rewrite this title HR Tech Europe 2026 Takeaways: AI Isn’t Augmenting HR, It’s Transforming It – UC Today

HR Tech Europe 2026 is closing out its two-day run in Amsterdam as a genuinely engaging event.

Not only did thousands attend, but almost every session, not just the keynotes, was oversubscribed, showing just how eager attendees are to absorb as much insight as possible.

That is because, like many functions, AI stands to transform HR significantly. Gartner supports the prediction that by 2030, up to 60% of HR tasks could be handled by intelligent agents.

The opening keynote from Byron Clayton, Chief People and Planet Officer at Pandora, made clear that AI is a central focus for the HR sector. However, it also highlighted how complex that conversation has become. For example, Pandora set itself a goal of generating 200 million euros in measurable value through its people function.

With so many layers now shaping the AI discussion, and new challenges emerging, we compiled the core themes from our conversations that stood out today, along with one that could soon take center stage.

Proving HR’s Value to the Business

The pressure on HR to demonstrate commercial impact dominated conversations across multiple sessions. Laura Fink, People and Culture Director at HiBob, argued that the shift to AI has made the need to prove impact more urgent, not less:

“There has never been more focus on commercial impact. If we want a seat at the table, we need to ensure those programs continue to receive investment.”

She encouraged HR professionals to work backward from business priorities, linking people initiatives directly to revenue, productivity, cost, and speed to value.

Clayton reinforced this with data. Pandora’s recruitment transformation, Olivia, built with AI hiring platform Paradox and assessment tool Harver, delivered a 64% reduction in recruitment administration, reduced time to hire from 38 days to 15, and generated 35 million euros in additional value in the US alone. Attrition has since fallen by 25%.

“This is not a story about people programs. This is a story about creating tangible, measurable business value,” he said.

AI Adoption and Real-World Impact

The AI conversation has matured significantly compared to previous years, and HR is no exception. Anders Holmberg, CRO at Eletive, noted the shift: “Last year, people were asking what they could do with AI. Now everyone is using AI to some extent, but asking how to take it to the next level.”

Gianpaolo Barozzi, VP and CTO for People, Policy and Purpose at Cisco, offered one of the most detailed accounts of large-scale AI adoption. Cisco has deployed AI tools across more than 80,000 employees using a federated approach. Crucially, Barozzi reframed AI’s role:

“AI is not impacting skills. It is impacting work, and then the skills you need to do that work.”

Cisco built an engine that maps every job role against core work activities, identifying where AI can be applied immediately and creating a shared language for discussing work across the organization.

Michael Neefs, Country Sales Manager for Belgium and Luxembourg at Cornerstone OnDemand, pointed to a similar shift. Cornerstone has developed a Workforce AI stack capable of consolidating data from third-party systems, including CRMs and ERPs.

“We are fully aware that it is not about one system doing everything,” he said.

Employee Engagement and the Human Element

Despite the focus on technology, the importance of the human element remained a consistent theme.

The backdrop is concerning. A recent Gallup report found US worker engagement at a decade low. This matters in the context of AI, as any measurable gains from AI could be undermined by declining engagement.

Georgia Portwain, Culture and Engagement Strategist at O.C. Tanner, said this concern dominated conversations at the stand:

“Technology is an enabler, but we can have all the tech in the world and still have people feeling disconnected. Employees need to feel seen, recognized, and psychologically safe. Those are things AI cannot build.”

Isha Smith, Global VP of Total Rewards at SoundCloud, discussed rebuilding engagement after a period of decline. Following a leadership change in 2023, SoundCloud launched a focused effort to improve engagement. Its engagement score has since risen by 19 points, reaching 75% by December 2025, while average tenure increased from around two years to four years.

Responsible AI and Governance

Governance emerged as a consistent undercurrent, with speakers emphasizing that responsible deployment is as important as speed.

Barozzi was direct. “You need to start building your responsible AI principles. You need to decide what you will allow AI to do and what you will not.” He recommended starting with routine processes but urged organizations to move quickly beyond them. “Once you have done this, you need to understand how AI is fundamentally changing how your people work.”

Cornerstone’s Neefs noted that his organization is among the first HR tech companies certified under the EU AI Act, which will become a key consideration for buyers when it comes into force in August.

The Future: Why HR Will Not Just Deploy, But Manage AI

Much of HR Tech Europe focused on how HR can help humans navigate AI-driven change. However, one conversation pointed further ahead and won the event’s startup award.

Michael Beygelman, Founder and CEO of Insygna, presented a vision of what the next phase of AI in HR could look like. AI agents are now executing tasks within enterprise systems, making decisions, handling workflows, and interacting with customers, often without human involvement. Yet they exist largely outside the accountability structures organizations have built for human workers.

Beygelman’s concept, Agentic Workforce Management, aims to give HR greater control over these agents:

“Companies already have a governance infrastructure for how to manage people, and so we’re essentially creating a doppelganger infrastructure to do similar for agents, which then allows the CIO to be the economic buyer, but HR to be the system owner.”

This highlights not only how the AI conversation in HR is evolving, but also how HR is becoming a key stakeholder not just in AI deployment, but in its ongoing management.

The rise of AI is also creating legal risks that HR is responsible for mitigating. For example, Workday is currently embroiled in a US court case over allegations that its AI acted in a discriminatory manner when evaluating candidates for a third party.

The broader theme of the event was HR adapting to the new AI reality. Companies like Insygna, however, are beginning to ask how AI will change what HR is responsible for.