In the AI era, traditional ways of working and leading organizations will no longer be viable, and it’s up to HR leaders to take on the mantle of the “architects of the future of work”.

That’s according to Vincent Dupuis, VP HR Digital & AI at European aerospace giant, Airbus, who took to the stage during UNLEASH World 2025 to discuss leading the human-AI transformation of work and how HR leaders can successfully use data intelligence and new technologies.

Dupuis sat down with UNLEASH for an exclusive interview, addressing the ongoing reinvention of HR and how this is taking shape as Airbus defines its strategy for its 157,000 employees, AI and products.

He believes that HR leaders need to be the driving force during this period of reinvention, because the scope of change is so wide and touches upon many areas beyond the traditional remit of HR.

“HR is the one who should own it as the architects, because we’re talking about major people transformations,” he tells UNLEASH.

“Shaping the future of work needs to come to the top of the HR leaders’ agenda. They are occupied for good reason with the daily operation of the business, but if they don’t put that strategic layer at the top of their agenda, who will?”

AI has to put people at the center, align with company purpose, ethics and values

While AI has fast become a significant part of HR’s present and future, Dupuis warns that organizations cannot become overly reliant on the technology.

During a panel session on Day Two of UNLEASH World, he said that if employees are over-equipped with AI, they might “seem knowledgeable but forget how to learn and understand with the risk of losing their critical thinking”.

Speaking to UNLEASH, Dupuis explains that the organization’s thinking on AI transformation must be aligned and connected with its purpose: “To make the product that allows people to fly, to connect in real life.”

“This is shaping what we want to do in terms of what we augment or digitize, because that should not be in contradiction with our purpose.”

Referring back to his comments on the importance of critical thinking, Dupuis adds that there is also a crucial safety element to Airbus’ work.

As such, he says the organization wants employees to have the advantages that AI offers without losing “that critical thinking that makes our products safe”.

Vincent Dupuis on stage at UNLEASH World 2025

It’s in this context that Airbus is thoroughly rethinking roles and the flow of work for the AI era.

Dupuis explains that while HR leaders want to “keep humans in the loop” where it concerns AI, “we don’t really know yet what ‘human in the loop’ means.”

“Is it always a human at the end of the process for the last click, or a human overseeing the AI process reliability?” he asks.

He highlights a common use of AI in talent acquisition, whereby an automated system conducts interviews and pre-selection, while a human clicks to validate at the end of the process – something he shuns because “the most value has been done by the robot”.

Instead, Dupuis says the real transformation will occur in roles where humans are supervising, guiding and accountable for AI agents carrying out routine work.

“We will find new roles that are much more human-centric, with much more empathy, because the core of the human will be to take care of the human,” he says.

AI as an axis of Airbus’ 2030 people strategy

Airbus has recently engaged in its 2030 people & workplace strategy. This was in conjunction with the arrival of Carmen-Maja Rex as the organization’s new CHRO in April.

Dupuis details that while AI and the workplace are core axes of the strategy, people and business are at the center of it all. Therefore, HR strategy needs to serve the needs of the wider company.

“For example, in 2030 many people will be retiring. And we will have a lot of new people. So how do we manage knowledge transfer? How do we bridge today’s workforce skills to the ones our business units will need by then? AI has a crucial role to play here,” he explains.

“We link that HR strategy to the business strategy. We are at a good moment of truth, where future business strategy is shaping at the same time as the “future of work” people strategy is.”

Dupuis adds that while defining strategy is a critical element of Airbus’ future, the speed of technology and AI development means organizations can no longer afford to rely on a fixed five-year digital vision that is then executed.

“Today nothing is predictable, because what was true in terms of technology six months ago is not true now and will not be true in six months,” he says.

“I think this is why people are a bit unprepared and maybe a bit destabilized: their previous way of working will not work for that AI age.”

As such, purpose and vision are essential, Dupuis says, requiring a process of repeated iterations where “you iterate, you stop, learn, pivot or persevere and adjust”.

“That’s my belief, that we need to think like a ‘lean startup at the scale of large companies’ in this age of AI.”