As organizations go “all in” on AI, many are quietly ripping out the bottom rungs of the career ladder. Entry- and mid-level roles are being automated, offshored, or never opened in the first place, just as experienced leaders edge toward retirement. Recent data shows that around two-thirds of enterprises are already cutting back on entry-level hiring due to AI, with more than 90% reporting job shifts or eliminations—creating a looming skills and leadership gap that will be brutally expensive to fix later. This panel explores a different path: Talent + AI, not Talent vs AI. We’ll look at how forward-thinking CHROs are using AI to redesign work, not just remove jobs—building early-career pathways, upskilling people in the flow of work, and developing a new generation of leaders who can orchestrate human and AI agents side by side. From skills-based learning and dynamic capability models to coaching for AI fluency and “AI orchestrator” roles in a new org chart, you’ll see what it really takes to build a future-ready talent pipeline instead of waking up to a costly vacuum in 3–5 years.

How to future-proof your talent pipeline by developing AI-literate leaders from the ground up—combining redesigned early-career roles, skills-based development, coaching, and AI-orchestrator capabilities so your organization has the human + AI leadership it needs in the next decade, not just the next quarter.

Discussion points

How to Protect (Not Delete) the Early-Career Runway in an AI World: How to redesign entry- and mid-level roles so AI handles the repetitive tasks while humans still get the stretch work, feedback, and apprenticeship they need to build real judgment and grow into future leaders.
How to Rebuild L&D Around Skills, Flow of Work, and AI Fluency: How to move from static courses to dynamic, skills-based learning in the flow of work—using AI to personalize pathways, update capability models in real time, and combine technical AI skills with human strengths like problem-solving, communication, and collaboration.
How to Develop “AI Orchestrators”: Leaders of Human + Agent Teams: How to treat AI orchestration as a core leadership capability—developing talent who can design AI-powered workflows, manage teams of humans and AI agents, and navigate the new coordination, ethics, and governance challenges of an agentic enterprise.

Panelists

Marina Hong Mealin, Senior Vice President, Head of HR N.A at Bayer
Chris Foltz, Chief Talent Officer at IBM
Parker Mitchell, Founder & CEO at Valence
[Moderated by] Shane Kemp, COO & Co-Founder at HR Leaders

This session is part of the HR Innovation Roundtable taking place at IBM in NYC on February 24-25, 2026. View all Sessions:

Watch Here: AI, Agents & the Impact on Your Talent Strategy
Watch Here: Build an AI Agent: The New Skill Every CHRO Needs
Watch Here: Re-Architecting Work at Scale: How CHROs & Chief AI Officers are Shaping the Future of Work
Watch Here: What if everyone had a coach helping them do their best work?
Watch Here: The CHRO AI Playbook: Strategy, Structure, and Smarter Work
Watch Here: How to Architect a Connected People Ecosystem: Learning, Performance, and Coaching