The Real Risk of Letting AI Shape Your Content, with Trent Cotton

Trent Cotton:00:01

If you're really trying to be a voice in the conversation, you need to have some authenticity in there.

Rhona Pierce:00:06

What happens when an HR leader, content creator, and AI advocate decides he's done playing it safe online? In this episode, recorded live at Transform, I sat down with Trent Cotton to talk about content, tech, and what it really means to have a voice in the age of AI.

Trent Cotton:00:24

I went into saying I want to help lead conversations because I did have a very different point of view. But the thing that surprised me the most of this journey is how much I've learned from other people.

Rhona Pierce:00:34

Whether it's calling out fake AI tools or defending his comments section like it's private property, Trent's hair to challenge your content habits and maybe your hiring strategy too.

Trent Cotton:00:45

If I see that you use two sentences with a semicolon and you use landscape, demystify, and unprecedented, I'm not gonna follow your content.

Rhona Pierce:00:54

This is an episode for anyone wanting to build thought leadership without losing their voice. Let's get into it. So I'm so excited that you're here on the pod today and in person here at Trans form.

Trent Cotton:01:07

I know. It was so nice meeting you in person in January, and so it's like a treat to see you twice in one year. Yeah. I know. We've gotta get you to move to Atlanta so we can make this more of a regular thing, but I'm I'm a huge fan.

Rhona Pierce:01:19

So we're putting this on the Internet, and I'll share this episode with my husband so that he can see like, gosh.

Trent Cotton:01:24

She needs to come to Atlanta. Great food. I'll help y'all find a place. Don't worry about it. Just pack your bags.

Trent Cotton:01:30

Let's go, puppy.

Rhona Pierce:01:31

Operation Rona should move you up, Ladria. Yes. Okay. So you describe yourself as not your normal HR executive. I saw that in your in your LinkedIn.

Rhona Pierce:01:42

What makes it different from the rest of the HR executives?

Trent Cotton:01:46

I define HR very differently. Alright? I don't even like using the term HR because like resources to me dehumanizes the human part, right? So I prefer human capital, which I know doesn't make it any better. But for me, I had to had to find my role as the person that is in charge of the largest asset producing revenue and the largest expense in the organization, which is his people.

Trent Cotton:02:12

So every decision I make as an HR executive goes through that line, you know? Yes. Is this going to make us more revenue? It will in the short term, but our people are gonna be negatively affected by it. So everything that we make in the next three months, we're gonna lose in the six months after.

Trent Cotton:02:27

So that's not a good decision. I think that into my mouth, I don't really come across as a great professional HR person. Anyone that's heard me speak, you know, what I think comes out. But whenever I was a line leader, you know, so because I got into HR because I hated working with HR as an executive on the business side. And the thing that I wanted the most was authenticity, you know?

Trent Cotton:02:54

And not just saying no. And my internal clients or even my clients that I coach and stuff, whenever they come on and they're like, this is what I wanna do. I'm like, okay, let's find a way to make this right for everyone involved. Whereas the HR that I had to deal with was, no, you can't do that. Well, what can I do?

Trent Cotton:03:12

You know? So I'm I'm very I take more of a consultative approach and advocate for the people, but also have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we're profitable.

Rhona Pierce:03:23

And a lot of people in HR like to separate from the HR isn't only there for the company. And I like that approach like you said, it's like, no, I'm there for both people. And I'm able to do that because I'm human and I'm able to do more than one thing at the same time. I'm not only there for the company and I'm not only there for the employee. But at the end of the day, everyone who works at a company, you're there for the company too.

Rhona Pierce:03:47

So I don't know why HR gets the bad rap.

Trent Cotton:03:49

I don't either. And you know, it's kinda funny because my daughter's 21 years old and we're very close and I love that. She calls and tells me stuff that a lot of daughters don't tell their fathers because I created that safe place for her. But there have been times that I have to remind her, I am your father first and your friend second. To me, that's the way that you approach HR and tell the employee, I have to protect you.

