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

12:45 - 1:10 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.”

1:15 - 2:45 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 - 4:15 PM

Build an AI Agent: The New Skill Every CHRO Needs

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

The future of HR leadership won’t be decided by who talks best about AI but by who can actually build with it. In this interactive session, CHROs will move beyond theory and design an AI agent in real time to solve a pressing HR or business challenge. Guided by senior IBM leaders, you’ll see how quickly HR can innovate when experimentation replaces hesitation. Participants will be coached step by step to design workflows, orchestrate agents, and apply intelligent automation back in their organizations immediately.

How to confidently design, build, and deploy AI agents that solve real workforce and business challenges—giving HR the technical credibility and execution power needed to lead in an AI-driven enterprise.

• Building AI Agents in Real Time: Learn how to design and orchestrate AI agents that automate workflows, surface insight, and drive outcomes across HR and the business.

• From Experimentation to Enterprise Value: Understand how rapid testing, iteration, and orchestration allow HR to innovate faster than ever—without waiting on long technology cycles.

• The Technical CHRO Advantage: See why hands-on AI capability is becoming a defining leadership skill, enabling HR to stay central to growth, transformation, and executive decision-making.

4:30 - 5:45 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.

5:45 - 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) and host (Nickle) on what to expect over the course of the day.

8:40 - 9:20 AM

How to Design a Leadership System That Keeps Pace with AI

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

IBM believes AI’s role is to augment human intelligence, not replace it, and its leadership philosophy reflects that. In this session, Kitty Chaney-Reed and Aparna Nair share how IBM is re-architecting leadership, development, and talent pipelines for a Human + AI world, keeping judgment, empathy, inclusion, and ethics at the center while AI scales insight and execution. You’ll hear how IBM designs leaders who build trust in technology, lead through constant change, and drive transformation—not just manage it.

How IBM is evolving leadership philosophy, development, and talent pipelines so human leadership and inclusion remain central in an AI-driven enterprise. And how to apply those principles in your own organization.

• Human Leadership in the AI Era: How IBM balances AI fluency and digital skills with human capabilities like judgment, empathy, and ethical leadership.

• A Scalable Leadership System: How integrated frameworks, global programs, and real-world experiences develop leaders at every level while driving business impact.

• Future-Ready Talent Pipelines: How IBM identifies and accelerates diverse leadership talent using data, inclusion, and human–AI collaboration as success criteria.

9:20 - 10:30 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.

10:45 - 11:55 AM

Why Integration Isn’t Enough: Orchestrating the Future HR Stack

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

The modern HR tech stack wasn’t designed for a world of AI agents, dynamic work, and real-time decision-making. As organizations add more tools, systems are fragmenting, creating silos, slowing execution, and limiting HR’s strategic impact. In this environment, CHROs don’t need more integrsation; they need orchestration. This session explores how leading organizations are reimagining the HR tech stack as a system of action—one that connects people, data, workflows, and AI in real time. The discussion will focus on how unified platforms enable better workforce visibility, faster decisions, and the ability to manage both human and AI contributors as part of a single operating model.

How to redesign your HR tech stack into an orchestrated platform that aligns talent, work, and AI so HR can move from reactive support to strategic execution at scale.

• From Integration to Orchestration: Why disconnected systems can’t support AI-era work—and how a unified platform enables speed, adaptability, and scale.

• Managing Human and AI Contributors Together: How shared data, workflows, and performance insights allow organizations to plan, deploy, and manage blended workforces.

• Turning Data into Decisions: How bringing people strategy, planning, and execution into one system accelerates smarter, more confident decision-making.

1 -2 PM

AI Experience Center Tour

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

At the IBM Innovation Studio, CHROs will get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s most complex enterprises designs, tests, and scales transformation in real time. The Studio brings strategy to life through immersive design-thinking spaces, live demonstrations, and hands-on working environments that show how AI, data, and human-centered design intersect to reshape work. Leaders will see how IBM moves from business challenge to solution by aligning technology, operating models, skills, and culture, not in theory, but in execution. From reimagining roles and workflows to experimenting with AI agents and new ways of working, the experience offers practical insight into how HR can partner with the business to accelerate change, build future-ready skills, and turn workforce strategy into a competitive advantage.

• How IBM turns strategy into execution by combining AI, design thinking, and cross-functional teams to move from abstract transformation goals to real, working solutions at speed.

• What a human-centered, AI-enabled workforce actually looks like in practice, including how roles, skills, and workflows are redesigned as work changes — not after the fact.

• How HR can lead enterprise change, not support it, by using real-time insight, experimentation, and operating-model design to directly impact productivity, agility, and business outcomes.

2 - 3:10 PM

Designing the AI-Ready Leader: How to Develop Talent for Human–Agent Teams

panelists:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

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.

• 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.

3:25 - 4:40 PM

How to Stop Culture Atrophy and Reignite Performance

Speaker:

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.

4:40 - 5:15 PM

Closing Remarks & Networking Reception

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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