Sharthok Chakraborty

Sharthok Chakraborty is Co-Founder and CEO of Klaar, an AI-powered performance management platform, and a former VP of People. Before founding Klaar in 2021, he spent close to a decade in HR leadership roles at companies including Kraft Heinz, Cipla, and Aramex, where he worked across performance management, talent management, and HR business partnering.

Bolt-On AI vs. Foundational AI: Why the Difference Matters

Sharthok's founder story traces to a specific moment as an HR business partner: his CHRO asked him a simple question, "which teams are at risk in your segment?", and he couldn't answer it, despite spending his time chasing managers for goal updates and one-on-one check-ins. That gap between what leaders need to know and what legacy HR systems can actually surface is what Klaar was built to close. His clearest framework distinguishes "bolt-on AI" (AI layered onto record-keeping platforms built before AI existed, which he compares to strapping a GPS onto a horse cart) from "foundational AI" (systems built with AI as the intelligence layer from the start, surfacing insights in the flow of work rather than requiring managers to go ask a chatbot). He argues predictive HR isn't about collecting more data, but about connecting the data organizations already have to surface patterns early enough to change an outcome, not just document it after the fact.

Topics Sharthok speaks on

• Bolt-on AI vs. foundational AI, and why the distinction matters
• What predictive HR actually looks like in practice
• Why managers are the center of performance, and why systems fail them
• Using AI to modernize performance management
• The transition from HR practitioner to tech founder

Sessions with Achieve

Sharthok is a featured guest on the Achieve webcast "The Rise of Predictive HR: Are You Ready?" (April 16, 2026), a Transform Spotlight Session presented in partnership with Klaar alongside colleague Lana Peters, Klaar's Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer. In it, he tells the story behind founding Klaar, explains his bolt-on vs. foundational AI framework, and argues that successful adoption of any new HR system comes down to aligning incentives and minimizing behavioral change, not just better technology.

Connect

• Sharthok Chakraborty on LinkedIn
• Klaar
• From HR to Tech: Sharthok Chakraborty on Reinventing Performance Management with AI

Want more on what it takes to bring AI into performance management without losing the human side of it? Learn more about the Achieve Leadership Network.