267 - BNY’s Big Bet on Early Careers — and How They Built 15K Agents & 100 Digital Employees: Shannon Hobbs (Chief People Officer, BNY)
The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR
From Hackathons to Production Agents
Shannon recounts cross-team hackathons that combined ideas into production-ready people-team agents.
Shannon Hobbs, Chief People Officer at BNY, joined us to unpack how the bank is scaling its early-career pipeline, flattening org design, and running a culture-first transformation.
We discussed BNY’s in-house AI hub “Eliza” (99% employee certification, 15k+ agents, 100 digital employees), plus practical advice for CHROs on building AI capability safely and at scale.
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How BNY is betting big on early talent (PDF): https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode267
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(07:31) Shannon’s career journey to CPO (Citigroup/Smith Barney → Morgan Stanley → JPMorgan → American Century → GEICO → BNY)
(10:36) Advice to aspiring CPOs: say yes to high-need roles; build varied skill sets
(12:59) BNY in 30 seconds: “the bank of banks,” custody/clearing and client solutions
(13:40) Why early careers matter now; meeting talent where they are(16:03) Scaling analysts: 500 → 1,000 → 2,000; investing despite headcount scrutiny
(19:12) Timeline & structure: cohorts, rotations, upcoming “franchise” track
(20:50) Manager enablement: teaching leaders how to leverage new-gen skills
(22:43) The manager role today and why flatter orgs help(25:03) What “flat” looks like: cross-functional pods, closer to clients, more accountability
(27:57) Finding hidden gems: visibility, time back via automation, rewarding talent work
(29:49) Transformation umbrella: why this is bigger than a reorg
(30:27) Platform operating model: phased rollout, end-to-end commitment
(32:26) Culture → clients: language, pillars, progress toward full adoption
(33:15) Robin Vince’s culture-first, level-agnostic leadership style
(34:27) Turning to AI: framing AI as an enabler, not the destination
(35:53) Eliza, BNY’s AI hub: built in-house for safety, control, and scale
(36:49) Onboarding & safety: 99% employee certification before use
(38:45) Hackathons, bootcamps, and recognition to drive real adoption
(40:07) What’s inside Eliza: chat, agent builder, governed access
(40:28) People Team Agent: launch story, 17k unique users in month one
(42:11) Host reaction to adoption stats; why this is notable
(43:33) Bottom-up tactics: sandboxing, storytelling, shared language
(44:12) Legal as early adopter; multi-touch education to reduce fear
(45:56) From “Excel fluency” to “AI fluency” as the new baseline
(46:48) Who builds agents? Personal vs. production; step-by-step path
(47:47) Idea intake → AI hub prioritization → production digital employees
(48:16) Host reflection: rethinking careers in financial services
(49:50) Final big question: how to build an AI hub in HR
(50:42) Shannon’s playbook: train, equip, dialog, and tie to culture & work redesign
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.
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