Trent Cotton:04:10

I am your voice on the executive team, but I also have to have a fiduciary responsibility. And there's a there's a balance that can be achieved. It's not a it's not a binary decision. Yes, no, black and white. Right?

Rhona Pierce:04:21

Exactly. So your background is HR. It's talent acquisition, analytics, but you're also a content creator, which I love and is really one of the big reasons why I I have you on the pod I invited you to the podcast. How did you start integrating AI into your work and what got you hooked on it?

Trent Cotton:04:43

So I have always been a proponent of any technology that makes me look efficient and be lazy. Alright? Because I'm a I'm a thinker. I like to take the time to like really unpack something and research and do all of that. But there's a trade off on time.

Trent Cotton:04:57

So the way that I started using AI was more for ideation. Okay. I like to be able to take things out of what's going on in a current event and apply it to HR. Because a lot of times, you know, somebody is a career HR. They may not make the connection of Apple being behind in the AI race.

Trent Cotton:05:14

You know, who would have thought Apple being behind like I never would have heard that. And I wanna bring that in and say, what does that mean for HR? You know, do you want to be the apple or do you want to be the chat GPT, the the perplexity, all these ones that are trailblazing? So I kinda use it for ideation. I use it a lot for research.

Trent Cotton:05:33

So I built my own agent that goes out and it looks and it ranks all of the top HR trends, workforce trends, AI's impact on resource on the workforce and any kind of statistics like BLS statistics, workforce stuff. I'm a data guy. I love data. And what it does is it it kind of gives me some some suggestions and says here's some things that you could probably write about and here's the spin that you can take. Now I like to maybe use it to help me create an outline, but I like to do the writing.

Trent Cotton:06:02

I love it. You know, I love being the voice. I love kind of challenging the status quo, you know, putting a little different spin on it. But then on the back end, I do use plot and say, hey, read through this. Did I keep the same tone?

Trent Cotton:06:14

Did I I have a tendency sometimes to negate myself with the same blog post, you know? So point that out. Be a good proofreader for me. And then on the SEO and stuff, I've got all of my content and then I say, I want you to put in four related backlinks, especially if there is a stat. I want you to go and find the stat and link it.

Trent Cotton:06:33

And then put in some other resources so that way you know I can continue to engage the readers and content. But I do not let it write and let me just go ahead and say if I see that you use two sentences with a semi colon and you use landscape, demystify, and what's another one? There's another Unprecedented. Unprecedented. Just understand I'm not gonna follow your content because I'll just go and ask AI, what does it say about this?

Trent Cotton:06:57

I'm not gonna go listen to Run It. The reason I follow you is because you have a voice, and I like that voice. I like your perspective. Why would you negate that with AI?

Rhona Pierce:07:07

Like you, I also a lot of the things I've done in my career and in my life, it's me trying to find a shortcut. Yes. Or a smart cut.

Trent Cotton:07:14

I like that smart cut. Let's go. Yes.

Rhona Pierce:07:16

There is a book called Smart Cuts. It's really good book. I never finished it, but the part that I You took a smart cut out of the smart cut book. I took a smart cut out of smart cut But I love the concept. But, yeah, that's always been my thing.

Rhona Pierce:07:29

It's always like, how can I be lazy and get what I need to be done? Because that's just how I've done things. So a lot of people I think are taking the super shortcut, and not the smart cut with AI. We can tell. It's like when I speak to you and when I read your content, it sounds like the same person.

Trent Cotton:07:50

Mhmm.

Rhona Pierce:07:51

But there's so many people who you meet face to face, and it's like, oh, that's not how you talk online.

Trent Cotton:07:56

You can't put together two sentences coherently. How did you write this 5,000 word blog post that has perfect grammar? Come on now.

Rhona Pierce:08:04

Or I've seen the opposite, actually. I've seen someone who when you talk to them, they're so put together. They're like, have a share a good perspective. And you read their content, and it's like so like Exactly. It's like so surface level.

