Exploring AI’s potential, words of wisdom from Trevor Noah and Indra Nooyi and more from this year’s annual conference in Dallas, Texas last September 26, 2024.
To kick off the day, Indeed CEO Chris Hyams captivated the crowd by sharing his daughter’s job-seeking struggles and how she tested Indeed’s upcoming AI product, Pathfinder.
“This is our vision for the future: Through Indeed, every worker in the world will have their own personal talent agent,” he said. “Pathfinder takes the first step toward fulfilling this vision and helps someone discover a career path, either by growing their current career or evolving into something new.”
Building on the theme of an AI-powered future, Hyams also sat down with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to talk about how AI will affect society, creativity and the future of work. “You want to get really comfortable with these new tools because we don’t know what the jobs of the future are going to look like,” Altman said, a sentiment echoed by other Indeed FutureWorks speakers. “Many of today’s jobs will look somewhat different.” (The interview was recorded prior to FutureWorks; virtual attendees of FutureWorks were the first to see the video.)
AI was at the center of other conversations, too, and attendees also got to experience some sensory delights: a Dallas line dancing troupe strutted their stuff onstage to a medley of country music (including Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em”), then taught the audience a few moves. Throughout the event, activations such as the Work Wellbeing booth and The Paper Ceiling — a gazebo decorated with thousands of paper resumes featuring the stories of STARs, or those skilled through alternative routes — anchored the convention floor.
Here are the top five “mic drop moments” from Indeed FutureWorks 2024.
The Moments When Chris Hyams Announced Pathfinder — and Jessica Jensen Joked About AI Anxiety
Chris Hyams made clear that Pathfinder — the first step toward providing every worker with their own personal talent agent — will not remove the humanity from hiring but rather enhance it. “[Pathfinder] is not some robot to replace humans. It’s you,” he said.
It wasn’t the only time talk of AI made the crowd sit up straighter. During her keynote, Indeed Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Jensen spoke about feeling intimidated by the technology. “I’d like to use this moment of collective frustration to invite you all to the AIA — the Artificial Intelligence Anxiety Society,” she said to an amused crowd. “So, why are we all in a brain scramble?”
Answer: “These tools are so new, and advancing so fast, that the learning curve feels almost impossible to keep up with,” Jensen said.
Attendees, however, felt reassured: “I liked what Chris … had to say about how we can keep the human element while using AI,” said IBC Bank Director of Human Resources Rosie Ramirez. “It made me feel more comfortable about the technology.”
The Moment Svenja Gudell Mentioned the Coming Labor Shortage
Indeed Chief Economist Svenja Gudell shared insights into how the labor market is evolving: “We will face a significant labor shortage in the near future,” she said, drawing on data from Indeed Hiring Lab, the company’s economic research arm focused on the global labor market.
“Hearing that was kind of scary,” said Andrea De La Torre, Talent Selection Manager at BJ’s Restaurants, after Gudell’s session. “People are retiring. I’m in hospitality. So if you have no servers, if you have no line cooks, and they’re just walking out and we have less to choose from, what do we do? How are we going to open our restaurant?”
Gudell’s colleague, Indeed Hiring Lab Senior Economist Daniel Culbertson, explained during the Executive Q&A session in the WonderWorks Theater that transportation, manufacturing and healthcare will be the most affected by these labor shortages.
“My highlight was meeting Daniel,” said Cynthia Rodriguez, SVP of Corporate Retail Recruiting at IBC Bank. “That’s my guy! Indeed Hiring Lab is really what I’ve used to lead my team.”
The Moment Raj Mukherjee Explained the Scale of Indeed’s Database
During his panel discussion with Indeed clients, Indeed Executive Vice President of Marketplace Product and UX Raj Mukherjee explained the breadth of Indeed’s data, which benefits both job seekers and employers.
“We collect 320 terabytes of data per day. What does that mean? You could store over a trillion Microsoft Word documents with 320 terabytes of data, the equivalent of a billion novels every single day,” Mukherjee said, adding that “every job posted, every search made, every application sent, every interview completed and every hire made feeds our matching AI engine.” A few “wows” rippled throughout the crowd.
The Moment Jan-Emmanuel De Neve Explained the Economic Value of Work Wellbeing
On the WonderWorks Stage, Economist and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford Jan-Emmanuel De Neve explained how enhancing work wellbeing can increase a company’s bottom line.
De Neve described how Oxford researchers simulated a portfolio of the top 100 publicly traded companies with high Work Wellbeing Scores and compared them to major benchmarks like the S&P 500 over a period of time. Researchers consistently saw these companies outperform the indices, with an 11% higher return than the S&P 500 as of July 2024. “This is the best evidence the world has ever seen that work wellbeing matters,” De Neve told the crowd.
De Neve also brought leaders from the work wellbeing space to the stage — but instead of telling the crowd how their companies ranked, he invited attendees to visit Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100 website via a QR code. (Dozens in the crowd took out their phones to look the answer.)
Melissa Holthaus, VP, Total Rewards and P&C Operations at H&R Block, said the company really sees the business benefits of work wellbeing. “Our stock price has gone up 220% since we started promoting work wellbeing more deeply,” she said.
The Moment Trevor Noah Celebrated Being Lifted Up by Others
For the final session of the day, Indeed’s Chief People and Sustainability Officer, LaFawn Davis, spoke with Trevor Noah, the former host of “The Daily Show,” about their shared experience as STARs — those skilled through alternative routes — and how Noah believes his unconventional path contributes to his present-day successes as a comedian, television host and author.
“Throughout my life, I’ve encountered people who have shown me the importance of giving somebody not just the opportunity to be part of something, but giving them the tools necessary to be competent in that industry,” Noah said. He added that Jon Stewart bringing him on to “The Daily Show” embodies this concept. “I can have the talent as a comedian. I can have the work ethic and everything else. But then he said to me, ‘Hey, why don’t I give you a platform?’”
After seven years covering politics on “The Daily Show,” Noah has a few thoughts about how we interact as humans: “I spend more time trying to focus on the issues that connect people than the politics that divide people. If you do that, you’ll come to realize that people aren’t as polarized as we’re led to believe. It’s just that people exist in a world where they’re fighting over solutions, when, in fact, they share the same issues,” he said. “‘The Daily Show’ did teach me to become a little more laser-focused when looking at a problem, to think about what the actual problem is and try and ignore the noise around it.”
The crowd erupted into spontaneous applause.
Read more Indeed FutureWorks 2024 coverage:
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Trevor Noah on Skills-First Hiring and Politics at Work
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: CEO Chris Hyams Announces Pathfinder
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Billion-Dollar Founder on AI and Entrepreneurship
In Conversation: Indeed CEO Chris Hyams and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: What AI-Powered Products Look Like in Action
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: AI Can Do a Lot — But It Can’t Do Your Job
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Former Fortune 500 CEO on Cherishing Your Workforce So They Can Prosper
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Real Talk on Moving Past the Anxiety to Embrace Responsible AI
Indeed FutureWorks 2024 Attendees on Ghosting, Skills-First Hiring, AI
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Unlocking Profit and Performance with Employee Wellbeing
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: How Talent Leaders Can Reclaim DEI in a Divisive Time
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: What is “Worklife,” and How Does it Impact Your Employer Brand?
