Brandon Sammut is the Chief People Officer at Zapier, one of the earliest and most successful no-code automation companies.
With over 800 fully remote employees, Zapier has been at the forefront of workflow automation for more than a decade. Brandon’s role sits at the intersection of people, culture, and technology — giving him a unique vantage point on how to drive company-wide AI adoption at scale.
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Brought to you by Autoskills (https://autoskills.ai) – Helping teams go from AI-curious to AI-ready with tailored workshops and hands-on adoption.
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(00:00) Introduction — Brandon's role at Zapier and how AI entered the conversation
(04:12) Why top-down AI mandates rarely work (and what Zapier does instead)
(08:45) Building AI fluency across a remote, global team
(12:30) Zapier's "center of excellence" approach — balancing guidance with experimentation
(17:55) Early wins: how AI started showing up in recruiting, customer support, and marketing
(22:40) The challenge of scale: making AI adoption sustainable vs. shiny
(27:15) Rethinking skills and roles in the AI era — how HR is adapting
(32:02) The cultural playbook: celebrating use cases, sharing learnings, keeping momentum
(38:16) What incumbents get wrong about AI adoption
(42:50) Zapier's bets on where automation + AI converge next
(47:30) Lightning round + closing reflections
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Where to Find Brandon:
Where to find Haroon Choudery: