Lauren Geer, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of IAC, a holding company to media and internet brands including Dotdash Meredith, Care.com and Angi, uses AI for everything from writing job descriptions and emails to kid homework hacks and planning an itinerary for an upcoming family trip to Italy.
Lauren Geer, IAC
Permission granted by IAC
She has worked in the HR space for nearly 25 years, namely in the financial services and real estate industries before joining IAC last year.
Editor’s note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
HR DIVE: What’s it like working with other CHROs at IAC?
LAUREN GEER: It’s awesome. They’re all so wonderful and come at things from different points of view. We have different challenges and a lot of the same challenges, as well. Part of our role is providing great HR, leadership and service to the businesses we support. When it comes to things like equity, comp and benefits, we’re always trying to be stronger and better.
How does IAC work?
It’s definitely not your typical tech company. Over 30 years, we’ve built and spun off 11 public companies. Our ability to identify in-grown talent has really been instrumental in our success and our value creation. We reward vision and ambition much more than pedigree. We’ve always had the mentality of throwing people into the deep end of the pool, and that’s proven successful many times.
Most of our CEOs are homegrown executives who came up in the ranks, including our CEO, Joey Levin, who runs IAC today. We definitely favor internal hires, and I think we probably have more people that have had their first crack at being a CEO here than most other companies.
How are you using AI?
I’m excited about AI. I personally use it every day. For HR, it’s important that we’re in a mode now where we’re just getting as educated as possible as we can about it and encouraging continuous learning and development in our AI-related skills.
We’re also trying to focus on maintaining the human touch when it comes to HR. We see AI being able to help us by smoothing out processes and taking some of that work away so we can have more time to help develop great leaders and really get to the things that AI can’t help with.
How do you use AI on your own?
I use it for kid hacks all of the time. I have an eight- and a six-year-old. Whether it comes to helping them learn sight words or tricks to help with reading or homework or recipes, if you have picky eaters. There are lots of kids things I use AI for, in addition to travel itineraries.
How do you like spending your time outside of work?
I love traveling. We’re working really hard to make that something our kids enjoy as well. Last year, we took them to Greece and France. This year, it’ll be Italy. Next year, we’re hoping to take them to Bali. That was something I did before having kids — my husband, as well. We’re anxious to get them out on the road.