Rhona Pierce:08:18

AI doesn't go deep. AI is surface level.

Trent Cotton:08:21

No. And you know, we were we were talking earlier about AI, and I think there is a place for it. I use the metaphor of Ironman a lot. I know you've heard me use it, but that's how I look at AI in the business. Whenever I'm looking at the employee life cycle and whenever I'm looking at my life, where's that Jarvis that can take me into that superhero realm, but I'm still driving?

Trent Cotton:08:45

You know, I'm still getting the data. I'm still the one that's actually driving the conversation because AI can help you research. But if you say go and write this, it's going to pull from people like me and you that are actually putting out original content and then them trying to spin it. And I get that flattery is the ultimate. What is it?

Rhona Pierce:09:04

Imitation.

Trent Cotton:09:04

Imitation. Yes, is the ultimate form of flattery. But if you're really trying to be a voice in the conversation, you need to have some authenticity in there.

Rhona Pierce:09:14

Right. So, let's talk about AI in hiring.

Trent Cotton:09:17

Okay.

Rhona Pierce:09:18

It gets a lot of buzz. Everyone's talking about it. We're here at transform. Every vendor, everyone's talking about AI and how they've integrated it. Right?

Rhona Pierce:09:26

Some say it's the future. Other people say it's just automation. Fancy way of automation that we're going back and talking. And two, what's the biggest misconception that you see with how we're talking and using AI in hiring?

Trent Cotton:09:43

Okay. So I do not disagree that a lot of automation is being sold as AI right now. Okay, so one of the things I'm working with a, the AI Council and one of the things that we're trying to figure out is how do we create a baseline of understanding of HR? So what's the different types of data? What's the different types of AI?

Trent Cotton:10:04

So that way we can create more educated buyers within the HR space. Because if you don't know the questions to ask, you'll buy an automation thinking of it as AI. Alright, so I do think there's a lot of misconception out there and unfortunately, and this is a call to the vendors. Be for real. Okay?

Trent Cotton:10:21

If if your AI is just a a plug in with ChatGeVT, just say it. You know? So what I'm the future that I see is agentic. Alright? I know I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this and and it's okay.

Trent Cotton:10:37

But I think in 02/1930, TA has already taken just a beat down over the last eighteen months. And any other ones that have been in the market for a while, they're like, I need to go and open up my own agency. So that's fantastic. You're buying yourself tire. That's all you're doing.

Trent Cotton:10:52

What are you doing to level up so that way you become that talent advisor? How are you using AI to go and develop the candidates, analyze, do it like you gotta do things differently. And I think that if we look into 02/1930, the foresight that I foresee having is learning and development is also being greatly affected by AI. Think about content. You can go and get AI to help.

Trent Cotton:11:14

You you build the outline. It goes and does the research, puts out I mean, hell, they even got vendors here that are looked at that will build the course for you, you know? So there's a huge deficit of talent that's going to be out there in L and D. Same thing in TA. And I really think that the the future is someone who is an adviser of talent from external, internal to the hiring manager.

Trent Cotton:11:39

Once they come on board, think about recruiting. I used to tell people all the time when wherever you say I do, I'm done. Once you say yes to the offer, I'll hand you off direct ops and I'm off to my other little thing. That's no longer gonna be acceptable. I'm gonna own you from the time that you start until you retire.

Trent Cotton:11:58

So your learning and development plan, your coaching, your performance and all of that. So I do think that that some of the recruiters who have maybe have been doing this for a while, they're a little bored. I think that there's a place in there that that we're gonna be able to kind of take that to the next level. So the misconception is that HR tech are telling you it's AI and it's really automation. That is true.

Trent Cotton:12:18

The other misconception is that you can just hide from AI. Believe it or not, there are people out there like, this is just a fad. Yeah. Not so much. It's crazy.

