What is the HR Innovation Roundtable?

A powerful closed-door workshop bringing together 40 Chief HR Officers and Global HR & Talent Executives from leading global
brands for intimate discussions about specific challenges and transferable solutions.

Agenda: Day 1

21 September, 2026

12:30 - 1 PM

Arrival Reception & Welcome

About:

UPS is one of the world’s most recognisable and operationally complex companies, with a history stretching back to 1907 and a business built on moving global commerce with extraordinary precision. Today, UPS sits at the intersection of logistics, technology and frontline execution, exactly the combination that makes it such a compelling host for senior people leaders focused on productivity, workforce transformation, leadership capability and the future of work, not simply standalone HR programmes.

From its global headquarters in Atlanta, UPS leads an integrated air and ground network serving more than 200 countries and territories. Each business day, it connects 1.6 million shipping customers with 10.7 million delivery customers and moves an average of 20.8 million packages, creating a real-world environment where workforce planning, safety, skills, technology adoption and customer experience must work together at immense scale.

From a scale and governance perspective, UPS is a boardroom-grade organisation: with approximately 460,000 employees, $88.7 billion in 2025 revenue and shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Just as importantly for CHROs, it is combining AI, RFID and automation with the expertise of its people to redesign operations and improve decision-making. Its culture of internal mobility is equally notable: 36% of UPS leaders in the US began on the frontline, while 50,000 part-time union employees have progressed into full-time roles since 2018.

This is why Atlanta is the right setting for a CHRO-level conversation: you are not discussing workforce transformation in theory. You are doing it inside an organisation that must continually align people, technology, infrastructure and leadership across one of the world’s largest and most demanding operational networks.

1 - 1:30 PM

How UPS Is Building the Future-Ready Workforce for Productivity, Performance and Growth Using AI

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

UPS offers a rare view into what it takes to lead people inside one of the world’s most complex global operating environments. As AI, automation and data reshape how large organisations work, the opportunity is to improve productivity, performance, safety, employee experience and decision-making at scale.

This session explores how UPS is preparing its workforce, leaders and people function for the AI-enabled enterprise. Attendees will hear how the CHRO role is evolving from managing HR priorities to helping the business redesign work, build trust and turn AI into measurable performance improvement.

• AI as a performance lever: How AI can remove friction and improve productivity.

• The evolving CHRO role: What people leaders must own as AI scales.

• Responsible AI foundations: Why data, trust and leadership readiness matter.

1:30 - 2 PM

The Context-Aware Enterprise: Turning Everyday Work into Continuous Performance

KEYNOTE SPEAKERs:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Enterprise AI is moving beyond standalone tools and chat interfaces to become an intelligent layer embedded directly into meetings, messages, decisions and everyday workflows. As AI develops a richer understanding of an employee’s role, relationships, priorities and organisational context, it can do more than answer questions. It can anticipate moments where support is needed, prepare leaders for consequential conversations, strengthen collaboration and translate insight into immediate action.

For CHROs, this represents the emergence of an entirely new performance infrastructure. This session explores how context-aware AI and personalised coaching can build manager capability, accelerate time-to-productivity, improve decision quality and extend development to every level of the workforce. The conversation will examine how HR and technology leaders can turn the flow of work into a continuous cycle of insight, coaching and execution, while establishing the governance, trust and measurement required to deliver meaningful enterprise outcomes.

• How to build a context-aware performance layer: Moving from disconnected AI tools to intelligence that understands the employee, the team, the organisation and the work being performed.

• How to turn development into measurable execution: Connecting workplace signals, personalised coaching and immediate action to stronger leadership, faster decisions, improved collaboration and business performance.

• How CHROs can lead responsible adoption: Partnering with technology leaders to establish the data boundaries, governance, employee experience and outcome measures needed to scale contextual AI with confidence.

2:15 - 3:15 PM

The CHRO’s AI Mandate: How People Leaders Become Architects of Enterprise Transformation

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Many organisations are moving quickly to introduce AI tools, but far fewer are redesigning the work around them. When AI is layered onto outdated processes, unclear decision rights and overloaded teams, it can increase output without improving quality, speed or trust.

This session explores the CHRO’s role in helping the business redesign work for a human-AI environment. The focus will be on roles, tasks, workflows, accountability and performance expectations. Attendees will examine how to determine what should be automated, what should be augmented, where human judgement matters most and how to prevent AI from creating more rework, complexity or uncertainty.

• How to move from AI tools to better work: How to identify where AI should remove friction, improve decisions and reduce effort, rather than simply increase activity.

• How to redesign roles and workflows: How to rethink tasks, decision rights, human-in-the-loop models and accountability in a human-AI operating model.

• How to prevent AI-driven work chaos: How to avoid low-quality output, unclear ownership, rework, mistrust and manager overload as AI scales.

