Josh Wise — HR Director & AI Practitioner

15 years in HR.
18 months of AI.
Everything changed.

I'm an HR Director at a Fortune 500 tech company. A year and a half ago, I started using generative AI as my daily thought partner — not for writing emails, but for real strategic work: org design, talent strategy, change management, the complex situations that don't have clean answers. The gains were real. The HRBP Lab is where I share how.

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Who I am

A practitioner who went
all in — and kept going.

I've spent 15 years in HR — the kind that deals with genuinely hard stuff. Org restructures that affect hundreds of people. Talent reviews that get heated. Change programs that need to actually land. Complex employee situations with no clean answer. I support multiple client groups at a large tech company, and this work has always required me to think fast, synthesize quickly, and show up credible.

About 18 months ago, I stopped treating AI like a writing shortcut and started treating it like a senior thought partner. I gave it real context. I challenged its outputs. I rebuilt how I approach the work around it — the prep, the analysis, the strategic framing, the documentation.

"What used to take me two weeks in a spreadsheet now takes 20 minutes. My clients noticed. My own clarity noticed. The quality of the work noticed."

The productivity gains were real. The insight gains were real. The difference in how my clients experience my work was real. And I realized something: most HR professionals are still figuring out where to start — and most of what's written about AI in HR isn't written by people who actually do HR.

I'm trying to close that gap. The Lab is my way of sharing the journey — the tips, the experiments, the tools I've built, and the honest takes on what AI can actually do when you go all in. No confidential IP. No corporate shortcuts. Just one practitioner sharing what he's learning so others can get there faster.

I'll be straight with you: this is a work in progress. I'm a work in progress. The HRBP Lab reflects that — and I think that's exactly what makes it worth following.

15+ years in HR HR Director, Fortune 500 Org design & spans/layers Change management Talent strategy AI daily practitioner
The HRBP Lab

This is how
I share it.

The Lab is my blog — where I share the musings, tips, and honest learnings from running AI as a daily partner in senior HR work. The unfinished experiments. The things that worked and the things that didn't. Whether you're a seasoned HRBP, an HR leader exploring what AI can do, or someone just starting out — you're welcome here.

The Newsletter

Weekly field notes from inside the work. One real insight, one AI tool or prompt I'm actually using, and a few things worth reading. Every Saturday morning — free.

Lab Artifacts

Tools, frameworks, and prompt libraries I built for my own work — packaged when they're good enough to share. Not products for their own sake. Things I made because I needed them.

Strategy Sessions

Direct access to my thinking. For HRBPs and HR leaders who want a practitioner's perspective on how they're using — or not using — AI in their work. $150/hr, limited availability.

The Ongoing Work

The Lab doesn't ship and go quiet. New experiments, new builds, honest takes on what's not working yet. Follow along and you'll see what I'm working on next.

From the Lab

Things I built
and packaged to share.

These are artifacts — things I made for my own work that turned out to be useful enough for someone else to use. Built from 18 months of daily practice, not from theory.

First Artifact

AI Prompt Library for HRBPs

50+ prompts I've refined through daily use as an HR Director. Not prompts someone thinks might work — the actual prompts I reach for in org design, talent reviews, comp analysis, change management, employee relations, strategic planning, and meeting intelligence. Each one comes with context, customization guidance, and example output.

$29
One-time purchase. Lifetime updates as the work continues.
  • 50+ prompts across 7 HR practice areas
  • Context for each: when to use it, what to customize
  • Example outputs so you know what good looks like
  • PDF guide + duplicatable Notion template
  • Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot — any AI tool
Get the Prompt Library →
More artifacts in progress. A spans & layers toolkit and onboarding system are next. Subscribe to the newsletter — you'll know when they're ready.
The Newsletter

Start following the work.

Weekly field notes from an HR Director using AI every day. What I'm building, what's working, and what I'm still figuring out. Free, every Saturday.