Last week, I had the chance to attend the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas, a conference that brings together thousands of people across the HR ecosystem. The conference has a reputation as the place to see what’s new and next in HR technology, from scrappy startups just entering the space to the longstanding players shaping the industry.
With the rapid pace of change in how we work, and the constant talk around AI. It was energizing to be in the room where so much of the future of work is being imagined. I had the chance to see new innovations firsthand, connect with people across the ecosystem (practitioners, vendors, investors, consultants, analysts, and media), and hear stories about what leaders are experimenting with in their organizations.
One of the reasons I enjoy attending events like this is that they help widen my lens. Much of my focus is on talent and leadership, but HR Tech provides valuable context across the broader world of work and HR.
Writing conference recaps is always hard. It’s so much and it’s hard to get it all. So instead of attempting an exhaustive rundown, I want to highlight a few themes that stood out to me during my two days at HR Tech.
AI Enablement Done Well
One of the most practical and tactical sessions I attended was Atlassian’s session on driving AI Adoption Across the Enterprise. During this session, Alica Lenart (VP, HR, Atlassian) shared how Atlassian and HR are leading AI adoption efforts across the entire organization. During the session, Alicia shared five principles for how Atlassian is thinking about AI adoption and then provided some specific examples of the things Atlassian was doing inside of their organization that related to these principles. The principles were
- Start with the why – Making sure that AI was being used to solve real clear business problems
- Frame it as additive – Trying to put more clear guidance on the What’s In It For Me for employees
- Visible Leadership – Making sure that Executives were not just communicating it consistently (although they were) but also visibility using it
- Tailored Upskilling – Really driving personalized enablement roadmaps by partnering with business units and functions. This is a common theme I’ve been seeing amongst leading organizations in AI adoption
- Stay Agile – Weekly steering committee meetings to stay updated on progress, wins, and what can be improved.
During the session, Lenart also shared a couple of tactics they relied on to help drive adoption. A few examples included:
- Forgetting Traditional Learning: Lenart emphasized that AI enablement required a complete rethink of traditional learning approaches. “We had to throw away traditional learning methods,” she said. Workshops, for example, weren’t passive lecture-style sessions. Every employee was expected to bring their laptop and get hands-on with the tools in real time. Experts, not general facilitators, led the sessions to ensure depth and credibility. And every workshop was built around interactivity and application rather than theory.
- Building a Champion Network: Within HR, each team and center of excellence identified “AI Champions” who shared best practices, encouraged peer-to-peer learning, and sparked dialogue around what was working and what they were seeing in their day-to-day work. This network helped scale adoption by making AI experimentation a collective effort rather than a top-down directive.
- Fostering Experimentation: To make AI accessible and exciting, Lenart’s team created opportunities for employees to experiment in low-stakes, high-energy ways. They hosted AI hackathons, offered office hours with AI experts, and organized “AI Days” where employees could explore tools and use cases. They even partnered with other organizations for joint hackathons, bringing in fresh perspectives and broadening the learning experience.
Humanizing Learning With AI
In their session on how AI can make learning more human, Betsy Summers (Forrester, past Edge of Work guest) and Sandra Loughlin (EPAM Systems) highlighted a critical tension: the gap between the pace of innovation in technology and what organizations are actually able to consume is wider than ever.
Too often, the learning technology conversation has been geared around better ways to build and create content. While content has a place, that narrow focus has limited their ability to drive greater impact. The irony is that right now, learning is more important than ever, but without a shift in mindset, both learning teams and their organizations risk falling behind.
Summers and Loughlin argued that now is the moment for organizations and vendors alike to close that gap by doubling down on upskilling and capability building. Summers, who has covered learning but also spends a lot of time outside of the HR functions talking about upskilling and learning points out that the gap between the technology that exists and what companies can consume is wider than ever, and if they don’t fix this by actually building capabilities, companies will struggle to truly adopt and harness AI to transform how work gets done. The challenge, however, is that even as the technology advances, many leaders are still trying to understand what AI is and how best to apply it within their organizations.
Summers shared a striking slide that underscored this disconnect. In a Forrester survey:
- 67% of leaders said AI capabilities will increase the number of employees over the next 12 months.
