What 2025 Taught Us: A Year-End Special with Hung Lee

Hung Lee claims we've hit 'peak head count.' The future of talent isn't acquisition, but strategic solutioning.

#1about 3 minutes

Why corporate AI adoption lags behind the hype

Operational pressures and short reporting cycles prevent employees from having the necessary time to fundamentally reinvent their processes with AI.

#2about 4 minutes

Breaking down silos between HR, tech, and business

Leading companies are merging functions like HR and IT to create unified business enablement, though most still prioritize efficiency over the human experience.

#3about 4 minutes

Automating formal processes risks losing informal human value

While AI can automate documented formal processes, there's a significant risk of accidentally eliminating the unwritten, informal human interactions that are the true operating system of a business.

#4about 4 minutes

Why HR struggles with technology implementation and adoption

HR teams are often paralyzed by an overwhelming number of new tools and pilots, leading to a failure to implement solutions and gain value from them.

#5about 3 minutes

The future of recruiting beyond talent acquisition

Agentic AI will level the playing field for sourcing, forcing the recruitment function to evolve from 'talent acquisition' to 'talent architects' focused on broader business outcomes.

#6about 4 minutes

Moving beyond headcount to solve business problems

As companies reach 'peak headcount' and shrink, the people function must shift from filling roles to designing hybrid human-AI solutions that achieve business goals.

#7about 4 minutes

Balancing the trade-off between efficiency and resilience

Over-optimizing for efficiency creates brittle systems, so organizations must intentionally build resilience and human adaptability to handle unexpected, high-variance situations.

#8about 5 minutes

Developing resilience by expanding your capacity for failure

True high performance comes not from raising your peak, but from lowering your tolerance for failure and learning to bounce back quickly from adversity.

#9about 5 minutes