need to get better at as AI handles more process work
- Why Ximena believes AI should inform talent decisions, not make them
- How companies are starting to plan for teams made up of people and AI agents
- Why workforce planning is shifting from fixed roles toward skills
Connect with Ximena
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ximena-paul/
Learn more about Nala, the AI Powered Talent Management platform serving organizations across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe at Nalarocks.com
Mentioned in this episode
- AI-powered performance reviews, People analytics, Workforce planning, Skills-based talent planning, AI agents in the workplace
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How I AI is now The AI Movement with Brooke.
LinkedIn: Brooke Gramer
Website: TheAIMovementPodcast.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only, not legal, financial, medical, business, technical, or other professional advice. Guest views are their own. Information may change, and accuracy, safety, or results are not guaranteed. Verify information and consult a qualified professional before acting. To the fullest extent permitted by law, The AI Movement, Brooke Gramer, and EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC disclaim liability arising from reliance on this content.
As somebody managing employee, you need to understand that whatever is that you're feeling, they're feeling as well, which is right now overwhelmed everywhere. People are feeling anxiety, fear. So I think when you think about leaders in one year or in five years, they need to have criteria, ethics, creativity because things are going to change, but they need to be good decision makers and they need to be people with a lot of empathy because the human brain is not wired to deal with this level of uncertainty, but it is what it's happening. And as a manager, you've got to be managing those emotional as well.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the AI Movement Podcast. The space where modern entrepreneurs and founders come to stay current and navigate their next move with AI together. I cover the conferences, sit with the people leading this shift, and I bring it all here. Broken down, without the hype, whether you're building something, pivoting your work, or trying to keep ahead ethically. You are in the right place. Let's get into it. Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Brooke Gramer. And today I'm sitting down with Himena Paul. She's the CEO and co-founder of NALA. It's an AI-powered HR platform that helps companies manage performance reviews, talent reviews, succession planning, and workforce planning to talk about how AI is changing the way companies hire, develop, and lead their people. Jameena is originally from Chile and has spent the past four years building NALA with what started as a simple tool for HR teams has now grown into a platform that helps leaders use data to make better decisions about their people and prepare for how their teams may need to change. In our conversation, we talk about how AI can make employee reviews more fair and useful. What skills leaders will need as teams become a mix of people and AI agents. And why do we believe AI should support better decisions instead of making those decisions for us? This episode is for leaders, managers, HR professionals, and anyone wondering what skills will matter most as our workplace continues to change during the AI movement. Jimena, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Looking forward to having me here. It's a pleasure to meet and connect with you. For listeners who may not be aware of your work and all the amazing things you're up to, could you just do a quick intro about yourself and how you're at the intersection of artificial intelligence today?
SPEAKER_01Okay, perfect. So my name is Jimena. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Nala. So Nala is an AI-powered platform that helps companies run performance review, talent review, succession planning. So a lot of complex processes that companies do to identify top performers, decide who they're gonna invest, and especially how they're gonna get ready for the future. So within NALA, we're in the intersection with AI very deeply because as a tech company, of course, we're very AI driven and we use it on our everyday basis, but also like from our customer perspective within our product, we need to be able to deliver and make sure they're getting the top-of-the-notch technology. So it's it's two things. So very AI right now. Everything is about AI.
SPEAKER_02Everything. Yes. So so many things to dig in. The HR industry is getting deeply impacted. And I can tell people are applying to jobs more than ever and have the AI-assisted powered search and support. But can you share a little bit more about what NALA does and how it's like an HR tech platform specifically for the workforce and what are the key benefits of it?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so within the HR space, uh there's different things. So you have what when you're applying to a job, there's systems that will help you either get interviewed or apply for a job, or it will help companies identify better candidates. Then you have systems that will help companies do like the the hard HR, meaning um payroll benefits, uh, employee relations, things that you have to have and they need to run smoothly and there's a lot of liability if that's not happening.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And then you have uh things that companies do around um making sure people have the tools to do what it is that they need to do, and processes that help them identify top performers for low performers and also identify where are the gaps so that they can invest in talent. So Nala would be on the third one. So uh usually clients that come to us, it's because they need a software and a partner that will help them scale processes around performance review, talent review, succession planning, which is usually how a company identifies top talent and also prepares them for whatever they think the future might see. And in our case specifically, companies that have large or uh complex operations uh and they have multiple locations, so that's why when they come to us, it's because whatever they're doing now, it's not scaling with them. That's where we come.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I can see a lot of benefits immediately, but this can be kind of like a delicate and sensitive area. When you're up for your employee review of the year, you feel very scrutinized. Has there been any pushback of having artificial intelligence in the mix of reviewing employee performance and has it been well received? What are you getting with the response with NALA?