- 69% of global AI decision-makers agreed with the incorrect statement that generative AI tools will always produce the same output when given the same prompt. (This is false..)
This cognitive gap between leaders’ confidence and their actual understanding is one of the biggest barriers to unlocking AI’s potential in learning and beyond.
They emphasized that this widening gap is precisely why learning must become a driver of capability, especially in the age of AI. The opportunity is enormous, but most organizations aren’t fully seizing it yet. Forrester’s 2024 research found that only 16% of HR leaders are confident in their team’s AI capabilities, and just 39% have invested in AI upskilling for their own teams. While those numbers may have improved since then, they underscore a critical point: much more work is needed if we want to help organizations reimagine how they operate and truly harness AI’s potential.
Loughlin underscored why AI has the potential to elevate the role of learning, and even help humanize it, so organizations can have a skilled workforce that can keep pace with the market and stay relevant. She highlighted several areas where AI can make a meaningful difference:
- Better Understanding People: The most valuable AI companies share one common asset: data. In learning, the data AI provides can be transformative. With it, organizations can detect and infer skills from multiple sources, use organizational network analysis (ONA) to surface change catalysts, informal mentors, and true experts, and gain richer insights into employee potential. This deeper level of understanding enables learning teams to align development more closely with both individual and organizational needs.
- Supporting Learning Beyond Training: Most learning professionals know that development extends far beyond formal training programs. Yet many organizations still lack the tools, strategy, or resources to unlock that potential. AI can help bridge this gap by enabling employees to learn while they work, whether through personalized content outside traditional programs, intelligent connections to mentors and peers, or automated nudges toward informal learning opportunities. In doing so, AI supports continuous growth that stretches well beyond formal programs
Summers and Loughlin closed their session with a powerful reflection question: one I’m also exploring myself: In 2–3 years, what do you hope your role will be in your organization? (More on that later.)
The Future of The Profession in 5 Years
After walking the Expo floor and seeing demos from the many vendors at HR Tech, one question that came to mind for me was: If we actually had access to all of this technology and functionality being showcased, what would our roles in HR look like five years from now? Assuming that we realize at least some of what was on the expo floor, to me, it shows a transformation in how we conceive of work and thus work, not just for HR, but for all of us. And if that’s true, it has implications for how HR, along with other functions and roles, will need to evolve. To explore this further, I started asking people across the conference what they thought.
One of those conversations was with Matthew Daniel, Senior Principal of Talent Strategy at Guild (and a two-time Edge of Work guest). Daniel and his colleagues have been wrestling with this very question. In fact, they recently hosted a “Meeting of the Minds” workshop with senior HR leaders to explore a bold prompt: “What will HR look like in 2030?” Through a mix of exercises and discussions, they examined everything from how HR roles might evolve (or even disappear), to which human skills will be most critical, to what leadership could look like in a human/machine organization. A few powerful themes emerged.
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- Business Acumen Evolves: In HR, we’ve talked for decades about the importance of business acumen and being a strategic partner. While that idea isn’t new, Daniel argued that the deployment of AI can further empower non-HR executives to pick up HR roles and displace HR pros because of their business acumen. In a complex, fast-changing environment, functions that already collaborate closely, (ex: like HR and IT) could see their responsibilities converge. That means HR leaders will need more than strong functional expertise and fluency in finance. They’ll also need exposure to market and industry dynamics, a broader sense of strategy, and the ability to connect dots across the enterprise.
- Smaller but More Strategic HR Teams: Guild led an exercise with participants to explore how AI could reshape common HR roles (HRBP, L&D, Total Rewards, TA). The consensus: most expected about a 25% reduction in HR headcount overall, with HRBPs least impacted and L&D and Total Rewards hit the hardest. But smaller doesn’t mean less important. If anything, the roles that remain will be more strategic. pushing HR professionals to lean into the evolving definition of business acumen, and not just for HR leaders but for every HR professional.
