HR in the AI Era
“We’re deeply influenced by AI, first and foremost because we are an AI company”
Pecan AI’s VP of Operations and HR, Daphna Cibulski-Cohen, joined CTech to discuss the impact of the AI revolution on its workforce.
“The rise of AI, and particularly the generative AI wave, has significantly shaped our product direction, user experience, hiring priorities, marketing strategy, and more,” shared Daphna Cibulski-Cohen, VP of Operations and HR at Pecan AI.
CTech’s "HR in the AI Era" series explores how the AI revolution is impacting the workforce across Israeli high-tech companies. In this series, we uncover the effects (both personal and professional) that this technology shift has had on Startup Nation.
Cibulski-Cohen argued that “the overuse of the term ‘AI’, often as a buzzword with little real technology behind it, makes it harder for truly innovative solutions to stand out.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Company name: Pecan AI
Your name and title: Daphna Cibulski-Cohen, VP Operations and HR
Names of founders and upper management: Zohar Bronfman (Co-Founder and CEO), Noam Brezis (Co-Founder and CTO), Tomer Meron (VP R&D), Yehonathan Barnea (VP CS) and Riki Falah (VP Finance)
Year of founding: 2018
Investment stage: Series C
Total investment to date: $117M
Field of activity: AI
Number of employees: 52
Office location: Tel Aviv
Number of open positions: 7
On a scale of 1-10, how much does the AI revolution disrupt your company operation in general, and the HR department specifically?
9
How so?
We’re deeply influenced by AI, first and foremost because we are an AI company. The rise of AI, and particularly the generative AI wave, has significantly shaped our product direction, user experience, hiring priorities, marketing strategy, and more.
What interesting AI tools do you and your staff use in employee management/recruitment?
Our SaaS platform, powered by cutting-edge proprietary technology, is the primary driver behind our ability to attract top talent. Being positioned at the forefront of AI innovation is a strong draw for candidates. Additionally, we actively use tools like ChatGPT to support writing, brainstorming, and idea exploration.
In which roles or tasks within your company has AI already begun to replace human labor (if at all)?
Marketing messaging, low-end analytics, Intercom to give first response, and an in-out platform for product marketing.
What are the two major challenges you are coping with these days?
Expanding to broader markets and recruiting very strong engineers that specialize in LLM.
Have you experienced workforce-related challenges due to the war, and are you still feeling the impact of the security situation on your human resources?
For sure — for several reasons: Reserve service, working with Turkish companies, and flying in and out of Israel to meet prospects and customers.
Have you made changes to your workforce following the increased use of AI tools, both in terms of headcount and internal shifts between departments?
Yes! To a large extent. The evolution of AI creates constant evolution of our product, causing us to recruit more and more engineers who specialize in GenAI and machine learning (ML).
How does the global market uncertainty affect your workforce, in terms of employee numbers or departmental reallocations? Are you scaling your workforce up or down in different regions around the world?
We’re definitely seeing increased reluctance from businesses to invest in new capabilities. It’s become more challenging to capture market attention in such a noisy environment. On top of that, the overuse of the term “AI”, often as a buzzword with little real technology behind it, makes it harder for truly innovative solutions to stand out.
Do you estimate that in 2025–2026 you will increase or decrease the number of personnel? Explain why.
I think that we will increase the number of personnel next year since the Gen AI revolution holds great opportunities for us to take our product even further technologically and better suit more and more companies out there. Gen AI helps us create an improved UX and expands our total addressable market. Therefore, we expect to scale.