Trent Cotton:12:28

I mean, but just think, 2023. Okay? ChatGPT. It took it ninety days to hit 500,000,000 users. It took seven years for Instagram to hit 1,000,000,000.

Trent Cotton:12:39

I think it was like seventeen years or something for like LinkedIn. It did it in ninety days. Like, come on people.

Rhona Pierce:12:45

I mean, everyone wants a shortcut and that's what AI is. I think that I I've heard some recruiters say like, oh, it's going away. It's it's just a fad. Because we've heard so many fads. Oh, the chatbots, and oh, the this and this.

Rhona Pierce:12:58

We we are an industry with very fad based

Trent Cotton:13:02

Yes.

Rhona Pierce:13:03

Industry.

Trent Cotton:13:03

And we're cynical.

Rhona Pierce:13:05

Yes. But AI isn't a fad. It's like there's so much money behind it. There's so much benefit behind it that so many other industries are doing. And like you said, anyone who's hiding from it right now, it's just delaying the inevitable.

Trent Cotton:13:18

It really is. It is. And even if you don't wanna do AI because you're like, hey, I'm four or five years out from retiring. I don't wanna learn anything new. I totally get it.

Trent Cotton:13:30

But you need to have some kind of understanding, not just for the HR tech, not just for job preservation, but also your candidates are using you. You know? So if you really want to be the good recruiter, you're gonna have to kinda look through. And I've I've called candidates on it before, you know? I I don't do a lot of recruiting anymore, but, you know, every once in a while for a position, I'll say, want to I want to be a part of this because it's a very critical role within the organization.

Trent Cotton:13:53

And I've asked Kenneth, it's like, did AI write this resume for me? Yeah. Okay. I mean, this is just a conversation that I never thought that I would be having in my lifetime.

Rhona Pierce:14:03

Yeah. I just want the robots that clean my house. That's what I keep saying. I grew up on the Jetsons. That's really where I want, but we got to AI before.

Rhona Pierce:14:13

It is beneficial.

Trent Cotton:14:14

Right. So I'm actually doing a a talk in Arizona called The Seven Deadly Sins at HR in the Age of AI. And I actually opened with one of my favorite TV shows growing up. You said The Jetsons. Do you remember Knight Rider?

Rhona Pierce:14:27

Yes. I

Trent Cotton:14:27

Okay. So I start with that that clip. And that I just remembered, I don't know how I saw it. And to me, was like, that's whenever it clicked. I was like, I have always been interested in this.

Trent Cotton:14:37

I just never, like you, I never thought in my lifetime I would have, like right now, six agents going and doing all kinds of stuff for me and sending me a a recap at end the day saying, these are the decisions I made for you. I am here for that.

Rhona Pierce:14:50

Yes.

Trent Cotton:14:50

You know?

Rhona Pierce:14:50

Yes. So one of the big fears about AI is that it removes the human element from hiring. How do you think we can use AI to enhance rather than remove the human connection in hiring?

Trent Cotton:15:06

So you and I were talking a little bit earlier about Brad Owens mentioned, and and I love this. AI can help you focus on the human. So you need to be asking this process, this step, know, this candidate journey, employee journey, is there a way that AI could do this part of it so I can spend more time here, which is the human connection that needs to be had, right? So there's a very fine line because AI is still relatively new. Candidates, you kind of have a fiftyfifty shot, right?

Trent Cotton:15:34

Some of them are okay. I know my husband's been in the market since September. I think he'd love to work with an AI recruiter because at least he could ask, you know, where am I in the process? And it would be honest and quick and answer him. Can't say that now.

Trent Cotton:15:47

But I do think that there is a part that if you focus on AI kinda handling some of those mundane tasks that none of us that are love talent and love the recruiting part of HR, they can take care of that so I can actually do the stuff that I do like. Have those conversations. Where do you see yourself in five years? And actually listen and evaluate, okay, this job is not in line with that. So let's talk about this one over here.

