The Human Capitalist
What is a Human Capitalist? Well, it's the new version of Human Resources. It's time to get rid of the outdated and reactive HR and replace it with Human Capitalism. I'm Trent Cotton and I'm ready to give the HR industry the punch it needs to become more focused on Human Capital versus the old stauncy HR. I’m thrilled to have you here as we dive into the future of Human Resources together. This podcast is all about empowering HR professionals to step up as proactive consultants, using AI and cutting-edge practices to manage a company’s largest expense and highest revenue producing asset—its people. As a senior HR Executive at HatchWorks AI, I get a rare glimpse into the impact technology advancement will have on the industry. This podcast is designed to share those insights with you! I’ll show you how to turn your biggest expense into a revenue-generating powerhouse by embracing change and leading with insight. If you are ready to be a rebel in the industry and unlock the true potential of human capital, this is the channel you've been looking for.
Episodes
September 21, 2026 • 12 mins
AI isn't leveling the workforce. It's splitting it into two completely different tracks — and most organizations haven't realized it yet.
In this episode of Is HR Being Fired?, I break down new workforce data showing how AI is changing the value of work, why some roles are becoming more valuable while others are being democratized, and what HR leaders need to do before this divide starts showing up in attrition, productivity...
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September 14, 2026 • 11 mins
Meta reportedly had a plan to dramatically reshape parts of its workforce around AI agents. Then, hours before another round of cuts, Mark Zuckerberg stopped it.
The obvious conclusion is that AI wasn't ready.
I think there's a much bigger lesson here, especially for HR leaders.
In this video, I break down what Meta's experience can teach us about building an AI-native organization through the five FutHRist mindsets: The Archite...
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August 31, 2026 • 9 mins
AI isn't just changing jobs. It's changing the math behind how companies decide how many people they need.
For decades, workforce planning HR has used largely followed the same formula: define the roles, establish the requirements, determine the experience needed, assign headcount, and build the budget.
But skills based hiring, flexible talent models, and AI augmentation are breaking some of the assumptions behind that model.
In...
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August 24, 2026 • 38 mins
AI isn't the biggest threat facing HR. Our refusal to change may be.
In this episode of The Human Capitalist Podcast, I sit down with Tony Dina, a former corporate technology leader turned depth coach, to explore what it really takes to lead people through uncertainty, transformation, and the age of AI.
We use the Hero's Journey as a framework for understanding what many HR leaders are experiencing right now: we're being called o...
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August 17, 2026 • 33 mins
Gen Z gets called lazy, entitled, difficult, and impossible to manage.But what if the real problem isn’t Gen Z?In this episode of The Human Capitalist Podcast, Trent Cotton sits down with Devin Collins, a leader managing a large team that includes dozens of Gen Z employees, to talk about what actually works.The answer isn’t lowering standards. It’s creating clearer ones.They discuss why Gen Z responds to transpare...
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August 15, 2026 • 39 mins
Everyone is saying AI will replace HR. The data says something different.
Every week there's another headline predicting the end of entry-level jobs, the replacement of knowledge workers, or the death of Human Resources as we know it. But is that what's actually happening?
In this episode of The Human Capitalist Podcast, I sit down with Kyle Forrest, who leads Deloitte's Future of HR research, to unpack the real data behind AI, w...
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August 5, 2026 • 12 mins
I recently posted a video about the Bolt CEO firing HR. The comments that followed weren't just critical—they were brutal.
People called HR:
"Anti-worker."
"The company's snitch."
"Overpaid."
"Only there to protect leadership."
Instead of defending the profession, I decided to do something different.
I agreed.
Not because every criticism is fair—but because every one of those comments represents a real experience s...
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July 26, 2026 • 37 mins
Here's something most HR leaders won't say out loud: they don't actually know what HR is for anymore. And AI just made that impossible to hide.
In this episode, I sit down with Robin Schooling, a longtime HR practitioner and one of the sharpest critics of the profession's most persistent blind spots. We dig into what AI is actually revealing about HR's purpose problem, what CHROs have to stop doing immediately, and what a healthy ...
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July 13, 2026 • 40 mins
Why are 64% of workers saying they'd rather collaborate with AI than with a human colleague? This is data from recent research, and it has massive implications for every HR leader and CHRO watching this.
In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Monahan to unpack the forces driving this shift, what it reveals about trust and collaboration in the modern workplace, and what people leaders need to do right now to stay ahead of it.
