What HR must learn as AI rewrites work: 6 key learnings

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InteracTech Asia 2026 unpacked the key lessons driving the future of work – from responsible AI adoption to human judgment, workforce intelligence, and resilient cultures. Report by Sarah Gideon.

We live in interesting times. As intelligent technologies redefine the workplace, the question isn’t whether AI will transform work – it’s how we’ll harness these to elevate human potential.

On Wednesday, 20 May 2026, Human Resources Online hosted its inaugural InteracTech Asia 2026 conference, formerly known as Talent & Tech Asia Summit.

The conference saw HR and technology leaders coming together to explore and discuss the transformative intersection of human capital and technology, spotlighting how AI is re-shaping the future of talent, leadership, and organisational design.

Across the sessions, several clear HR and technology learnings emerged for leaders navigating an AI-enabled future of work:

AI adoption must go beyond deployment: Rolling out tools is only the first step; organisations need to build real adoption, behavioural change, and eventually absorption into how work, decisions, and collaboration happen.

The focus is shifting from tasks to judgment: As AI automates routine work, HR leaders must pay closer attention to how employees make decisions, apply context, and exercise accountability in increasingly AI-supported environments.

AI should be used for transformation, not just productivity: While many organisations begin with efficiency gains, the greater opportunity lies in redesigning work, solving complex problems, and creating value that was not possible before.

Human oversight remains essential: AI can support screening, scoring, analysis, and recommendations, but final decisions – especially in hiring, talent development, and workforce planning – require human judgment, business context, and ethical accountability.

Culture will determine whether AI creates value: Psychological safety, trust, continuous learning, manager enablement, and open experimentation are critical if organisations want employees to embrace AI meaningfully rather than simply comply with new tools.

Together, these learnings underline a central message from the day: AI may be changing the mechanics of work, but it is human judgment, leadership, trust, and intentional workforce design that will determine whether organisations truly benefit from it.

Read the session snippets and highlights below:

Deployment is not adoption, and adoption is not yet absorption

Kicking off the morning was Josh Skorupa, Head of Digital Transformation & Capability, GovTech, who set the stage with a session exploring how organisations can navigate the rise of agentic AI, where technology no longer just supports humans, but actively collaborates with them.

He shared that agentic AI automates routine work, organisations need to start pivoting from thinking about “headcount” to thinking about “human judgement”.

"AI is now simultaneously overhyped, underestimated, oversold, and genuinely transformative, and honestly, the pace it's now moving is too fast."

What struck out to him? That deployment is not adoption, and adoption is not yet absorption.

He explained that as most organisations are now under pressure to adopt and accelerate commercial outcomes for the business, there is immense pressure for everyone to tap into AI. However, "the problem is that deployment pressure and organisational readiness are not the same thing," he clarified.

"We're getting very good at generating AI activity, yet we are not constantly and consistently good at generating organisational adoption."

To overcome this, Skorupa highlighted that adoption requires three key considerations:

Understanding how AI reshapes conversations and interactions around specific tasks, rather than focusing solely on the task itself.
Looking beyond productivity gains to recognise how the value of AI participation influences wider operational dynamics and decision-making processes.
Acknowledging that organisational challenges rarely stem from a single task failing to improve, but from the broader interconnected systems and workflows surrounding AI-enabled decisions.

Closing his session, Skorupa compressed his message into three core concepts organisations must consider as AI reshapes the workplace:

It’s the decisions, not tasks, that will drive your people in the future.
Judgment is not just about tooling,” but about “how judgment capability and actual structures work in practice.
Workforce design is not about AI theatre and optics,” but whether “the appearance of progress is actually proportionate to the deployment and the activity transformation capability” tied to “mission outcomes.

Is your organisation default or transformational in its use of AI?

In a research-backed case study, Sujay Bhat, Senior Director, HR Strategy Advisory, SAP SuccessFactors SEA, SAP, framed the discussion around a core premise: AI is reshaping three interconnected domains — the future of work, the future of the workforce, and the future of work practices.

On the future of work, he outlined a clear divergence in organisational approach between a “default” path and a “transformational” path.

The default path focuses on “doing more with AI” through productivity gains and incremental upgrades, while the transformational path is about reconfiguration — using AI to solve complex, previously unsolved problems and fundamentally redesign how work is done.

