Workforce concerns commanded unprecedented attention at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, where HR and business leaders grappled with a fundamental question: How can we better invest in people amid rapid technological change and global uncertainty?
This year, WEF 2026 was organized around five defining questions, with “How can we better invest in people?” positioned as a critical pillar alongside cooperation, growth, innovation and planetary boundaries. The framing signals that workforce strategy is no longer a supporting agenda item but central to navigating geopolitical tensions and technological disruption.
AI readiness begins with leadership
Francine Katsoudas, executive vice president and chief people, policy & purpose officer at Cisco, delivered one of the event’s most relevant messages for folks following HR technology. She said that only 13% of companies are truly ready to capture value from AI. These “Pacesetters,” identified in Cisco’s 2025 AI Readiness Index, share a common trait: effective leadership.
“Technology alone does not distinguish Pacesetters; effective leadership does,” Katsoudas wrote in her accompanying WEF article. The gap is mountainous: Sixty-four percent of employees at leading companies show high AI receptiveness versus just 27% elsewhere. That’s a 2.4x difference.
Her prescription for leaders focuses on three practical actions: making AI both personal and practical through managerial example, reinforcing that AI lifts rather than replaces workers and building capability through hands-on learning.
At Cisco, Katsoudas says, employees are twice as likely to use AI when their managers actively demonstrate its value. Those who use AI regularly show 40% higher retention rates and double the promotion recommendations of non-users.
Katsoudas participated in a ManpowerGroup-hosted panel titled “The Human Edge: Leading People and Technology Through the Now and the Next,” alongside executives from Schneider Electric and SAP, moderated by former CNBC anchor Geoff Cutmore.
Read more: Why Cisco’s chief people officer says ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ for hybrid work policies
‘Workers in the driver’s seat’
The session “Workers in the Driver’s Seat” dialed into employee voice and social cohesion. Adecco Group CEO Denis Machuel warned that workforce disruption crosses borders. “If we want peaceful societies, we have to ensure social cohesion,” he said. “We don’t see any place where people are immune from these forces that are happening.”
The concern isn’t academic. Forty percent of jobs globally face AI impact within the next two years, according to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. This lifts to 60% in advanced economies. Even the IMF has reduced its translation staff from 200 to 50 due to AI adoption.
Yet the anxiety around replacement may be misplaced, according to some speakers. Technology leaders repeatedly emphasized AI’s augmentation potential. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argued organizations must focus on “using it to do something useful that changes the outcomes of people and communities and countries.”
Read more: Future-ready workers triple while employer training lags behind
Takeaways for HR leaders
This year’s Davos crystallized several imperatives for people leaders:
Leadership readiness precedes technology adoption.
Organizations won’t capture AI value through infrastructure investment alone. Leaders must personally demonstrate AI’s utility, create psychological safety for experimentation and help employees see technology as a capability enhancement rather than a job threat.
Social cohesion is strategic risk management.
As Machuel noted, disrupted workforces threaten social stability. HR’s role extends beyond talent management to helping organizations navigate broader societal implications of technological change.
Skills development requires new approaches.
The Cornell University research cited by Katsoudas showed interactive, hands-on AI simulations dramatically outperform passive learning. Cisco reports 91% of employees learn AI through experimentation.
Global talent flows are realigning.
The geopolitical fractures discussed throughout the week—from U.S.-Europe tensions to emerging middle-power coalitions—will reshape where talent develops, moves and creates value.
For HR leaders, that means building workforces capable of navigating ambiguity while maintaining human capabilities such as creativity, judgment and relationship-building that remain distinctly ours.
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