C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Scott Walker Of Brightmine On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Long-term impacts: Consider the long-term implications of AI implementation, including legislation that aims to regulate AI and how this technology is leveraged among various industries, including hiring and recruitment processes. Organizations must ensure that they establish clear AI policies and governance frameworks and incorporate regular updates, to stay informed and maintain compliance.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Walker, CEO of Brightmine.
Scott Walker is CEO at Brightmine, leading the business globally for the past five years. He has been responsible for evolving the company’s vision to deliver higher-value data and analytics solutions alongside its flagship HR compliance product. Brightmine continues to transform with innovative new products as it becomes an increasingly important strategic partner to over 44,000 HR professionals.
During his time at Brightmine, Scott has overseen the launch of AI-enabled analytics products, as well as the acquisition of Gapsquare, a market-leading pay equity analytics solution, now known as Brightmine Pay Equity Analytics.
He originally joined RELX in 2013, leading the international expansion of Business Services within LexisNexis Risk Solutions, before moving on to head up the commercial operation of MLex, part of LexisNexis Legal & Professional.
Scott has been in the information industry for 30 years and prior to joining RELX he worked with companies such as Dow Jones and Wolters Kluwer, leading businesses worldwide.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Let’s start outside the boardroom, family is my top priority. I take immense pride in being a devoted husband and father to two wonderful girls. On the lighter side, you’ll often find me at the London Stadium, passionately supporting West Ham United as a season ticket holder. And when I’m not at the game, I’m behind the DJ decks, having spun tracks at some of the most iconic House music nightclubs — it’s a passion that continues to bring me joy and fulfillment.
Professionally, my journey with RELX Group began back in 2013 during that time I’ve held three positions. Initially as Vice President of International Sales within LexisNexis Risk Solutions leading their expansion beyond the United States, before moving on to become Chief Revenue Officer for MLex Market Insight in 2016. Most recently in 2018, I was honored to take on the position of CEO at Brightmine. Prior to joining RELX Group, I led businesses in companies such as Dow Jones and Wolters Kluwer. Always with a focus on driving rapid revenue growth through innovation and excellence in commercial execution.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
AI Assist is a new generative AI capability that was introduced in beta to the Brightmine HR & Compliance Centre this year, designed to streamline the way our customers interact with complex HR data and resources. Rather than spending time searching through lengthy documents or databases, AI Assist delivers personalized, trusted answers to our customers’ questions by interpreting and analyzing vast amounts of expert-authored resources within the product. This tool simplifies content navigation and provides quick and accurate insights into even the most complex HR-related questions.
With AI Assist, HR departments can save time, reduce compliance risks, and optimize their workflows, allowing them to focus on more strategic and value-added tasks. AI is already embedded in every Brightmine product and is currently helping over 10,000 HR departments improve efficiency and cut costs — further improving the way HR teams can access and leverage critical information.
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?
One of the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into our customers’ business operations has been striking the right balance between automation and preserving human-centric roles. At Brightmine, we recognize that while AI offers immense potential for efficiency and innovation, it also brings the risk of overshadowing the human element that drives creativity, emotional intelligence, and nuanced decision-making.
One of the key challenges that many organizations face is identifying which processes to leverage AI technology without compromising the unique value and expertise that human employees bring to the table. In sectors like HR where empathy, judgment and interpersonal skills are critical, company leaders need to be deliberate in their AI integration to avoid devaluing core functions. To balance this, we developed AI Assist to focus on areas where AI and generative AI could relieve HR employees from routine, repetitive tasks, and allow them to focus on more human-centric responsibilities within their role.
Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?
In the ever-changing HR compliance landscape, our customers have expressed it can be difficult to stay updated on the constantly evolving regulatory and compliance information. To address this challenge, our team introduced generative AI capabilities, AI Assist, to help simplify and expedite the process for HR departments.
AI models require a substantial amount of data to train the algorithms. However, we acknowledge that employees and employers alike genuinely fear the accuracy of the information the algorithms are pulling from. In fact, research has shown that 63% of Americans have expressed concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated results. At Brightmine, our goal is to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information and data obtained from our AI models by combining AI and human intelligence (HI). The main difference between large language models (LLM) such as ChatGPT and Gemini and AI Assist, is that ours is a domain-specific LLM. This model is trained on data from within our products only. This specialized training combined with prompt engineering provides more accurate and relevant information as it is fine-tuned on the latest and most relevant data. This process allows our own HR experts, overseen by legal experts, to contribute their expertise in shaping the AI models and prompts, enhancing accuracy, and underscores the importance of maintaining a human-centric approach, particularly in HR process where human intervention is critical.
How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?
