This is an inflection point for HR to respond to changing business context (AI, economic uncertainty, social toxicity, demographic expectations, and environmental uncertainty).
To move forward, HR needs to respond to four pivot points:

1. Deliver value to all stakeholders inside and out,
2. through human capability
   (talent + leadership + organization + HR),
3. with upgraded HR operating model, practices, analytics, and professionals, and
4. using AI to make progress.

When HR professionals recognize and master these pivots, they contribute more value and become true business partners. The keynote will present insights (ideas, frameworks, tools, and actions) to shape the future of HR.

As organizations expand across borders, HR leaders face a growing challenge: balancing local legal requirements, cultural expectations, and business objectives while maintaining a consistent organizational culture and value system.

In a world where employees, customers, investors, and communities increasingly expect organizations to act responsibly, HR has a unique opportunity to serve not only as a strategic partner, but as the moral compass of the enterprise.

This keynote explores how HR can elevate its influence by shaping culture, earning executive credibility, and championing ethical leadership across diverse global environments. It examines why CEO's do not always trust HR’s strategic advice what HR leaders must do to build that trust, and how the profession can become a stronger steward of organizational values in an increasingly complex world.

AI can accelerate performance, but only when people and leaders are equipped to work differently. AI is reshaping the work leaders do. While the fundamentals of good leadership still matter, a new set of AI specific behaviors is emerging which will define high impact leaders in the years ahead.

SHL looks at what effective leadership requires in an AI enabled organization, why some leaders risk being outpaced if they don’t evolve, and how organizations can equip their leaders to drive performance in this new landscape.

The master class will build on the keynote and go into detail about latest innovations and how to deliver human capability (talent + organization + leadership + HR function). For each of these four elements of human capability, we will identify priorities and offer specific ideas, evidence, and tools for moving ahead. We will look at 10 talent initiative; 12 organization capabilities; 6 elements of leadership; and 10 dimensions of an effective HR department. Participants will select priorities from these 38 initiatives, and we will present the latest research, cases, and practices to make them happen. We will also show how these human capability initiatives can be formed into a human capability plan with change action steps.

As AI evolves from a tool into an increasingly autonomous agent, many assumptions about talent, leadership, and organizational design are being challenged. Drawing on research and fieldwork across some of the world’s most dynamic innovation ecosystems, this session explores how leading organizations are rethinking roles, capabilities, decision-making, and workforce models in the age of Agentic AI.

Rather than focusing on technology alone, the session examines the leadership choices required when human and machine intelligence increasingly work together. Participants will leave with practical insights into how organizations can build adaptability, redesign talent systems, and prepare their people for a future that is already unfolding.

1. Why talent strategy can no longer be separated from technology and organizational design.
2. How Agentic AI is reshaping roles, skills, and decision-making across organizations.
3. What leaders should start, stop, and rethink to build an adaptable workforce for the future.