At Workhuman Live Orlando 2026, HR Leaders Podcast is bringing listeners straight into the room with the executives, experts, and thought leaders driving the biggest conversations in HR today.
These exclusive interviews cut through the polished talking points to explore what leaders are really wrestling with, from AI transformation and culture change to building human-centered organizations.
Raul Valentin, Chief Human Resources Officer at ABM Industries
Key Points:
AI and skills strategies must enhance human dignity and visibility, not reduce it.
Scale requires operationalizing skills data into real workforce decisions.
Leadership’s key role is ensuring AI is purpose-driven, not just efficiency-driven.
Julie Stone, GVP, Chief Learning Officer at TTEC
Key Points:
People-centered transformation requires intentional change management under speed pressure.
AI only works if leaders focus on behavior change, trust, and adoption, not tools.
Transformation sticks when strategy, leadership, and culture are tightly aligned.
Peter Danzig, Senior Advisor, Foundation Culture at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Key Points:
Psychological safety must be a foundational belief system, not a program.
Leadership behaviors (listening, consistency, vulnerability) drive resilience.
High safety + high accountability is the balance needed during change.
Khalil Smith, VP, Inclusion, Diversity & Engagement at Akamai Technologies
Key Points:
Leaders must move beyond performative culture language to measurable outcomes.
Productive tension is necessary - leaders should manage, not avoid it.
High performance comes from alignment, collaboration, and clarity in practice.
Jorge Quezada, VP People & Culture at Granite Construction
Key Points:
HR is over-engineering “employee experience” instead of fixing core cultural and leadership behaviors.
Culture only works if it accelerates change - look for alignment, speed, and trust as signals.
AI adoption should start with human enablement (skills, trust, workflow integration), not tech rollout.
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Amy Coleman, EVP and Chief People Officer at Microsoft
Key Points:
CHROs need to rethink recognition as part of everyday work by embedding it into the tools employees already use in ways that reinforce culture, connection, and the behaviours that matter most.
Recognition in the flow of work only becomes impactful when it feels timely, meaningful, and tied to real contribution rather than becoming another digital feature that adds noise.
The real challenge for HR leaders in 2026 is scaling AI and everyday recognition in a way that improves productivity and employee experience while protecting the human core of the organisation.
Ken Wechsler, VP, Total Rewards at Akamai Technologies
Key Points:
Embedding recognition into the flow of work helps strengthen culture at scale by reinforcing the behaviours, values, and moments of contribution that matter most across the organisation.
Recognition becomes a real driver of performance and connection when it is treated as a consistent part of how people are led, supported, and celebrated rather than as an occasional nice-to-have.
The strongest recognition data signals are the ones that show whether appreciation is frequent, broadly distributed, tied to key behaviours, and genuinely influencing how people work together
Peter Church, Chief People & Culture Officer at Point32Health
Key Points:
The strongest cultures turn difference into an advantage by building trust, recognition, and psychological safety so disagreement drives better thinking rather than friction.
In a more AI-accelerated workplace, leaders need to be even better at handling different perspectives, because human judgment, challenge, and collaboration become more valuable as work grows faster and more complex.
CHROs need to look beyond good intent and measure whether inclusion, trust, and recognition are improving execution through stronger engagement, collaboration, retention, and business performance.
Laura Mattimore, SVP, Global Talent at Procter & Gamble
Key Points:
HR leaders need to shift from fragmented people initiatives to a more human-centered talent strategy that connects employee experience, recognition, and development directly to business performance.
Employee experience becomes a business priority when leaders treat it as a driver of culture, retention, productivity, and better talent decisions rather than as a standalone HR programme.
The biggest opportunity for CHROs is to use recognition, data, and AI together to strengthen culture, improve employee experience, and measure whether talent strategy is delivering real organisational impact.
Olga Burke, Head of HR Digital, Data, & Optimization Actions at Guardian Life
Key Points:
The biggest opportunity for HR digital and data is to help leaders make faster, better decisions by connecting workforce insight more directly to business priorities, talent risks, and organisational performance.
The most effective HR teams use technology and AI to improve efficiency and optimisation in ways that strengthen, rather than strip away, the human experience employees expect.
Real transformation happens when HR uses digital and AI to redesign how work gets done and how decisions are made, not when it simply adds more tools to existing processes.
Sharrice Wilson, VP, Total Rewards at KLA Corporation
Key Points:
Recognition shapes culture when it is authentic, consistent, and tied to impact.
Digital platforms succeed when they feel natural and valuable, not forced.
Personalization via AI must be balanced with fairness, equity, and transparency.
Andrea LaBarbera, VP, Global Talent & Engagement at Zimmer Biomet
Key Points:
Recognition becomes strategic when linked to business priorities and leadership accountability.
Global impact requires consistency and local relevance.
AI enables timely, targeted, and meaningful recognition at scale.
Jessie Knight, Vice President, Research at Gartner
Key Points:
HR is over-engineering “employee experience” instead of fixing core cultural and leadership behaviors.
Culture only works if it accelerates change - look for alignment, speed, and trust as signals.
AI adoption should start with human enablement (skills, trust, workflow integration), not tech rollout.
Julie Develin, Senior Partner, Human Insights at UKG
Key Points:
HR is over-engineering “employee experience” instead of fixing core cultural and leadership behaviors.
Culture only works if it accelerates change - look for alignment, speed, and trust as signals.
AI adoption should start with human enablement (skills, trust, workflow integration), not tech rollout.
