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It’s 1848. They’ve struck gold in California. Thousands of people hack through jungles, sail across the world and risk dying of cholera to chase their dreams of getting rich. Most are left with nothing.
According to Sympa’s Chief Product Officer, Thijs Stalenhoef, AI is just another gold rush. History repeats itself: hype, crash, recovery, productivity. AI is following the same curve and HR is caught in the middle.
Sympa’s new tool, Focus AI, aims to avoid the usual pitfalls. Rather than rushing to market, it’s been built carefully to turn everyday requests into actionable outputs within your HR system.
We sat down with Thijs to talk about hype cycles, strategic planning and what HR leaders should be doing to prepare their organisations.
How do you see the AI boom playing out right now?
Thijs: Like every tech innovation before it, from the railroads to the dotcom boom, it’s going through another hype cycle. AI arrived, expectations exploded and suddenly every organisation expected it to change everything. CEOs are putting pressure on leaders to adopt and “put AI on everything.” Vendors are promising miracle tools. We’re at the peak of the cycle, which is when we need to be the most cautious.
But after every peak comes the crash, disillusionment, failure, course correction. The trick is knowing where we are in the cycle and planning accordingly. That’s how you come out stronger.
What kinds of mistakes are you seeing companies make?
Thijs: Rushing into it with any forethought. Some companies are laying people off because they assume AI can replace them. Others are buying tools without a clear use case or any plan for how to implement them. Often, these tools are just thin wrappers around an AI model with no real integration.
For HR teams, in particular, these kinds of mistakes are expensive. You’re dealing with people’s jobs and wellbeing. You can’t afford to get this wrong simply because you felt pressured into to acting too fast.
You’ve mentioned that AI can’t fix stupid. What do you mean by that?
Thijs: AI depends entirely on what you feed it. If your data is messy or your processes are broken, AI can only go so far. It can’t fix the underlying problems.
Successful AI outcomes require clean, structured, consistent data. That takes effort. It’s the hidden cost in all of this. If you skip that part, your AI project is likely to fail.
So where should HR teams start if they want to get this right?
Thijs: Start with what already works. Don’t try to fix a broken process with AI. Identify an area that’s performing well and see if AI can make it more efficient.
Then, run a pilot. Set clear, measurable goals. Don’t assume you’ll save 80%. You might save 20% and that’s still significant if it’s real. But measure everything. If it works, build from there. If it doesn’t, you’ve learned something important.
In practice, this often comes down to very simple starting points: everyday HR questions that are currently answered through painstaking manual processes. Who does this apply to? Who’s missing training? Who’s contract is ending soon? Which managers have the biggest teams?
The same applies to skills. For example, identifying people with a specific skill or understanding how their skills have developed over time, which is critical for workforce planning.
What are some areas where AI is already delivering measurable results?
Thijs: There are plenty of areas where we’re seeing real value. One of the most obvious is customer support. If you’ve got a good processes and data in place, AI can deflect a large share of tickets, sometimes up to 70%. It doesn’t mean the system replaces your people, but it can cut down the repetitive questions so your team can focus on more complex issues.
Another is code generation. In organisations with a strong engineering culture in place, teams are seeing a 10 to 50 percent productivity bump. That’s huge if you’re trying to move fast without growing headcount.
In marketing, we’re seeing meaningful savings on content production, especially when it comes to repurposing existing material or adjusting tone and messaging across different markets. For many companies, that’s easily six-figure savings.
Finally, internal knowledge sharing. AI agents that help people find accurate, timely information inside the company can drive real efficiency, up to 80 percent, if it’s done well. This is also what Focus AI is built for. It helps HR move from finding information to generating lists, reports and plans.
Once you have a successful pilot, what comes next?
Thijs: You need to make a strategic decision: is this about improving quality or controlling costs? That shapes everything: how you communicate it, how you measure success and what your workforce plan looks like.
If you go down the quality route, maybe you use AI to eliminate backlog or improve customer satisfaction. If you’re aiming for cost savings, maybe you reduce hiring or restructure certain functions. Either way, lead with strategy.
What would you say to HR leaders who feel overwhelmed or unsure where to begin?
Thijs: You don’t need to be a tech expert to ask good questions. Start with: What are we trying to solve? What outcome do we want? How will we measure success? What are the risks?
Try not to fall for magical thinking. If something sounds too good to be true, like “AI will learn by itself”, challenge it. Ask how and based on what. You wouldn’t accept vague promises from an HR system vendor. Hold AI to the same standards.
The same applies to how AI is used day-to-day. It shouldn’t sit outside your HR processes as a separate tool. It should work with your data, within your system and support real human decisions. That’s the approach we’ve taken with Focus AI.
So what’s the one piece of advice you’d leave HR leaders with?
Thijs: Be part of the change. Start small, stay curious and remember: the people who chased gold often lost everything. The ones who thrived acted with caution and ended up building something useful.
That’s where Focus AI comes in. It’s designed to take those familiar, often messy HR questions and return structured results, that you can review, refine and act on directly in Sympa’s HR system.
Find out more here.
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