What...
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June 29, 2026 • 15 mins
There are two kinds of coaches.
The kind that makes everyone feel supported. And the kind that makes the team win.
Most organizations hire the first kind and pray they never need the second.
In Episode 7 of The Five Mindsets of the Modern CHRO, we close out the framework with The Coach. Not the warm developmental coach. The hard coach. The CHRO who walks into the room, looks at everything the organization believes about how tale...
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June 21, 2026 • 20 mins
The media and companies keep AI layoffs on the wrong thing. But what if that's not the real story?
Dario Amodei — the CEO of Anthropic — spent 2025 warning the world that AI would eliminate 50% of white-collar jobs. Then in May, both he and Sam Altman publicly walked back their predictions. So if the people who *built* the technology are backing off the apocalypse narrative... what's actually driving these cuts?
In th...
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June 15, 2026 • 47 mins
Candidates are gaming the hiring process. And honestly? Good.
In this episode I sit down with Charlotte Melkert, CEO of Equalture, a game-based hiring intelligence platform out of the Netherlands, to unpack something SHRM just put a name to: skill phishing.
Skill phishing is the act of presenting credentials and capabilities that never translate into real execution. We've always experienced it. AI just made it impossible to igno...
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June 1, 2026 • 67 mins
What if the career ladder you've been climbing is disappearing?
In this conversation, futurist and portfolio career strategist Jules challenges one of the biggest assumptions in modern work: Your title was rented. Your skills are yours.
We dive into the future of work, why traditional career paths are breaking down, and how professionals can create more security, flexibility, and opportunity in an increasingly uncertain job marke...
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May 27, 2026 • 12 mins
Last week, Bolt's CEO Ryan Breslow defended firing his entire HR team. He said the problems disappeared the day they left.
He is not the only CEO who has thought it. He is just the only one who said it out loud.
If you are a CHRO doing the same job you did five years ago, your seat is already obsolete. Unless you adopt one of these five mindsets, you are next.
In this episode I break down what Breslow got right, what he got wron...
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May 18, 2026 • 14 mins
You have more HR data than ever. They're still not answering your hardest questions.
In Episode 4 of The Five Personas of the Modern CHRO, we're breaking down Persona 3 — The Scientist. This isn't about hiring a data analyst or buying a new people analytics platform. It's about a fundamental shift in how your CHRO engages with workforce data — and the difference between an HR leader who reports numbers and one who actu...
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May 3, 2026 • 36 mins
In this episode, I sat down with Sarika Lamont (Chief People Officer at Vidyard) to break down one of the most critical shifts happening in HR leadership right now.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: 97% of AI transformations are failing. It’s not the technology that’s broken. It’s because we—HR leaders—aren't leading them.
AI transformation is fundamentally about behavior change, not tooling. And...
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April 28, 2026 • 15 mins
HR isn't broken because it lacks data. It's broken because the data isn't connected to anything that drives decisions. 63% of HR professionals describe their function as the company's crisis hotline. 41% of their time goes to admin work. And 98% of CHROs are unhappy with how performance management works — despite sitting on more workforce data than ever.
That's not a data problem. That's a gap problem. And in Episode 3 of Th...
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April 25, 2026 • 16 mins
HR isn't broken because it lacks data. It's broken because the data isn't connected to anything that drives decisions. 63% of HR professionals describe their function as the company's crisis hotline. 41% of their time goes to admin work. And 98% of CHROs are unhappy with how performance management works — despite sitting on more workforce data than ever.
That's not a data problem. That's a gap problem. And in Episode 3 of Th...
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March 22, 2026 • 14 mins
The traditional CHRO role is being quietly eliminated. Not by AI. Not by the economy. By CHROs themselves.
Average CHRO tenure has dropped from 6 years to 4.8. Only 3 in 10 have a business background. 60% see themselves as C-suite equals — but only 12% are paid like it. The gap between how CHROs see themselves and how boards value them is the whole problem in one number.
In this episode — the foundation of a 7-part se...
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March 1, 2026 • 42 mins
Is reverse recruiting a real career service — or a clever racket preying on job seekers? And what happens to recruiting when AI takes over the top of the funnel?
In this episode, I’m joined by Brian Fink, one of LinkedIn’s most respected recruiting voices, to unpack two disruptive trends reshaping the talent industry. We dive into the reverse recruiting craze — where candidates pay recruiters to apply ...
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