Treating AI as a Partner to Build Workforce Capabilities

The default response to AI in the workplace is a training program. Roll it out, tick the box, and move on. The teams getting real results are doing something fundamentally different.

Gabriela Gomez and Enrique Ortega Suarez did not arrive at their approach through theory. They arrived through practice. As HRD and Head of HR Business Partner at Provident México, they have been rethinking what genuine AI adoption looks like from inside the organization. For Gabriela, it means building readiness through awareness, experimentation, and employee-shaped feedback before writing a single rule. For Enrique, it means challenging every training request with a harder question: is this a capability problem, a business problem, or a leadership problem. Their shared conviction is simple. Curiosity only turns into capability when people are given the space and the trust to explore.

In this episode, I speak with Gabriela and Enrique about what it actually takes to make AI feel learnable rather than intimidating. They share how their team moved from top-down mandates to employee-shaped boundaries, why defaulting to training often means solving the wrong problem entirely, and what it looks like when HR stops operating as a delivery function and starts earning a seat at the table as an enabler partner. For both of them, the distinction is not about which tools you adopt. It is about whether your organization is honest about the problem it is actually trying to solve.

Some curious takeaways:

• Make AI feel learnable before you make it mandatory
• Let employees shape the boundaries through experimentation and feedback
• Diagnose whether it is a capability problem before calling it a training problem

Episode highlights:

(00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner

(00:39) How AI changed the way HR business partners operate

(01:43) Making AI feel learnable rather than intimidating

(03:19) Why training is rarely the real problem

(05:11) Diagnosing root causes before jumping to solutions

(06:57) From program delivery to owning your organization's capabilities

(09:13) Why HR needs to become an enabler partner

Connect with the guest:

Gabriela Gomez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielagomeztapia/

Enrique Ortega Suarez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-ortega-suarez-b72468b/

Learn more about Provident México: https://www.provident.com.mx/

Follow me on the following sites:

Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/

Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/