Beyond The Prompt - How to use AI in your company AI-Native or Not: The Defining Choice for Companies Right Now - with Melissa Cheals, CEO of Smartly
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Apr 1, 2026 Melissa Cheals, CEO of Smartly and leader in payroll and people-platform AI transformation, shares how AI reshaped product, leadership, and org design. She recounts using AI to reframe tough conversations, build cross-functional value streams, and make the pivotal choice to be AI-native versus layering on legacy systems. Practical leadership shifts and thinking bigger with AI take center stage.
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Early GPT Demo Sparked Hiring To Catalyze Change
- Melissa's early exposure to others using GPT in meetings convinced her AI would reshape product and required a vision for change.
- She brought Ella into Smartly specifically to build capacity and talk across the company about AI possibilities.
Scale AI By Making It A Company Wide Muscle
- Run AI initiatives as company-wide efforts, not single-person projects; encourage team ownership.
- Melissa emphasizes "we run the business, we don't run departments" and trains champions across functions to use AI daily.
Leaders Should Be Hands On With Prompting
- Leaders must learn prompting and use AI hands-on so they can support, challenge, and guide teams.
- Melissa ran group co-learning sessions where she practiced prompting alongside staff to model behavior and build capability.