SPEAKER_01So with NALA, we we want to make sure that performance review, it's a mix between people that work with you that can give insights on how you're performing while the AI is also helping to add more data-driven insights. In our experience, where we see AI being a big helper is that a lot of the time people get reviewed, but they never get the feedback. And for a lot of managers, it's very hard to have a face-to-face feedback. So as an employee, you get nervous because you get these reviews, you don't know what the potential consequences might be, and then sometimes things happen and you don't even know why. Right. So we do see AI being very useful, one, to help companies do these processes in a more scalable way, guaranteeing everybody having feedback. And then at the same time, AI helping those managers like get that feedback to the employee, and also uh not being something that, oh, I feel like you didn't do your job, being more data-driven as well. Yeah, connecting it to results. So I see it as a uh like if you're a good employee, you're doing your job, AI should be like that your companies using AI should uh increase your opportunities of being visible, of uh being suggested for different growth paths, and also it should help your manager give you better feedback or at least give you performance assessment around results and not feelings. More suggestions, which is the case a lot of the times. Wonderful. And how long ago was your company founded? So we started Nala four years ago. Okay. When it started, it was we just wanted to bring to the market an easy-to-implement user-friendly software for HR teams, but specifically a tool that will help managers make better decisions. Today, I think we continue to be that AI partner for companies that want to have more insights around talent and are also looking to support their managers into being better leaders. And we started four years ago. We started in Latin America. I'm originally from Chile, so a lot of our first clients they come from my home country. But today we're headquartered in the US with a lot of companies in Latin America, US, Europe, and growing.
SPEAKER_02The next question I have for you, since you're a featured speaker at Emerge at day two, this is a little bit about the topic of your panel coming up. Talking about how AI can help shape the future of leadership. How do you think companies should think about who will be leading their team in five years?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so and again, I think nobody knows what's gonna happen in five years, so I'm just gonna maybe one year. My hypothesis. So what I do think now is that companies need to understand that leaders right now, it's I I always use the Super Mario Bros. analogy. Like when you're video you're in a video game, you need to pass different levels, and each level is different from the back. And as you go into a level, the clock is ticking. So the first thing I always invite them to do is understand their managers are kind of like in a game, which is very stressful because things change every level. They don't control the pace. So as they're doing their original job, they're also in this game where because literally with AI, every four weeks we have a new release of something, either by Google or Anthropic, whatever, that's completely reshaping. The second thing with leaders, and this is also for people that are leading teams, I say there's two core things that if you don't have it, you need to do it, or if not, you need to identify those who do in your company. Uh it's data analytics and business acumen. Why? Like in the last years, we're very good at running processes and organizing things, orchestrating things. Now that's literally what AI is taking. So as leader, instead of managing processes, you're gonna be you're gonna be required to make decisions all the time with data. So if you don't have a strong background in data analytics and you don't understand the business, it's very hard for you to succeed. And then as somebody managing employees, you need to understand that whatever is that you're feeling, they're feeling as as well, which is right now overwhelmed everywhere. People are feeling anxiety, they're fear. So I think when you think about leaders in one year or in five years, they need to, they need to have criteria, ethics, creativity because things are gonna change, but they need to be good decision makers. So help them understand how to make better decisions, and they need to be people with a lot of empathy because the human brain is not wired to deal with this level of uncertainty, but it is what is happening. And as a manager, you're gonna be managing those emotions as well. So that would be my nuggets.
SPEAKER_02Yes, having a background in data already, you know, AI is the amplifier, not the entire solution. If you're not building those core skills, you're you're gonna get lost.
SPEAKER_01No, and understanding your business. It's not about being expert in the process that you're in charge. If you know how your business makes money, what are those levers? Yes. And you know how to use data, then you're gonna be able to uh be a good leader because you're gonna be able to do what the company's gonna need you to do, which is make a lot of decisions with all this information that now you're gonna have at one click.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So, how do you make sure your system stays fair when it's doing things like ranking talent or suggesting these future leaders?
SPEAKER_01So, at least, and this is how we see it in NALA, uh first we always take into account data, not given by us, by humans. It's just like, okay, in what teams people are growing, where people are getting salary increase, what teams people are leaving the company. So you don't need any feedback to understand how things happen. That tells you a lot about leadership.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then we always mix it up with employee feedback. We in Nala believe that AI should enhance the human experience, not replace it. And um so that's one piece. And the other thing is that what's happening today, when you see how companies are doing these processes, it's not like today it's perfect. It's very hard for them to actually use data that they already have to make more fair assessments. So they just do it with the little information they have, which is usually people's opinion. So I do think that as companies embrace the use of this type of technologies in decision making, decisions are gonna be more fair. Yes. Talent is gonna be visible, not because of who you know, but because of people that are actually moving the needle in your company. And the second piece, you always always, always need to put humans in the process. In Nala, for example, you always can get an insight, but that's not the final. We will never program something that will take an action immediately without being supervised by a human. Right. Nala is not gonna fire you, but it will help make decisions around promotions and maybe people that should be let go, but it will try always to give you, okay, this is what we're seeing. Because it has a broader visibility than the one that you by yourself have with your current scope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It kind of takes the emotions out of it.