Our company prioritizes the ethical implications of implementing AI by adhering to a strict code of responsible AI use. Our 20+ years of experience in supporting HR leaders has shaped our approach to balancing AI’s benefits with potential challenges, such as job displacement. To navigate these concerns, we lead with transparency and fairness, ensuring human oversight and accountability at every step.
Addressing the risk of job displacement is a critical aspect of balancing technology implementation for our customers. We recognize the concerns that come with automating tasks and introducing AI into the workplace, particularly around how it might impact roles traditionally performed solely by employees. We firmly believe that AI, when used responsibly, can augment employees’ capabilities rather than replace them.
Additionally, we have implemented robust data governance measures regarding privacy and to foster a culture of collaboration. Our ethical AI framework emphasizes the responsible, strategic use of AI, which includes clear policies on both company-wide and individual use. These policies are complemented by our adherence to the RELX AI ethics policy which is an organizational global policy around ethical use of AI.
We also recognize the growing role of AI legislation and regularly review HR practices to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations for our customers. By maintaining transparency, fostering open communication and staying compliant with evolving laws, we work together with our customers and partners to build trust in AI, allowing their teams to harness its potential while mitigating risks like job displacement.
Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?
One of our most successful projects is our ‘Automated Handbook Manager’,’ a machine learning enabled application that can read an employee handbook and asses its compliance with current laws for the employees’ location and suggest updated text where the handbook is out of date, incomplete or simply non-compliant. Automating that process is saving our customers millions of dollars in expensive lawyer or consultant fees and saving the HR team hundreds of hours.
The problem is, there are thousands of changes in employment regulation a year applying to hundreds of individual jurisdictions across the US, the volume is overwhelming. Matching the specific language in a company’s employee handbook to a specific jurisdiction, law or regulatory change takes genuine employment law expertise. This would have been impossible for AI on its own, having our team of legal experts work with our data scientists to train the models and constantly monitor exceptions to retrain the algorithm for the most current regulatory change is driving enormous value for customers in a way that no one has been able to replicate yet.
Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?
1. Ethical considerations: Ensure AI decisions are transparent and fair. This is especially important in employee development and recruitment processes. For example, if an organization is utilizing AI to help screen candidates for the first round, there should be a clear indicator that a candidate will be talking to an AI bot, rather than a real human being in that round. The AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on, so it’s essential for those training the AI models to work off of a vast and equitable dataset, that eliminates the potential for bias.
2. Address the AI ‘Trust Gap’: Before a company starts to focus on skill-building to meet future business needs, leaders must first ensure that their employees understand the company’s purpose behind AI adoption, how it will be used within the organization and how it could impact their roles in the future. Leaders must take swift and proactive action to effectively address employee’s concerns around AI implementation by fostering open communication and dialogue, and most importantly — transparency.
3. Collaboration Potential: Identify areas where AI and humans can work together to achieve superior results. AI-driven analytics provides insights that organizations need to close the gap between employee needs and business results. These data-driven analytics help improve HR and managers’ decision-making by generating insights and offering recommendations to boost employee engagement, productivity, retention and talent development. Ultimately though, a human should be responsible for taking those recommendations and determining the best way to implement them under the company’s core values.
4. Long-term impacts: Consider the long-term implications of AI implementation, including legislation that aims to regulate AI and how this technology is leveraged among various industries, including hiring and recruitment processes. Organizations must ensure that they establish clear AI policies and governance frameworks and incorporate regular updates, to stay informed and maintain compliance.
5. Human Intelligence: AI lacks the ability to understand and respond to human emotions effectively. In areas like HR, human interaction and communication are critical. Company leaders must work diligently to ensure that AI is uniquely combined with human intelligence. HR team members must have empathy and understanding to recognize when AI should and should not be used to achieve HR’s goals or align with the organization’s values.
Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?
Looking toward the future, I foresee AI making the most significant impact for our customers in areas such as predictive analytics, compensation and pay data, recruitment and employee development strategies. These functions are data driven and require the kind of speed, accuracy and in-depth insights that AI excels at. For example, AI can analyze vast amounts of data to predict trends, identify talent gaps, and provide personalized development paths for employees. In recruitment, AI will help streamline candidate selection, ensuring alignment between applicants’ skills and the company’s needs. Additionally, AI will enhance compensation strategies by analyzing market trends and internal pay structures to maintain equity and competitiveness.
However, there are areas where a human touch will always remain indispensable. Leadership, creative strategies, and HR functions like conflict resolution or employee engagement require emotional intelligence, empathy and human judgment — qualities that AI cannot replicate. Humans will continue to play a crucial role in maintaining company values, ethics and ensuring that AI-driven decisions align with broader business goals. Balancing the power of AI with critical human oversight will be key to sustainable, ethical, and value-driven growth.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwalkeruk
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.
