UNLEASH World 2025 Day Three: Top highlights from Josh Bersin, Daniel Susskind, Dior, Lous Vuitton, the BBC and more

And that’s a wrap!  

As UNLEASH World closes its doors for another year, the UNLEASH Editorial team took some time to reflect on their favorite sessions from Day Three.  

From Josh Bersin kicking off the morning to Daniel Susskind closing the day, we’ve seen a whole host of magnificent speakers. 

With so much to choose from, it’s almost impossible to whittle down the top sessions of the day, but UNLEASH’s Editorial team have managed to share just some of their favorites below. 

AI’s true value lies in empowering humans

Opening the third and final day of UNLEASH World 2025 was leading global industry analyst, Josh Bersin.  

As the crowds gathered to hear his session, Bersin detailed how AI is transforming HR, and highlighted that as HR professionals everyone is “very central” to the reinvention that will inevitably impact every industry.  

“This is not a technology problem. The technology is advancing at light speed,” before highlighting that in 2025 alone, OpenAI more than tripled its capability of LLMs.  

If this continues, the technology is going to be way ahead of our ability to use it,” Bersin warned. “The issue the study found was that only 5% of companies believe they’re really getting a positive return on what AI has to do with people.  

“Instead, it’s to do with jobs, roles, and business processes that were never designed for this probabilistic technology that learns before your very eyes.” 

Later in his session, Bersin told the audience that “the only appreciating asset you have is your people.”  

Building on this, he told the audience that employees who are continuously learning, working with customers, reinventing themselves, and getting closer to their colleagues are becoming better employees.  

“Everything else depreciates, including AI,” he added. 

Overall, Bersin’s session was a reminder that AI’s true value lies in how it empowers people, not replaces them. 

Want to hear more about Bersin’s thought-provoking session? Read UNLEASH’s Senior Journalist, Lucy Buchholz’s report here. 

How Standard Chartered found success with Generative and Agentic AI

Kicking off the day’s AI stream, UNLEASH stalwart and stream host Gary Bolles highlighted that much of the conversation around AI at the show reinforced that “AI initiatives are not about technology; it’s about people”.

First to take the stage was Standard Chartered Chief Operating Officer – Strategy and Talent, Melinda McKinley, who presented a fascinating case study of how the investment bank is implementing generative and agentic AI. 

Breaking down the process from initial conception to full rollout, McKinley explained to delegates that “a critical success factor” underpinning the whole endeavor was “the ability to not only understand our users, but to actually respond to the needs of our users”. 

“I believe it’s had a disproportionate impact on our overall success.” 

Detailing two specific case studies – the implementation of a Gen AI writing assistant and the ongoing development of a goal generation AI agent – McKinley said some of the key lessons learned included: 

• “Know the problem you are trying to solve and go for it – it could be strategy, culture, experience…any of these things, but know what it is.” 
• “Make sure you have the right people in the room. Do not think as a CHRO that it’s your job to be in the room doing the actual design of this; get the subject matter experts in.” 
• “Human-centered AI is not just about designing for the human; it’s making sure that the human is always in control.” 

Storytelling, tough love and disruption power the reboot of Lloyds Banking Group 

Lloyds’ Chief People & Places Officer Sharon Doherty returned for Day Three of UNLEASH World 2025. 

Yesterday she was on the Main Stage with CHRO peers from McDonald’s and IKEA discussing why culture is a superpower, and today she took to the Talent track to share “secrets” to rebooting companies.  

Doherty has overseen a reboot at three organizations – Vodafone, Finastra and now Lloyds.  

There are three hats that leaders need to wear: Storyteller, tough lover & disruptor. 

Doherty’s favorite is the final one, but the others are so important if HR leaders want to drive through a full company reboot. 

While HR needs to be the “Vibe King or Queen” of how the organization feels, they also need to have tough conversations, and not get stuck on things that seem “too hard to change”.  

Remember to look at the “positives in what came before you” when talking about the need for change – people are often very proud of the work they have done, so be respectful of that while telling the story of transformation.  

“Change is really difficult – and, actually, loads fail” – with AI, it is going to be ever harder and more pervasive. 

HR must remember, “disruption starts with ourselves” – it’s time to go back to school on AI, and get hands on with the tech. 

BBC’s CPO urges HR leaders to find purpose in ‘triumphs and trauma’

UNLEASH World is full of stories and Uzair Qadeer, Chief People Officer at the BBC had delegates spellbound during his session focused on the importance of understanding the ‘why’ of leadership in a digital workplace at a personal level. 

In an inspiring fireside chat with Insight222’s David Green, Qadeer spoke with passion about why it is so critical for HR leaders to understand their purpose by embracing their “triumphs and trauma”. 

As he put it: “The purpose of my life is to liberate myself and others from systems and stories that silence the soul. That’s my leadership DNA.”  

Leadership is many things, but leadership is creating clarity in chaos, helping people buckle up and calm down so they can do their best work.” 

Qadeer said that when leaders do this “systems start to shift” within organizations, and that the AI era is giving HR “an incredible moment to step back and rethink”. 

