Tim Sackett (00:00):

Hey everybody, it's Tim Sackett live at HR Technology Conference 2025 in the Paradox Booth, and I'm here with my best friend, Kris Dunn, the CHRO of US Canada, Marriott International. I'm waiting for applause to happen.

Kris Dunn (00:14):

I think I liked your cadence. You kind of ramp it up and down. It keeps it very interesting. I'm like, am I on a game show? What's going on here,

Tim Sackett (00:26):

KD? We've been friends for a long time. We love to talk shop. We love to talk technology. You are a super high details guy when it comes to really digging in understanding what's going on. We're at the technology conference. Everything is ai. It doesn't matter what if it's HR technology, ta technology, learning technology. You know how difficult it is for an enterprise leader in HR world to bring in new tools, let alone AI tools. I really get, and I think so many HR leaders are struggling to understand, how do I do this? I'm being pressed to do this. Give 'em a recommendation on how can you bring in ai. It's a low risk, no risk way to start testing trying out.

Kris Dunn (01:10):

I think first of all, when you think about wins, think about the first letter of that W,

Tim Sackett (01:15):

Right?

Kris Dunn (01:16):

We talk about getting Ws, go for the little W. You don't have to go for the uppercase W. Look at the lowest common denominator of things that could be automated. I think sometimes we use the word AI and what we really mean as automation. I know that's changing in the world a little bit, but if you think about things you can automate to put in a steady state where you don't have to think about them a lot. I think people just to get started would be surprised how much impact they can have by really having that philosophy.

Tim Sackett (01:49):

Well, Marriott, you guys did do the automated scheduling, which is automated. It is ai. I mean, it's built on an algorithm and all this stuff, but it also is just simple automation, so it's super low risk,

Kris Dunn (02:00):

Right? It's based on rules.

Tim Sackett (02:01):

Yeah,

Kris Dunn (02:02):

It's not a black box.

Tim Sackett (02:03):

Yes.

Kris Dunn (02:04):

It's very much an if this then

Tim Sackett (02:06):

That. So the legal team's not going to be going crazy. The security team's not going to be going crazy or something like that. I was

Kris Dunn (02:12):

Like, automation is your work.

Tim Sackett (02:14):

Yes,

Kris Dunn (02:15):

Not AI in that regard. Now, obviously that will change over time, for sure.

Tim Sackett (02:19):

Yeah,

Kris Dunn (02:20):

And I think all of us have to work through that. I'm no longer in TA, and I think any of the stack in hr, I think you've got to think about, okay, low level processes, let's get started. How can we get automation in really low impact AI that is low enough risk where we don't feel like we have a risk management issue. It's just the obvious thing to do, and then over time we will wrestle with the higher end AI type of items. We'll wrestle with that.

Tim Sackett (02:53):

Just give me some testing going on,

Kris Dunn (02:55):

And what I see, by the way, and I'm not speaking for my company here, but I see folks 12, 24 months ago that were like, we don't think we can do it. I think companies are opening up to say, well, actually, we have to be open to this and we've got to struggle with it. So I think most people in your role or my role in a company are now becoming pleasantly surprised with the amount of activity and conversation inside companies about where do we go with this? It doesn't mean that it's no holds barred from the standpoint of what comes in, but it's just a much more, I think, intelligent conversation about, okay, we've got to solve this, so where are we going? I think that's true where I'm at, and I think it's true in a lot of other companies, both big and small. Katie,

Tim Sackett (03:51):

You're an empathetic leader, and so you care about the, I care about you right now too. I know. Thank you. Do we hug? Do we hug here? You care about those people that you support as all great HR leaders do, right? So your ops people, your salespeople, your finance people. You're also challenged as a leader yourself around this AI concept, but they're dealing with this as well. How do you support them knowing that, Hey, I got to do this myself, but also I need to support my partners out there?

Kris Dunn (04:15):

I think just by being from an HR perspective, you want to be a good partner. You use the word empathy. You want to listen. You want to ask smart questions, and then whether I'm in hr, another functional area, if you're partnering with someone across the aisle and another functional area, it's really how can I help you? Because if there are,

Tim Sackett (04:36):

How do I break down barriers to execute, right?

Kris Dunn (04:38):

Yeah. If there are elements for what someone's working on in a transformation, it's like, okay, tell me more. Give me the information, and then here's 1, 2, 3, how I think I can help you. What's really interesting about that, Tim, is if you take that approach just, Hey, learn, how can I help you ultimately get into higher conversations where you're more involved with transformation?

Tim Sackett (05:05):

I

Kris Dunn (05:05):

Think that's true in hr. I think that's really true in any functional area where you're partnering with others. It could be finance, talking to sales, it could be hr, talking to sales, any combination you want to put together. I think that's the approach.

Tim Sackett (05:20):

Yeah. When you think about HR technology, you've always been curious and you're a fan. You see this show out here, it's crazy, and all the vendors. Is there anything as an HR leader at Enterprise that excites you about potentially what may be coming down the road?

