The Day the Manager Became the Strategy: Key Takeaways from Outsmart Local Brooklyn
Read key takeaways from Outsmart Local NYC 2025, where HR and People Analytics leaders explored the AI in HR imperative, the importance of workforce planning, and more.
What a day. If you were with us in Brooklyn for Outsmart Local, you were part of a deep, honest conversation about the state of People Analytics and the HR Solution Stack. More than 150 attendees came together for a shared movement centered around a bias for action. Throughout the day, dialogue around me shifted from "here's what we need to do" to "here's how to make it happen." The overwhelming takeaway? The future of work is not about technology alone. It’s really about unlocking the human potential in the moments that matter most.
And right now, that journey starts and ends with people managers.
The discussions on and off stage reinforced that this is the most critical lever for change. Managers are the last mile of corporate performance, yet many are overwhelmed, faced with more responsibilities than they can handle. HR teams are often unintentionally making life harder for them by adding administrative burden. But there’s good news: People Analytics and data-driven HR leaders are poised to radically change this dynamic.
For the better.
It’s time to zero out the friction
We heard clearly that for HR to elevate its impact, we need to drastically reduce the friction that prevents managers from getting the insights they need, when they need it. This friction, both a curiosity killer and a productivity staller, often stems from two main issues: trust and literacy.
The Trust Gap: Many outside HR don’t trust the data, and internally, HR teams may be hoarding data they’re afraid to share.
The Literacy Gap: Not everyone speaks “HR language” or understands how to interpret a complex People Analytics dashboard.
We learned that when HR and People Analytics leaders fail to translate complexity into plain language, managers are left operating on intuition, not on competitive intelligence. The mission for People Analytics, then, is to become the Data Whisperer.
Think of this person as a charismatic translator who takes data and converts it into relevant, actionable business strategies. Your CFO isn’t looking for a perfect data set, they’re in need of the best data available right now to make a multi-million-dollar decision. We need to bring that same confidence and business acumen into the technology we use to make better people decisions.
The AI in HR imperative: Orchestration, not overhaul
The wave of AI in HR is forcing us all to prioritize. We shouldn’t be looking at AI as just a cool feature to add to our HR solution tech stack. Instead, we need to view it as a management system. It’s really a way to connect strategic intent directly to the moment a people manager needs to make a decision or redirect priorities.
This requires People Analytics and HR leaders to focus on orchestration. Here’s how:
Unlocking Insights: We must simplify access to insights. Why make a manager log into 16 different systems? We need to meet people where they work, whether that’s in Slack, Teams, or their Copilot environment. This capability to link specialized People Analytics data into a company’s broader AI strategy via open protocols like the new Visier MCP is a breakthrough. It means your People Data becomes a trusted, secure input into any operational agent across the business—from IT to Sales.
The Power of Proactivity: The goal is for the system to flag a potential problem, not just report on a past failure. Imagine an HR Business Partner being nudged when a manager-employee communication pattern signals a conflict risk before it turns into a lawsuit or exit. That’s the strategic value we must deliver.
Workforce planning needs to take center stage
A clear strategic priority emerged during Outsmart, and it’s something we’re hearing from HR leaders with increasing urgency: Workforce Planning. It’s no longer a “hobby” but a critical business capability tied directly to bottom-line results.
The best People Analytics functions are eliminating the distance between planning and analytics. Organizations need to shift from static annual headcount exercises to dynamic, skills-informed scenario modeling. This is why our new Org Design capabilities resonated so strongly. It’s not about moving boxes on a chart; it’s about modeling scenarios, and making sure that’s optimized for cost, skills, and talent risk before you execute a reduction in force.
This preventative and strategic use of workforce data is the only way to avoid a painful layoff, which you may ultimately regret as our recent Layoff Boomerang Report research highlights. The sobering reality is that many companies end up rehiring laid-off employees—often at a higher salary—which underscores the true cost of poor planning.
Over 150 Outsmart attendees left Brooklyn with a sense of urgency, but more importantly, a plan. The uncomfortable truth is that the old ways are irrelevant. The exciting reality is that People Analytics is the key to a data-driven future that thrives. We have the tools, the data, and the mission to help every manager make better decisions at scale.
The time to lean in and demonstrate this value is now, and it lies with the People Analytics and HR leaders of today.
Don’t miss the next time we bring our community together in person. We’re heading to Palm Springs, California April 22-24, 2026 for our main Outsmart conference. Registration is now live, so reserve your spot today.