SPEAKER_01It takes out the emotions and also whatever bias you might have.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like uh and whatever people some people are louder and you see them more because they're more, they like to be more social, but you might have a lot of people that are doing an amazing job. So this is also a way of giving those people a chance. Again, as a business owner, you want to know who those people are. You want to make sure they're happy, they're engaged, and they're staying with you. So it's in both interests.
SPEAKER_02I mean, what about those soft skills that that employees bring to the table, or even just skills and performance that's not trackable? What about those instances?
SPEAKER_01That I think is why AI is not gonna replace humans. Right. Uh we humans have a way of understanding the context and what's happening and getting the emotional part that AI does not. So when I think about those soft skills, AI is like, imagine like an alien from another planet. So they need their instruction manuals. What I do think AI is gonna be great, and we're already using it, if you give the manual, right, the context, what's relevant, AI is very good at analyzing patterns. So a lot of those soft skills have to do with how you communicate within when there's a conflict, there's a solution, when you're negotiating, when you're presenting, when you're selling. And I do think a lot of those soft skills, AI can do a great job in helping you one-on-one improve them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01As long as somebody's giving giving it the pattern. The AI is not gonna figure it out by themselves. So I do see AI being somebody that's if you want to grow, it's a great partner to help you grow. AI doesn't care about being uncomfortable telling what it is that you need to change. And probably you as a person, it's not the same having your boss sell telling you right to your face, then maybe getting it in a more secure space. So I do think AI can even help you with that. Now, how do you measure people's results? I at least as a CEO, I don't care how you got the results, like as long as you're aligned to your company's values and you're getting things done, uh, that's gonna tell me that uh you have the right skill set. The skill sets are gonna change, for sure. And I do think that as they change, again, AI can be an amazing tool in helping helping you as an employer make sure your people are getting that ongoing feedback, which managers don't like to give all the time, especially when it's uncomfortable. So I think that's that's a that's an interesting part of AI in this skills race.
SPEAKER_02As a CEO and co-founder, can you share about the process of the initial start of your company four years ago? To where you've transitioned and morphed into what the market really has demanded for now? And because a lot of founders will go in with that MVP and that initial thought of what they're going to be or what they think their company is going to be. Can you share about that journey and that process of where you are now?
SPEAKER_01When we started, we saw a problem, and at the beginning it was very simple. Like we knew there was demand for an easy-to-implement, user-friendly software. For it, we started with performance review. For performance review. This is something every company needs. It's important for the company, it's important for the results. Uh, but today, if you if you ask me, Nala has evolved into becoming an AI-powered platform that allows you to do not just one process, like a hundred processes in one place. NALA went from a very user-friendly tool that helps you run processes to a thought partner in the decision-making process around your talent strategy as a company. So we went from more from like a process automating perspective, which was what we initially thought people needed, to like a fully on HR agent that helps you make better decisions and it's it's at a completely different scale. So but again, you're always evolving. I think whatever is the idea that you have when you want to start, test it out. Don't invest too much unless you get traction, meaning people willing to pay for that. Pay is very important. And then if you are always listening to your clients and to understand the pain they're going through, that's gonna lead you. What is the pain and for what are they willing to pay? And that's gonna help you evolve because your client needs will change as well.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Are there any new products or features that you're building on or looking to add on?
SPEAKER_01Yes, uh, because of everything is changing around how companies are adjusting their structures and people, yeah. The next new feature that's coming in Nala, it's not something new, but I think it's new how we're gonna do it. It's around a process known as workforce planning. It's how as a company you a month, a year, two years from now, you prepare for how your teams are gonna change so that you can make the right investments. So workforce planning has to do with understanding how your teams are gonna change, your structure, uh, how that's gonna have an impact on the financial piece as well, but also what are those skills that you're gonna need. Something that I'm gonna talk later in my talk, it's we're seeing this shift from preparing people for a role to actually building skills pool within the company. Okay. So uh that's where we we think that's going. So it's workforce planning, not as it's done traditionally, but it's more about how do we help our clients identify the skills they have now, the ones they need, so that through NALA they can actually plan better to minimize the operational risk. In a world that's crazy in terms of the new pace of change, which is it is what it is, it's not gonna go back to the to the back. This is this is this is the new game we're playing right now.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure you're very knowledgeable and have done a lot of research around the workforce and the way that talent cycles are changing and the way teams are changing. Is there anything that you can share about what we're coming up against this year and how things are moving?
