Pilar Muner, VP of People & Talent at ChartHop, joined us on The Modern People Leader.
We covered:
- Why fractional work isn’t always the burnout cure-all it’s made out to be
-How ChartHop is using AI to power HR workflows in-house
- The AI vendor checklist every HR leader needs — what to ask, what to watch for, and how to cut through the hype
If you’re evaluating AI tools for your people team, this episode will give you a practical lens on security, data integrity, and what to prioritize in vendor selection.
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(10:56) Pilar’s Journey: From law aspirations to falling into HR
(13:07) Career Philosophy: “Just say yes” and the path through early-stage companies
(15:07) Why Pilar Went Fractional: A health-focused shift, not burnout
(17:18) Accidental Fractional Life: A few lucky client handoffs snowball
(18:46) Is Fractional Less Stressful? The importance of boundaries
(20:45) HR for HR: Why burnout doesn’t disappear without behavior change
(23:39) Boundary setting and designing your own career
(25:09) ChartHop Time: The magic of internal and external facing people ops
(26:37) Product Deep Dive: ChartHop’s back-end data architecture explained
(28:36) Why ChartHop is Built for AI from the Ground Up
(30:30) Empathy in HR Tech: ChartHop’s internal culture surprises
(32:27) ChartHop for Builders: Why it clicks for HR innovators
(35:42) Pilar’s AI Takeaways: Sophisticated people analytics—even at 25 people
(37:22) AI + HR Data: Beyond dashboards into contextual intelligence
(39:30) The Risks of Uploading Data to Public LLMs
(41:47) What ChartHop Does to Keep Client Data Secure
(44:51) Questions HR Leaders Should Ask AI Vendors
(47:21) Is HR Ready for AI? Why sitting on the sidelines isn’t safe
(49:08) Use Case Example: AI-powered performance review feedback
(51:09) Human Judgment Still Required: Don’t rely solely on AI
(52:52) The Importance of Judicious AI Prompts in HR
(53:19) ChartHop’s View on AI Front Doors & Model Context Protocols
(55:37) Internal Testing: ChartHop dogfoods its own platform with Salesforce, NetSuite, and Gong
(58:38) Favorite Use Case: Performance reviews written with AI accuracy
(01:02:21) Engagement Survey in 3 Hours Instead of 50
(01:04:46) ChartHop Use Cases: The AI-powered HRBP assistant
(01:07:09) Treating AI like your own HRBP: Macro-level strategy
(01:11:38) GenAI as HR for HR: Scenario planning and internal insights
(01:15:04) Weekly Check-Ins: AI helps prioritize which employees need attention
(01:16:13) Rapid Fire: Pilar’s one big takeaway—just try
(01:18:22) Superpower Nickname: The Force or The Inspirer
(01:20:12) Strategy to Steal: Zapier’s AI-first approach
(01:21:54) Shoutouts: 5 emerging HR leaders you should know
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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.
