What is the HR Innovation Roundtable?

A powerful closed-door workshop bringing together 60 Chief HR Officers and Global HR executives from leading global
brands for intimate discussions about specific challenges and transferable solutions.

Agenda: Day 1

February 24th, 2026

2 - 2:15 PM

Arrival Reception & Welcome

About:

For more than a century, IBM has stood at the intersection of innovation and impact. Founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), it was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924, and over the decades grew into a pillar of the technology era — from punch-card tabulators to mainframes, to today’s hybrid cloud, AI and quantum platforms.

Join us at IBM’s striking new office at One Madison Avenue in New York City for the HR Innovation Roundtable, hosted in a space designed to spark cross-functional collaboration and elevate the employee experience. This flagship venue underscores IBM’s commitment to reimagining work for the digital era.

IBM is a constituent of the Fortune 100 and employs approximately 270,000 people globally across more than 170 countries. IBM delivers hardware, software and services solutions spanning hybrid cloud, AI, consulting, and quantum computing. Their mission is to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, while applying these to enable clients, students, governments and society to “make the world work better.”

1:30 - 2:30 PM

AI, Agents & HR: How IBM is Leading the Future of Work

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Millions of HR interactions have empowered 270,000 employees through self-service and AI-driven insights, showcasing IBM’s journey as an example of how agentic AI can elevate both performance and purpose. In this keynote, discover how IBM is reimagining HR through AI agents that free teams from repetitive tasks, improve decision-making, and personalize the employee experience at scale. Learn how the company balances automation with ethics, ensures transparency in every interaction, and equips its workforce to thrive alongside intelligent systems.

How automation, AI agents, and orchestration can unlock an agentic AI future where HR designs new ways for people to do more meaningful, higher-impact work.

• Agentic AI at Scale: Gain insight into how IBM is using AI agents to transform HR into a strategic, data-driven function.

• Responsible Intelligence: Learn how to balance automation, ethics, and human connection in enterprise-scale AI adoption.

• The AI-Ready Workforce: Understand how IBM is equipping its people to collaborate with AI, building agility, skills, and performance for the future.

2:45 - 3:45 PM

How IBM Uses Team Coaching to Drive Transformation and Performance

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Dive into how IBM is using team coaching as a strategic lever for transformation, agility, and performance—not as a “nice to have,” but as core leadership infrastructure. Drawing on real examples from IBM, you’ll see how team coaching shifts the focus from developing heroic individual leaders to activating the team as a system with shared goals, ownership, and accountability.

Rather than coaching for comfort or chemistry, IBM and AceUp coach teams in the context of real work and real decisions. By putting teams into structured, high-performance environments, coaching surfaces what truly blocks execution—misalignment, unclear roles, unspoken tensions, or decision bottlenecks—and then helps the team redesign how they work together. The result: faster decisions, clearer communication, stronger psychological safety, and teams that can execute at pace in complex, hybrid environments.

How to use team coaching to align purpose, elevate every voice, and accelerate decision-making so teams deliver faster, more sustainable results in complex, hybrid environments.

• Coaching Teams as Systems, Not Individuals: How IBM reframes coaching from 1:1 leader development to whole-team performance—aligning on purpose, roles, and ways of working so the team moves as one unit.

• Coaching for Outcomes, Not Just Trust: How structured team coaching creates “performance tension” around real decisions and deliverables—exposing breakdowns in communication, accountability, and execution so the team can fix them together.

• Making Hybrid Teams Faster and More Inclusive: Practical rituals and coaching moves that elevate every voice, build psychological safety, and still speed up alignment and decision-making across distributed, cross-functional teams.

4 - 5:30 PM

Re-Architecting Work at Scale: How CHROs & Chief AI Officers are Shaping the Future of Work

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

The most forward-thinking organizations are aligning human and machine intelligence not as parallel tracks, but as a coordinated system. That system is increasingly being designed by a new partnership between the Chief HR Officer and the Chief AI Officer. Where the CHRO brings deep insight into workforce dynamics, leadership, and culture, the CAIO delivers the architecture and tools that activate workforce potential at speed and scale. Together, they are building intelligent organizations—ones that are grounded in trust, shaped by data, and structured to learn and adapt continuously. From AI governance and skills readiness to org design and talent development, this partnership is not only accelerating transformation, it is redefining what leadership looks like in a world of constant change.