SPEAKER_01So I think this changes sometimes to more legacy companies to the more technology ones. But what we're what I've seen, and I'm already experiencing in my companies, themes are a hybrid. So we're already working with a company where we have teams that are built with people and agents. And I'm not talking an agent that will help you write an email or create content, like things that go from A to C done fully by AIs. Yes. So we are already seeing that. Um the other thing that that I'm sure is gonna change is I don't know how we're gonna face it, but it's how leadership is changing because leaders need to be able to give results while learning how to deal with hybrid teams and at the same time being there for their teams who are going through this overwhelming context. Um and the third thing that I think is that we're gonna see, and this is a change more like on the founder side or CEO, every industry is being disrupted, how you price your products, how you serve your clients. So there's gonna be a lot of changes on that as well. Like on ALA, we're actually reviewing, okay, pricing, how's that gonna change? How it's changing who we're selling to, how much we're charging, it's changing our clients' expectations, and then there's a lot of new regulations coming in. Yeah. So it's gonna be an interesting year because AI is going so fast that things that usually go slow, they they they need to go faster. So can you touch on the new regulations coming through? So uh in our case, for example, we're working with global companies. So uh it's it's very interesting to see how different regions are taking this whole technology boom.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01So companies that have operations in Europe, they they care very deeply about privacy, data, and everything around GDPR. Um, in the US, on the other hand, it's not that they don't care, but they're trying to see how they can make sure they stay on track with the competition, especially with China. So, as a software company, you need to be able to tell those clients that you're basically gonna check all the boxes. You're gonna provide for the more US American companies a very secure environment where their teams are gonna be able to fully get the benefits of AI while guaranteeing that for their European corporations, as an example, nothing is gonna be breached around GDPR, which has nothing to do with agility. It has everything to do with protecting people's data. Right. So uh again, these regulations that I'm talking about, they're not even considering regulations that every company is doing right now around how each company will or will not let their employees use AI within their work. That third piece, it's gonna have a huge impact in softwares that are selling to companies like us. Because uh what used to be scalable, like the SaaS model, you would price per subscription, uh, you would just get this certification and everybody could hire you. I don't know how, but we're gonna need to be able to be very flexible and personalize just the compliance piece as well, which was not the case before. So we'll see how that goes.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. It was such a pleasure getting to hear all about the insights of what's coming through with HR.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_02What is one key takeaway that you would like listeners to know? Maybe a key point that you have for your talk today?
SPEAKER_01So, what I would say is that what I've seen happening in these last two months, it's something that I haven't seen in 20 years. Wow. So there's a lot happening, but I would invite them to be excited about it. If you're watching things or if you're going to events that are making you feel anxious, turn that off. That's not the energy that you read right now. Just uh go back to like whatever motivates you and learn these tools. Think of it as learning as a new language. And the other thing that where I do think there's gonna be a conflict, it's there's people that are they're excited about AI because it will replace humans. I'm on the other hand, I'm excited about AI because I think it's gonna enhance human experience. Yes. And those are like two very different philosophies. So I would invite them to also see AI as a very powerful tool that might be a solution for a lot of very important issues we have globally, and also as an opportunity to make sure that in your workforce and in your personal life, AI can help you live a better life. That would be my invitation. And yes, stay updated. But again, business acumen, data analytics, and just common sense are the keys. So it's not much about knowledge, so just be open to new opportunities.
SPEAKER_02Amina, I love that final positive outlook. If guests want to learn more about Nala, how can they reach out?
SPEAKER_01How can they connect? Great. So there's two things. Uh if you're more interested in like on the business side, uh, I would definitely suggest you to follow me on LinkedIn. My name is Jimena Paul, it's X-I-M-E-N-A-Poll, P-A-U-L. And I'm very active on LinkedIn, so if you want to reach out, we can connect. I love talking about these topics with people. And then as a software, like if you want to know what our software is all about, nalarocks.com. That's our website, and we always keep it updated. We also do a lot of webinars, so I would say let's start by connecting through LinkedIn and then we take it from there.
SPEAKER_02Nalarocks.com. Like that domain. Fun. Very cool.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for having me. It was great. Thank you. That's a wrap on this episode of the AI Movement Podcast. If this conversation sparked something for you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're loving the show, writing a review means everything. It helps more founders and career pivoters find their way here. Want to partner with us or bring the AI movement to your next event? Reach out. I'd love to connect. Until next time, stay curious, keep adapting, and move accordingly. If you're tuning into this podcast, you're most likely an AI advocate. And you may have also wondered how to support your body against the invisible stress of EMFs. Think Wi-Fi, cell towers, or hours in front of your laptop. Leela Quantum products are lab tested and triple blind studies and are proven to help harmonize and neutralize EMF signals. Their products are the few things I felt a real energetic shift from, and I personally wear their quantum energy necklace daily. And if you're someone who cares about optimizing your energy and nervous system like I do, you can explore their offers with my affiliate link in the show notes below.