He described this as a shift from AI being used for efficiency, to AI being used for reinvention.

He also highlighted how organisations are positioning AI within operating models. In the default view, AI is treated as an enhancer of human work, often described through concepts such as AI doing what it can while humans fill the gaps.

In more advanced interpretations, AI is even positioned as a AI buddy, integrated into workflows as a peer providing feedback and support. However, he cautioned that this can lead to becoming a "negative multiplier, because people stop thinking".

In contrast, the transformational perspective positions AI not as a teammate or a tool, but as a catalyst for human agency — something that enables individuals to become “a better version of me”, rather than replacing human judgment or identity.

On the future of the workforce, he highlighted concerns around early talent disruption. Entry-level roles are increasingly affected by AI-led transformation. While some talent may be “street smart” and adaptable in a default scenario, he noted that a transformational approach would require organisations to be far more prescriptive in defining and developing early-career pathways based on data and structured progression.

On the future of work practices, he contrasted how core HR processes may evolve under different approaches. In recruitment, the default path risks becoming an “AI arms race” with reduced human connection, while the transformational path reframes hiring as a more insight-driven, science-based process focused on mutual fit, agility, and skills passports.

Wrapping up his session, Sujay shared: "If AI is redesigning work as HR, we have the ability to be able to combine the human elements in an AI with the AI elements to generate value that could not have been generated before, but we need to be the architects of that."

Reimagining HR as a product-led function in 2026

Just before lunch, we dived into a panel discussion on the topic of reimagining the HR operating model from services to products.

Taking the stage were:

Claire Yu, Senior Director, Talent, Asia Pacific, Otis
Kevin Shepherdson, CEO and Founder, Straits Interactive
Dharma Chandran, Chief Corporate Services Officer, Toll Group
Moderator: Alex Png, Chief People Officer, Asia-Pacific, The Hoffman Agency

Together, the panel discussed the following:

The panel reframed HR as a product organisation, where Centres of Expertise (COEs) evolve into product teams, HRBPs become talent portfolio managers, and HR technology is treated as a core business capability.
- The aim is to make HR more scalable, data-driven, and outcome-focused, rather than purely service-driven.
A recurring theme was the shift away from HR as a service desk model, which was described as increasingly unsustainable in an environment where automation and conversational AI are handling routine employee queries. Without evolution, HR risks “designing its own obsolescence” by remaining focused on transactional delivery.
Panellists emphasised that tools alone do not create competitiveness. Differentiation comes from institutional knowledge, how AI is embedded into processes, and how organisations integrate capabilities across knowledge, skills, tools, and workflows.
A core tension discussed was between efficiency and transformation. While many organisations are still using AI to replace existing work, the next stage is enabling human–AI collaboration, which requires addressing concerns around job displacement, psychological safety, and “leashed value” that may limit experimentation.

Where should AI lead, and where should humans decide?

Post-lunch saw another panel discussion on how AI is reshaping decision-making across the employee lifecycle.

Moderating the session was Manvi Sushil, Site HR Lead, GSK, along with her panellists:

Sujay Bhat, Senior Director, HR Strategy Advisory, SAP SuccessFactors SEA, SAP
June Cho, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Singapore University of Technology and Design
Eng Hui Ong, Senior Director, Human Resources & Information Technology, Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Comany (SSMC)

Key takeaways from the session included:

On AI adoption and trust-building, the panellists emphasised that leadership — not just HR — must drive the conversation around AI readiness and literacy. Organisations also need a shared language around AI adoption, grounded in a framework that combines human-centricity, technology, and domain expertise.
When discussing where organisations should begin with AI, the panel recommended focusing on areas with high effort and high time consumption, identifying opportunities where AI can meaningfully augment work and improve operational efficiency.
A recurring theme was that AI should augment — not replace — human judgment. While AI can assist with tasks such as resume screening, scoring, and ranking candidates, final hiring decisions and accountability should remain with humans due to nuances such as culture fit, business context, and industry-specific considerations.

Can organisations predict future-ready talent before the pressure hits?

Andrew Lau, CEO and Founder, Think Codex took the stage next to share some practical ways to measure applied skills, cognitive agility, and behavioural readiness using AI-driven, scenario-based assessments.