- Precision Around “Human” – In today’s knowledge work, performance is often measured by output. The atomic unit is what you produce. In the future, the focus may shift toward how you think and the uniquely human capabilities you bring to the table. We have talked for years about the importance of human skills, but often at a vague or high level. What has been missing is precision about what they are and how they come to life in practice. In Guild’s workshop, HR leaders highlighted several critical human capabilities that will grow in importance, including persuasion and influence, judgment and discernment, sense-making, and culture-shaping. These are the distinctly human capabilities that keep business fundamentally human. The ability to know what work should remain human, what can be augmented with AI, and how to improve the quality of AI outputs will be one of the most important skillsets of the future, starting with HR practitioners.
Other Perspectives About The Future Of The HR Profession
I asked several leaders to share their perspective on the role of HR five years from now. The prompt I gave them was simple: ‘Imagine we actually get all of this technology you see on the expo floor what will HR look like in five years?’
- Tech and Human: The future of HR will not be about choosing between technology and humanity. It will require strength in both. Technology is already central to HR, and with AI its influence will only increase. At the same time, HR’s differentiator will be the ability to deeply understand human behavior and connect it to the power of technology. The function will need to operate at this intersection to remain relevant and impactful.
- The Consultant Toolkit: Another theme that emerged was the need for HR professionals to fully embrace the consultant toolkit. This does not mean producing endless slide decks. It means that as HR teams get smaller and roles become more strategic, the core capabilities of consultants will become essential. Skills such as critical thinking, identifying the right problems, solving them effectively, and telling compelling stories will be expected of every HR professional. Today these capabilities are hallmarks of strong HRBPs and forward-looking leaders. In the future, they will be the baseline for the profession.
- Less Roles, But More Impact: A handful of leaders acknowledged that there is a decent reality there will be less jobs needed basedlined against today. But for those in those roles, there will be the ability to do more. ““The future of HR may require fewer people in the function, but those who remain will be able to deliver exponentially more impact” a VP of People Analytics at a software company shared with me.
- Moving Beyond Platitudes: We’ve long heard phrases like “seat at the table” and “strategic business partner,” but as Kyle Forrest (Partner, Deloitte Consulting LLP) noted, the future may finally free us from those clichés. With technology handling the transactional noise, HR’s impact won’t be measured by access or symbolism, it will be proven in outcomes. As he put it, ““In the next era of HR, technology will strip away the noise. We won’t be debating whether we’re business partners or asking for a seat at the table, we’ll simply be doing the work that drives outcomes.”
- Learning How We Always Wanted: For Learning& Development, technology holds the promise to deliver on what we’ve always envisioned but struggled to achieve: truly personalized learning, embedded in the flow of work, and tailored to each individual. Yet, as a head of L&D of a Fortune 100 company reminded me, the opportunity comes with responsibility. The real challenge isn’t whether we can use the tech, it’s whether we’ll choose to use it wisely. As they explained: “Technology is finally giving us the chance to deliver learning the way we always imagined. But the real test is in our choices: where we aim it, how we shape it, and whether it truly helps humans and machines work better together.”
Conclusion: The Work Ahead
Leaving HR Tech, I was struck not only by the pace of innovation and seeing the potential of what might or could be possible, but also by the equally large enormity of the questions that we must answer that are still in front of us. The technology is advancing quickly, but culture, capability, and clarity about how we use it and work in new ways will matter just as much, if not more.
A common thread through the sessions and conversations was this: we are in a unique moment. To take advantage of it, we must be willing to think differently and challenge our assumptions. Whether it was Atlassian reimagining onboarding or Adam Holton (GE Healthcare) urging leaders to rethink work from first principles, the message was consistent: HR’s role is changing, and it must change boldly. As Einstein once said, “You cannot use an old map to explore a new world.” The work ahead begins with creating that new map.
The conversations reminded me that while the future will demand new skills and expanded capabilities, it also calls for choice and judgment around what we stop, start, and continue. Success will not come from simply refactoring today’s processes with new technology. It will require intentional decisions about what should remain human, where AI can augment, and how we define and create value in a changing workplace. HR’s charge always has been around maximizing the potential of people to achieve business goals, but the mindset, tools and constraints are changing fast.
HR’s charge has always been to unlock human potential in service of business goals, but the tools, mindsets, and constraints are shifting faster than ever. The challenge before us is to reimagine how we work with technology to deliver greater impact, and to bring others along in that journey so our organizations don’t just adapt, but thrive, in a changing world.