Employee Resource Group (ERG) leaders often start with a vision of leading cultural change, but the reality often feels more like administrative survival. Between chasing down RSVPs, managing budgets, and sending calendar invites, the strategic work gets buried under operational chaos.

To kick off ERG Week, we sat down with Maceo Owens (aka The ERG Homegirl) to formally announce our partnership and tackle the biggest hurdle in the industry right now: Burnout caused by manual processes.

In this webinar, we explored how to move from simple automation to "Agentic AI," how to clean up your "messy kitchen" of operations, and how Agent Epoch is building the future of the ERG operating system.

Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.

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Are You the Conductor or the Stagehand?

Maceo kicked off the session with a powerful analogy for the current state of ERG leadership. Ideally, an ERG Program Manager is the Conductor—setting the tempo, guiding the strategy, and leading the performance.

However, without strong operations, Program Managers end up being the Stagehands—moving chairs, fixing lights, and handling logistics behind the scenes. When you are stuck doing the manual heavy lifting, you can’t lead the orchestra effectively.

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The 3 P’s: Purpose, Process, Programming

Before you can even think about AI, you need a solid foundation. Maceo introduced her framework for healthy ERGs: The 3 P’s.

1. Purpose: Why does the program exist?
2. Process: How is work done? (The Operating System)
3. Programming: What do we serve the members? (Events & Initiatives)

Many companies skip straight to "Programming" without establishing the "Process," leading to burnout. AI cannot fix a broken process; it can only accelerate a working one.

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The Tech Hierarchy: Automation First, AI Second

There is a rush to implement AI, but Maceo warns that we need to respect the order of operations. You cannot implement autonomous agents if you haven't mastered basic automation.

• Automation: The body. It performs repetitive tasks with clear steps (If X, then Y).
• AI: The brain. It creates content, summarizes text, and analyzes sentiment.
• Agents: The combination. A system that can observe, decide, and act.

As Maceo put it perfectly: "If you can't automate a process, you definitely can't 'AI' it."

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Writing "AI Parsable" Documentation

One of the most practical takeaways from the session was the concept of AI Parsability. For an AI agent to be a useful teammate, it needs to read your handbooks and playbooks.

If your current documentation is a wall of text or full of tribal knowledge, an AI will "hallucinate" or fail. Maceo shared tips on how to rewrite your guides so that they are essentially ready for an AI agent to execute, including using consistent headers and "atomic" instructions (one action per line).

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Enter Agent Epoch: The Multi-Tool Teammate

Finally, Keith showcased Agent Epoch, our new Agentic AI designed to lift the administrative burden off ERG leaders.

Unlike a standard chatbot, Agent Epoch has "multi-tool execution." It integrates with Slack, Calendar, Email, and your HRIS to act on your behalf. In the demo, Keith showed how the agent monitored an event with high "Maybe" RSVPs, recognized the need for a headcount (to order Mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival!), drafted a reminder email, and sent it out—all with a single approval click from the user.

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Ready to Fix Your Processes?

The future of ERGs isn't just about doing more work; it's about letting technology handle the "Stagehand" tasks so you can get back to being the "Conductor."

We are thrilled to partner with The ERG Homegirl to bring better processes and better technology to this space.

• Watch the full length webinar here.
• Learn more about Agent Epoch here.
• Follow Maceo Owens on LinkedIn.
• Check out the ERG movement page.
• Check out ERGs.io.
• Join us for Epoch Connect 2026!
  
  

P.S. The ERG Movement has recently created a dedicated slack channel designed specifically for ERG leaders and supporters. Interested in joining? Reach out to our team.

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