Trent Cotton:16:11

I think he might be a good fit. That's the adviser. Not check, check, check, Luloy. And I think that's where people think that AI is going to go. And I still think that we need a human in the work.

Rhona Pierce:16:22

Agree. So let's switch gears a little bit. You're not only a HR leader. You're also a speaker, an author, and a content creator. How has, like, sharing your expertise online helped shape your career?

Trent Cotton:16:37

I think the biggest surprise so I went into this saying, I want to help lead conversations because I did have a very different point of view at the time. And over time, I've kind of found my voice and my brand and everything. But the thing that surprised me the most of this journey is how much I've learned from other people. I'll put something out there and I'm one I mean, you know me. Someone comments.

Trent Cotton:16:59

I mean, don't come for me. Try Jesus. Don't try me. You know? Because I'm I'm gonna come right back at you.

Trent Cotton:17:04

But in those conversations, I've actually had sidebars where people said, hey, do you have time? I wanna unpack the comment that you said. I I need to understand where you're coming from. Or someone has reached out because of the content and said, here's a problem I'm trying to solve. Have you ever done it before?

Trent Cotton:17:18

I may wanna go no, but let's solve it together. You know, that's that's the community aspect that I love so much. It's so bidirectional. And I think that to me, and I'm not saying this to because this is my point of view. I know you're this way.

Trent Cotton:17:33

I know several other people that are kind of out there having the conversations that have this approach of going, I'm learning from my audience as much as they're learning from me. There is a subset, let's say, that's out there just speaking and they don't want to help their audience. They just want to be seen. And I hate it for them because they're missing out on the best part, right?

Rhona Pierce:17:53

Yeah, they are. And that's also part of touching on what you were saying earlier, why you really have to be authentic and can't be like letting AI be the person who does your content, or writes your talks for you, or your books for you, because I'm sure that's happening at some point. Because it's really the beauty of it, is the connections that you make, and the conversation that I've learned so much from people that initially, we didn't agree about something online, and respectfully disagree. Because I'm kind of like you as well. Like, my comment section is my comment section, and we won't

Trent Cotton:18:31

You're on my property. That's called apparently, you're on my property.

Rhona Pierce:18:33

We will moderate accordingly. Yes. Your first comment back is is a decision of I'm I gonna delete and block, or am I gonna engage in this conversation?

Trent Cotton:18:44

Because sometimes people are pushing you and you need to challenge their paradigm. You know? And then there are other people that just want to comment to see, you know, if they can get a different side of you. And and I will say that in my journey, I have shown them and I'm regretful because it's it made I looked worse than they did, you know? But I'm like, you're not gonna beat me at going to the dirt.

Trent Cotton:19:03

You know? I'm I'm gonna teach you how it's done. But I do think though those conversations and the connection. So one of the things I love about being a transformer, there are so many people that I had connection with that I've never met in real life. And to be able to sit down and and have a coffee with them, the two of us sitting around and talking, I didn't realize how much I missed that until I got to this.

Trent Cotton:19:25

And same thing at RecFest. You know, having those little sidebar conversations, that's that's where the connection is. Yeah. And content can help you get there.

Rhona Pierce:19:34

Yes. For sure. So where do you see AI fitting into content creation for HR leaders?

Trent Cotton:19:42

Definitely on ideation. So I run into this a lot. I'll get like a fleeting does this happen to you? A fleeting idea. And it's like, don't focus on it long enough and I'm afraid I'm gonna lose it, but I have just that part of it.

Trent Cotton:19:55

But I know there's all this over here. I love taking that little fleeting and going, hey, my audience is HR professionals and business leaders. Here's what I'm thinking. I've talked to AI like as a human. It's like unpack it for me.

Trent Cotton:20:07

Where should I go with this? And then it gives me ideas. And I go, okay, cool. What's some data points that support this? What are some data points that negate this?

Trent Cotton:20:16

Because to me, I like to be able to present both sides. And I think that part is good. Cause it's it's just like if you were to come to me and say, I'm thinking about talking about this topic, we would have a conversation. I wouldn't be anywhere as smart as AI. But, you know, having that that initial ideation, I think is good.

