On this episode of Transformation Realness, Kyle Lagunas is joined by Opal Wagnac, Senior Vice President of Market & Product Strategy at isolved. With her sharp insights and fresh perspective, Opal doesn’t hold back on what it takes to bring enterprise-grade solutions to businesses of all sizes while keeping it real about AI’s potential — and limitations. At the center of her approach is a mission to ensure that technology serves us, not replaces us. “Technology is not going to solve all your problems,” she says. Sometimes you just need a real human on the other end of the line.
Opal is passionate about helping small and mid-sized businesses compete with larger organizations by providing them with practical, enterprise-grade tools. For isolved, this means not just providing tech but supporting SMBs every step of the way as they integrate and utilize AI effectively.
Recorded live at HR Tech 2024, this episode dives deep into the challenges and opportunities of using AI responsibly, especially for small to mid-sized businesses. Tune in as we explore why trust, empathy and a little skepticism go a long way in keeping HR real.
AI Isn’t Magic, Honey — it’s the New Electricity
Opal kicks things off with an electrifying comparison — literally. She compares the dawn of AI to electricity, noting how every revolutionary tech has a bit of a rough start before it becomes a staple. “There’s this fear, there’s this trepidation,” she says. “And at one point, electricity had the same fear and had the same trepidation.”
Like electricity, AI needs understanding and adaptation, not fear. Just as we don’t think twice about whether a restaurant has electricity, AI will eventually be a standard — but only if we integrate it thoughtfully.
For Opal, this AI evolution calls for a good dose of healthy skepticism. Instead of blind trust, she’s all about asking the tough questions: “We need more critical thinkers,” she insists. “And I emphasize that word critical. Criticize the AI. Please do. Just to make sure that you’re also not creating the same repetitive mistakes.”
AI’s real value is in how seamlessly it can serve human needs — but it’s on leaders to ensure the technology remains human-centered.
AI Needs Real Change Agents, Not Just Cheerleaders
For Opal, trust in AI-powered HR solutions doesn’t mean blind acceptance — it’s about thoughtful implementation and a willingness to question the tools themselves. “To me, HR is a change agent,” she says. “So accept your role as a change agent and start making some changes. So even if the AI is telling you X, Y, Z, start challenging it.” This stance is at the heart of isolved’s approach, where Opal emphasizes that real progress in HR requires actively questioning AI’s outputs to ensure they’re serving the right goals.
Opal underscores that while enterprise-grade AI solutions can support SMBs, they also need to be backed by real human support and an ethical framework. By layering technology with hands-on consulting, isolved ensures that their clients feel equipped to handle AI’s capabilities without compromising on human connection.
Diversity for the Win: No Room for One-Track Thinking Here
Opal’s big on shaking things up and bringing in diverse perspectives — because if everyone thinks the same way, innovation doesn’t stand a chance. She encourages HR leaders to expand their circles and take advice from unconventional sources. “Learn from other people’s mistakes,” she advises, “because you won’t live long enough to make them yourself.” Her point? The best solutions come from a wide variety of voices, and pigeonholing people based on titles only limits what’s possible.
Opal underscores that HR leaders need to look beyond the obvious. By valuing each person’s unique journey and experiences, HR can foster a more inclusive and adaptable workplace culture. “They didn’t just fall out of the sky and be an HR generalist. There was something else before that, too,” she says. “So for the most part, when you’re engaging with someone, you’re getting the whole person and all of the experiences that make them.” That’s why she encourages everyone to dig into diverse perspectives, and the innovation will follow.
Big thanks to Opal for keeping it real on AI, the need for trust, and why HR must step up as change agents. Her takeaways? Don’t just follow the tech — challenge it. AI might be the new electricity, but it’s nothing without the people guiding its use. For all you HR pros out there, remember: it’s up to you to make these tools truly transformative. So stay curious, keep asking questions, and let’s get real about shaping a future where tech serves us — not the other way around.
People in This Episode
- Opal Wagnoc: LinkedIn
Transcript
Kyle Lagunas:
Hello, my little blueberries, te-he-he. Welcome to another electrifying episode of Transformation Realness, the only show all about people who are trying to make the world of work less shitty and have the guts to share their story. The good, the bad, and most of all, the real. It’s produced in partnership with Rep Cap and hosted by none other than yours truly, the magnetic, magnanimous, magnificent, Kyle Lagunas, head of strategy and principal analyst at Aptitude Research, the boutique research firm leading the charge in HR tech and transformation. Get into it!