Defining workforce intelligence as the process of turning people data into actionable insights, Lau outlined three critical dimensions organisations should measure: capability, potential, and readiness. Together, these dimensions enable organisations to make talent decisions that are more consistent, faster, and grounded in real business realities.

However, he argued that many traditional assessment approaches remain limited in scope. While most tools can measure current capability, far fewer effectively assess future potential or an employee’s readiness to operate under evolving business conditions.

According to Lau, conventional assessments are often static and retrospective, capturing past performance rather than how individuals respond to ambiguity, pressure, or changing environments.

To address these gaps, he highlighted the growing role of dynamic AI-enabled assessments that combine behavioural analytics with realistic business simulations.

He added that instead of relying on surveys or static evaluations, these assessments place individuals in interactive decision-making environments designed to stress-test judgment, adaptability, and leadership capability in real time.

A major focus of the session was the use of simulations as both assessment and development tools. Through interactive business scenarios, participants are placed in future-focused environments where they must make decisions, navigate uncertainty, and experience the consequences of those decisions in real time.

Lau noted that these simulations create safe environments for experimentation while helping organisations identify systemic risks, developmental gaps, and succession readiness earlier.

Ultimately, he emphasised that workforce intelligence is no longer just about understanding what employees can do today, but about assessing how they will respond to future challenges, uncertainty, and increasingly complex business environments.

What happens when AI removes the work that builds experience?

As AI reshapes knowledge work, organisations are rethinking not only how work gets done, but how people develop expertise, judgment, and leadership over time.

While AI can accelerate execution, it cannot replace the experience traditionally gained through experimentation, repetition, and problem-solving.

During a fireside chat with Maurice Ky, Director of Data & Analytics, Ubisoft Singapore, alongside Priya Sunil, HRO's Deputy Editor, Southeast Asia, the central theme throughout the conversation was the concern that as AI increasingly automates execution-based and apprenticeship-style work, organisations may unintentionally remove the very experiences that traditionally helped employees build depth, accountability, and decision-making capability.

Reflecting on his own career journey, Ky spoke about the importance of learning through exposure, observation, and understanding how work influences wider organisational decisions.

He questioned what future development pathways would look like for younger generations if AI continues absorbing many foundational tasks previously used to build experience.

Rather than simply automating processes, he encouraged the audience to consider how employees learn to take accountability, understand the consequences of decisions, and develop awareness through repeated exposure to real-world challenges over time.

He also emphasised that experienced leaders and employees play an increasingly important role in helping younger talent balance AI-enabled work with human judgment.

At the same time, he noted that senior employees must also remain open to learning and evolving alongside younger generations who may adapt to AI-native ways of working more quickly.

On organisational design, Ky described the importance of building teams with a balance of “cautious thinkers” and “fast innovators.”

While innovators help push organisations forward, cautious thinkers play a critical role in grounding ideas, stress-testing assumptions, and ensuring balanced decision-making.

“Now, those cautious thinkers, they need those fast innovators to push them and to drive the team forward, but then those innovators need those people to kind of ground them and stress test those ideas.”

He also spoke about the value of creating environments where skills and perspectives can be cross-pollinated across disciplines to build broader contextual understanding.

Closing the conversation, Ky suggested that organisations should increasingly measure whether judgment itself is developing over time — reflected not only in outcomes, but also in the evolution of the questions employees ask and how teams respond to unfamiliar situations.

Judgment is like a muscle which needs to be trained

As the day drew to a close, conversations shifted from AI strategy and workforce transformation to the growing need for HR leaders to build fluency across business, talent, and technology.

A training ground session, hosted by Ramya Balakrishnan, VP Global Talent & Development, Coty, reinforced that as generative AI reshapes workforce design, skills planning, and organisational decision-making, HR can no longer operate solely within traditional people frameworks — it must increasingly bridge commercial priorities with technological understanding.

She gave the audience practical frameworks to rethink HR’s role in an AI-enabled workplace, arguing that the challenge organisations face today is not simply a “tools problem”, but a “judgment problem”.

Acknowledging the growing pressure HR teams face to reskill workforces, redesign jobs, and reinvent HR itself with leaner resources, Ramya noted that many HR professionals are also quietly grappling with a deeper concern: whether the function can remain relevant as AI capabilities rapidly evolve.

