Helping HR Lead With Confidence
Dirk Petersen, founder of People-AI-HR LLC, has spent his career equipping HR leaders to deliver measurable business results through their people. From hands-on entrepreneurial leadership to senior HR roles at the World Bank, Gartner, and Insight222, his focus has always been the same: helping HR enable leaders and employees to achieve more together.
“I believe HR has never had a bigger opportunity—or a bigger risk. If HR leads with AI, it will define the future of work. If not, others will.”
Dirk founded People-AI-HR with a clear mission: To help CHROs and their teams answer the CEO’s toughest AI questions, engage employees in adoption, and prove HR’s value at the leadership table.
AI & HR: Today’s Challenge
Dirk’s current work focuses on helping HR successfully bridge into the era of Generative AI. His deeper learning began at Harvard’s “Leading with AI” conference in 2024 and has since been expanding through study with experts like Wharton’s Ethan Mollick and Harvard’s Karim Lakhani, as well as certificates in GenAI in HR and Strategy from Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute.
He has applied these insights in advising HR executives on how to launch GenAI initiatives that employees actually adopt—because adoption, not algorithms, is where the value lies.
Dirk is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and has spoken on three continents at leading industry events, such as Visier Outsmart, academic institutions, and the majority of Fortune 500 companies. His message to CHROs: GenAI isn’t a technology project—it’s a people and leadership challenge. HR must help employees see AI as a tool that strengthens their contribution and careers.
Proven Across Sectors
Entrepreneurial: As a College Pro Painters franchise owner while still in college, Dirk managed a team of 25 employees and ranked in the top 10% of franchisees in North America for revenue and profitability—an early career crash course in what CHROs Chief Human Resources Officers know best: hiring, motivating, and retaining talent is what drives results.
Finance & Strategy: After earning dual degrees at Wharton and Penn, Dirk spent four years in investment banking, negotiating 30 M&A deals, including the sale of German enterprises to US investors and the privatization of Estonia’s largest shipyard. The lesson from the transactions was clear: even multi-million dollar company mergers succeed or fail based on leadership and people.
Global Development: At the World Bank in project finance, he saw how human dynamics dictated project success more than capital or technical planning.
Research & Advisory: At CEB (now Gartner), Dirk led the Recruiting Roundtable, delivering research that helped CHROs compete for talent and reduce turnover. He presented to executives worldwide as a keynote speaker on three continents.
HR Leadership: Returning to the World Bank as HR Business Partner to the President’s Office, Dirk developed and implemented HR initiatives that improved talent development, engagement, and retention—earning the HR Team Award.
People Analytics: At Insight222, he partnered with CHROs to build people analytics capabilities that unlocked workforce insights and enabled leaders to make faster, better workforce decisions. During this time, he also published in Visier Outsmart and the widely cited Data-driven HR Monthly.
Why Work With Dirk
Dirk brings:
- Experience: HR leadership at the World Bank, advisory roles at Gartner, and people analytics transformation at Insight222.
- Practicality: A Six Sigma Greenbelt and a track record of aligning HR programs with measurable outcomes—higher productivity, stronger engagement, lower turnover.
- Perspective: Entrepreneurial, global, and HR-specific experience that makes him relatable and pragmatic.