Today I’m joined by somebody who knows a thing or two about shaking things up. Opal Wagnac, Senior Vice President of Market and Solution Strategy at isolved. Opal’s on a mission to help businesses of every size access enterprise-grade solutions. And if you thought AI was just a fancy buzzword, well, buckle up. From electricity to the internet and now AI, Opal’s got stories and analogies that’ll make you rethink everything you thought you knew about innovation cycles. And yes, Roomba is named Zaza, because of course it is. You’re going to hear all about it. All right, this conversation is full of laughs, insights and a healthy dose of truth bombs about what it really takes to drive change in HR today. Check it out.
Okay. Hello everybody. My little blueberries. We’re back with another special episode of Transformation Realness. We are coming to you live from HR Tech 2024 in the Glider AI booth. And I have with me another very dear friend. Opal? Do you want to say hi to everybody?
Opal Wagnac:
Hi everyone. I’m so glad to be here. My name is Opal Wagnac, and I am the Senior Vice President of Market and Solutions Strategy at isolved.
Kyle Lagunas:
And what’s isolved?
Opal Wagnac:
isolved is a HCM provider, not just of product, but also of services. Really servicing the SMB in the mid-market space. And we cover everything from a bevy of products and solutions, from HR services to talent acquisition services, as well as the full scale of HCM.
Kyle Lagunas:
So just a little bit of stuff. No, I love it. And honestly, isolved is a bit new to me. I had a really great briefing with them a while ago, last month or so. But I was really excited to see you on stage for the opening session at Women in HR Tech, and especially when you were sharing with me a little bit about the first point of view of, look, we’re living in crazy times. Innovation cycles are just going rampant. But I really loved the story that you told about electricity. Can you tell us about that? Yeah.
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah, absolutely. So, of course, when the question comes up about, well, how are we supposed to embrace AI? And it’s always like that new thing. It’s like, oh my gosh, there’s this fear, there’s this trepidation. And at one point, electricity had the same fear and had the same trepidation. What do you mean light is coming out of the ceiling? What do you mean that I’m holding to this candle and I’m walking around one room to the next? Where’s this light coming from or how does it work? Electricity, I can’t see it, but I see its effect.
And I’m like, okay, you don’t see wind either, but you see its impact. And so with electricity it had to go through this enormous learning curve. And I believe it was Andrew Ng who said, like, “AI is the new electricity.” And so it literally had to get to a point where, here we are, if I’m making plans to go to dinner with you, I’m not going to ask, does the place have electricity? You would probably look at me like I had three heads. And so I understand where Andrew Ng was coming from with really trying to embrace AI. But if I look at electricity, I don’t know about you Kyle, but I wasn’t around when electricity was discovered.
Kyle Lagunas:
No, me neither. I’m very young.
Opal Wagnac:
I can’t remember what that learning curve was about. But I can read about it. However, in our lifetime we’ve seen the internet. So to me, I look at the AI — as AI as the new internet. Where there was a time where it’s like, what do you mean I can talk to someone in real time that’s in Singapore? And so actually we had a laugh about it, what was your screen name again?
Kyle Lagunas:
Oh, my first screen name was “Hello.” Because I didn’t know that I wasn’t chatting yet. I just got prompted with a box and I wrote Hello.
Opal Wagnac:
Wow. Very original. So Hello being your new screen name to talk to people. Mine was Talk and the number 2 Opal.
Kyle Lagunas:
See, you already had the acronyms. I love it.
Opal Wagnac:
I was just trying it out, but just thinking about it…
Kyle Lagunas:
You were cool from the beginning. Don’t play.
Opal Wagnac:
Thank you. Thank you.
Kyle Lagunas:
I really like it, especially because I think the electricity allegory, there was a lot of fear around electricity. People didn’t understand it, they didn’t know how it worked and so they didn’t trust it.
Opal Wagnac:
Right. Right.
Kyle Lagunas:
And I feel like especially in the HR organization, which has been historically extremely risk-averse, that the perceived risk and danger with this has really stalled, I think, some meaningful innovation. It’s like if I use AI to create a new drug, a new pharmaceutical drug, no one really understands that. But if I’m using AI to create a more data-driven performance management program. Or if I’m using AI to implement more equitable pay practices. Like everybody gets paid, everybody has performance reviews. We know what that is. And so it’s like the exposure, the level of connection to these perceived risks, the use cases for AI in our space, it’s actually a ubiquitous understanding of the stuff.
Opal Wagnac:
100%.
