Synthetic Consumers, Real Culture: AI adoption at Colgate-Palmolive | Michaela Schoberova

Michaela Schoberova, SVP HR for Global Commercial Transformation at Colgate-Palmolive, on what 20+ years inside one company taught her about running AI experiments without breaking the culture.

Stela Lupushor (Donna is off this week) gets into:

Colgate's proprietary digital consumer twins and how they compress early-stage product innovationWhether you can, or should, build synthetic employees the same wayThe AI Hub, mandated short training, and broad access behind a firewall"Super You" peer cohorts: why voluntary, role-specific learning beats top-down trainingWhere AI grows the business vs. where it just cuts costCoaching at scale, knowledge management, learning velocityThe positive psychology lens on AI: character strengths, human relationships, and what we risk losingLeadership for a BANI world (brittle, anxious, non-linear, incomprehensible): empathy, clarity, agencyWhat HR will regret in three years if we don't act now

References from the episode:

"The GenAI Focus Shifts to Innovation at Colgate-Palmolive" (MIT Sloan Management Review, Davenport & Bean)"Navigating the Age of Chaos" by Jamais Cascio, Bob Johansen, and Angela F. Williams (2025)Anna Gallotti, MCC, Chair, ICF Task Force on AI in Coaching

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