Maggie Hulce, Indeed’s Chief AI Officer, is leading the charge in integrating artificial intelligence across one of the world’s largest job platforms. With eight years at Indeed in various executive roles including EVP and General Manager for Job Seeker, Hulce brings a unique cross-functional perspective to AI leadership that she considers essential for today’s C-suite executives.
At Indeed’s annual FutureWorks event, CEO Chris Hyams unveiled Pathfinder, a new AI-powered tool designed to act as an intelligent agent helping job seekers identify relevant career opportunities. Hulce emphasized that Indeed plans to infuse significantly more AI capabilities into its products over the coming year, with the ultimate goal of improving worker well-being through conversational, intuitive interfaces.
The challenge of AI adoption, according to Hulce, requires a balanced approach between top-down transformation and bottom-up implementation. “You can’t totally mandate AI,” she explained, noting that companies need champions who share success stories and demonstrate how AI tools make work simpler and more efficient. Rather than attempting wholesale organizational change, Hulce advocates for starting with specific use cases that solve real problems, allowing natural adoption to build momentum.
Hulce highlighted practical examples of AI integration, including Indeed’s deployment of coaching software in sales organizations and the widespread adoption of tools like ChatGPT, Glean, and Zoom’s AI meeting summarization features. She emphasized that as every software platform incorporates AI capabilities, the technology becomes less intimidating—simply another feature that makes work “faster, easier, and better.”
The evolving role of C-suite leadership in the AI era requires constant learning and cross-functional understanding, Hulce stressed. Traditional functional boundaries are blurring as technology enables new approaches to problem-solving. She cited Salesforce’s customer success team using Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud as an example of how technical and marketing disciplines now intersect in unexpected ways.
Looking ahead, Hulce predicts that within five years, how companies operate will be 80% different across various functions, requiring leaders to embrace continuous reinvention and creative problem-solving rather than relying solely on functional expertise.
Key Quotes
Technology is actually making the lines between functions more blurred than they have been in the past.
Maggie Hulce, Indeed’s Chief AI Officer, explained how AI is fundamentally changing organizational structures and requiring C-suite executives to develop cross-functional expertise rather than relying solely on traditional functional specialization.
You can’t totally mandate AI. You need to have some bottoms-up adoption. You need to have champions. You need to have people sharing stories of how it made their lives better.
Hulce outlined Indeed’s strategy for AI adoption, emphasizing the importance of peer-to-peer learning and success stories rather than top-down mandates, recognizing that AI can feel intimidating to those who haven’t experienced its benefits firsthand.
It’s about how to help people navigate their choices in a format that feels conversational, to help you find whatever it is in the world that makes you happy.
Describing Indeed’s long-term vision for AI integration, Hulce emphasized that the ultimate goal extends beyond efficiency to improving worker well-being through intuitive, conversational interfaces that help people make better career decisions.
Five years from now, how companies do work will be 80% different across a range of functions. People have to be willing to say, ‘OK, there’s a much better way to do things.’
Hulce made a bold prediction about the transformative impact of AI on workplace operations, emphasizing that leaders must embrace continuous reinvention rather than clinging to established practices, as the pace of AI-driven change accelerates dramatically.
Our Take
Hulce’s insights reveal a critical tension in AI adoption that many organizations face: the gap between technological capability and human readiness. Her emphasis on “champions” and peer-to-peer learning acknowledges a fundamental truth—AI transformation is as much a cultural challenge as a technical one. The prediction of 80% operational transformation within five years is particularly striking, suggesting we’re still in the early innings of AI’s workplace impact. What’s most compelling is Indeed’s focus on worker well-being rather than pure efficiency gains, positioning AI as an enabler of human flourishing rather than just a productivity tool. This human-centered approach, combined with the practical examples of AI integration across sales coaching and meeting summarization, provides a roadmap that balances ambition with pragmatism. The blurring of functional boundaries Hulce describes may be the most disruptive aspect—requiring executives to fundamentally reimagine their roles and expertise in an AI-augmented organization.
Why This Matters
This interview provides crucial insights into how major technology companies are navigating the complex challenge of AI adoption at scale. Indeed’s approach—balancing systematic implementation with grassroots adoption—offers a blueprint for other organizations struggling with AI integration. The emphasis on cross-functional leadership represents a significant shift in executive skill requirements, suggesting that traditional siloed expertise may become obsolete in the AI era.
Hulce’s prediction that workplace operations will transform by 80% within five years underscores the urgency for businesses to adapt. The focus on worker well-being and conversational AI interfaces also signals an important trend: AI adoption success depends not just on technological capability but on human-centered design that makes tools accessible and beneficial to end users. For the broader AI industry, Indeed’s Pathfinder product demonstrates how AI agents are moving from experimental concepts to practical applications that directly impact millions of job seekers. This represents a maturation of AI technology from backend optimization to consumer-facing solutions that fundamentally reshape how people interact with critical services like career development.
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