Trent Cotton:20:33

Definitely going in and proofing your work. And and let's also not forget, Claude, GPT, Gemini, all of these, you can train it on your voice. So if you've written I mean, I've I've written a couple of books. You know, I've got a lot of blog posts out there. It's got my voice in there.

Trent Cotton:20:50

And I actually use it because sometimes I can get a little too academia and it will call me out and go, this doesn't sound like your voice.

Rhona Pierce:20:57

Oh, wow.

Trent Cotton:20:58

And so I'll go back and I'll rewrite it. So there is a way that you can use it the right way without it being AI producing the end content.

Rhona Pierce:21:09

Any tools that you're testing out or like really liking right now?

Trent Cotton:21:13

So for video, I love Opus and it's funny because I've tried to do it on my own. Like I like I know the clips better. Opus, I don't know what their algorithm is, but it is on fire, right? I recently found a script which I like because you and I were talking before we went on that you're Okay talking just to the camera. I stutter more like whenever I'm doing it.

Trent Cotton:21:35

I make my husband put his AirPods in so he can't hear me mess up that often. But I like the script because I'm just going delete the text and it fixes the video for me. I like Claude. I like perplexity for research and I like Gemini Deep Research. Those are kind of my my little things.

Trent Cotton:21:52

Now I've been playing with N8M so you can go and actually create your own agents, your own workflows, and it's connected to all these different things. So it's very frustrating because I'm not a developer and I work for a AI software company. And so, there's some benefit there because I'll ping someone and go, what am I doing wrong here? You know, they just look at it and go ding ding ding and it works. It pisses me off.

Trent Cotton:22:15

But hey, everybody has their talent. But that I think is probably where I'm going to start going is saying, let me chart my cycle. Where do I wanna put AI in so that way I can really kinda go in and make this more human capitalist. Right? So it's gonna be fun to watch.

Rhona Pierce:22:33

Descript is the funny tool because I used to hate Descript. I used it when it was first out. Okay. And I just hate it. I don't know why I hate it.

Rhona Pierce:22:42

Really? And everyone loved it. And recently, like a couple of months ago, I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna give Descript another chance because I saw that they had this feature where they fix the eyes Your the eyes, and there's lots of other tools that fix the eyes. But Descript was the one that was the most like, made the most sense for my company.

Rhona Pierce:23:00

Because I we use all these tools. Right? Sure. I love it now. Like, I literally use it every day.

Rhona Pierce:23:06

Because like you said, you can just go in and visually remove the stuff. Yes. And all the other tools can do it, but Descript does at best.

Trent Cotton:23:13

It's just easier. I mean, if you're a video editor, Clip Champ Clip Champ, I think, is one. You know, you can use it. You can put some stuff in there. But for those of us that just really wanna get the content out and have a couple of now I don't have the bling that you do.

Trent Cotton:23:28

I mean, ma'am, you've got you've got some crazy creative stuff. I'm not at your level. But, you know, Descript does kinda help with the the stuttering aspect of it. And I don't start and then go back and edit or whatever. I'm just gonna, undone it.

Trent Cotton:23:42

Yeah.

Rhona Pierce:23:43

Yeah. Yeah. So much. So if you were advising a company today on how to modernize their hiring strategy with AI and just with using content, where would you tell them to start?

Trent Cotton:23:58

First, map your employee journey. Whenever I say employee journey, I'm including the candidate. Okay? Because they may not be an employee now, but they may be an employee later. And also, they could be a buyer later.

Trent Cotton:24:12

So you need to you need to have them in mind. But in my mind, it's the eventual employee all the way through retirement or they decide to go to something bigger and better. You need to start there. Because a lot of times whenever I sit down with companies, they're like, well, we want to do it here. We want to do it here.

