UNLEASH Paris 2026

To fuel an AI transformation, leaders must balance not only how technology shifts but how people, processes, and culture adapt. In this fireside chat, we will map macro world trends directly to the messy reality of how Google is navigating this shift. We will explore how the role of the leader must evolve from an expert who holds all the answers to an explorer who fosters rapid experimentation. We will share practical lessons on embedding AI fluency, rethinking organizational workflows, and building a culture that rewards courageous failure.

• World and work trends: Understanding the geopolitical, demographic, and environmental forces accelerating the AI shift
• Google's unique POV: How one of the world's largest tech organizations serves as customer zero
• The human side of transformation: Why continuous reinvention is required to keep pace with technology
• Evolving leadership mindsets: How to shed the 'expert' label, reward the attempt, and redesign the system
• Co-intelligent teams: Integrating AI workflows to augment durable human skills like empathy, judgment, and collaboration
• Actionable takeaways: Practical moves you can make to accelerate adoption across your workforce

Every HR technology vendor is selling the future of work. Somehow, your managers are still chasing approvals by email.

For global HR leaders, the challenge is knowing which innovations deserve your budget, your people's attention and the organizational upheaval that comes with both. When every product promises transformation, how do you recognize the few that can actually deliver?

Join Matt Charney for a candid, provocative look at what meaningful HR innovation looks like beneath the branding. Moving beyond AI hype and feature comparisons, this session explores how to spot technology that expands what your workforce can accomplish, challenge claims before they become expensive commitments, and turn promising capabilities into measurable business results.

Through research, practical examples and an interactive buying challenge, you'll pressure-test the promises against the realities of global HR: different markets, competing priorities and employees who already have enough passwords. You'll leave with five questions that sharpen any technology evaluation and a practical approach to testing innovation before betting your credibility on it.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Distinguish meaningful innovation from expensive repackaging by assessing how a technology changes work, improves decisions and addresses a specific business constraint.
• Apply a five-question evaluation framework to challenge vendor claims, assess evidence and determine whether a solution can succeed across different workforce and country contexts.
• Design a pilot that supports an investment decision, with clear measures of value, employee adoption, accountable ownership and criteria for scaling, revising or stopping.

When Vineet Nayar inverted the corporate pyramid at HCL Technologies putting employees above customers, transparency above hierarchy and trust above control it challenged how organisations think about value creation. Today, as AI reshapes work that question becomes more urgent where does value actually sit and what is HR responsible for building. Vineet is the author of the forthcoming book 'Humans First, Machines Second: 30 Sparks to Reimagine Winning in the Age of AI' (released mid-2026). The book is anchored in the idea that "AI will not transform organizations until leaders are willing to redesign how humans create value." His previous book, Employees First, Customers Second, published by Harvard Business Press, was a global bestseller with over 100,000 copies sold.

This keynote will draw on large scale transformation experiences across both enterprise and education. The session focuses on what it takes to design organizations where people do the work AI cannot and where HR plays a central role in shaping that system.

• Clarify where value sits in your organization and decide what HR must own versus influence as AI reshapes decision making
• Redesign work beyond roles and tasks shifting towards capability systems that prioritize judgment, problem solving and adaptability
• Define what human advantage means in your business and where to invest in skills that AI cannot replicate at scale
• Rethink frontline leadership and transparency enabling managers to act as decision makers not just executors of central strategy
• Make the shift from reskilling to capability strategy deciding what to stop, start and fundamentally redesign to stay competitive