The AI Gold Rush, The Dirty Data, and Why I Moved Here
Welcome to the Department of First Things First.
Right now, if you work in HR Tech, you are being bombarded. Every conference, every LinkedIn post, and every vendor email is screaming about AI Agents, Copilots, and the Singularity. They promise magic. They promise to give you your weekends back. They promise it’s safe.
I love the future. But I’m a pragmatist.
I’ve spent the last 13 years building integrations, managing Workday architectures, and writing code. And I know a dirty secret: Most organizations aren’t ready for the future because they haven’t fixed the present.
You can’t build a skyscraper on a swamp. If your underlying data is a dumpster fire, adding AI just gives you a faster, more confident dumpster fire.
Why “The Department of First Things First”?
I moved my writing to Substack for one reason: Focus.
I wanted a place where we could strip away the noise and just talk about the blueprints. I want to help you be the person in the room who asks the brave question:
“That AI demo looks cool, but does it respect our existing security groups?”
I am a recovering “Yes Man.” For years, I measured my success by my ticket closure rate. I thought being a good business partner meant saying, “Sure, we can build that!” to every request.
I was an order-taker. A path-of-least-resistance machine.
But in the age of Agentic AI, being a “Yes Man” isn’t just inefficient; it’s dangerous. We have to stop implementing solutions to undefined problems.
What you can expect here
I’m not just a Director of Tech. I’m also a dad to an 11-year-old (Justin), a tennis player, and a guy trying to get a clear view of Jupiter from his driveway.
This newsletter is my kitchen table. We’re going to talk strategy, but we’re going to keep it human.
Here is the plan:
Weekly-ish Deep Dives: Practical advice on HRIS, Project Management, and Vendor Selection. No fluff.
The “No” List: Things we need to stop doing in 2025 (starting with hardcoding logic in integrations).
Real Life: Sometimes, the best lessons in Agile Management come from trying to organize a family weekend in Philly, not a software sprint.
First Order of Business
If you are here to automate chaos, you’re in the wrong place.
If you’re here to solve the right problems? Grab a chair.
Welcome to the Department.
— Michael Domingo
Director HR Tech | Pragmatic Futurist
P.S. If you have a specific topic you want me to cover—or if you just want to argue about the Eagles’ defensive line—hit reply. I read everything.