Shownotes
In this special live episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, recorded on the floor at Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, Thomas Kunjappu caught up with Jenn Congdon, a 30-plus year HR veteran and HR leader at M Financial Group, for a candid conversation about where AI is already delivering value for HR teams and where the function is headed next.
M Financial Group is an insurance, reinsurance, and wealth management organization built around a community of member firms, with a mission centered on helping those firms succeed, thrive, and realize their full potential.
They got into how Jenn is using AI to prepare for board and committee meetings by stress-testing presentations through the lens of each stakeholder, why she sees AI as a thought partner rather than a replacement for people, and what she would wave away if she had a magic wand: the fragmented, multi-source data problem that keeps HR from making truly business-driven decisions.
Topics Discussed:
- Using Microsoft Copilot to pressure-test board presentations and anticipate hard questions
- Why HR's AI progress often lags behind product and technology teams, and how to close the gap
- The vision for AI-powered self-service that handles repetitive HR questions at scale
- Why AI should eliminate non-value-add work, not the human judgment behind it
- The data consolidation challenge: pulling insights from 15 different sources into one place
- What it means for AI to be a responsible thought partner for HR leaders
Additional Resources:
Transcripts
Hello there.
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:This is Thomas Kunjappu live from
Transform HR here in Las Vegas.
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:And I am here with Jenn
Congdon from M Financial Group.
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:So welcome to Future Proof HR and
tell me a little bit more about
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:yourself and M Financial Group.
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:Jenn Congdon: Yeah, so I'm your
30 plus year HR veteran and M
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:Financial group itself is insurance,
reinsurance wealth management.
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:We have a member firm community that is
community makes up and M Financial Group.
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:And we help get them proprietary
product for their ultimate end client.
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:So our mission and vision statement
really is around how do we help
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:our member firms succeed, thrive,
and realize their full potential.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: That's wonderful.
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:And on the HR team, I'm sure you
are going through a lot of AI
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:transformations and more broadly at
the organization as you're trying to
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:impact that vision and for your members.
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:So tell me a little bit
about how that's been going.
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:Any stories you have about AI
transformation in your organization?
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:Jenn Congdon: I think at different
points throughout our company, if you
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:look at certain parts of our business,
they're a little bit further along.
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:So as you're thinking about creating
agents and how do we automate parts of
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:the work that we do from an HR side of it.
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:We're progressing, we're getting there.
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:I've had my entire leadership team
go through an HR mastery class just
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:to get schooled up and understand
more about what we're doing.
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:And then when I think about creating
agents, we've been diving deep
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:using Copilot because we have
to use protected information.
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:So we use our in-house,
Copilot one that's been able to
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:help us think about how we can
leverage benefits, leverage,
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:recruitment and technology and
really apply it across the board.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: I hear that often.
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:Many teams, many functions that are
like way out there, especially product
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:or technology groups that are really
out there innovating with AI for
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:the member or customer experience.
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:And we feel like we're like
just behind them, right?
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:Sounds like you're making some progress.
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:What are some of the examples, any
particular use case stand out to
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:you that you feel like can really
get the ball moving in the new year?
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:Jenn Congdon: It's a little less about
agentic AI, although we're really trying
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:to move forward with that and we're doing
some things even from like grassroots of
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:hey, we've got a board meeting coming up.
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:And again, using our internal Copilot,
I know the way I've been using it is.
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:Here's a description of everybody
that's on the comp committee.
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:Here's what their background is.
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:Here's what I wanna try and
convince them that we need to do.
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:And so with that lens, what are the
unintended consequences of what I'm
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:trying to pitch in front of them?
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:What questions can I expect to get?
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:And you just really buttoning
up and tightening up committee
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:material, board material.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: Almost like dry runs
for the content that you might present
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:Jenn Congdon: It really is.
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:And it's asking all the right questions
ahead of time because they have the
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:descriptions and they understand what
the background is of those board members.
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:AI is like thinking through their lens.
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:And so the questions that I get,
I have found have really helped
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:prepare me for those committee
meetings and board meetings.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: That's great.
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:So it's already getting real value today,
but as you look ahead into years in the
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:future, and you imagine your team getting
transformed as part of the whole broader
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:shifts towards AI, what do you imagine,
your team kind of evolving towards?
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:What kind of things would you
be maybe doing differently
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:a few years down the line?
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:Jenn Congdon: Yeah, I think there's a lot
of things that we would do differently.
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:Right now there's still a lot of that,
hey, let's dial in HR person, right?
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:let's talk to that person.
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:As opposed to how can we get
those questions answered?
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:So many companies are doing this
right now with their bots and
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:having set up for here's all your
HR questions from the benefits and
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:from a policy perspective, right?
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:So I see that going to the next level.
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:I see it being able to not...
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:I don't feel like it
should replace the human.
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:I think that you always have to
understand that there's a human side
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:and AI is the tool that's gonna help
you excel at what you do and help
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:your teams excel at what they do.
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:But I do think that it can eliminate a
lot of that repetitive non-value add,
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:but required work that has to happen.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: That's why you get paid.
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:Like you gotta make sure payroll runs
and benefits questions are answered
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:and employees needs are taken care of.
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:You can't just, put that aside
while you work on the fun stuff.
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:You gotta solve for that.
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:Jenn Congdon: I do think that it
can be a thought partner if used
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:responsibly and appropriately.
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:I think it can absolutely
be a thought partner.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: So let me ask you one
final question while we have you here.
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:So if you had a magic wand and you could
get rid of any one of those things that
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:HR needs to do, but you wish it wasn't
as tedious as it is, what comes to mind?
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:What would you wave away?
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:Jenn Congdon: I guess I
would wave away and wave in.
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:From a data analytics and having all
the information that you needed at a
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:fingertip to make a real decision, right?
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:Business driven decision because you have
the data that's coming from 15 different
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:resources into one thing with synthesize
information that can help us propel.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: That's always elusive.
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:Like data is all over the place
and kind of this data lake vision.
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:Jenn Congdon: Like get rid of
that tactical, transactional work.
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:Thomas Kunjappu: That
seems to be the future.
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:So where can people find you to follow
your journey and stay connected, Jenn?
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:Jenn Congdon: So it's,
jenncongen@mfinancial.com
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:is my email and you can
find me on LinkedIn.
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:Thomas Kunjappu (2): Okay.
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:Yeah, will do.
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:Well, thank you.
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:This is Jenn Congdon , and we're live
with Future Proof HR here at Transform.
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:Thanks for joining us on this
episode of Future Proof HR.
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:If you like the discussion, make
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:review on the platform you're
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:Or share this with a friend or colleague
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:See you next time as we keep our pulse on
how we can all thrive in the age of AI.