3 - 4 PM

AI in the Hands of 460,000: Coaching, Capability and Workforce Readiness

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

As large organisations explore AI to improve performance, one of the biggest CHRO questions is how to support people through change at scale. Traditional coaching and development models often cannot reach every manager, leader or employee at the moment support is needed.

This conversation explores how UPS and Valence are thinking about AI coaching as part of workforce readiness. The focus is how personalised, in-the-flow support can strengthen manager capability, employee confidence and leadership effectiveness without replacing the human role of HR.

• Scalable coaching: How AI can extend personalised support.

• Performance enablement: How coaching can improve conversations and decisions.

• Responsible rollout: What matters for trust, adoption and governance.

4 - 5 PM

Who Does What, How Work Flows and Where Judgement Sits

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Many organisations are moving quickly to introduce AI tools, but far fewer are redesigning the work around them. When AI is layered onto outdated processes, unclear decision rights and overloaded teams, it can increase output without improving quality, speed or trust.

This session explores the CHRO’s role in helping the business redesign work for a human-AI environment. The focus will be on roles, tasks, workflows, accountability and performance expectations. Attendees will examine how to determine what should be automated, what should be augmented, where human judgement matters most and how to prevent AI from creating more rework, complexity or uncertainty.

• How to move from AI tools to better work: How to identify where AI should remove friction, improve decisions and reduce effort, rather than simply increase activity.

• How to redesign roles and workflows: How to rethink tasks, decision rights, human-in-the-loop models and accountability in a human-AI operating model.

• How to prevent AI-driven work chaos: How to avoid low-quality output, unclear ownership, rework, mistrust and manager overload as AI scales.

5 - 6 PM

Inside UPS: Translating Operational Excellence into People Strategy

Overview:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

This UPS-led experience gives CHROs a practical view of how people strategy connects to enterprise execution. UPS brings together people, technology, safety, service, data, automation and customer experience in one high-scale operating environment.

The tour will help attendees view UPS through a people leadership lens: how to enable frontline performance, support managers, introduce technology, build trust and keep people central as productivity expectations rise.

• People systems at scale: How culture and routines drive execution.

• AI’s workforce impact: What automation changes for roles and skills.

• Enterprise lessons: What CHROs can apply from UPS.

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 a 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

22 September, 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 (Khadija) and event partner (Parker) on what to expect over the course of the day.

8:40 - 9:20 AM

The CIO × CHRO Alliance: The Work Tech Blueprint for 2026

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

AI doesn’t fail in organizations because the models aren’t powerful enough—it fails because the operating system around it is weak: fragmented data, unclear governance, competing tool stacks, and no shared ownership between HR and IT. This Merck fireside is about the partnership that fixes that, showing how CIO, Data/AI, and HR governance leaders align architecture, privacy, quality, and product thinking so employees feel the benefit in everyday work.

The opportunity is to build a true work-tech layer that makes HR faster, more personalized, and more proactive without compromising trust. The cost of getting this wrong is high: tech sprawl, adoption fatigue, risk exposure, and employee skepticism. Success means the employee experience improves because the foundations are right—data is reliable, AI is governed, and HR/IT share accountability for outcomes.

• How to structure HR–IT partnership so work-tech decisions are shared, fast, and outcome-driven.

• How HR data governance enables personalization and agentic workflows without eroding trust.

• How to modernize the HR tech stack into an employee-facing “work system,” not a set of disconnected tools.

9:20 - 10 AM

The Judgment Gap: How to Make AI a Human Capability Multiplier, Not a Dependency

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

AI can now complete in seconds much of the routine work through which people once developed expertise. But those assignments did more than produce output. They helped employees recognise patterns, understand context, learn from mistakes and build the confidence required to make increasingly consequential decisions. When this work is automated without redesigning how people learn, organisations may secure immediate productivity gains while quietly weakening the judgment, innovation and leadership capability they will need in the future.

Drawing on Prasad Setty’s latest research, this session explores how CHROs can ensure AI becomes a human capability multiplier rather than a source of cognitive dependency. It will examine how work, early-career roles, management, learning and leadership development must evolve so that employees learn to interrogate AI, recognise when it is wrong and take ownership of outcomes. The objective is not to slow automation, but to build an enterprise that combines machine speed with stronger human judgment, higher-quality decisions and a more resilient pipeline of future leaders.

• How to identify emerging capability debt: Recognising where automation may be removing the experiences that traditionally built expertise, professional confidence and future leadership judgment.

• How to redesign work for human development: Creating roles, career pathways and manager practices in which AI accelerates learning while employees continue to build pattern recognition, critical thinking and decision ownership.

• How to measure enablement versus dependency: Establishing signals that reveal whether AI is improving decision quality, innovation and workforce capability—or simply increasing speed while weakening independent judgment.

10:20 - 11:20 AM

How CHROs Use Skills, Data and AI to Make Better People Decisions

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

AI transformation is forcing organisations to rethink how they understand talent. The challenge is no longer just headcount planning or skills taxonomies, but building a connected view of skills, performance, learning, mobility, succession, capacity and demand.

