AI in HR: Rethinking the role of HR

Most HR teams are using it in some form, but far fewer have changed how HR itself is organised. That gap is what this session is about.

We’ll start with an honest look at where AI really is in HR today: what’s working, what’s stalled and what’s mostly noise. Then we’ll look ahead to 2027, when AI agents are expected to take on far more of the routine work. That leads to the harder question: what is HR’s role then, and how should the function be set up?

To work through it, we’ve brought together two people who see the problem from different sides. Lucy Adams, CEO of Disruptive HR and former HR Director at the BBC, has spent the years since helping HR teams rethink the rules they inherited. Shiju Soman, HR Transformation Leader at Zalaris, runs HR operations and payroll for some of Zalaris’ largest customers across more than 25 countries, so he sees every day what AI can take on and where it falls over.

Conversations built around the questions HR leaders are asking right now.

What we'll get into

• Where AI really is in HR today. What organisations like yours are actually using it for, what's delivering, and where it's stalling.
• The work you can hand over. Which HR operations AI agents can realistically run by next year, and what has to be in place first.
• HR products people would actually choose. Why centres of expertise need to think like product designers, and what that looks like in practice.
• Who owns AI in your organisation. Should HR claim the human side of AI before IT ends up owning it by default?
• Building momentum that lasts past the pilot. What unified HR accountability looks like, and avoiding the capability drop-off after go-live.

Built for CHROs and senior HR leaders

This session gives you the production evidence and governance framing to make confident decisions not based on vendor materials, but on what's working in organisations right now.