HR Leaders Share How They Are Using AI at Work

At Two Ten's annual HR Summit, HR leaders explored how to harness AI's value while maintaining responsible use and preserving the human element at work. Here are 4 key takeaways from the session.  

Start With a Specific Business Need 

Jennifer Baker, Director of Talent and Leadership Development at Foot Locker Inc., is helping lead Foot Locker’s AI enablement initiative. She said AI gains real traction when applied to a specific scenario, such as the annual goal-setting process. 

During review season, Foot Locker rolled out an AI assistant that prompted employees with questions about their goals, while aligning those goals with key priorities from Foot Locker’s broader company objectives. The assistant enabled a back-and-forth conversation as employees set goals for the new year. 

"We saw that the business really responded,” Jennifer said. “It helped every employee in that moment be more productive and more efficient. At the same time, they were embedding AI into their workflow without having to go figure out how to use AI. We gave them a specific use case. That was really powerful to see in action.” 

Have a Policy in Place

At Steve Madden, the company has outlined an AI usage policy and provides high-level, responsible AI training across the organization, explained Lyndsey Benson, Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Steve Madden also encourages employees to share how they use AI during all-hands meetings. 

While Steve Madden maintains a set of approved AI tools, the company allows employees to submit additional tools for review. An AI council evaluates and determines what can be used. 

“Make sure you have an AI policy. If you don't have one already, make sure you're doing training around responsible AI usage and have some guardrails for employees,” Lyndsey said. “Make sure you're part of the conversation, because HR is going to play a big part in this.” 

Encourage Experimentation 

Stephen Stanton, CFO & COO, BRUNT Workwear, emphasized the importance of giving employees space to experiment and build AI skills, while reinforcing the need to verify outputs. 

“We have deployed a company-wide rule, a simple principle: trust but verify. A lot of things pop up in AI and if you just take it without actually applying some human judgment to it, it might be an AI hallucination,” he said. “Employees are responsible for the output of AI and validating that it's actually accurate before it goes to publication, whether it be to the board or to the executive leadership team.” 

Keep People at the Center 

Dana Levine, partner at Kirk Palmer Associates, said there are many ways AI supports her role placing  executives in the footwear and retail industry. For example, AI can help bullet interview notes and position job specifications more efficiently.  

But in hiring, Dana sees human interaction as essential to understanding leadership presence, cultural fit, and career progression. Dana also requires multiple human references for each candidate before moving them forward. 

“We lean further into live human interaction because it's the only place where we can assess a candidate's potential,” Dana said. “AI plus people is the interesting formula.” 

 Want more insights from footwear HR leaders? Explore all sessions from the Two Ten 2026 HR Summit.