In this kickoff episode of Coffee Collab, Jennifer Akoma (VP, Human Resources at Android Technologies) and Steve Knox (VP, Global Talent Attraction and Acquisition at Dayforce) unpack the biggest workforce trends of 2024—and what they reveal about the year ahead. From recurring challenges to emerging themes in 2025, discover how leading organizations are staying ahead of the curve. Grab a coffee and join us for expert insights to help you tackle your toughest HR challenges.

In this episode of Coffee Collab, we sit down with payroll pros to map out the journey to payroll maturity—and why getting there matters more than ever. Featuring Ian Giles (Global Payroll Sales Director, Dayforce), Christina Garza (Solution Oversight Director, HRchitect), and Nick Day (CEO, JGA Recruitment Group), this conversation dives into moving from manual chaos to strategic clarity. Whether you're stuck in the weeds or ready for next-level impact, this one's brewed for you.

Leaders everywhere feel pressure to adopt AI. But moving too fast without a strategy? You risk leaving your workforce behind and wasting your workforce AI investment.

AI is reshaping jobs, workflows, and career paths in real time. Yet while 87% of executives already use AI at work, only 27% of employees do. The result is a widening gap that gets in the way of realizing true value from AI.

In our upcoming Coffee Collab, we’ll unpack insights from the 16th Annual Pulse of Talent – based on the perspectives of nearly 7,000 workers, managers, and executives worldwide – to explore how organizations can bridge this divide and turn AI from a source of disruption into a driver of growth.

In this conversation, our expert speakers will cover:

• The barriers nearly nine in 10 leaders face with AI adoption
• The surprising ways executives, managers, and workers differ in their AI use
• Three imperatives for unlocking AI ROI in your workforce

Learn:

• The global trends redefining workforce compliance and pay transparency by 2026.
• How leading organizations balance global principles with local realities and culture.
• The biggest risks and hidden opportunities in this new era of transparency and scrutiny.

As businesses expand and new technologies reshape how work gets done, HR leaders face the challenges of evolving regulations, the influence of AI, and rising expectations from every corner of the workforce. We’re all being asked to run lean and deliver big.

Join us as we explore how HR leaders can do just that. We’ll discuss how to grow your organizations, stay compliant, and protect your culture as the pace of change accelerates. So you can do the work you’re meant to do.

• How leaders are driving growth with confidence, maintaining compliance with care, and strengthening the connections that hold their organizations together.
• How leading teams are rethinking HR to stay agile and aligned in 2026 and beyond.
• The importance of maintaining and improving the employee experience in their journey to meet these goals.

HR teams are at an inflection point. As AI reshapes how work gets done, many HR leaders are navigating an identity crisis—caught between legacy workforce models built for stability and a reality defined by disruption, speed, and uncertainty. With mounting macro-economic pressure and rising agility demands, organizations are realizing that workforce transformation is not an IT challenge. It’s a people challenge—and HR is being thrust into the spotlight as the strategic owner of this reset. 

Watch as we explore what this moment means for HR leadership. From unlocking trusted data to enabling AI as a true force multiplier, we’ll discuss how human-centric AI can elevate employee potential, accelerate learning velocity, and drive higher-impact work. This isn’t about fewer people—it’s about more capable, more empowered people working alongside AI and agents to meet the demands of a constantly resetting workforce.

We’ll discuss: 

• Why AI represents a workforce inflection point—and how HR leaders can move from static job models to skills-based, continuously evolving organizations.
• How trusted data and human-centric AI unlock employee and workforce potential, enabling higher impact rather than workforce reduction.
• Why the great workforce reset positions HR as the strategic driver of transformation—and what capabilities matter most in an AI-powered business.

HR teams today are under pressure to deliver workforce stability, productivity, and leadership continuity, all while managing growing system complexity and compliance risk. Fragmented systems cause slow insights and manual work, leaving little time to focus on people and strategy.  

Talent intelligence changes that. Built on a single data model and responsibly governed AI, talent intelligence helps organizations reduce workforce risk, accelerate decisions, and scale programs globally, all while improving employee experiences.

Watch HR experts explore how to automate discovery and highlight what matters most. Talent intelligence helps HR move faster, make better decisions, and spend less time, chasing data in spreadsheets, managing more time on high value work, strengthening leadership, shaping culture, and meaningful business impact.

Key Takeaways:   

• Learn how talent Intelligence with single source for employee + skills data reduces workforce and leadership risk, and eliminates low value work   
• See how skills insights, and people analytics surface flight risks and, compliance/skills gaps as well as opportunities for internal mobility before they impact the business.  
• Learn how you scale globally without adding administrative overhead 

Join our May Coffee Collab as workforce experts explore which workforce shifts are temporary, which are lasting, and what HR leaders should prioritize now as AI reshapes work. 

Learn:

• Which workforce shifts are temporary and which are already becoming the new operating model
• What the workforce of the future may look like across back office and frontline roles
• Where AI is creating real value and where it may simply be shifting work to people
• How HR leaders can think about adoption, trust, and workforce upskilling more practically
• What signs may indicate the workforce is starting to strain under new expectations
• How to prepare for role redesign, leadership gaps, and changing talent pathways

Frontline managers are often asked to bridge the gap between people, process, and systems. In this Coffee Collab episode, we explore how operational inefficiencies, disconnected workforce systems, and manual processes can increase manager burden and compliance risk. 

In this conversation, our expert speakers covered:  

• Learn how operational inefficiencies contribute to frontline manager burnout and reduced capacity 
• Understand how manual workforce processes increase payroll, labor, and compliance risk
• Discover how integrated Pay + WFM systems help reduce burden and improve decision-making at scale

Watch our Coffee Collab as we explore The New Rules of Manager Effectiveness in an AI-accelerated workplace and discuss: 

• How AI is reshaping manager expectations and employee needs 
• What great managers do differently to improve engagement, retention, and performance 
• Practical ways to support continuous growth without increasing manager burden 
• How organizations can build a culture of trust, development, and high performance in an AI-accelerated workplace

For years, HR has prepared everyone else for the future of work. Now it's HR's turn. Today, HR leaders are increasingly expected to bring more than people expertise to the table. They are being asked to interpret workforce data, spot trends earlier, connect talent decisions to business priorities, and provide leaders with clearer guidance backed by evidence.  

In many organizations, HR is no longer judged only by employee experience or operational efficiency, but by its ability to inform decisions that affect performance, planning, and risk. This shift is redefining what effective HR leadership looks like. The future of HR will require stronger fluency in data, analytics, and decision support, without losing sight of the people behind the numbers.  

In this Coffee Collab, we’ll explore how the HR role is changing, what new capabilities this shift requires, and why better access to connected workforce data is becoming essential for HR teams that want to lead with greater influence and credibility.