WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Offering a preview of what’s to come, HR Tech today highlighted several sessions from this year’s event, set for October 20 – 22, 2026, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Built around the theme, “From Change to Transformation,” the 2026 program covers the HR lifecycle across six previously announced focus areas.
Select highlights include:
- Architecting a Skills-Forward Future: IFF’s Digital Job Architecture & AI Coaching Journey – Sheena Jacob, SVP, Total Rewards & People Operations, and Claudine Wolfe, Chief Talent Officer from International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), will walk through the practical steps the organization took to move from static documents to dynamic insights to develop a usable, scalable, and strategic job architecture. Jacob and Wolfe will deliver a blueprint for the tools that matter, change management decisions that drove adoption, and the lessons learned.
- Unlocking Performance: AI + the Culture to Power It – In this session, Ana White, EVP and Chief People & AI Enablement Officer, Sarah Bernstein, VP of Organization Transformation & Capability Development, and Rossella Blatt Vital, Chief AI Officer, at Lumen, will share how the organization is driving AI as a company-wide transformation grounded in culture, leadership, talent, and modern ways of working. Drawing on this, the Lumen team will explain how to set an AI leadership agenda, establish governance and decision rights, prepare the workforce for scaled adoption, and measure progress.
- The Architecture of AI Adoption: Why Your HR Pilots Stall and How to Fix It – Taking a workshop approach, Vic Akosile, Lead, People Analytics & AI, at Cloudflare, will reveal the five structural barriers that doom AI initiatives before they scale and help attendees diagnose and scorecard their own AI implementations using hands-on exercises. Akosile will draw on real-world enterprise HR case studies to show what works, what fails, and why, and offer attendees actionable tools to move from experimentation to production deployment.
- FutureForce: Internal Mobility and Talent Agility in the Age of AI – Answering the question, is the straight career ladder dead? Sarah Brown (Sutphin), SVP, Global Talent Acquisition & Mobility at TIAA, will show how forward-thinking organizations are building integrated talent strategies with AI to break down silos between Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Learning & Development, Workforce Planning, and Culture. Attendees will learn how this evolution enables dynamic internal mobility and skills-based talent deployment, promoting previously undiscovered career paths.
- Making HR AI Ready — Fast, Fearless, and Focused on Value – Looking under the hood at Sanofi’s two-year HR transformation, Danielle Bushen, Global Head of People & Culture Technology Strategy, will highlight how the organization sequenced ecosystem simplification, data remediation, governance modernization, and AI use case experimentation to accelerate value without overwhelming HR or IT teams. Bushen will offer practical frameworks and real-world lessons attendees can apply immediately, whether optimizing existing systems, preparing for AI adoption, or leading large-scale projects.
- Transforming the Employee Experience Through HR Technology: From Data to Design – Looking through the lens of design, data, and employee experience, Jaronika Dancy, Manager, HRIS Global Operations, Amsted Industries, will unpack aligning technology with business goals, engaging leadership in HR initiatives, and translating data into human-centered action. Taking the stance that tech should enhance work — not complicate it — Dancy will explain how to map these investments to value creation, build effective adoption strategies and modernize workforce operations while preserving culture.
Rebecca McKenna, SVP, Brand and Innovation, shared, “Given the current pace of change, today’s HR leaders are hungry for what’s actually working. This year’s program responds directly to their needs — delivering honest lessons, real strategies, and actionable frameworks from the like-minded practitioners across industries who have already done the work. Every session is designed so attendees leave with something they can use when they get back from HR Tech.”
HR Tech is scheduled to take place October 20 – 22, 2026, with pre-conference events scheduled for October 19. For a look at this year’s agenda and information about how to register, visit https://www.hrtechnologyconference.com.
