HRTech Interview with Anna Goldberg, AVP, Product Management at Cornerstone

Welcome to HRTech Cube, Anna. We’re delighted to have you. Could you start by sharing a bit about your professional journey and what led you to your current role as AVP, Product Management at Cornerstone?
Thank you for having me. My professional journal has been a wild ride. Following graduate school and receiving a degree in Community Development at UC Davis, I started a job as a Leadership Development Specialist at Year Up, a National Nonprofit focused on Workforce Development, where one of my first assignments was implementing Cornerstone’s learning and talent development platform.

I went from being a Cornerstone customer, presenting at user groups and conferences, to joining the Cornerstone team. At Cornerstone, I started as a Customer Success Manager and then transitioned to working in product. I’m truly passionate about what Cornerstone can help organizations achieve and strongly believe that most of the career growth and learning an employee does in their career happens at work. In that way, Cornerstone empowers employees to reach their full potential, which is why I feel privileged to grow my career here.

Cornerstone Galaxy represents a major leap in AI-driven workforce enablement. How does it differ from traditional learning and talent development platforms?
Cornerstone Galaxy leverages AI to optimize employee development in ways that set it apart from traditional learning and talent platforms. We use AI to deliver true personalization by analyzing an employee’s skills, current role, career aspirations, and learning behaviors to create tailored, dynamic development paths. Traditional platforms often rely on one-size-fits-all curriculums, but Galaxy adapts to individuals.

Another differentiator is our advanced skills intelligence. Cornerstone Galaxy uses real-time workforce data to map skills across the organization, identifying skills gaps and emerging requirements. Traditional platforms rely on manual skills mapping or manager assessments, which can quickly become outdated. Our system enables more proactive upskilling and reskilling.

Finally, Cornerstone Galaxy offers a unique, unified experience that brings learning, development, performance management, and career planning under a singular platform, making it easy for employees to navigate.

You’ve described Cornerstone Galaxy as a unified system powered by AI agents. How do these multi-role agents enhance personalization and productivity across the employee experience?
Agents create deep personalization across different roles and contexts, helping organizations understand and respond to the unique needs of every employee, regardless of position or experience level. Cornerstone’s AI agents work behind the scenes to learn from interactions and use insights to tailor recommendations for learning and development.

They also act as adaptive teammates that support productivity across the employee experience, offering timely reminders that keep development moving. By showing up at the right moment with the right guidance, AI agents help create a more responsive and tailored experience to help employees grow with clarity, and managers to lead with confidence.

Many organizations still view AI as a technology project rather than a capability shift. Why is it important for workforce planning and development to drive AI adoption instead?
When AI is embedded in workforce planning and development as a true capability, it becomes a practical and instrumental tool for identifying skills gaps across the organization and providing employees learning experiences that will help them grow. Treating AI this way also helps organizations stay ahead of change rather than react to it, ensuring organizations are ready for the future.

Cornerstone’s conversational and immersive learning experiences sound transformative. Could you elaborate on how features like Cornerstone Immerse Companion are redefining how employees learn and engage?
Cornerstone Immerse Companion leverages AI-powered conversational interfaces to simulate real-world scenarios in a safe, supportive environment. Employees can practice communication, problem solving, and leadership interactions with an assistant that adapts to their responses, offers coaching, and guides them through different scenarios. It also supports rich and immersive environments using VR and AR to provide interactive simulations that let employees role play complex or high-stakes situations before they encounter them on the job.

This immersive experience goes beyond traditional e-learning by providing personalized experiences and on-demand assistance, helping employees practice hands-on skills while becoming more engaged learners.

Compliance and responsible AI are top concerns for HR leaders. How does Cornerstone AgentReady ensure that AI agents are workforce-ready and aligned with organizational standards?
Cornerstone AgentReady goes beyond basic guardrails to make sure agents are workforce ready with skills validation, policy alignment, continuous monitoring, and integration with organizational standards all within Salesforce. Each agent is trained, tested, and certified prior to deployment, ensuring that responsible, compliant AI solutions enhance workforce productivity without compromising ethical or regulatory commitments.

With Cornerstone Galaxy integrating SkyHive’s Knowledge Graph, how does this partnership enhance workforce intelligence and skills-based planning?
SkyHive’s Knowledge Graphs brings real-time labor market intelligence into Cornerstone Galaxy, providing organizations an accurate and dynamic view of their workforce capabilities. Rather than relying on static job descriptions or outdated skill inventories, leaders can see what skills their employees have today, how internal skills compare to the external market, and where gaps are emerging. This level of precision transforms workforce planning into data-driven strategy.

The integration also strengthens skills-based development at the individual level, providing employees recommendations not only on internal career paths, but on current market demand and adjacent skills possibilities. Cornerstone Galaxy and SkyHive have created a continuously updated skills ecosystem that helps organizations meet business needs while providing employees actionable learning and development opportunities.

As a product leader, what personal strategy do you follow to balance innovation with the need for scalability and user trust in AI-driven systems?
My approach starts with focusing on AI use cases that clearly drive productivity and value for our customers. Innovation only matters if it solves a real problem, and AI for the sake of AI will not drive outcomes for our customers. By grounding strategy in specific workforce agility needs, like developing necessary skills or improving employee experience, we ensure that our products deliver real value.

What advice would you give HR and product leaders who are just beginning to explore AI in their learning or talent management strategies?
Start by making sure the use cases you’re solving for meet real needs of HR leaders and employees. AI should remove friction and enhance decision making, not add complexity. If the problem it’s solving isn’t meaningful, the AI solution won’t be either.

Finally, what’s next for Cornerstone Galaxy? How do you see the platform—and AI’s role in HR tech—evolving in the coming years?
At Cornerstone, we’re continuing to innovate through basics. Even as we expand to more AI-native workflows, we are working to ensure we keep strengthening the core learning and talent development experiences our customers rely on. The fundamentals still matter, and AI should enhance what already works.

We’re also moving from “in the flow of work” to “in the moment of need ,” making sure admins and employees get the exact data, guidance, or insight they need when they need it. That level of responsiveness is where AI can make a meaningful difference.

Looking ahead, you’ll see more conversational experiences across the platform. We want customers to engage with content, recommendations, and insights in ways that feels natural, while still ensuring compliance.