Why HR is uniquely positioned to lead in the era of AI
What does it actually take to step into the CPO seat and stay effective once you're there?
Introduction
In this episode, Rhiannon Stroud sits down with Tammy Arnaud, CPO at Forto, a technology-first freight forwarder disrupting one of the world's most traditional industries. Tammy brings refreshingly unfiltered perspective on what the people function looks like from the top: the trade-offs, the loneliness, the partnership with the CEO, and why HR is uniquely equipped to lead organisations through the biggest shift of our working lives.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why curiosity is the single most important trait to sharpen before stepping into a CPO role
- How to use data as a leadership tool - and why context matters more than the number
- What it really takes to guard and shift culture through periods of change
- Why you should stop trying to convert the cynics and focus on moving the middle
- How to build C-suite trust and navigate the loneliness that comes with senior HR leadership
- What the HR team of the future actually looks like - and how AI will change the role entirely
You're going to have a manager with three humans and maybe 30 agents to manage. It's going to be a different muscle entirely.
Chapters
00:00 - Tammy's background: McDonald's, PepsiCo, GE, Uber
02:08 - What Forto does
05:57 - Making the leap to CPO
08:12 - The number one trait to sharpen before stepping into a CPO role
11:32 - Data as a leadership tool
16:24 - Guarding the culture at Forto
20:41 - Why even people who want to change will fall back on old habits
21:54 - The buddy system
25:42 - Building C-suite trust
29:43 - Transparency in practice
31:23 - The 70% rule
33:08 - Being CPO in 2026
36:47 - Are we training the next generation of HRBPs the right way?
40:02 - The HR team of the future
42:13 - The hardest part of the CPO role - and why the loneliness is real
44:29 - Why community is non-negotiable
47:06 - Tammy's experience as an early adopter of the TruthWorks platform
53:19 - What's keeping Tammy energised about the future of HR
Key Take-aways
- Curiosity isn't soft, it's strategic. The single most important trait before stepping into a CPO role. Ask more questions than you give answers.
- Don't show up with the answers. New leaders who come in telling people how it's going to be, before understanding how things get done, almost always get it wrong.
- Data without context is just noise. The insight matters. The correlation matters. The number on its own? Meaningless.
- 70% is your real target. Stop trying to convert the cynics. Move the middle, that's where your impact lives.
- The CPO role is lonelier than anyone tells you. Everyone vents to you. Nobody vents with you. Community isn't a nice-to-have, it's survival.
- AI won't replace judgment, it will expose who has it. Get comfortable with ambiguity, learn to prompt well, and start thinking like an architect of work.
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