How to build a high-impact CHRO–Chief AI Officer partnership that aligns workforce strategy with AI goals, embeds AI into talent and leadership systems, and designs trusted human–machine workflows that scale capability and adaptability.

• How to partner with AI and technology leaders to align workforce strategy with enterprise AI goals.

• How to operationalize AI adoption through talent systems, leadership development, and change readiness.

• How to co-design structures and workflows that build trust in AI while unlocking human capability at scale.

6 - 7:30 PM

Networking, Drinks & Evening Dinner

Get to know your esteemed peers over some hors d'oeuvre and deliciously prepared cocktails. We will then head to IBM’s private restaurant for a three-course evening dinner. Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere in the presence of your peers to learn, share and ponder over the key topics of what was discussed earlier in the day and the exciting conversations in store for you on day 2.

Agenda: Day 2

February 25th, 2026

8 - 8:40 AM

Registration & Breakfast followed by Welcome Reception

PanelistS:

Join us nice and early to grab a tasty bite to eat and your daily dose of caffeine to set you up for a full-on day of learning, sharing and innovating. At 8:30 AM hear a few words from our event chair (Chris), host (Betty) and partner (Will) on what to expect over the course of the day.

8:40 - 9:20 AM

Building Skills-First Organizations: IBM’s Blueprint for the AI Economy

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

IBM has been clear on one thing: the purpose of AI is to augment human intelligence, not replace it. Its leadership philosophy is built around that belief—keeping human judgment, empathy, inclusion, and ethics at the center while AI, data, and digital tools scale insight and execution. In the age of AI, IBM expects its leaders not just to understand technology, but to build trust in it, use it responsibly, and help their teams navigate constant change.

In this session, IBM’s just-retired Chief Leadership Officer, Kitty Chaney-Reed, and newly appointed Chief Talent, Leadership & Inclusion Officer, Aparna Nair, share how IBM is re-architecting leadership, development, and talent pipelines for a Human + AI world. They’ll explore how IBM designs its leadership system, how it develops leaders at every level, and how it identifies and accelerates diverse future leaders who are ready to lead transformation—not just manage it.

How IBM is re-architecting its leadership philosophy, development, and talent pipelines so human leadership, inclusion, and ethics stay at the center of an AI-driven, digital enterprise—and how you can apply those principles in your own organization.

• How to Define Human Leadership in an AI-Driven Enterprise: How IBM’s leadership philosophy balances hard skills (digital literacy, data fluency, AI understanding) with human capabilities (empathy, inclusion, judgment), anchored in principles of trust, transparency, and AI as a force for good.

• How to Build a Scalable, Future-Ready Leadership System: How IBM uses an integrated leadership framework, global academies, experiential programs, and refreshed cornerstone programs to continuously develop leaders at all levels—while tying learning to real business projects and transformation outcomes.

• How to Design a Diverse, AI-Era Leadership & Talent Pipeline: Spotting potential early, progressing diverse talent across communities and geographies, and using data, inclusion, and human–AI collaboration skills as core criteria for leadership success—ensuring the next generation of IBM leaders can lead transformation, not just manage it.

9:20 - 11 AM

The CHRO AI Playbook: Strategy, Structure, and Smarter Work

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Most organizations are experimenting with AI, but very few have a clear HR-first AI strategy that changes how work actually gets done. For CHROs, the real opportunity isn’t just adding new tools—it’s redesigning the HR operating model so AI, automation, and agents are built into core processes, roles, and decision-making. This session will explore how HR leaders are moving from scattered pilots to a coherent roadmap, reshaping structure, workflows, and governance so AI becomes a force multiplier for both HR and the business.

How to design and execute an HR-centered AI strategy that reshapes your operating model, unlocks capacity, and directly supports business growth.

• How to Set Your HR AI North Star: Align AI use cases with business outcomes, define success metrics, and prioritize a focused portfolio instead of chasing every shiny tool.

• How to Evolve the HR Operating Model: Redesign roles, processes, and ways of working so AI handles repeatable work and HR teams focus on strategy, relationships, and complex decisions.

• How to Govern and Scale Responsibly: Put in place clear guardrails, ownership, and adoption plans so AI in HR is trusted, secure, and widely used—not feared or ignored.

11:15 AM - 12:25 PM

How to Stop Culture Atrophy and Reignite Performance

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Many organizations quietly suffer from “culture atrophy”—values look great on the wall, but day-to-day behavior tells a different story. Over time, that gap erodes trust, engagement, and performance. The real unlock is treating culture as a system, not a slogan: translating values into specific behaviors, embedding them into processes and tools, and reinforcing them in the flow of work. This session will show how CHROs can move beyond broad culture campaigns to targeted, behavior-led interventions that measurably lift performance and alignment.