While organisations often default to experimenting with tools, platforms, pilots, and AI agents, she stressed that technology alone is not the answer.

Instead, HR leaders must strengthen their ability to make judgment calls around what should remain human, where AI should be deployed, and how organisations should evolve over the long term.

One of the key capabilities she highlighted was “sense making” — the ability to translate AI into language that resonates with different stakeholders across the organisation.

Whether speaking to CEOs, CFOs, frontline managers, or employees, HR leaders must contextualise AI differently depending on business priorities, operational concerns, and employee realities.

Ramya also stressed that work redesign should begin with identifying actual organisational problems, rather than deploying technology simply because it exists. Organisations must first ask where friction exists, what constraints employees face, and whether AI genuinely improves those challenges before introducing new tools into workflows.

At the same time, she cautioned against creating “dangerous dependence” on AI systems. If employees become unable to perform critical tasks without AI support, organisations risk creating “single points of failure dressed up as productivity”.

Ultimately, the session reinforced that while AI may accelerate execution and simplify processes, human oversight, contextual understanding, and judgment remain essential — and HR has a critical role to play in protecting and developing those capabilities within organisations.

She ended off the session with encouraging the audience to:

Use AI on your own work this week
Have one honest conversation with a peer leader
Kill one HR ritual AI just made obsolete

The last session of the day was a panel discussion on building agility and resilience into culture.

Taking the stage were:

Victor Tan, AVP, Institute of People Development, Certis Corporate University, Certis Group
Pauline Loo, SVP & Regional Hub Head of HR, Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation
Zahina Bibi, Head of Organisational Transformation, Standard Chartered Bank
Alan Tan, APAC HR Director, IHI Asia Pacific (Moderator)

Highlights from the session include:

The panel reinforced that transformation is no longer episodic, but constant — making change management a core leadership capability rather than a standalone initiative. As one panellist noted, “change is the one thing that will always be there.”
Leadership development emerged as a major focus area, with panellists sharing how change management competencies are increasingly being integrated into leadership frameworks, training programmes, and manager development initiatives.
Psychological safety was repeatedly identified as critical to enabling agility and resilience. Panellists noted that employees are more likely to experiment, collaborate, and build new capabilities when organisations create environments that are non-judgmental, safe, and focused on “progress over perfection.”
On innovation, the panel stressed that innovation does not always need to be technology-driven. Incremental improvements, operational ideas, and process changes originating from frontline employees can often create meaningful impact when organisations actively empower and support those ideas.

Ultimately, the session underscored that agility, resilience, and future-readiness are not built through technology adoption alone, but through cultures grounded in trust, collaboration, continuous learning, and open communication.

Interactive session on real-life solutions faced across the industry

During this solution-oriented peer-to-peer interactive session, attendees discussed real-life solutions to some of the key challenges being faced across the industry. Topics covered included:

No one left behind: Scaling bottom-up AI learning: How do we ensure every employee – not just digitally-fluent generations – can work with AI effectively?
Redesigning roles for the human + AI workforce: What’s the fastest way to re-map tasks between people and AI without disrupting operations?
Trusting the machine: Building confidence in AI outputs: How can organisations teach teams to trust, question, and calibrate AI recommendations responsibly?
Winning hearts, not just adoption rates: How can we make change management stick when employees resist new tools?
AI in action: Unlocking value through culture, capability, and change: How can organisations foster experimentation, reskill talent, and adapt ways of working to unlock AI value?
Empowering the middle: Managers as AI multipliers: What do managers need to lead effectively in an augmented workplace?

A big thank you to our zone hosts for facilitating these conversations:

Shailaja Sharma, Group Head Talent and Learning, SGX Group
Terence Kok, Chief AI and Innovation Officer, Meinhardt Group
Mausami Arora, Regional People Business Partner - Asia Pacific Operations, A.P. Moller - Maersk
Brandon Law, General Manager, GHR
Chitralekha Singh, Senior Director, Head Global Talent Development, Seagate Technology
Ilham Maulana, HR Director for Oral Care, Asia Middle East Africa (AMA) and Product Supply, AMA, P&G

Human Resources Online would like to thank all speakers, moderators, interactive zone hosts, panellists, and attendees for being valuable contributors to this event.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our sponsors & partners for making this conference possible:

GOLD SPONSORS