AI Only Works When the Data Does with Rebecca Carr and Dan Beck

This series was recorded live at HR Tech 2025 inside the HR Executive studios on the expo floor in partnership with the WRKdefined Podcast Network. ⁠Make sure you’re subscribed to the full series⁠ and ⁠visit ⁠⁠HRExecutive.com⁠⁠ for the news, analysis, and insights shaping the future of work.⁠

AI gets loud, fast, and overpromised. This conversation cuts through the noise. When the entire talent lifecycle sits on fragmented systems, AI becomes guesswork. When the data is unified, you unlock precision, prediction, and real outcomes. Rebecca and Dan lay out why SmartRecruiters and SAP SuccessFactors fit together, what Winston can actually do in the flow of work, and how the TA ecosystem changes when recruiting, HR, learning, contingent labor, and analytics all live on one plane.
In this episode we speak with Rebecca Carr and Dan Beck about AI trust, cross-lifecycle data, workforce planning, agentic systems, shared incentives, and the future of TA inside the world’s largest enterprise HR suite.


Key Takeaways
AI is only as good as the data foundation it sits onRecruiting data alone can’t deliver lifecycle intelligenceUnifying HR, learning, finance, and contingent labor unlocks new predictionsWinston works because it stays in the flow of work and builds trust slowlyShared incentives between TA and TM matter more than ownershipAgentic AI needs clean inputs, not shortcutsWorkforce planning becomes work planning when analytics are unified


Chapters
00:15 Why SAP chose SmartRecruiters
00:32 Autonomy, agents, and better data
01:04 Live from HR Tech 2025
01:22 Rebecca’s background
01:54 Dan’s background
02:36 Innovation and why the partnership made sense
03:03 What brought the companies together
03:57 Why SmartRecruiters was the pick
04:21 AI’s power with end-to-end data
04:49 What the acquisition unlocks
05:11 Product and cultural alignment
05:55 Customer-obsessed DNA
06:05 Why lifecycle visibility changes everything
06:46 Shared incentives across TA and TM
07:16 Early integration conversations
07:31 Workforce planning meets recruiting
08:13 Data loops inside SAP’s platform
08:26 Building an AI-first data plane
08:58 How better data drives autonomous agents
09:15 Finance, HR, and contingent labor convergence
10:30 The extended workforce lens
11:07 Non-employee analytics and certification
12:07 Winston’s role inside SuccessFactors
12:46 Why Winston boosts engagement and data quality
13:59 How SAP plans to anchor TA around this roadmap
14:35 AI literacy and readiness across teams
15:01 Why “just automate it” doesn’t build trust
16:06 Winston’s one-job-at-a-time model
17:02 How trust becomes experimentation
17:27 Designing rollout journeys with customers
18:17 Real-world enterprise AI adoption
18:53 Why Winston accelerates AI maturity

Guest Info
Rebecca Carr, CEO SmartRecruiters
LinkedIn:   / rebeccajcarr  
Dan Beck, General Manager and Chief Produc Officer, SmartRecruiters
LinkedIn:   / dan-beck  

Host
Bob Holver, Elevate Your AiQ Podcast
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bobpulver

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