Kris Dunn (05:35):

Oh, that's a great question.

Tim Sackett (05:37):

Without saying it live, so you don't have 800 vendors calling you. Yeah.

Kris Dunn (05:41):

I think probably what I'm most interested in is whether it's three years, five years, or 10 years from now, I'm most interested in how some of these AI applications are going to help our managers of people be better in the moment. So if you think about just a manager of people, it could be any business, maybe they've got one to two years of experience, and they certainly haven't had all the experiences that Tim Sackett has had. So they're experiencing conversations they have to have for the first time. And I think if you think about that use case and you think about ai, I really am enamored even with some things that are going on with non-HR tech AI right now, you can go to any of these models and you can get advice that is based on the history of the world and everybody who's had a thought about it and it actually does pretty good, and then you can ask followup questions. I'm really interested that new manager of people,

(06:46):

If we can get a tool in their hands, if they're heading into a conversation and they say, Hey, I would love an AI agent called Tim, by the way, right to Timbo, I would say, yeah, Tim Bot. Yeah. Paradox is building that, by the way. I might call it Timmy for example, but I would love an AI agent called Tim, where if I'm a new manager of people, I was like, Hey, Tim, got my phone out. Hey Tim, I'm just getting ready to go in this conversation. It's coming up in 20 minutes. You got three things for me, and then I can remember those three simple things, and now all of a sudden I'll deliver it in my own way. It won't be scripted. I'm not going to look at my phone, but because I have that interaction, it makes me 50%

Tim Sackett (07:31):

Better. This is that classic employee lifetime value prop. Remember that chart, right? That shows like, Hey, how fast can we get 'em to speed the one with multiple colors? Yes, that one, that's pretty, but how do we actually extend and moves somebody faster? How do we get them to excellence faster? How do we extend their tenure with us? And all of that helps. And in that

Kris Dunn (07:52):

Example, we have incredible internal mobility at our company for sure. It's because of how well our TA team hires, how well our learning or organizational capability groups like help people like me to get the right type of things in. We have this incredible internal mobility, so we're going to hire a lot of first time managers of people, and that's one, but that's kind of the realm that I'm thinking. It's just in time help. I love that. And about to prove out there'll be winners and losers out on this floor at HR

Tim Sackett (08:27):

Tech. I think you just created a new technology segment just in time help. It is just for managers, just in time help, just in time leadership, something like that. Just in

Kris Dunn (08:33):

Time.com. Powered by Powered by Tim. Tim. Tim Bot. Timmy. Timmy, the Tim, Timmy, Bob, and by the way, you could fit it to the person. Some people wouldn't be comfortable calling the chat bot, Timmy. No. Some would love it. Some would. Why not personalize that? Exactly. You should be able to. There I go. And by the way, they would use your AI generated pictures, which I've seen. They're amazing, amazing AI pictures. I'm like, who is this? Who is this? You're looking right into the camera that

Tim Sackett (09:06):

Just looks dynamic and wow, the grace. All right, I'm going to get you out on this one. I know all of the brands of Marriott are your favorite children.

Kris Dunn (09:16):

Yes,

Tim Sackett (09:17):

But what's your real favorite? It's impossible. No, you have to give it. It's impossible. No, you have to share it. First of all, I

Kris Dunn (09:23):

Will say that I love all our brands. I know I just said that they provide incredible

Tim Sackett (09:29):

Value. What's your favorite one?

Kris Dunn (09:31):

So I'm going to pick from each one of them, each one of our segments. Okay. You got to do the segments. That's fair. You got business. I mean, I love the Ritz Carlton. Oh, can't go wrong with Ritz ladies and gentlemen. It's classic brand. I think also in the luxury segment. I love a great JW Marriott,

Tim Sackett (09:49):

Another classic. You're a classic

Kris Dunn (09:51):

Guy. It's really good. The most nights I spend is on the road at our headquarters. I stay at the headquarters, Marriott, 4-year-old property, the big M, the best big M Marriott property I've ever seen. And then last but not least, I would say I love a good Weston. Love the scent, the lavender. I think it's lavender. It feels like lavender to me when I pick up that scent. And then also the addition is pretty unbelievable. And then from a business class

Tim Sackett (10:25):

Perspective, so I asked for one, you gave every, you're giving hold on

Kris Dunn (10:29):

25. And then also too, I would tell you incredibly on the road, I know you're this way, you got to get somewhere quick. You look at what's close. We're so consistent in our brands that you just go down the road, business class, courtyard, Fairfield. It's just amazing consistency. Thank you to our associates for creating that. Who did I miss? I think I have 15 or 16 more to get to. How much time do we

Tim Sackett (10:59):

Have? All the time we need, right? All right, everybody. That's Chris Dunn, CHRO of us and Canada with Merit International. I'm Tim Sackett live from the HR Technology Conference 2025. We'll see you soon.

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