The first CHRO Summit to take place at UNLEASH America brought together HR leaders from around the world. 

CPOs, CHROs, and EVPs of HR engaged in peer-to-peer roundtables, dissecting the challenges and opportunities brought about by the evolving forces reshaping the workplace. 

Frank Congiu, EVP, Human Capital Strategy and Executive Partnerships at Randstad Enterprise, and host of the Summit, urged HR leaders in the room to take one learning from the conversations to take back to their organizations to do differently. 

UNLEASH breaks down the key takeaway from each roundtable and what it means for HR leaders strategizing for the future of work. 

HR earns and keeps its seat at the top table when people strategy is business strategy

Katarina Berg, CHRO of On, chaired the conversation on how HR can elevate its role, shaping business outcomes, driving organizational transformation, and influencing C-suite agendas. 

Strategic HR has moved from a developer of individual talent into production of organizational capability; measured in how effectively leaders can develop capabilities that build culture and yield business results, rather than in siloed people programs. 

To do so, CHROs must translate the needs and objectives of the organization without necessarily handling asks from other C-Suite peers straight on: ‘give them what they want, wrap it in what they need’. 

With technology accelerating and organizations in constant flux, HR leaders cannot wait to be invited into the top-tier conversations. HRBPs must be equipped and expected to lead transformation, challenge thinking, influence design decisions, and help the business avoid being left on the platform when the train leaves the station. 

To earn and hold its seat at the top table, people and business strategy needs to become the same strategy. Strategic relevance comes from connecting human decisions directly to outcomes, risks, and value creation. 

CHROs must continually lead the evolution of HR functions’ skills, mindset, and presence to remain a natural, credible member of the Csuite. 

Focus on building universal human skills, not generational differences

Jason Desentz, CHRO of Toshiba, led the discussion on skills strategy and talent differences of multigenerational workforces. 

By 2030, successful organizations will be defined not by generational differences, but instead by a shared set of human skills that enable employees and managers to thrive alongside AI, in hybrid workplaces, and in an environment of constant change. 

These skills are no longer ‘nice to haves’ – they are the non-negotiable capabilities that HR leaders must intentionally cultivate. 

The skills in question are:  

• Curiosity – employees must be encouraged to explore, question, and experiment, especially as AI becomes a core tool. Curiosity can become a driver of productivity if cautious mindsets are cast aside. 
• Judgement – critical thinking will define how employees use AI. The ability to ask the right questions, evaluate output and make sound decisions can be significant differentiators. 
• Adaptability – employees and workforces must be able to pivot quickly to new tasks, tools and processes. AI-driven change will only accelerate going forward and workers must be able to keep pace with the change. 
• Empathy – with five generations in the workforce, empathy reduces friction and builds cohesive teams, creating environments that allow other human skills to grow and flourish. 
• Transparency – leaders and managers are expected to display more openness than ever before. Transparency will be the cornerstone of trust, change readiness, and psychological safety. 

AI must be anchored on ROI, smart work design, and strong culture

Stacia Garr, Co-Founder and Principal Analyst, Redthread Research, chaired the conversation on how AI is impacting organizations and the HR function. 

AI transformation will only deliver tangible and demonstrable results when HR, IT and the organization jointly own it – aligning on clear ROI, intentionally redesigning work, evolving HR into a smaller but more strategic function, and preserving culture and connection as core differentiators. 

As previously discussed during the CHRO Summit panels, CHROs and CTOs will need to work in tandem to redesign work, anticipate organizational design implications, and build governance structures that evaluate use cases based on measurable ROI. 

Different functions within organizations will use AI differently and show benefit at different rates. HR must help prioritize where AI will drive productivity and show results that matter to investors.  

HR itself will shrink as a function, as AI takes on more administrative tasks. Similarly for other employees using AI, strategy and higher-level work will become the norm, but creating a future pipeline of HR talent remains a significant challenge. HR leaders will need to take intentional action on this now. 

As AI tools become standardized across organizations, culture becomes the differentiator. HR must protect human connection, mission, and purpose. AI cannot replicate these elements, which will continue to drive engagement and identity.  

Build universal manager-level skills and treat AI agents like new workers

Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, led the discussion on how the HR landscape is blending human insight with new technologies like agentic AI.  

Employees will soon manage AI agents as part of their everyday work, so HR must build universal manager-level human skills while treating AI tools like new team members. This can encompass onboarding, training, and being held to performance standards. 

In practice, this means all employees – not just managers – will need to cultivate foundational leadership skills as a baseline. Managerial skills such as delegation, performance feedback and decision-making will become democratized across organizations and seniority.  

As AI takes over routine tasks and higher-level work is ringfenced for human workers, HR must draw clear boundaries to ensure technology enhances experiences rather than replacing the human moments that matter – milestones, celebrations and teaching moments build teams and trust. 

At the same time as organizations introduce new AI tools and agents, so too will frameworks for use be required. Toolkits will often be underutilized until integrated into interactive systems.  

HR leaders need to plan for AI-enabled workflows to become the primary method for employees to learn policies, change processes, and navigate work. 

Anxiety has evolved from an individual wellbeing to an organizational risk

Laurienne Le Chalony, CHRO of EcoVadis, chaired the conversation on managing employee anxiety in the context of ongoing polycrisis. 

Anxiety – driven by AI disruption, social tensions, safety concerns, and economic uncertainty – has become a major organizational risk. In response, HR leaders must enforce aligned leadership messaging, employee involvement, psychological safety and proactive support. 

Previously viewed as a wellbeing issue, anxiety has shifted towards a productivity threat. Employees who fear job loss, technological irrelevance, or wider societal instability struggle to stay engaged, innovate, and think creatively – key skills in the AI era. 

There’s no single right metric, but HR must understand the lived reality of employees to design effective interventions. Frequent updates and visible action matter just as much as the message itself to anxious employees. 

Single-voice messaging, clear rationale behind decisions, and consistent actions from leaders are essential to maintaining trust and reducing fear across the organization.  

Change management, AI adoption, and workforce redesign all depend on employees having the cognitive and emotional capacity to participate, making mental wellbeing a key enabler of organizational resilience. HR must treat emotional capacity as a core enabler of transformation, not an afterthought. 

‘Quiet cracking’ may be the latest buzzword for HR, but the reality of the situation goes far beyond individual support for HR leaders – it’s become an organizational priority.  

HR leaders are redesigning work but combatting their own exhaustion

Rebecca Wetteman, CEO and Principal Analyst at Valoir, led the discussion on the growing strategic imperatives of the HR leader, including workforce planning, talent development, and organizational design. 

With the CHRO role evolving alongside the workforce, HR leaders find themselves facing multiple challenges simultaneously, causing a combination of exhaustion and eagerness as they face up to the future of work. 

HR leaders are: 

• Exhausted – leading through disruption and change is taking its toll on CHROs, reflecting the accumulated fatigue experienced by the rest of the workforce. The ongoing search for the right skills answers and pathways, alongside AI and economic disruption, cannot be underestimated. 
• Exploring – HR leaders are experimenting across platforms, architectures, and tools, but the real challenge is determining which technologies meaningfully advance business outcomes rather than adding complexity. 
• Excited – flattened structures, redesigned job roles, reimagined incentives, and employees managing teams of AI agents are all viable options. HR was the remit to reinvent how work is done. 
• Employers – despite the exhaustion and uncertainty, HR leaders have the opportunity to be employers of trust and use soft/human skills to meaningfully engage employees, develop managers and build an organization of psychological safety.