In this episode of Full Throttle Leaders, host Michael Falato interviews Vincent Cohen, co‑founder of AIHR, an online learning platform for HR professionals. Cohen explains AIHR’s unique Tell‑Show‑Do‑Apply methodology, which moves learners from theory to practice in a fail‑safe environment and provides templates for real‑world application. He describes how AIHR builds T‑shaped capability models and learning journeys to support large‑scale HR transformation projects, such as a 150,000‑employee retail organization shifting its HR operating model. The conversation covers AIHR’s market focus—primarily SMBs with 20‑25 HR staff, while expanding into enterprise clients—its competitive landscape (direct academy competitors and generic platforms like LinkedIn Learning), and strategic partnerships, including SHRM accreditation, affiliate networks with HR associations, and collaborations with HR consultants. Cohen highlights AIHR’s recent AI upskilling program and internal use of AI to streamline sales activities, emphasizing a tech‑agnostic stance while exploring deeper integrations with ATS, CRM, and payroll systems. The interview concludes with contact information, directing listeners to Cohen’s LinkedIn for further engagement.
Chapters
Hello everybody, Michael Falato again from Full Throttle Leaders. We have Vincent Cohen from AIHR based in the Netherlands, right Vincent?
Absolutely.
So Vincent, I got you on here today. What about your company is different than most of the companies out there? Tell us what you do and Absolutely.
So we're an online learning platform for HR professionals. So we do e-learning with some live sessions there as well. How we're different than other platforms out there is our Tell-Show-Do-Apply methodology, which ensures true capability uplift and behavior change. So we first tell you how to do something, then we show you how to do it, Then we show you how to do it. Then you go to do it yourself in a fail-safe environment in our platform. And then you get templates and toolkits to go apply it in your actual job. So it's not just e-learning, but we have a methodology to make sure that we ensure real behavior change.
So gimme a real-world example of the role, what you did, so we could kind of paint that picture. Sure.
So there's a couple different options, but one of the larger ones that you typically see is like, like a very large retail organization of 150,000 employees. They are in the middle of HR transformation. They need to go through a couple different steps. What typically happens is you have a business strategy shift. AI is coming, different types of things. As a result, an HR strategy needs to shift. Then in order to execute on that HR strategy, you need a new HR operating model. So you need new structures, jobs, new capabilities. So out of that rolls a capability model, the different skills that we need in our organization to effectively execute this new HR operating model. And so we help them navigate through that change. And then once we get to this capability model, we help them build a capability model for their HR organization. And we do that based on our T-shaped, which you might or might not know, which says there's a couple of core capabilities that we believe every HR professional needs to have. And then depending on the function that you're in, there is some deep expertise that people need. And so then we then roll out learning journeys for all these different personas at different seniority levels to ensure that people develop the skills of the future and to be able to execute on their new target operating model. And so we guide organizations through that journey start to finish.
Who do you say is a Is SHRM either a good partner or they kind of fallen into the same approach? Tell us kind of how that works between SHRM and your company.
Yeah, it's a good question. I still don't always know myself. Our programs are SHRM accredited, so there's a lot of especially US organizations that find SHRM accreditation important, and so they actually see the value of AI Chart to get their recertification credits for SHRM. On the other hand, we do also compete to a degree because they also offer online learning. So from that regard, we're competition, but we don't see them very often actually competing for the same business.
Who do you find that you're competing with mostly?
There's 2 possibilities. Either it's like a direct competitor, like a Josh Berson Academy, who's a big name in the space, and he has his own academy, which is very, very similar to ours in terms of like what we're trying to achieve. And then if it's not that, then you typically see more generic learning platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, you name it.
Okay. And who do you, uh, who do you like working with the most? Is it, is it light enterprise, enterprise? You know, what's the best ideal customer profile for your company?
Where we're the biggest in terms of volume is the SMB, but we, what we define SMB is around as they have roughly 20, 25 HR professionals. That's where we're really, really strong in. And in the past couple of 2, 3, 4 years, we're seeing very big traction on these enterprise clients. I just mentioned one of those examples of these large transformation journeys. So that's really where we're moving towards.
And what's 2 things or even one thing in the last 6 to 12 months that you're like, wow, that was a great idea that implemented well? I learned a new tool or service or solution or strategy or something that just completely bombed. And you're like, hey guys, I did this. It wasn't a good fit. Maybe you don't want to do it either.
I think I'll have to talk about AI then. What we've noticed is a very big uplift and interest for AI upskilling, and it's actually overcrowding all other interest in HR learning. And so we set out to build an AI upskilling program, and we've built the best of the best e-learning when it comes to AI, but the shelf life of this is obviously very, very short. So you need to be able to continue to repeat and reshoot this, and that's something that we haven't been very, very strong at. Where we have been much stronger also on the AI side is getting our commercial and developing teams to be able to use AI to just speed up production and ensure that essentially salespeople do one thing, which is sales. That's my very simple vision. Salespeople should be doing sales. They should be spending as little time as possible on setting up meetings, on meeting summaries, on doing their CRM admin. So we're really doing great steps there to just minimize the amount of work they do so that they spend the most amount of time actually talking to other human beings.
And what kind of partners are you looking for? Like, for me, when I do the lead generation side, I look for companies that have a big outbound approach or big connections on LinkedIn of CROs, CEOs, like, and like, that's who they sell to as a software company as well. So those are my partners, and I try to use their LinkedIn and build this whole like roundtable approach. Do you have any like partner approach that's really working well? And who Who are those types of folks?
Yeah, our channel has a couple different areas they focus on. One of them is our affiliate network. These are HR associations like SHRM chapters that then promote us to their members in exchange for a small fee. It adds to their value proposition and it gives them some revenue. So that's one of our bigger channels. The other one is HR consultants, smaller consultants that would like to wrap their services around our e-learning. So whether they want to offer training or whether they want to offer consulting services, wrap that around our training programs. That's another, another big one that we see. There's a smaller amount, but we're starting to explore that more, is like integrating with different tech platforms to be able to offer our learning.
Is there particular companies that if they have a certain ATS, CRM, payroll company that's, hey, this is a no-brainer for us to work with? Or is it— are you computer— are you completely tech agnostic?
Yeah, we're completely tech agnostic. Uh, we are exploring with which platforms we should have like deep native integrations, but that's, that's early stage right now.
Okay, well, tell people how to get a hold of you. I know we got your email up here, but tell me like what else they should know about you and your company. And then do you want to put out your phone number or anything else? Or if you're going to be at a conference, let us know so we can Publish that for you.
Yeah, feel free to just publish my LinkedIn. I think that's the, that's the best, best place to, to reach out to me. Um, in terms of what else people should know, um, I guess the only thing that I would say is, uh, if you're in an HR organization and you're feeling that you need, um, different types of behaviors and skill sets in your organization, then I'd hope you already know us. And if not, now is a, now is a good moment to check who AHR is.