Kyle Lagunas:
Like, hey, this could actually be really disruptive. But I think we don’t know how it’s going to work. And so we’re not sure, candidly, whether we can trust HR to figure it out. You know what I’m saying? It’s like there’s this point right now where it’s like, what are we going to do here? Is HR going to take this and run with it? Can they? And I think they can.
Opal Wagnac:
I think they can too. Because when it comes to our own personal lives, AI is all over the place. We talk to Alexa to ask them, okay, what are those stats of Michael Jordan doing against LeBron James? Or even sillier things than that. So even using everyday natural language processing in our daily lives. I look at my kids. My kids are never going to ask, “Well, what are your AI solutions?” They don’t know what AI is, but they know the absence of AI.
Kyle Lagunas:
At four years old they’re asking if you have Wi-Fi. They’re coming up to me at my house, my niece and nephew. Like, “What’s your Wi-Fi password?” I’m like, bro.
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly. Exactly. So even the Roomba, right? We gave her her name. Her name is Zaza.
Kyle Lagunas:
Zaza?
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah. Yeah, Zaza. Because she earns her keep. And not to try and genderify her with that name but we felt that Zaza was very fancy. Instead of Jeeves, we felt Zaza.
Kyle Lagunas:
She’s a fancy girl.
Opal Wagnac:
She’s a fancy girl and she does a lot. And I think about all the type of innovation that goes into that. So this is the world in which they live in. So my kids will never look for a movie. Netflix better recommend. Even their friends are recommended to them. So living in a world of recommendations, and that is their day to day. I can definitely find areas within HR very easily. It’s easy for me because I look at a lot of the things, a lot of the questions that we’re constantly asking.
I was actually overhearing a conversation with one of the sales leaders and she was trying to help her son. It was like adulting 101. I was eavesdropping on it. So this was very interesting. You’re going to laugh at this one. And so of course, he’s like 26 years old, so he needs to get off his mommy’s insurance and get a real job. And so he got a real job. Check. And now he is going through the whole enrollment process. And he starts to freak out. He’s like, “Mom…”
Kyle Lagunas:
Because it’s complicated.
Opal Wagnac:
“… what Is a deductible? What is that? I never learned in college? What is that?”
Kyle Lagunas:
What’s home insurance and what’s a lifetime maximum?
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly. So all of these things during the enrollment process. And then he’s like, “Wait a minute, I got to count how many times I’m going to get hit by a bus next year to figure out how much I’m going to spend to go to urgent care? How morbid is that?” Right? So in thinking about it, you know what, he wasn’t wrong. Because he’s lived in a world where things have been recommended to them.
Kyle Lagunas:
Yeah. Served up to him.
Opal Wagnac:
Literally served up. HR already knows, I know that you’re a single male. I know that you have no children. I know that you’re a nonsmoker. I know so many things already about you. As a matter of fact, I know who you really are, not your street name, but I know your government name. You know all of these things, and yet you won’t even serve up to me, what’s the recommended plan?
Kyle Lagunas:
I actually only have a legal name. I don’t have a street name.
Opal Wagnac:
You don’t have a street name?
Kyle Lagunas:
No.
Opal Wagnac:
We got to give you a street name because-
Kyle Lagunas:
Don’t be fooled by this ink.
Opal Wagnac:
No, listen.
Kyle Lagunas:
I’m actually a square.
Opal Wagnac:
You have street cred, my friend.
Kyle Lagunas:
I’ve got some rizz.
Opal Wagnac:
You’ve got a Kyle high vibe.
Kyle Lagunas:
Well, listen, let me back it up because I really like where you’re going with this. You and I had been in this space for a while, right?
Opal Wagnac:
Yes.
Kyle Lagunas:
And you are new into this role, and I’m actually really excited for this role for you because we need really passionate but also informed voices that are really pushing this narrative forward, that are challenging the industry. Especially from the solution-provider side, especially focused on SMB and mid-market.
Opal Wagnac:
Yes.
Kyle Lagunas:
Everybody’s ignoring this whole… Which is the hugest employer market in the world.
Opal Wagnac:
It is.
Kyle Lagunas:
And we’re all talking about enterprise issues. So I love this for you.
Opal Wagnac:
Thank you.
Kyle Lagunas:
But look, you and I know that AI, we’ve been talking about AI in the space for a while. And not even that long ago, three years ago, it was a buzzword. We were just talking about it as a future thing.
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly.
Kyle Lagunas:
And literally overnight it has become ubiquitous.
Opal Wagnac:
Of course.
