The Heller Report: How UKG Puts AI to Work for Frontline Employees

Prakash Kota, CIO of UKG, the HR platform used by 80,000 organizations in 150 countries, explains to Martha Heller for this article in CIO.com how his company uses agentic AI, voice agents and other innovations to better serve frontline workers, and why the CIO-CHRO partnership is critical. “As HR leaders help business leaders think through their roadmap for talent — both human and AI — IT leaders can equip them with exactly that intelligence,” Kota says.

It takes more than logic to win the budget battle. “IT leaders need to understand what creates value—and how to measure it in terms their boards and executive peers understand,” writes Larry Bonfante, CEO of CIO Bench Coach, an executive coaching and leadership firm. He shares three types of narratives—descriptive, anecdotal, and metaphorical—to translate IT value into meaningful terms that connect with stakeholders.

The Mount Vesuvius eruption in AD 79 killed many inhabitants of Pompeii while preserving the ancient Roman city’s remains. Now researchers at the Pompeii Archaeological Park and the University of Padua have used data from excavations to digitally reconstruct the face of a man believed to be fleeing the eruption before he died, the Associated Press reported. The AI-generated illustration shows the man “running along a rough, debris-covered road, holding a large, shallow bowl over his head” as volcanic debris falls around him.

Heller was recently retained to recruit a Chief Technology Officer for Lipari Foods, a leading independent distributor built around global and specialty foods. With a customer-first mindset, Lipari Foods services customers across 32 states bringing the world’s most craveable flavors to shelf with an end-to-end approach that combines exclusive and owned brands, retail services, innovative tools, and dependable delivery across 10 categories including deli, bakery, frozen/dairy, specialty grocery, international specialty, meat/seafood, packaging, confections, foodservice/prepared foods, and convenience. For this role, we identified Kevin Snyder, who most recently served as Chief Information Technology Officer for OnPoint Group. Snyder holds a B.S. from Ball State University and MBA degrees from Tilburg University and Purdue University. Congratulations, Kevin!