Trent Cotton:24:25

I said, where are the pain points? Because that's what you're trying to solve for. And if you don't have that journey where you know you've got this is a pain point they're not feeling, you know, Pat Waters talked about it today. This is not the sentiment that I want my employee to have at this point. That's what you tackle first.

Trent Cotton:24:41

So start with that. I think the next part of it is there's some education that needs to be in there. So definitely spend some time in HR. It's okay to go to your engineering and say, what is the difference between traditional, normal AI and agentic? Okay?

Trent Cotton:24:59

You're talking to someone who I kept hearing agentic, agentic, agentic, I asked our CA, CTO, who's like 29, gray guy, and our VP of engineering. I have one on ones with them. We just kinda talk about staff and and strategy and stuff. I was like, okay, guys. I gotta what is AgenTic AI?

Trent Cotton:25:16

I keep hearing it. And they go, it's agents. Son of a bitch. I feel even more stupid. It's in the word.

Trent Cotton:25:23

You know? It's actually in the word. Don't be afraid, though. Like, you know, they actually went one step further and said, well, let me help you understand the difference. So there's an education, and then it establishes a relationship.

Trent Cotton:25:33

I think on the content side, give your employees the mic. No one will tell your brand story better, more authentically, more creatively than your team members. So case in point, we had a very large project internally for a client, and it was 13 different employees from, I wanna say, five different countries because we have Latam and The US. To celebrate, like all of them, it was a tough project. And so when they got to the kind of toward the end, they were like, we all wanna get together.

Trent Cotton:26:06

So they all met in Medellin Colombia. And like no direction from us, they all met on their own, had a couple of meetings, they went to Cartagena. And they took a picture that I loved, and we posted it on LinkedIn. The reason I loved it is because it said more about our culture than I could ever say on the video. All of them had little signs that said their name and their country.

Trent Cotton:26:32

We had someone from India. We had someone that lived in the German like, it was a beautiful statement. And I think that the more that you can give your employees the opportunity to be able to tell your story, the better the story is willing to be.

Rhona Pierce:26:42

Yes. For sure. So this has been a great conversation.

Trent Cotton:26:46

I love talking to you. Like, let's just we just need to do this like once a month. Yeah. Just chat, you know?

Rhona Pierce:26:50

Truly do. Where can people find you?

Trent Cotton:26:52

LinkedIn. Of course. I love hanging out on LinkedIn. You can also go to TrentCotton.com. And I'm also on YouTube, Human Capitalist, which you're going to be on.

Trent Cotton:27:03

We've gotta get that gotta get that booked. It's free. Where I talk a lot about, you know, AI, the impact on the workforce, where HR is going, and then also to try to bring in some of the recent HR tech, and I ask them the questions that nobody else will. Like, is this really AI?

Rhona Pierce:27:16

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Trent Cotton:27:18

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

Rhona Pierce:27:20

That's a wrap on my conversation with Trent Cotton, recorded live at Transform twenty twenty five. If you're not already following him, go do that now. He's one of the most honest and insightful voices out there on the future of HR, TA, and AI. And if you liked this episode, you're definitely gonna wanna stick around for the next one. Next week, I'm sitting down with Mike Padito.

Rhona Pierce:27:45

You might know him from his viral job search videos. We're talking about his leap from full time TA leader to full time creator. How he handles hate at scale and why stirring the pot can actually build trust. Trust me, you're not gonna wanna miss it. Thanks again for listening to Workfluencer, the podcast for professionals who are changing how we talk about work.

Rhona Pierce:28:09

Workfluencer is produced by Perceptible Studios. Learn more about how we can help you attract, engage, and retain qualified talent using video at perceptiblestudios.com. If you're enjoying the Workfluencer pod, share it with someone who's changing how we talk about work or should be. And, hey, if this episode gave you ideas or inspiration, leave us a five star review. Reviews help other listeners find us, and honestly, they make my day.

Rhona Pierce:28:39

Thanks for listening, and I'll chat with you next week.