AI's Impact on the People Function with Sarika Lamont, VP of People and Culture at Vidyard

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, join us as we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Sarika Lamont, VP of People and Culture at Vidyard, we explore how AI is transforming the people function beyond just tools and automation. Sarika shares her unique journey from leading people operations to spearheading AI adoption across her entire organization, revealing practical strategies for reducing administrative burden while enhancing employee experience. We dive deep into the mindset shifts required for successful AI implementation, the importance of critical thinking when leveraging AI tools, and how to start small with automation to create meaningful impact. Keep watching to discover how AI can revolutionize your people's operations and learn actionable steps to begin your own AI
transformation journey.

Sarika Lamont is a seasoned People leader with 20+ years in talent strategy, DEI, and organizational transformation. As VP of People and Culture at Vidyard, she leads AI and automation efforts while fostering inclusive, high-performance cultures that enable teams to thrive and deliver meaningful impact through clarity, focus, and execution.

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to FNDN Series
01:12 Guest Introduction: Sarika Lamont
02:37 How AI Leadership Role Emerged at Vidyard
03:11 From Organic Interest to Company Priority
05:54 The Cultural Change Management Aspect of AI
07:05 Cross-Functional Collaboration with IT and Security
09:35 AI as a Connector: Seeing Opportunities Across Business
10:26 AI Tools vs Experimentation vs Wellbeing Considerations
11:48 Critical Thinking and AI: Avoiding Over-Reliance
14:56 Reducing Administrative Burden and Burnout
16:53 Re-imagining How We Work with AI
18:47 Biggest Impact: Admin Reduction and Experience Improvement
22:59 Connecting Systems: From Manual to Automated Workflows
24:18 Getting Started: Practical Tips for AI Adoption
27:11 Conclusion and Wrap-Up

Connect with Sarika
linkedin.com/in/sarikalamont
Visit: vidyard.com
Resources Mentioned
Companies/Tools Mentioned:
Kinfolk - AI-enabled platform for onboarding and workflow automation
HiBob - HRIS platform integrated with AI workflows
Zapier - Automation platform with HR AI applications
Confluence - Documentation platform for policy information
OpenAI/ChatGPT - Generative AI tool mentioned for getting started

People Mentioned:
Brandon Sammut - Chief People Officer at Zapier (HR and AI webinars)
Bonnie - TA leader at Zapier

________________

Pave is a compensation intelligence platform that gives you real-time compensation data from more than 8,300 companies, allowing you to make calls with confidence, not guesswork.
Access Information & Resources from Pave:

2026 Budgeting & Trends Report: Get your free copy of the full report discussed in the episode, which includes trends on planned merit budgets, "job hugging," and pay transparency.

Report Landing Page (Email): https://explore.pave.com/Compensation...

Learn More About Pave: Visit the Pave homepage to explore how you can benchmark pay, price jobs, manage pay ranges, and run your merit cycle all in one place.

Pave Homepage: https://www.pave.com/?utm_source=FNDN...

________________

More FNDN Episodes:
Spotify: https://spotify.com/show/4GeBIeZOKrFx...
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

AIinHR, PeopleOperations, HRAutomation, AIAdoption, WorkflowAutomation, HRTech, OnboardingAutomation, EmployeeExperience, AITransformation, PeopleFunction, HRLeadership, CriticalThinking, AdminReduction, ChangeManagement, HRInnovation, AITools, RemoteWork, Documentation, HRStrategy, StartupHR