3 quotes that tell the HR reinvention story of UNLEASH World 2025

UNLEASH World 2025 marked by eighth show as a reporter at UNLEASH – and, honestly, the events just keep getting better and better.

Top of the agenda was HR reinvention, and the role of AI. This dominated not just the Main Stage, but also the Workhuman Live Forum on Day One and breakouts across Day Two and Three.

Overall, UNLEASH World took a human-centered approach to AI; this message even came from a first-of-its-kind keynote featuring the world’s most advanced humanoid, Ameca.

It’s time to see AI as an opportunity “to completely rethink how work gets done” – rather than focusing on “what jobs AI is going to replace”, let’s have a conversation about where AI can drive efficiency and productivity, and where humans can bring their unique skills.

That was the perspective of KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, on Day One.

My exclusive interview with Schmiedl, which digs into this topic more, is coming soon – stay tuned.

Let’s explore the top takeaways from UNLEASH World 2025  – here are some of the standout quotes that, for me, tell HR’s reinvention story from the show.

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Scott Galloway: ‘AI is corporate Ozempic’

Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, is an AI optimist, and he brought this message to his Day Two UNLEASH World closing keynote.

Rather than catastrophizing about the negatives of AI – including  whether artificial general intelligence will be a disaster for humanity – Galloway noted let’s ask, what could go right with AI?

“I wonder if the biggest winners” in this AI-powered world is “all of us”.

He believes that AI is “corporate Ozempic” – it makes CEO realize think “I’m not sure I need to eat more”, aka hire more, but in reality, there won’t be mass job losses.

Every time there’s a new innovation, “there’s a bit of a dip in employment, then it ultimately recovers, and employment goes up”.

Instead, individuals need to focus on upskilling themselves with AI – “the people who know how to incorporate AI tools into their jobs are going to make much more money”.

Scott Galloway on the Main Stage at UNLEASH World.

This message echoes the takeaway from King College London’s Daniel Susskind closing keynote of the whole show.

He declared that AI is “a challenge of mass redeployment”, so the best response is education.

It’s a “huge mistake” to see education as something you do early on in life – uncertainty occurs throughout our lives, and the best response is to be adaptive.

Ameca: ‘My role isn’t to replace human values, but to remind you how precious they are’

The HR leaders who joined us in Paris for UNLEASH World were treated to a very special keynote from Ameca, a humanoid robot.

She reassured us that she’s not here to take our jobs – “you bring imagination and empathy; I bring data and memory”.

Ameca was clear in her fireside chat with UNLEASH World emcee David Green that her “role isn’t to replace human values, but to remind you how precious they are”.

Therefore, HR has a huge role to play in this AI-powered future – there’s a “brilliant opportunity” to set “a standard that prioritizes people, ensuring technology enhances rather than hinders our humanity”.

Ameca at UNLEASH World 2025.

On Day Two, Josh Bersin, HR industry analyst and Founder & CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, declared to a packed Main Stage audience that AI is going beyond transforming HR and the world; it is reinventing it.

The issue is that current jobs and business processes “were never designed for this probabilistic technology that learns before your very eyes”.

In this environment, “the only appreciating asset you have is your people”.

“The people in your company are continuously learning, getting close to your customers, reinventing themselves and getting closer to each other to become better and better at their jobs.

“Everything else depreciates, including AI.”

During her opening keynote, Microsoft CPO Amy Coleman stated that leaders need to see AI as an ocean – it’s “wide, unknown and humbling” with “so much opportunity”.

“As people leaders, our goal isn’t to control it, but to be a part of it and understand what’s coming and to dive in together and navigate it.

As people leaders, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to guide our organizations to lead through this.” For Coleman, it is a privilege to get to do this work as the head of the HR function.

Amy Coleman speaking at UNLEASH World.

Lloyds CPO: HR must be ‘vibe King or Queen’

UNLEASH World made it clear that success with AI depends not just on technology, but also on culture and leadership.

Speaking at Workhuman Live Forum on Day One, Workhuman CEO Eric Mosley stated that culture is “everything in business”.

It is also an organization’s superpower to being a successful organization, and Sharon Doherty, Chief People & Places Officer at Lloyds Banking Group, noted during a Main Stage panel that the old adage is correct: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

During her breakout session on Day Three, Doherty dug in deeper, and declared that HR needs to be the “vibe King or Queen” of how the organization feels. Sometimes that means having tough conversations, and tackling the tasks that have previously seemed “too hard to change”.

Sharon Doherty on a Main Stage panel at UNLEASH World.

For Sanofi’s Chief Culture, Inclusion & EX officer Raj Verma, it’s important to just focus on culture as a vibe – it is also a verb.

“If you want your culture to stick, you have to do stuff to amplify” it – “if you do nothing, you’ll still have a culture, [but] probably not the one that you want”.

Danone CHRO Isabelle Esser added that it’s crucial to bring your people on the journey with you – “a company can only grow as fast as it grows its talent”.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Esser at UNLEASH World to dig in more to Danone’s approach to HR, and specifically why people strategy is the business strategy.

Stay tuned for that interview, and the wider Editorial’s team insights on UNLEASH World. We’ve got so much great content coming.