AI & organizations
How to Choose an HR AI Trainer? Start With Whether They've Solved Real HR Problems
3 min readHR AI speaker, AI training for HR, HRAI, Learning and development
Key takeaways
- There are plenty of AI trainers, but few understand how HR actually works. When choosing an HR AI trainer, start by asking whether they have solved real HR problems.
- Many AI courses lean too heavily on technology, and the language is far from HR's daily work, so participants leave without knowing how to apply it.
- A good HR AI session is practical: it uses HR's own processes as examples, and participants leave with one thing they can start doing at work.
- Before booking, ask the trainer three questions: which HR problems they have solved, whether the examples come from HR work, and what participants can do afterward.
Why is it still hard to find the right AI trainer for HR?
When a company decides to run AI training, HR is usually the team asked to find the trainer. A quick search turns up more AI trainers than anyone could compare. The hard part is finding one who understands HR.
I'm an HR leader, and I also speak on HR × AI at companies and forums. The situation I hear about most often from HR colleagues goes like this: the session covers a lot of technology and tools, the jargon keeps coming, and the HR people in the room understand every word but still don't know where to start once they're back at their desks. It isn't that the participants weren't paying attention. The language of the course is simply too far from HR's daily work.
So when you choose an HR AI trainer, don't start by comparing who has the strongest AI skills. Start by checking whether they have dealt with real HR problems.
Three things to check
| What to check | What to ask | Good signs | Warning signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Have they solved real HR problems? | "Which HR process have you used AI to fix?" | They name a specific process, such as interview scheduling, onboarding or grievances, and can say where it got stuck | They only talk about tool features, and none of the examples come from HR |
| Do they speak HR's language? | "How would you explain this idea to HR people with no technical background?" | They explain it through familiar HR situations, with little jargon | They keep using technical terms, or expect participants to learn to code first |
| Can participants put it into practice? | "What's the first thing participants can do at work after the session?" | There is a clear next step, ideally practiced on participants' own processes | The session stops at a demo, and participants still don't know where to begin |
How I approach it
I'm Wesley Cheng, an HR leader rather than an engineer, with more than eight years leading HR across industries. I've built 16 HR systems with AI myself, each one starting from a point where my own HR work got stuck. Since 2025, I've given 13 HR × AI talks at forums, inside companies and at universities.
When I teach, I use HR's own processes as examples and speak in terms HR people use every day. The feedback I hear most often is that my sessions are practical, down to earth, and grounded in the real pain points of HR work.
My topics include what AI can actually do for HR, a way to turn pain points into systems, AI-assisted resume screening, and hands-on workshops where HR teams work on their own company's processes. You can find the topics and past talks on my speaking page.
Three things to take away
- Before booking, ask the trainer: "Which HR process have you used AI to fix?" If they can't give a concrete example, think twice.
- Ask the trainer to explain the core idea of their session using a familiar HR situation, and listen for whether it sounds like HR's language.
- Make sure that by the end of the session, participants can take away one thing they can start doing in their own work.