Kyle Lagunas:
You’re saying, I’m not going to ask if a restaurant has electricity. I’m not going to ask if HR is using AI. I want to know, how are you using AI?
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah. So this is your new baseline if you think about it, right? So many of us work for SaaS companies. Your company wouldn’t exist if the internet wasn’t there, right? So many of us have jobs. My job didn’t exist 45 years ago. So just even thinking it through, we’ll now have to be at the cusp of like, well, what are the new jobs going to be if AI is the baseline? So if the internet was the baseline, here we are today. Can you imagine if AI is the baseline?
As a matter of fact, I don’t even think we’ll put those two letters together again. Because no one even says the internet anymore. People just say Wi-Fi. It augments itself from one generation to the next. So I can only imagine what my kids are going to call it. They may call it, I don’t know, the internet went to the what? The cloud?
Kyle Lagunas:
I mean, do we still talk about the cloud?
Opal Wagnac:
I know, right?
Kyle Lagunas:
Well, look, before we even get there, I feel like HR is feeling this pressure. We have to get to a point of literacy. The business is asking us all these questions about AI. And like, I don’t know, girl, I’m an HR expert. I’m not an AI expert. But I honestly am feeling this massive paradigm shift where, and this is the tough part for HR, is being an HR expert’s not enough.
You have to know how this stuff works and how this stuff doesn’t work, what it does and what it doesn’t do. Because we do, in order to be effective leaders and effective stewards of the trust of the workforce, we have to make sure that we are actually using these things effectively. And ethically. And so we do need to get better versed in these. It can’t just be the internet. It can’t just be AI. We need to really start to figure this stuff out.
Are you finding in your role that you are having opportunities to answer some of these questions and lean into some of these things? What are some of the stuff that you’re really trying to get done at isolved?
Opal Wagnac:
Right, right. So just looking at the world of, especially like you mentioned before, when you’re looking at AI, you’re looking at all of these solutions. We should not stop questioning. Just because it’s there, we need more critical thinkers. And I emphasize that word critical. Criticize the AI. Please do. Just to make sure that you’re also not creating the same repetitive mistakes. And now all you deal is-
Kyle Lagunas:
You can’t take anything for granted.
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah, just take it and you’re systematizing it too. And if we’re really going to try and truly be these change agents, to me, HR is a change agent. So accept your role as a change agent and start making some changes. So even if the AI is telling you X, Y, Z, start challenging it. Okay, is this what we want for the future? Especially in an area like here at HR Tech, you see a lot on talent acquisition. And there’s been so much that has been done. At isolved we’ve done a tremendous amount of work around talent acquisition, especially even though we’re servicing the SMB and that mid-market space.
Kyle Lagunas:
Which is underserved, to be honest.
Opal Wagnac:
It’s very underserved. And I believe it was a stat like 99% of all businesses in the U.S. have less than 500 employees. So just think about that. Yes, there is a churn rate, but there’s also a much more impressive growth rate too. And so if they’re also trying to fish from the same pond as those larger enterprises, they should be able to get the same good talent.
Kyle Lagunas:
They have the same problems. They might not be at the same scale, but it’s…
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly.
Kyle Lagunas:
Right?
Opal Wagnac:
So everything is fair game for them too. So they deserve the same type of enterprise-grade solutions, so to speak. They deserve the right type of AI solutions.
Kyle Lagunas:
Well, you know what they deserve, what they also need? Is to know they can trust their partners.
Opal Wagnac:
Oh, 1000%.
Kyle Lagunas:
That’s one thing that I think is really interesting about y’all’s approach is you really are layering in best practice consulting and professional services with the technology too. I’ve seen, and you have too, a lot of people in the space, you can build a mousetrap and you got to hand over the mousetrap with the book to implement it. And sorry, I’m a technology vendor. You do what you need to do. I did my part, which was give you the software. I really like seeing you guys committed to helping your customers succeed.
Opal Wagnac:
Absolutely.
Kyle Lagunas:
Especially knowing you and your passion and your opinions. We need it. Right? It can’t be kid gloves. Like I said, the problems that HR leaders face in a global enterprise, the scale might be bigger, but we are facing those problems on the home front too.
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly, exactly.
Kyle Lagunas:
And we need have somebody that’s going to help us navigate this next level.
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah. Because technology’s not going to solve all your problems. Let me say that again for the people in the back. Technology is not going to solve all of your problems. So there’s going to be some times where you actually want to get on the phone and not be prompted. You actually want to speak to a real human because you’re dealing with people. It’s a very dynamic world that HR basically has to serve. And our tastes, our styles, everything changes. So if everything is constantly changing, you’re also going to need to deal with some very complex issues.
