“The future is dazzling” – that’s how Jess Von Bank, UNLEASH America emcee and Mercer Global Leader, kicked off Day Two of the Las Vegas show.  

At the start of a full day of panels, breakout rooms, executive boardrooms and keynotes, Von Bank set the scene for Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, to give the opening address. 

To a jam-packed Main Stage audience, Edmondson declared “the future of work is learning.” 

“The organizations that will thrive in the future are the organizations that are learning organizations,” she told attendees 

Amy Edmondson opens UNLEASH America with her keynote address.

Edmondson detailed how HR leaders can study and embrace failure – or what she terms “intelligent failure.” 

This failure state has four distinct criteria: it takes place in new territory, has a credible opportunity to advance towards a desired goal, is informed by available knowledge, and that the failure is no larger than needed to gain new knowledge. 

As a bonus, Edmondson added, the learnings from these intelligent failures need to be identified, shared and used. 

In an environment where HR leaders are under pressure to transform the workforce and spearhead AI scaling, fostering psychological safety to create environments for intelligent failure will be critical. 

Closing out her keynote, Edmondson declared that the recipe for excellence in an uncertain world is fivefold: Aim high, team up, fail well, learn fast and repeat.

From now on “the cycle never stops.” 

This conclusion was echoed by Peter Hinssen, Co-Founder of nexxworks, in his Day Two keynote.  

He joked that we’re living in the Real Housewives of AI era; “this is probably the craziest rollercoaster ride in the world of technology” and “we’re entering a world with more uncertainty.” 

There’s a lot of noise around AI, but Hinssen’s perspective is to view the bigger picture and focus on four realities: Hardcore geopolitics, extreme capitalism, zero latency and talent singularity.  

This means that world is re-globalizing, companies are spending money like never before, there is no time for pause and “the really clever people will make enormous progress” with AI, but the majority will not. 

Ultimately, we need to enter a world where “AI-first doesn’t mean people last.” 

Hinssen asked the audience: “Are you prepared for a world where disruption becomes the norm, where the waves get higher?” 

HR needs to have courage to not react to change but instead shape the future before it arrives.  

Remember, HR leaders have agency – “this is not the time to be an innocent bystander” – they need to ruthlessly route out so-called ‘yesterwork’ and become more adaptable, anticipatory and resilient in this world of uncertainty that Hinssen terms the ‘Never Normal’.  

Josh Bersin: ‘Completely incorrect’ that AI will take HR jobs

Ahead of his keynote on Day Three, industry analyst Josh Bersin took the Spotlight stage to share some HR technology in 2026.  

He kicked off by saying that HCM, ATS and other core HR systems aren’t going away – they are being re-energized by AI, and new HR tech vendors innovating with agentic AI.  

Bersin asked the audience to reflect on what the situation will look like in a year or two from now: “What is the world going to look like? Are there going to be no HR people left?” 

“This story that we’re going to have no jobs is completely incorrect” – these agents need “human caretaking.” Ultimately, they need management.  

Josh Bersin will be delivering his keynote on Day Three of UNLEASH America

Plus, the reality is that HR will be “turbocharged” by the AI agents they work with.  

Peter Lynch, CPO of Cardinal Group Companies, noted during his breakout session that while HR is under a lot of pressure in this AI age, it is a real opportunity to “capture the flag.” 

“HR has the right mindset” to lead the AI work – that’s why Bain research found that AI rollouts work better when HR is involved.  

Lynch called for HR leaders to, at the very least, be a Chief Technology Advocate for the right tools, even if they don’t want to take on the full CTO role (like Lynch himself is doing at Cardinal).  

CHROs, be more courageous in 2026

“Everyone feels like they’re behind,” shared Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO of Kyndryl, on the Main Stage CHRO panel.

For leaders, “it’s easy to want to hide or pretend you have the answers” – the issue is that “people see right through that,” added MetLife CHRO Shurawl Sibblies.

Being vulnerable and courageous is crucial to building trust with your people in a moment that is “one of the most transformative times in our careers,” in Sibblies words.

“Now is the time to be bold,” noted Katarina Berg, the CHRO of On, while Charbonnier said “informed courage” was the leadership behavior HR most needs to be amplify.

Being courageous is tough because while this moment is exciting, it’s also highly stressful.

However, Sibblies is optimistic about the outcome: “As a human race, we have proven time and time again, we are incredibly resilient. We do hard things all the time.”

Diana Scott, Shurawl Sibblies, Maryjo Charbonnier and Katarina Berg formed the CHRO panel

Closing out Day Two was the inimitable Ethan Mollick, Professor of Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People on AI.

Mollick’s breakneck keynote encompassed the impact and uses of AI tools and agents – from academic research to real-time examples of how to get high-value results from widely-available systems.

His message to HR leaders in the audience was “we have to be thinking about the future and how work changes” as a result of AI.

“My model that I use when I think about what how work changes, is you need three things: You need Leadership, Lab and Crowd,” he explained.

“Leadership is all you in the room; the C-Suite level teams. The Crowd is everyone using AI. And Lab is your dedicated, non-technical, or the only small amounts of technical, R&D team.”

He highlighted that the “locus of innovation” that many HR leaders and organizations are looking for now are not with vendors, but inside the organization already – the AI users.

Bringing his keynote to a close, Mollick shared four principles for the HR leaders in the room:

• Invite AI into everything
• Embrace abundance and curation
• Work interactively with the AI
• The is the worst AI you will use

Ultimately, it is HR that needs to be in control of the future of work and that the agency required to do so currently resides with them.

I would urge you guys to do things with AI and talk about the things you’re doing and make the world a better place. If not, we’re going to be stuck talking to AI bots forever and that’s not our future.”