All 2026 Conference Sessions

Gartner Opening Keynote: Productivity Isn't the Prize - Expanding What's Possible for Your Organization

Speakers:

• CV Viverito, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner
• Arj Bagga, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “For many, business performance remains strong, but costs are rising and most leadership teams hope AI will be a solution to the cost problem.”
• “HR has focused on getting employees to adopt AI tools and embed them across workflows in an effort to take costs out.” 
• “AI will never be as cheap as it is today, yet almost 40% of companies are over budget on AI.”
• “Organizations showing the strongest results from AI are doing two things at the same time:  
  • Using redesign to change the cost of work, making them more than twice as likely to exceed their cost goals.
  • Redirecting those gains from AI investment towards innovation, which increases the likelihood of outperforming revenue goals by nearly 4 times."
• “To enable this, HR will have to do three things for their organizations:
  • Concentrate efforts and investments to put AI to work where it will make the greatest difference for success.
  • Build for speed by getting closer to the business so that opportunities for value aren’t missed. 
  • Treat capacity gained as an asset to deploy towards future growth.”

Signature Series: Top CHRO Trends & Priorities Shaping 2027

Speakers:

• Mark Whittle, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “As business needs evolve faster than HR’s delivery model, HR excellence requires speed to value, not just efficiency."
• "Human accountability is essential no matter what work AI takes on, particularly as employees increasingly co-create outcomes with AI.”
• “The workforce has become more load-bearing due to organizational decisions; to mitigate this, successful organizations operate with fewer, differentiated skills carrying most of the weight.
  • Many CEOs have hit the gas but felt their leadership engine stalled, attributed to entrenched ways of working, lagging performance and critical skills gaps."    
• "The leader role is not designed or supported for disruption, requiring leaders to intentionally let go of legacy behaviors and ways of working and replace them with those that better align with evolving business needs.”

Change Has Changed: What You Need to Know About Change Management in the Age of AI

Speakers:

• Rebecca Lane, Senior Principal Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “Seventy-eight percent of CHROs agree workflows and roles will need to change to get the most out of their organization's AI investments.” 
• “Traditional change readiness focuses on preparing employees in three ways:
  • Adaptability: Equip employees with the skills and resources needed to move forward through change.
  • Willingness: Help employees see the opportunities that can come from change.
  • Understanding: Provide information that helps employees see themselves in the change.”
• “Traditional change readiness strategies have been effective, but they are producing diminishing returns as AI changes the nature of change.
• “To build employee change readiness in the age of AI, organizations should: 
  • Provide frameworks for safe, structured experimentation.
  • Deploy personalized risk assessments that help employees evaluate uncertainty.
  • Teach employees to use work friction as an opportunity to continuously evolve work.”

Top Trends that Will Shape L&D Strategy for 2027

Speakers:

• Rebecca Lane, Senior Principal Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “The total number of skills required for the average job is increasing by 4.8% annually, and 34% of the skills required in 2025 will no longer be relevant by 2030.” 
• “Gartner estimates that 32 million jobs will require redesign annually through 2031, making scalable reskilling a strategic business necessity.”
• “L&D will need to act as an engine for workforce reinvention which is defined as the need for employee jobs, skills, mindsets, and work practices to rapidly evolve to achieve business results. L&D must build scalable systems for frequent upskilling and reskilling.”
• “Gartner predicts that by 2028, 40% of employees will first be trained and coached by AI when entering a new role.”
• “L&D leaders should design learning experiences that build critical thinking, intellectual skepticism and an ‘untrusted until validated’ mindset when employees work with AI.”

Managerial Tasks You Could, But Shouldn’t Automate

Speakers:

• Carolina Engels, Senior Principal Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “We expected with more AI, we would remove friction, but we just moved it. Today, 79% of CHROs say managers are overwhelmed, and 1 in 4 managers would opt out of management if they could.”
• “HR should apply three strategic filters:
  • Automate Tasks, Not Workflows. Organizations that strategically automate routine administrative task components are more likely to report higher enterprise contribution and discretionary effort.
  • Protect Zone of Genius. Organizations should identify and protect the activities that create the greatest value and meaning for managers, including coaching, development, navigating ambiguity, and building trust.
  • Beware of Interconnectivity. The question is what disappears when a task is automated. Organizations should assess second- and third-order effects before scaling automation.”
• “Beware of interconnectivity: AI doesn't just change a task, it changes everything connected to it. Benefits appear immediately; costs appear later.”  
• “Gartner predicts that 75% of organizations that reduce middle-management headcount due to AI investments will rehire at least half of those roles by 2028.”