This session explores how CHROs can use talent data and AI to make better people decisions. The focus is how to identify capability gaps, redeploy talent, prioritise reskilling and build a more agile talent system for the AI-powered enterprise.

• Talent intelligence beyond SWP: How to connect skills, data and demand.

• Decision-grade people data: What makes talent data useful and trusted.

• AI-enabled talent strategy: How AI supports mobility, succession and reskilling.

11:40 AM - 12:40 PM

Building Leadership Capacity for Coaching, Change and Performance at Scale

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

AI is not just changing work. It is changing the deal between employer and employee. People are being asked to adapt faster, use new tools, absorb more change, develop new skills, trust AI-enabled decisions and deliver more with less. But in many organizations, the employee experience has not been redesigned to match the level of change being demanded.

The opportunity is to make the new employment deal more explicit, honest and future-facing, clarifying what employees are being asked to give, what they can expect in return and how the organization will protect trust through transformation. The cost of getting this wrong is quiet resistance, culture drift, change fatigue and slower AI adoption. Success means employees understand the future they are being asked to help build, believe there is a place for them in it and trust leaders to manage the transition with transparency and fairness.

• How to redefine the employee value proposition for the AI era, including expectations, flexibility, growth, performance and trust.

• How to rebuild belief during transformation by being clearer about job change, AI use, data, skills and future career paths.

• How to prevent culture debt by ensuring AI strengthens fairness, connection, accountability and human judgment rather than weakening them.

1:40 - 2:40 PM

How CHROs Build Confidence, Accountability and Responsible AI Adoption at Scale

PanelistS:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

AI transformation will only succeed if employees trust how it is being introduced, governed and used. As AI becomes embedded into workflows, decisions, coaching, communication and performance systems, CHROs have a critical role to play in protecting the human foundations of transformation: clarity, fairness, transparency, accountability and confidence.

This session explores how Chief People Officers can build the cultural conditions required for AI adoption to succeed. The discussion will examine where trust can break down, how employees interpret AI’s role in their work, what leaders and managers need to communicate, and how organisations can create responsible adoption without slowing innovation. The focus is on helping CHROs move beyond training and tool rollout to build the behaviours, norms and safeguards that make AI adoption credible, human and scalable.

• How to identify where AI is creating trust risk: Where employees may become confused, sceptical or resistant because expectations, boundaries and protections are unclear.

• How to build adoption through culture, not just training: How CHROs can create the leadership behaviours, communication rhythms and team norms that make AI feel useful, responsible and safe to use.

• How to govern AI without killing momentum: How to balance speed, experimentation and innovation with fairness, transparency, human judgement and accountability.

2:40 - 3:40 PM

Rebuilding Leadership for 2026: Managers as the Execution System

panelists:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

In most organizations, culture doesn’t collapse dramatically—it drifts quietly as transformation accelerates, pressure rises, and managers revert to old habits. In the human–machine era, leadership quality becomes even more decisive because employees will judge the “future of work” by the reality of their day-to-day: clarity, fairness, feedback quality, and whether managers can lead change without breaking trust.

The opportunity is to rebuild leadership as a system, not a set of programs—so expectations are consistent, manager habits improve, and culture becomes a performance advantage during volatility. The cost of getting this wrong is predictable: uneven employee experience, higher attrition risk, slower execution, and change fatigue that compounds. Success means managers become the most reliable mechanism for execution, adoption, and belief.

• How to strengthen manager capability as the fastest lever for performance, retention, and change adoption.

• How to prevent culture drift by operationalizing values into decisions and behaviors.

• How leadership must evolve when teams include both human and AI contributors.

3:40 - 4:40 PM

The Talent Reset: Building the Human–AI Talent System for 2026 and Beyond

Speaker:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Talent management is entering its biggest reset in decades. The old model, stable jobs, linear career paths, annual succession reviews, fixed talent pools and leadership pipelines built around yesterday’s roles, is no longer moving fast enough for a world where AI is reshaping work in real time.

The opportunity is to build a more dynamic human–AI talent system, where skills, potential, mobility, succession and development are connected to the work the business actually needs to deliver. The cost of getting this wrong is serious: outdated pipelines, broken career paths, critical roles left uncovered and employees unclear on where they fit in the future of the organisation. Success means CHROs can make talent more visible, more mobile and more future-ready, while ensuring AI enhances human potential rather than narrowing it.

• How to redesign talent management around work, skills and potential — not static jobs, legacy roles or annual processes.

• How to build future-ready succession and mobility systems that can move talent faster as business priorities and AI capabilities evolve.

• How to use AI responsibly in talent decisions while protecting fairness, transparency, trust and human judgment.

4:40 - 5:30 PM

Closing Remarks & Networking Reception

SPEAKER:

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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 UPS’s Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia

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