1:1 Update: **Karthik Kumar
**Date: 8 Jun 2026
Manager: Bridget
🔵 Key Highlights
Major Outcomes
- Reporting on Agent - Scott & myself
- Phebe Agent "Password Related"
- Learnt on Deployment on GitHub & Linux
- PA Jobs work and monitoring
- Monthly Reports knowledge Transfer with Jen (3 completed another 2 wip)
- Own ServiceNow MCP Working in progress (Incident,PRB,CHG,APR,Vuls)
Impact
- Business: None this cycle
- Process Improvement: Automation Reporitng
🤖 AI Project Update
What I Did
- Understanding the code in-depth and adapted how they functioned the code and then implemented
- BI Report for Agent (165 fields and futures and research)
- Actively adding and identifying gaps contributed as much as I understand our Paychex systems
Work in Progress
In Progress
- Chat Data BI Report -delivered for QC and mean while we are updating automating the template with new enhancements.
- Monthly/ Quarterly Reports documentation working in progress
- Blue Chip Automation
- Automation pipeline build-out: - will started
🟠 Shadow Sessions & Knowledge Sharing
Sessions
- Automation — Python / SQL — Planned (will start)
- GitHub Paychex Deployment (yet to get resource + learn Plan)
🟣 Upskilling
Current Focus
- Agentic AI — Advanced AI / ML specialization with Agentic AI - I will become AI Engineer / Agentic AI Engineer
- Agentic AI Application Cohort Bootcamp (Paid Bootcamp)
🔵 This Week / Next Week Priorities
High Priority
- PHEBE Agent Reporting
- Monthly / Quarterly Report Doc for Jen
- Quarterly reporting
Medium Priority
- Automation — Initiated and progressing
- IMR Analysis — YoY / QoQ / MoM breakdown
- Chat Data insights
- cortex application understanding
- MCP ServiceNow Enhancements
🔵 Quarterly Planning Observations
Thank you for facilitating the quarterly planning sessions and putting significant effort into organizing the work across the team's portfolios. I wanted to share a few observations and ideas that may help make future planning sessions even more effective:
At times, the conversation became increasingly complex, which made it difficult to reach clear decisions and determinate the next steps.
1. Increase Team Ownership in Planning
Since team members manage and support specific portfolios, it would be beneficial if everyone came prepared with proposed priorities, improvements, risks, and opportunities for their areas.
This would encourage greater ownership and accountability while ensuring planning discussions are based on hands-on operational knowledge.
It may also help reduce situations where discussions become very broad, making it difficult to reach decisions and finalize priorities.
2. Arrive with a Draft Quarterly Plan
My idea would be for team members to prepare approximately 70-80% of their proposed quarterly roadmap in advance.
This would provide management the flexibility to focus on validating priorities, aligning resources and making decisions on the remaining 20-30% based on business needs and strategic decisions.
This approach could help us move faster from discussion to execution.
3. Leverage AI and Innovation Ideas from the Team
Team members work closely with the portfolios and understand end-to-end processes, recurring challenges, and improvement opportunities.
As part of quarterly planning, each person could bring AI-driven ideas, automation opportunities, process improvements, or innovation proposals for their area.
This would help identify gaps earlier and create a stronger pipeline of improvement initiatives.
4. Include Team Building and Collaboration Activities
In addition to operational planning, it may be valuable to allocate a small portion of the session to team engagement activities.
Examples could include a short online game, informal discussions, sharing personal achievements, or non-work-related conversations.
This could strengthen team relationships and improve collaboration across portfolios.
Summary:
Overall, I believe these changes could make quarterly planning more focused, encourage greater ownership from the team, and allow management to concentrate on strategic decisions rather than detailed portfolio planning.
🟢 AI Related Concerns & Opportunities
I recognize that AI is creating uncertainty across many industries, and it is natural for people to have concerns about how roles may evolve in the future.
During team discussions, I noticed that conversations around AI were often focused on risks, challenges, and potential impacts, which can unintentionally create additional stress and uncertainty within the team.
Why a Balanced Perspective Matters
While it is important to acknowledge the risks, I believe it is equally important to focus on the opportunities AI creates for us.
Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for our expertise, we could benefit from on combining our domain knowledge, business understanding, and technical skills with AI capabilities.
Our Existing Skills Remain Valuable
Our existing skills and experience remain valuable. AI becomes significantly more effective when guided by people who understand the processes, customers, systems, and business context.
We already got opportunities from the managers/company building knowledge and hands-on experience with AI and Agentic AI technologies. This puts us in a strong position to evolve our capabilities and remain relevant as technology advances.
Core Skills + AI (Not Skills vs AI)
I believe our focus should be on "Core Skills + AI" rather than "Skills vs AI."
A more balanced discussion around AI may help the team feel more confident, identify new opportunities, and approach change with a growth mindset rather than uncertainty.
Overall, I believe that integrating AI with our existing expertise will strengthen both our individual capabilities and the team's long-term value to the organization.
My Journey: Skills Evolution
What I gained from 2023 to 2025
Whole change of my core skill because of AI in 2026
⚫ Manager Notes
Feedback
Direction
Follow-ups
📊 Status Summary
- Key Highlights — On track (major progress this week)
- AI Project Update & Learnings — On track (strong results and insights gained)
- Achievements & Work in Progress — On track (tasks progressing as planned)
- Shadow Sessions & Knowledge Sharing — Attention needed (ongoing sessions)
- Upskilling — On track (continuous progress)
- Agentic AI Events — On track (strong applied learning)
- Next Week Priorities — On track (clearly defined)
Passionate about the work I do and the impact it creates