He explained that HR is facing a “moment of friction” where the profession is striving for “clarity about what the direction of travel should be”. 

“AI is actually provoking us now to do that, creating a sense of urgency. I think it’s incredible.” 

Dior & Lous Vuitton on luxury talent mobility  

The UNLEASH World audience were treated to a Talent stage session from French luxury powerhouse, LVMH.  

Two senior Talent Acquisition leaders from two of the LVMH maisons, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, shared why internal mobility is a strategic pillar.  

A historic challenge was the reflex to hoard talent within each maison, but this is shifting as it becomes clear that the only way to build a resilient workforce is to provide “difference experiences in businesses that are at different cycles”, Louis Vuitton’s SVP, Talent & Development, Laura Parkes, explained.

Because of the scale of LVMH, Louis Vuitton and Dior can provide career opportunities for their people across other maisons – this cross functionality of the HR approach is “really going to be key to how we build a more resilient workforce”.  

Christian Dior Couture, VP, Talent Acquisition & Development, William Richards, noted that that LVMH is working on a Career Compass, which will go live globally to 250,000 employees worldwide next year.  

It is a common philosophy around how LVMH develops mobility, and “how we really give transparency to employees on something which can sometimes feel a little bit opaque”.  

Louis Vuitton’s Parkes added that the compass is “a mindset”. The long-term focus of the Career Compass philosophy is a move to a skills-based organization; building a common language on how we attract and move talent.  

The key to having success with internal mobility is “commitment from top”, shared Richards.  

We are very lucky at LVMH to have a CHRO at Group level that is not only passionate about mobility, but really drives that as a key agenda”, he added.  

The future of planning in the age of AI according to SAP, Oracle, Workday & Deloitte

The penultimate session of a phenomenal Day Three at UNLEASH World was a Main Stage panel featuring tech leaders from HR tech giants SAP SuccessFactors, Workday and Oracle, moderated by Deloitte Managing Director, Russell Klosk.  

The topic on the table was workforce planning in the AI-powered world of work.  

Ben Pierce, General Manager, Planning Business Unit, Workday, stated: “You can’t do digital transformation without thinking about workforce planning.” 

Nancy Estell Zoder, Oracle Group VP, Oracle Cloud Product Strategy, agreed. She shared: “Work itself is changing, and as a result, strategic workforce planning has to change.”  

It is becoming a huge priority for the business, and it is more than a HR issue.  

Pierce noted: “We don’t get workforce planning deals done with just HR” – Finance and Operations are now often also in the room in conversations between vendors and HR leaders.

Mick Collins, Global VP GTM at SAP SuccessFactors, is clear “Finance is an important stakeholder in this process”, but it needs to be very HR-led. 

If we fall into the trap of looking at this from a budget lens, you may miss the opportunity to create new business value…by hiring new people. They’re going to help our business achieve its mission or generate new revenue streams.”  

The conversation turned to the future of AI products to support workforce planning.  

Pierce is clear that “this is a massive turning point” for planning – AI changes the game on data and collaboration challenges, it gives planners “superpowers”.  

Oracle’s Zoder added that she’s excited for what’s coming, but also the progress that’s already been made.  

The tech giant has launched a planning agent and a workforce transformation agent, but the next frontier is a “multi-agent experience” to help companies “more effectively manage their human resources”. 

In a concluding thought, Collins from SAP SuccessFactors, declared that HR needs to rebrand workforce planning – it’s hard to communicate to senior leaders about why workforce planning is relevant to them, so talk about in terms of what the C-Suite cares about.  

Rethinking talent, purpose and professionalism with Daniel Susskind

Daniel Susskind, Research Professor in Economics at King’s College London took to the stage to close out a truly inspiring UNLEASH World 2025.  

As the crowds gathered, Susskind declared there’s good reason why AI has captured the world’s attention.  

Beneath the hype, something really interesting is happening under the surface. Susskind called for us all to “try look beneath ripples of change”, and instead “pay attention to deeper currents that are taking place”.  

He called out two common mistakes that people often make with AI.  

First, people are trapped into a mindset that the only way technology can affect the work we do is by destroying jobs – “the term jobs is really unhelpful”, it is  trap, and instead people need to distinguish between jobs and tasks.  

It’s also a mistake and a fallacy to think that just routine tasks can be automated. It is easy to think that because we think machines can’t think, reason, or feel like us, they can’t be creative.

Instead, it’s crucial to remember that AI can work in a fundamentally different way to humans.  

The best response to these challenges is education – AI is “a challenge of mass redeployment”.  

Leaders need to think about the what, how, and when of learning and upskilling. 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.  

Stay tuned for Chief Reporter Allie Nawrat’s full write up of Susskind’s keynote.  

Although the UNLEASH shows of 2025 may have come to a close, we promise that next year’s event in Las Vegas (March 17 – 19) and Paris (20 – 22 October) will be bigger and better than ever. 

So make sure you grab your pass and join us in person in 2026!