How to diagnose culture atrophy, convert abstract values into concrete behaviors, and embed culture into everyday work in ways that drive higher performance.

• How to Spot Culture Atrophy Early: Use signals from engagement, exit data, manager feedback, and performance patterns to pinpoint where culture is slipping—by team, location, or level.

• How to Turn Values into “This Is How We Do Things Here”: Define observable behaviors by role, and wire them into hiring, onboarding, feedback, promotion, and recognition cycles.

• How to Embed Culture into Tools and Workflows: Design nudges, prompts, rituals, and digital journeys that reinforce the desired culture at key moments—one decision, one interaction at a time.

1:25 - 1:55 PM

AI Experience Centre Tour

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Exciting Details Coming Soon.

Exciting Details Coming Soon.

• Exciting Details Coming Soon.

1:55 - 3:05 PM

How to Build a Skills-Based Enterprise That Moves the P&L

panelists:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

“Skills-based” can’t just be a slide in the HR strategy anymore—it’s fast becoming the operating system for how work gets done. For Chief People Officers, the real challenge is not launching another skills taxonomy project, it’s rewiring core people processes so skills and capabilities directly drive decisions about who you hire, how you develop, where you deploy talent, and how you reward performance. This session will explore how leading organizations are moving from job-centric to skills-centric—treating capabilities as a balance-sheet level asset, surfacing hidden talent, and using internal mobility, AI-powered matching, and targeted upskilling to unlock growth, reduce external hiring, and build real resilience.

How to design and implement a practical, skills-based operating model that cuts across talent, learning, rewards, and workforce planning—and clearly connects capability building to business value.

• How to Build a Skills Spine for the Enterprise: Create a simple, usable skills architecture tied to real work and strategic priorities—without drowning the business in taxonomy projects and spreadsheets.

• How to Make Talent Decisions Skills-First (Not Title-First): Embed skills into hiring, performance, promotions, and pay so managers can see who’s truly qualified, ready to grow, and able to move into critical roles and projects.

• How to Unlock Internal Mobility and Targeted Upskilling: Use marketplaces, AI matching, and just-in-time learning to redeploy people faster, reduce external hiring spend, and prove the ROI of capability building on growth, innovation, and cost.

3:20 - 4:30 PM

Disrupt Yourself: The Key to Success in Uncertain Times

Speaker:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

In a world where markets, technology, and business models are constantly shifting, the only sustainable strategy is to become the kind of leader who can disrupt themselves—again and again. Whitney Johnson’s S-Curve of Learning shows that growth always follows a predictable pattern: slow at the launch point, fast in the sweet spot, and slow again at mastery. When you understand where you are on that curve, you can turn uncertainty, setbacks, and even “forced disruption” into fuel for smarter, intentional growth. Drawing on her work across individuals, teams, and organizations, Whitney will show how disruption is not just something that happens to you—it’s a discipline you can practice, a map you can use, and an advantage you can build.

How to use the S-Curve of Learning to disrupt yourself, your team, and your organization on purpose—so you’re ready for disruption when it hits, and able to turn misfortune into momentum instead of burnout or stagnation.

• How to Read Your Own S-Curve: Recognize the three stages of growth—launch point, sweet spot, and mastery—what each one feels like, and how to respond when you’re stuck, bored, or suddenly pushed off your current curve by events you didn’t choose.

• How to Build Disrupt-Ready Teams: Apply S-Curves to your team so you have the right mix of people at launch, in the sweet spot, and in mastery; use disruption as the mechanism for growth instead of something that breaks cohesion and trust.

• How to Turn Crisis into a New Curve: Reframe shocks—reorgs, role changes, market hits—as invitations to step onto a new S-curve, designing a portfolio of personal, team, and organizational curves that keeps you learning, resilient, and ready for whatever comes next.

4:30 - 5 PM

Closing Remarks & Networking

SPEAKER:

Apply to Attend

Please fill out your details in the form below.

We reserve the right to reject any registrations if your role is to provide HR services, products, or consultancy offerings.
The HR Leaders Innovation Roundtable is strictly reserved for Executive level HR Practitioners (both generalists & specialists).

Why Should You Attend the Innovation Roundtable?

Members

Hosted at IBM’s Flagship Office in New York City

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