Kyndryl CHRO: HR leaders, don’t be an AI cheerleader, be a ‘proactive champion’

Being spun off from IBM in 2021 gave Kyndryl, a $15.1 billion-revenue technology services giant, the opportunity to reset and “transform our organization from a product-centric business to a people-centric one”.

Those are the words of Kyndryl CHRO, Maryjo Charbonnier, in an exclusive interview with UNLEASH.

The conversation comes as Charbonnier, who has been leading Kyndryl’s HR function for the past five years,  is retiring.

She reflects on her five-year tenure, but specifically on Kyndryl’s business transformation over the past four years – what have been the successes, the lessons learned, and how have her HR priorities changed since 2021, particularly amid AI’s disruption of the world of work?

Treat ‘culture just like any other business global with an annual operating plan’

Over the past four years, Kyndryl has “overhauled and modernized our systems and processes” – as well as built a culture essentially from scratch, which is called The Kyndyrl Way.

The Kyndryl Way is the “foundation of how we work with our customers and with each other”; Kyndryl employs around 70,000 people (known as ‘Kyndryls’) worldwide.

The core values underlying The Kyndryl Way are being restless, empathetic, devoted, flat, fast and focused.

Key to building a successful culture – and making it stick – is treating “culture just like any other business global with an annual operating plan”.

Charbonnier explains that The Kyndryl Way has “leadership focus, accountability and clear measures”.

800 top executives were invited “to create action plans on how they’d live The Kyndryl Way” – this fostered “buy-in” and ensured “they could advocate for our changes” – while managers attended workshops and employees had access to training on the new behaviors.

Kyndryl also offers “open channels for feedback and questions”, and eight-week cycles to share information; “our whole organization know how they will hear about changes and how to get support”, adds Charbonnier.

For Charbonnier, having a new, deliberate focus on culture has put Kyndryl in good stead for AI’s disruption of the world of work.

She tells UNLEASH: “I can’t stress enough the importance of an intentional culture in the age of AI.

“Like any technology, AI generates an assortment of feelings, from excitement to curiosity to apprehension and uncertainty.

“Having a culture grounded in restlessness to innovate inspires Kyndryls to experiment, learn and grow.”

AI is not just tech change, it’s “behavior change”: Kyndryl on building trust with AI

“We often say that AI is not just a technology change, but a behavior change” – that explains why, for Charbonnier, employee trust is key to AI success.

“When employees believe in the system, they’re more likely to share their skills, embrace learning and stay engaged”.

She tells UNLEASH: “We’ve cultivated trust by empathetically bringing our people through change and supporting them to build skills that serve customers in an era of AI and automation.”

Kyndryl built a “comprehensive learning framework” combining foundational AI knowledge, with role-specific training and providing a “hands-on environment [to] test emerging AI tools before they’re rolled out to the enterprise”, adds Charbonnier.

The tech giant has trained over half, 44,000, of its people on the AI-powered Kyndryl Bridge platform so they can “more quickly and impactfully serve customers” – “we’ve freed up thousands of Kyndryls to be redeployed to other vital customer work”.

Kyndryls approach to AI and skills is different from many other employers.

Charbonnier explains that “while some organizations are focusing their efforts externally for talent with AI expertise, we’re strongly encouraging our people to elevate their skills so they are ready for new opportunities” with Kyndryl.

By being transparent about their skills and experiences through internal CVs, this employees “discoverable” when hiring teams are looking to source the right talent for future projects and roles.

Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO, Kyndryl.

Another way that Kyndryl has built trust around AI is by having “strong governance practices” aligned across the entire company.

Kyndryl has taken this a step further, and actually launched a specific framework for agentic AI use – this guides the enterprise’s “approach to orchestrate specialized, self-learning agents alongside human teams”.

The framework includes workforce strategy, as well as how to leverage AI agents for better customer experiences.

HR’s essential in Kyndryl’s AI transformation

Charbonnier believes that HR leaders must wear three hats around AI.

First, they need to understand the “commercial impacts of AI and how that translates to workforce needs”. Kyndryl leverages the “AIR approach” to do this – AIR stands for Anticipate, Inventory, Reskill and redeploy.

This means anticipating the needs of customers, then taking an inventory of each Kyndryl employee’s skills “so we can see where we can meet customer demand and where we have gaps”.

Armed with that visibility, the HR team focuses on upskilling and reskilling those people so they can be redeployed to meet customer needs.

Upholding “a culture that readies our people and our business for continuous change”, notes Charbonnier.

The second hat for HR to wear in the AI age is “partnering with other leaders to drive ethical use, data privacy, and governance around AI”.

Charbonnier shares that as CHRO at Kyndryl, she works “collaboratively with our CIO, Legal, Policy team and more to oversee AI’s use across the firm” – and “we’re transparent about those policies”.

Her advice to her CHRO peers is “if you’re not already best friends with your CIO, I recommend strengthening that relationship”.

“Talk to them at least weekly. Your CIO is your partner in all things AI, so create aligned goals, teams and projects”.

The third hat for HR, which may be last, but is not least in Charbonnier’s view, is to “build a roadmap outlining how they will use AI to complete work within their own organization”.

HR’s approach needs to be “progressive and proactive” – Charbonnier is clear that “true leadership in this era is not as an observer or cheerleader of AI, but as a proactive champion of using AI to help drive results in the organization”.

UNLEASH asked Charbonnier to reflect on Kyndryl’s AI transformation to date; what is she most proud of?

“I’m proud that we’ve created a model that is not only good for business, but it’s also good for our people.”

She’s also proud that Kyndryl continues to “iterate on this model as we learn more”.

Top of Charbonnier’s to-do list for 2026 is building on the strong foundation around workforce planning.

“Everyone is trying to crack the code on workforce planning, and trying to anticipate the jobs and skills they’ll need in the future” – Charbonnier and her team is seeking to find ways to “better predict what a Kyndryl should learn next so they can start their training earlier”.

Kyndryl will also bee looking at new jobs that will be created by AI, and how to put “processes in place to upskill our people in those roles”.

As Charbonnier is retiring at the end of March after two decades as a CHRO, she tells UNLEASH, and she’s “looking forward to a new chapter full of personal passions and new opportunities”.

Kyndryl, Maryjo Charbonnier and UNLEASH America 2026

Want to hear more about how Kyndryl is thinking about AI?

You’re in luck – Maryjo Charbonnier will be joining us at UNLEASH America 2026.

Taking to the Main Stage on March 18th, she will participate in a panel discussion with the CHROs of The Coca-Cola Company, On and MetLife, about what executive leadership needs to look like in the world of agentic AI.

There’s still time to grab a pass to join us in Las Vegas.