Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo, North America: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo taking place today through Wednesday, October 28 in Orlando, FL. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. 

On Day 1 from the conference, we are highlighting the Opening Keynote, CHRO trends and priorities, change management in the age of AI, and top trends shaping L&D in 2027. 

Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

• Gartner HR Research Finds 77% of Board Members Expect AI to Deliver Productivity and Cost Savings, Yet Just 3% of Organizations Exceed Cost Savings Goals Via Productivity

Presented by CV Viverito, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner, and Arj Bagga, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

AI is delivering productivity gains across the workforce, but the real opportunity lies in using AI to create value that wasn’t possible before. In this session, CV Viverito, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, and Arj Bagga, Vice President Analyst at Gartner, explored how CHROs can help organizations concentrate AI investments, redesign work faster, and reinvest workforce capacity for growth. 

• “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.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with CV Viverito or Arj Bagga by contacting Gerri Weinberger at gerri.weinberger@gartner.com. 

Presented by Mark Whittle, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

Each year Gartner surveys hundreds of CHROs about their challenges and priorities for the coming year. In this session, Mark Whittle, Vice President Analyst at Gartner, shared the top CHRO trends and priorities for 2027, and how HR leaders can use these to inform their strategic plan. 

• “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.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Mark Whittle by contacting Gerri Weinberger at gerri.weinberger@gartner.com. 

Presented by Rebecca Lane, Senior Principal Analyst, Gartner

AI has catalyzed high-magnitude, high-stakes change across organizations. In this session, Rebecca Lane, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner, discussed how CHROs can adapt their strategies to effectively manage change as work continuously and unpredictably evolves.

• “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.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Rebecca Lane by contacting Gerri Weinberger at gerri.weinberger@gartner.com.