Bolt’s cofounder scrapped its HR department. This CEO says people management is key to thriving in the AI age

To be fair, Breslow eviscerated HR  last year along with thousands of other employees when he returned to the CEO role. The fintech firm he’d cofounded in 2014 had dropped from an $11 billion valuation in 2022 when he first stepped down to a reported value of about $300 million two years later. It went from a “peacetime” headcount of 2,500 to what he now calls a “wartime” footing of around 100 people. 

While Breslow reports his company is better off without HR, I’d argue the art and science of managing humans is more important than ever—and it’s also evolving fast. I recently spoke to Himanshu Palsule, the CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, a learning and talent software company. With 140 million users and 7,000 enterprise customers who are taking a hard look at their own HR spend, Palsule has a vested interest in the conversation. But I’m impressed by the agentic platform it launched yesterday that leverages AI to help assess, train, and mobilize employees. “People will enable agents to take over the enterprise,” he told me at a customer event in New York. “If you lose your people, those agents aren’t doing anything in your company—they’re just creating chaos.” Other thoughts:

On Gen Z: “The greatest irony of our time is we are leaving out a generation that’s most skilled to do AI. We have to make room for that generation if we want AI to thrive within a company. We dismiss them, like they’ve done something wrong. These are people we asked to grow up digitally different. We shoved an iPad in their hands at 3 and 4 years old.”

On ‘knowledge’ workers: “The corpus of knowledge that you have is going to be far outpaced, but you can use that to create value and differentiate. My tax agent now gives me wealth advice because his tax work is automated. Everyone’s going to be the world’s greatest coder. However, your ability to build products, use judgment, use inference, use delight in how you bring it to market—that is never going to go away.”

On leadership in the AI era: “Be very clear and set board expectations on what success looks like—and sometimes educate them on what the challenges are going to be. Explain to your people that their jobs are changing. There will be reductions in force. Don’t hide from them—but at the same time, enable them to be successful. Get the humility to understand that your 10, 30, 40 years of experience is important but may not be relevant at the pace of change. Be a constant learner.”

Top leadership news

Meta’s massive layoffs

Meta laid off 10% of its workforce this week with reports indicating that another 7,000 were moved to AI-focused roles as part of the reorg. “AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a memo to employees, which also stated that “success isn’t a given.”

McKinsey partner’s AI warning 

Up to 50% of work hours could be reshaped by AI within the next few years, McKinsey partner Anu Madgavkar warns. She argues the shift will reward workers who can pair uniquely human skills like judgment and communication with AI tools to boost their impact.

SpaceX IPO as a distraction 

Analysts say a blockbuster SpaceX IPO could hurt Tesla’s stock by siphoning off Musk‑obsessed retail investors who have long supported its rich valuation. They also worry Musk’s focus may shift further toward SpaceX just as Tesla faces stiffer competition and pressure to deliver on its AI and robotaxi promises.

The markets

S&P 500 futures are up 0.21% this morning. The last session closed up 0.17%. The STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.52% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.42% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 2.68%. South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.41%. China’s CSI 300 was up 1.30%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.86%. India’s NIFTY 50 is up 0.36%. Bitcoin was down at $77K.

Around the watercooler

The Midwest is leading America’s spring housing rebound because of ‘buyers who are actually showing up,’ Realtor.com says by Sydney Lake

Your ‘flexible hot girl summer’ is going to cost you by Catherina Gioino

A Nobel economist figured out 60 years ago that people learn best on the job. The Atlanta Fed says AI is making that almost impossible by Tristan Bove

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year by Preston Fore

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.