Can you believe it – another UNLEASH America has come to a close? 

 This year, it’s safe to say we’ve watched magic happen.  

The International Festival of HR 2025 has been like no other, as we’ve hosted numerous sessions, phenomenal keynotes, and watched senior HR leaders from across the globe meet, connect, and share ideas. 

As we finished waving out the last few attendees, the Editorial team banded together to reflect on the day’s highlights – as it sure has been a busy one!  

Remind yourself of the highlights of Day One and Day Two, or read below to take a deep dive into Day Three.  

Josh Bersin on the AI revolution: Shaping the future of HR

“Without change, there can be no growth”, so embrace the change to empower, connect and educate your people.  

That’s how Main Stage MC George Rogers kicked off Day Three of UNLEASH America 2025.

HR legend Josh Bersin then took to the stage to deliver a keynote all about the HR AI revolution – and wow, what a session!  

Speaking to a packed Main Stage audience, Bersin reminded HR leaders that “we are playing a very important role” in this AI revolution.  

“I believe that you’re going to look back 10 years from now and you’re going to remember 2025”; it will be the year that the massive reinvention of work began.  

AI, and particularly agentic AI, is the “only technology I’ve ever seen that actually completely transforms the way the company operates”, stated Bersin. 

“A lot of the adoption of AI is about the people stuff; it’s not really about the technology”.  

Having said that, Bersin talked at length about how the “vendor market for all corporate software, not just HR software, is going to be very, very disrupted” – lots of startups will emerge, and incumbent vendors will need to adapt to design software for the new world (not the old one).  

UNLEASH is working in partnership with Bersin, and his colleagues at The Josh Bersin Company, so stay tuned for more exclusive insights from the team on AI and the future of HR.

SAP, NYU and Microsoft preach the importance of data for the future of work

Following on from Josh Bersin’s keynote, a panel of industry experts delved into how AI, workforce shifts, and leadership innovation are redefining work, the workforce, and the workplace.

Insight222’s David Green was joined by Microsoft’s Karen Kocher, SAP’s Dr. Christian Schmeichel, and New York University’s Anna Tavis on the Main Stage to explore the topic from the various lenses of learning, preparation and what the workforce of the future looks like.

One of the key threads running throughout all three perspectives was the importance of data – “in the people analytics space, where they know that the availability of data at all levels of the organization, at all levels of education, is really critical,” said Tavis.

Kocher added that data is the “difference maker” when it comes to the use of AI: “If you don’t have the data, you don’t have AI.”

It can also be the difference market when engaging with other business leaders, informing decision-making and strategic planning, she added.

Dr Schmeichel highlighted that data can also make people and organizations “more agile” and give credibility but also stated that it’s “not just about the technical skills, it’s about human skills as well.”

When asked to provide their key recommendations for HR leaders in the audience, our expert panel had three pearls of wisdom to impart for preparing for the future of work: Remain practical, stay curious and to get a learning coach.

‘Leading right now is not for the faint of heart’, says Google’s Chief Talent & Learning Officer

Taking to the Talent stage on Day 3 was Google’s Chief Talent & Learning Officer Brian Glaser and Apollo Global’s Head of Human Capital Matt Breitfelder.  

Glaser kicked off by stating: “Leading right now is not for the faint of heart” – the old ways of leading are simply not going to work anymore.  

Breitfelder agreed, and stated that managers need to be coaches.  

Organizations can learn a lot from sports teams regarding wellbeing; looking after your people is no longer a nice thing to have, it is a necessity.  

For Google’s Glaser the aim is to create the conditions for people to do the best work of their lives.  

His advice to his HR peers is to focus on the basics of checking your ego and asking more questions.  

Brietfelder’s closing statement on the panel was around the diversity, equity and inclusion conversation.  

He shared that no matter the laws, including and seeing people is how you’re going to optimize – “diverse teams are going to be much more capable of solving the current problems”.  

Want to know more about this topic? We’ve got good news – Glaser sat down with UNLEASH’s Chief Reporter Allie Nawrat for a video interview where we dig into how to bring humanist leadership to life. Stay tuned.

ServiceNow, Achievers and GED Testing discuss human-centered AI

“AI is a shame remover”, declared Vicki Greene, CEO, GED Testing Service, on the Main Stage.  

It allows people to ask questions without any shame, and it helps people start.  

Greene joked, even though she was skeptical at first, now she is thinking “how did I live without this?”  

Jacqui Canney, Chief People and AI enablement Officer at ServiceNow, was sitting on the same panel, and she shared: “AI is a really important tool, but if you don’t bring the people along with it you won’t get the value”, no matter how much you invest.  

She talked about the need for a product mindset, and the need to think about the human end users.  

The product mindset also involves experimenting, and sometimes failures.  

For Achievers’ CTO Anu Subramanian, “great leaps in anything comes from taking a chance”. Success comes from reframing the conversation to not talk about failure, but instead to destigmatize.  

Wrapping up the panel, ServiceNow’s Canney stated that “the most important thing that any of us have is time”, so think about AI in terms of how it creates more time, whether that’s to spend time with family and friends, or to do more meaningful work.  

L’Oréal: From attrition to retention ‘flip the script on challenges’ 

In the closing keynote of the day, L’Oréal North America CHRO Stephanie Kramer took the stage with energy and humor to share how the world’s largest beauty company has transformed its approach to retention. 

She shared detailed employee experience stats for the 90,000-strong global powerhouse. 

Previously, L’Oréal had faced a significant challenge when internal data revealed that 20% of new starters had a below expectations experience during onboarding.  

15 to 30% of our employees are actively onboarding at any time, so with their experience being not fantastic, and us seeing they were leaving faster than the rest of our organization, we zoomed in with data and insights, and identified people managers as being a key opportunity to flip the script.” 

She added: “Our insights showed 41% of employees said they were stressed or anxious about first-time people managers; 34% wanted to leave the organization; 31% wanted to change managers; and 31% lost confidence. Overall, we could see, this was a key point of attrition.” 

To address this, L’Oréal’s HR leadership undertook a strategic communication transformation.

This involved focusing on communicating with teams to shift the perception that HR is a function with a default stance of saying “no” to embracing “strategic yeses”. 

She distilled her approach into three guiding principles: 

1. Flip the Script – See moments of attrition not as exits, but as powerful opportunities for retention. Authentically engaging with employee concerns transparently builds a safe culture. “Use that as a trampoline.” 

1. Boil the Pot, Not the Ocean – Focus energy on the moments that matter most in the employee journey, particularly high-risk stages like onboarding and transitions into people management. 

1. Use the Magic Triangle – Strengthen the relationship between HR, people managers, and employees—especially the connection between managers and their teams, which often happens outside HR’s direct influence. 

She closed out UNLEASH America with a message of reassurance to HR Leaders working in a “BANI” world—brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible. 

“We can do it all,” she reminded the audience. “Not all at the same time—but never alone. 

“I very much believe you can’t use an old map to explore a new world. Our people are counting on us.” 

Enjoyed The International Festival of HR so much, you’re already counting down the days to the 2026 event? We don’t blame you! Get you tickets, or, join the UNLEASH team in Paris, France for UNLEASH World. 

We can’t wait to see you soon”