From Job Security to Job Evolution: Managers Role in Guiding Teams Through Change

Speakers:

• Sasha Tuzel, Senior Director Analyst

Key takeaways

• “The number of enterprise changes the average employee experiences increased from 10 in 2022 to 22 in 2025, driving employee job insecurity.”
• “By 2030, 34% of the skills required to be successful in a job in 2025 will no longer be relevant.”
• Gartner recommends managers take three actions:
  • Acknowledge and neutralize anxiety: Employees who report high levels of psychological safety enjoy a 67% higher probability that they’ll apply a new skill on the job.  
  • Communicate the value of progress: Managers should break changes into achievable workflow steps, recognize progress and provide course-correcting feedback.
  • Connect job evolution to enduring values: Managers can help employees navigate changing roles by connecting the changing “how” of work to an enduring “why.”

Cost of the Unconnected Workplace: Loneliness Is a Line Item

Speakers:

• Rachael Dix, Director Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “Workplace loneliness is a widespread business challenge, with 42% of employees reporting they feel lonely at work.”
• “Gartner research found that lonely employees are: 
  • 19% more likely to consider leaving their jobs, resulting in an average of $8.2 million in attrition costs
  • 51% less likely to deliver above-average enterprise contribution, creating an estimated $8 million in lost productivity.”
• “One in 4 employees cite lack of time and a focus on individual, not team, excellence as barriers to collaboration.”
• “To protect performance and the bottom line, CHROs should focus on actively detecting loneliness, embedding collaboration into performance expectations, and redesigning key automated workflows to hardwire human connection back into daily operations.”

Reshape the Recruiting Manager Role for the AI Era

Speakers:

• Jamie Kohn, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “While 56% of CEOs expect to use AI to delayer middle management within five years, recruiting managers are becoming the critical control point for hiring quality, speed, risk management and human-AI collaboration.”
• “Organizations that remove managers before redefining their contributions risk creating capability gaps.” 
• “Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of organizations that cut middle-management headcount due to AI investments will hire back at least half of those roles.”
• “The recruiting manager role is shifting from driving execution to enabling adaptation. Future-ready managers will:
  • Amplify strategic impact
  • Select and develop a high performing team
  • Drive high-impact performance 
  • Lead through continuous change.”
• “Organizations can free recruiting managers to focus on the high-value decisions that drive hiring outcomes by automating administrative work and process coaching while enhancing judgment coaching.”

A New Enterprise Framework for Strategic Workforce Planning

Speakers:

• Caitlyn McDonough, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “Only 39% of CEOs believe they have the talent needed to deliver financial performance.”
• “Organizations with effective workforce planning are 1.4 times more likely to exceed their revenue goals and 1.5 times more likely to exceed their cost goals.”
• “Organizations should stop planning from the bottom up based on how AI could change tasks, roles, and skills. They should plan top down, starting with enterprise strategy, critical work, and funded AI investments.” 
• “Gartner predicts that by 2029, 30% of employees who were terminated and replaced by AI will be rehired, often at a higher cost.” 
• “Progressive organizations are breaking work down into measurable components so they can forecast future demand and how work will be performed.”

Racing to Redesign Jobs for AI? Beware of These Three Traps

Speakers:

• Katie Sutherland, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “Gartner estimates that 32 million jobs will require redesign each year through 2031.” 
• “Many AI-driven redesign efforts fail because organizations focus too heavily on efficiency, apply AI without enough guidance on how humans and AI should work together, and fail to keep workforce readiness in sync with AI ambition.”
• “HR has a critical role to play in helping organizations avoid these redesign traps by:
  • Assisting organizations with looking beyond optimization and creating new value. 
  • Guiding leaders in making more intentional decisions about how humans and AI work together.
  • Contextualizing AI for employees to help them understand what's changing and where they fit.”
• Sixty-three percent of organizations prioritize efficiency gains, but organizations focused on growth and innovation outcomes are nearly twice as likely to exceed revenue goals.

How to Manage Skills Atrophy as a Business Risk

Speakers:

• Rebecca Burton, Senior Principal Analyst

Key takeaways

• “Unmanaged skills atrophy can result in a 24% decline in employee performance, but only two in five organizations have a strategy to address AI-driven skills atrophy.”
• “Organizations should integrate skills atrophy analysis into workforce planning, talent reviews and job redesign efforts while also conducting ad hoc analysis when critical job families are disrupted or major business changes occur.”
• “HR leaders can manage skills atrophy as a business risk by:
  • Understanding how tasks within jobs are disrupted, and how skills needs are evolving.
  • Runing a risk assessment to determine acceptable vs risky atrophy 
  • Introducing productive friction into work to prevent undesirable skills atrophy.”