And the beauty about what isolved does is that we do not shy away from that service model. We recognize the fact that yes, there’s plenty of our customers. We have over 177,000 customers. So we take our same learnings from those customers and we produce HR services. Especially even understanding the notion that once upon a time, it was very easy for you to find someone that had 20 years of HR experience. That has been cut in half.
Kyle Lagunas:
I know.
Opal Wagnac:
So where do you find the expertise to move your business forward?
Kyle Lagunas:
Yeah. Absolutely.
Opal Wagnac:
As a business owner, you recognize that there is a need and there is a void. So looking at HR services, looking at talent acquisition services. You know you want to be able to acquire talent. However, actually to really be successful in talent acquisition, you need to be able to market. You can’t just take your job description and plop it out there on Twitter. Good luck with that. You need to be able, like, sorry, you need honey to catch some bees.
Kyle Lagunas:
That is part of the problem, right? I mean, because guess what? They’re competing for talent, not with their direct backyard competitors, they’re competing with those big budget companies too. Right?
Opal Wagnac:
Exactly. Exactly.
Kyle Lagunas:
Well, let me ask you then, if you are going to give one word of advice to folks to navigate this next year ahead, what would it be?
Opal Wagnac:
Well, definitely, I would say expand your circle. Because one thing about just being locked in, you’re never going to understand the problems that you’re about to face. And at the same time, I always tell my kids, learn from other people’s mistakes because you won’t live long enough to make them yourself. So that’s one part of it.
The other part of that is the diversity of thought. Also look around you. I think that there is a lot that we can do there, just even by expanding our circles ever so slightly. We don’t have to look that far. But really doing things in a way that, “Well, she’s not an HR expert, so why would I ask her?” Oh no, you should definitely ask her. Or, “She’s of a different generation.” No, you should definitely ask them too.
And you’ll be surprised that whenever we tend to pigeonhole people based off of their title, the truth is they didn’t just fall out of the sky and be an HR generalist. There was something else before that, too. So for the most part, when you’re engaging with someone, you’re getting the whole person and all of the experiences that make them.
Kyle Lagunas:
You know what this is giving Kamala… You didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree.
Opal Wagnac:
Yeah, you sure did…
Kyle Lagunas:
No, I really love it. I have actually seen, because I’ve been on the conference circuit all year long, and this is the most disruptive year I’ve seen.
Opal Wagnac:
Wow.
Kyle Lagunas:
But I also love seeing the community. People are coming together. They are sharing their war stories and their successes and learning together. No HR person is an island. Find your people. Find us. We care.
Opal Wagnac:
Yes. We’re here.
Kyle Lagunas:
I mean, we have a lot of opinions. I don’t know.
Opal Wagnac:
You’re never short of them, and neither am I.
Kyle Lagunas:
Well, thank you for coming and chatting with me for a little bit. If anybody wants to find you, they can hit you up on LinkedIn?
Opal Wagnac:
Yes, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn.
Kyle Lagunas:
All right. Thanks, babe. I’ll catch you again soon.
Opal Wagnac:
All right, love you.
Kyle Lagunas:
And just like that, folks, another fantastic conversation in the books. Huge shout out to Opal for dropping some serious wisdom and for reminding us that tech is only a tool. At the end of the day, it’s the people who behind it who make the real magic happen. That means you. Whether you’re running a global enterprise or a 50-person small business, it’s clear we all face the same challenges. The only difference: scale. And as Opal said, the key to navigating it all: expand your circle. Because let’s be real, none of us are going to live long enough to make every mistake ourselves.
So if today’s episode got you thinking about AI, or had you Googling deductibles mid-show, know that you are not alone. These are the conversations we need to have. And if you’re still curious, definitely hit up Opal on LinkedIn. Check out isolved. She’s the kind of person who tells it like it is, and then helps you figure out what to do next. I absolutely adore you, even if I candidly don’t remember how to pronounce your last name. I’m sorry, Opal.
Anyway, thanks for tuning in my friends. Remember, transformation doesn’t always happen overnight. And you don’t have to go it alone. Keep it real, keep it curious, and keep asking questions, whether it’s from your Roomba, your kid, or Alexa. We’ll catch you on the next one. Until then, stay kind, stay curious, and for the love of Zaza, don’t forget your Wi-Fi password. See you soon.
