AI Almost Got It Right. Almost.
AI Almost Got It Right.
Almost.
A year ago, AI couldn’t quite render our HLG team right. This year it nearly nailed it — except it misspelled my name on the badge. The enabling technology growth is genuinely impressive. What it still won’t fix is what’s broken underneath before deploying a solution on top.
We've established a pre-conference 'tradition' at Heagney Logan Group. Before Avionté CONNECT, we use AI to render an image of our team headed to the conference. It's become our running gag. This year it's almost not funny — because the technology has genuinely gotten remarkably better.
Almost. It still misspelled my name on the badge.
Almost There. The faces are recognizable, the setting is right, the energy is right. Great job with the CONNECT backdrop. However -- it misspelled my name on the badge. Close — but that’s our point.
“AI accelerates what is already working. It amplifies what is already broken. The question is never whether to use it — it’s whether the people and process underneath it are ready.”
That is the conversation we are bringing back to CONNECT 2026. Not a technology conversation — a sequencing conversation. And we think it's one of the most important ones happening in the room this year.
2025 — AI’s Best Attempt. Great fun! Right energy, but wrong faces. Three tries. Still 'missed the flight'.
1st Tool · Best of 2026
Nearly photorealistic. But -- misspelled “Ralph” on the badge.
2nd Tool · Good effort
Real People. Real Results. Solid rendering of the actual event backdrop.
3rd Tool · Not the one
YIKES! Third time was definitely NOT a charm.
A year ago, the AI versions of our Heagney Logan team looked nothing like our real selves. It was funny because it was so far off. This year — three tools, three different results. One of them almost fooled us. AI came close enough that we had to look twice. The faces are recognizable. The setting reads like a conference. The lanyard even says CONNECT.
The technology is moving fast. We are not here to debate that. We are here to talk about what moves with it — and what doesn’t. That is the state of the technology in 2026 — and it is genuinely impressive. The gap between what these tools could do a year ago and what they can do today is significant. Anyone who tells you AI is not advancing rapidly is not paying attention.
When we engage a staffing organization deploying a new platform, the question we seek to understand is whether they have their people aligned, their processes defined, and their roles clarified to make the technology worth what they paid for. That is not an AI problem. That is a people and process problem. And it is the problem that determines whether a technology investment returns its value.
People & Process first.
Then Technology.
AI is a tool. A remarkable one. But tools work as well as the foundation underneath them. Getting the people and the process right is what every organization needs to do first — and that sequencing, practiced and enforced consistently, is what separates an investment that returns its value from one that doesn’t.
The real Kevin and Ralph will be at CONNECT 2026. No AI involved. No misspelled badges. Just two people who have been in staffing operations long enough to know that the important conversations at a user conference are not just about the technology.
If you are at CONNECT 2026 and you want to have one of those conversations — about what is working, what is not, and what the right sequencing looks like for your organization — come find us. We will be the ones asking about your operations before we say anything about technology.
We'll keep running the AI experiment. It is a useful mirror — a way of watching the technology evolve in real time, with our own faces as the test case. When AI finally gets the badge spelling right, we will report back.
Until then: see you at CONNECT 2026. The real versions of us.
— Ralph Williams, Founder & Managing Principal, Heagney Logan Group
Let’s find time to talk.
No pitch. No presentation. Just an honest conversation about where you are and what would actually move the needle for your organization.
