Case Study

Delivering outsized value to HR clients with Section's AI upskilling

Learn how global consulting firm Mercer collaborates with Section to deliver specialized AI training to HR professionals worldwide
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“Our collaboration combines Mercer’s expertise in HR with Section’s expertise in AI upskilling to deliver an exceptional experience.”

- Adriana O'Kain, AI Strategy, Innovation, and Solutions Leader, Mercer

By the numbers

1154

HR professionals trained in AI

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357

client organizations served

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93%

client organizations served

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The quick summary

Mercer partners with Section to deliver specialized AI training to HR professionals worldwide, certifying over 1154 professionals in AI across 357 organizations. The customized AI Essentials for HR course achieves exceptional engagement, with a 93% completion rate, and helps position Mercer as a strategic transformation partner to their client base. 
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About Mercer

Industry: HR consulting

Company size: Enterprise

Location: Global

Section use case: 
AI upskilling for HR

The challenge

Delivering specialized AI training at global scale

The challenge was multifaceted:

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Deliver specialized AI training relevant to HR professionals

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Create a scalable education offering for global deployment

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Support multiple languages to serve diverse markets

As a global consulting leader in the HR space, Mercer recognized the transformative potential of AI for HR professionals and the need to accelerate their understanding and use of AI. Under the leadership of Adriana O’Kain, AI Strategy Leader, Mercer faced a critical "build or buy" decision regarding AI training for their clients.

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"Our expertise and bread and butter is in HR and workforce transformation rather than AI education, we needed a solution that allowed us to meet the needs of our clients in an agile way while maintaining Mercer’s high bar for quality."‍

- Adriana O'Kain, AI Strategy, Innovation, and Solutions Leader, Mercer

The diagnosis

Enthusiasm without infrastructure equals expensive drift.

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The proposal

The Section partnership

While evaluating their options, Adriana was immediately impressed by the quality of Section’s AI training content. “Section’s AI training was the high quality I wanted to offer our client base,” she says. 
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Mercer and Section worked together to customize Section’s AI training for HR professionals
resulting in the AI Essentials for HR course.
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The course and platform were co-branded
AI Essentials for HR was delivered in English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish to accommodate Mercer’s global audience. 
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The course is updated every run
ensuring that new HR professionals are getting the most up-to-date training in AI.
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Building on this success, Mercer and Section are expanding their collaboration to: 
continue developing content specific to HR, position Mercer as a comprehensive AI transformation partner,  and support "land and expand" opportunities within enterprise clients
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The journey

Agital's AI adoption journey

(Early 2025)
Strategic foundation
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Section conducts AI Maturity Deep Dive across Agital's 325-person organization

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Assessment reveals wide variance 
in proficiency and near-zero organizational visibility into actual usage patterns

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Section and Agital co-develop a transformation plan presented to senior leadership and the board

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Agital forms an informal AI steering committee to provide cross-functional governance

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Agital signs ChatGPT Enterprise agreement and deploys ProfAI for baseline certification

(Late 2025–Early 2026)
Roadmap and champions design
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Agital develops a full 2026 AI roadmap following a crawl-walk-run structure, tightly aligned to business outcomes and PE return expectations

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Champions program designed with 
open eligibility, manager endorsement requirement, and bottom-up goal 
ownership

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Two-track governance model established: one track for AI-powered product/technical development, one for org-wide enablement and adoption

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Dedicated AI innovation hire made to lead the technical track; champions program covers the enablement track

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Steering committee formalized to ensure coordination between both tracks

(2026 and ongoing)
Activation
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Section re-engaged to move from transformation planning to roadmap activation

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Champions program launches 
across key teams and departments; ambassadors defined by manager-approved use cases and active usage metrics

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Manager accountability structures formalized to ensure AI adoption is a daily leadership behavior, not a periodic initiative

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Pathway to full-time AI transformation hire scoped for latter half of 2026

Why this matters

Lessons from 
Agital + Section

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Start with a validated baseline, not assumptions.

Agital knew they needed external validation of their AI proficiency before building toward anything. Assumptions about "where the org is" consistently overestimate adoption and miss the specific gaps that matter for program design.
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Solve the manager layer before you launch champions.

Agital's clearest lesson: champions without accountable managers above them will plateau. AI adoption must be a leadership behavior, not just an individual one.
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Separate your AI tracks.
Conflating technical AI product development with org-wide enablement creates confusion. Agital's two-track model – with coordinated governance – keeps both moving without collision.
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Activation is the step most companies skip.
Agital had a strong diagnostic and a solid transformation plan. Re-engaging Section specifically for activation (moving from plan to practice) reflects a realistic understanding of where AI programs actually break down.
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Make

AI

a practice your team can run.

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