Employees probably aren’t resisting new technology because they’re afraid of it. They’re resisting because leadership and HR haven’t explained what it’s really going to be used for. That’s the insight from Melanie Lougee, Workday’s vice president of experience and vision, who recently shared her perspective in a conversation with HR Executive tech editor Jill Barth at HR Tech 2025.
We asked Lougee about the challenges HR leaders face, and her answers went well beyond product features. During the chat, Lougee talked about where HR technology is heading, why retention strategies are shifting and what really matters when it comes to AI adoption.
Here are five insights from the conversation, but be sure to watch the entire interview above:
1. Employees will adopt new HR tech when they understand their role in it
Lougee said Workday’s research has found that employees are more willing to use new technologies when they understand the purpose and their own role in using it. Specifically, when they see that the technology will help them spend less time on tasks like reconciliation and hunting for information, and more time analyzing that information, making decisions and moving things forward, they’re ready to engage.
2. The HR tech industry is cycling back to consolidation—again
There’s a recurring pattern in the industry, Lougee explained: Organizations buy best-of-breed point solutions, then decide to take another direction, which leads to consolidation. “We’re going through a bit of a consolidation now,” she said, driven specifically by AI’s need for unified data. When data is scattered across systems that don’t talk to each other, it becomes very difficult to leverage AI effectively.
3. Corporate culture matters more than the technology itself
When discussing concerns about AI and job displacement, Lougee acknowledged that new technology can eliminate jobs. However, she pointed to historical patterns showing job creation also occurs. The real differentiator? “I think it comes down to what is the corporate culture, not just the technology and what they’re trying to achieve [with it],” she said.
4. HR tech should adapt to people, not the other way around
Lougee described a fundamental shift happening in HR technology. “Instead of being the process that you put people into, you’ll have a person and they will be able to create the process around them,” she explained. This means moving away from rigid, universal workflows toward personalized experiences where technology adapts to individual employees.
5. Healthcare’s retention crisis is especially severe
While retention challenges span all industries, Lougee noted that healthcare is particularly struggling right now. Organizations across sectors have realized that keeping people is more valuable and supports continuity better than replacing turnover with new hires. However, Lougee said the urgency is most acute in healthcare.
Watch the full interview to hear more about how Lougee sees the relationship between recruiting, performance and learning systems, why contingent workers require new approaches and what she thinks the tech stack of the future will look like.
