Explore the Agenda
7:30 am Registration & Networking
8:20 am Chair’s Welcome & Opening Remarks
8:30 am Interactive Panel Discussion: Reflecting on the State of Play of Building an AI-Enabled Workforce in the Life Sciences Industry
- What do leading life sciences organizations have in terms of AI capability building that is paving a path forward for designing the AI-enabled workforce?
- What people resources and capabilities are we lacking at life sciences organizations in an AI era and how can we plug those gaps?
- When evaluating people, process, technology, and governance, how does the life sciences industry compare to other sectors in terms of AI-readiness?
- How mature are we from a workforce adoption perspective?
- Using a 7S framework (Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Style, Staff and Skills), to what extent is AI and technology progress ahead of the skills mix and leadership behaviors in the life sciences industry? What action can we take to close the gap?
Empowering Leaders to Turn AI Experimentation into Enterprise-Wide Value Creation
9:00 am Discover: How Merck Is Moving Beyond AI Experimentation to Scale Lighthouse Transformations That Deliver Measurable Business Value Across the Enterprise
- Explore how Merck is balancing enterprise-wide AI adoption with targeted lighthouse investments to accelerate value creation, build capabilities, and drive meaningful business outcomes
- Learn how workforce enablement strategies are being used to upskill leaders, empower employees, and embed the talent, skills, and organizational changes required to support AI-driven transformation
- Discover a practical framework for reimagining work, redesigning roles, and aligning workforce, capability, and adoption plans with AI initiatives designed to improve speed, quality, insight generation, and capacity
9:20 am Discover: How Leading With a Digital Mindset Is Closing the AI Adoption Gap & Accelerating Enterprise-Wide Workforce Transformation
- Understand how to design and deploy a practical digital mindset program that drives real behavior change, not just AI ambition
- Learn how to bridge the gap between AI strategy and execution by aligning leadership, culture, and organizational design
- Explore measurable approaches to tracking adoption, engagement, and value creation from AI in the flow of work
9:40 am Develop: Moving from AI Ambition to Enterprise Adoption
Explore how digital mindset, leadership behavior, workforce enablement, and lighthouse transformations can close the gap between AI experimentation and enterprise-wide value creation.
Interactive Q&A Session Facilitated by the Chair
10:00 am Action: Building the Conditions for AI Value-Creation
Work with peers to identify how leadership, incentives, culture, adoption of metrics, and capability-building can be aligned to move AI from isolated pilots into sustained enterprise transformation.
Interactive Roundtable Discussion Facilitated by the Chair
10:20 am Speed Networking
This structured networking session provides the perfect opportunity to connect with industry peers that are leading AI-driven digital transformation and strategic workforce planning. Establish meaningful connections to build upon at the rest of the conference.
10:50 am Morning Coffee & Refreshment Break
Fostering Strategic Partnerships Between People, Technology & Cross-Functional Leadership to Recognize AI as a People & Technology Opportunity
11:20 am Discover: How Gilead Is Unlocking Enterprise-Wide AI Innovation by Aligning People, Technology, & Cross-Functional Ownership Using a Fast-Following Strategy
- Learn how to balance enterprise alignment with federated ownership to scale AI adoption while preserving innovation across functions
- Explore practical lessons from integrating HR and business strategies to accelerate AI transformation without starting from scratch
- Understand how to leverage external insights and internal learning to move faster, avoid common pitfalls, and maximize organizational learning
11:40 am Discover: AI as Enterprise Strategy: Aligning Leaders, Accelerating Growth, & Moving the Biggest Rocks First
- Why treating AI as a corporate evolution rather than an IT initiative helps align the executive team around the highest-value opportunities across the business
- How to build an effective partnership between people, technology, and cross-functional leaders so AI strategy sits at enterprise level and drives organization-wide momentum
- What it takes to move the biggest rocks first by using AI to accelerate work, avoid unnecessary headcount growth, and keep the right people in the right roles
12:00 pm Develop: Aligning People, Technology, & Enterprise Strategy Around the Biggest Rocks
Take a deeper look at how enterprise alignment, federated ownership and cross-functional leadership can position AI as a strategic growth lever rather than a standalone technology initiative.
Interactive Q&A Session Facilitated by the Chair
12:20 pm Action: Turning Cross-Functional Ownership into AI Momentum
Collaborate to identify where enterprise AI needs clearer ownership, stronger HR-data-technology partnership, and sharper prioritization to accelerate work, avoid unnecessary headcount growth, and preserve value creation.
Interactive Roundtable Discussion Facilitated by the Chair
12:40 pm Lunch & Networking Break
People Strategy Studio By Invitation Only | Part One
Redesigning Work, Workforce Capacity, & Operating Models to Scale Growth Through Human-AI Collaboration
1:40 pm How Do We Prepare Leaders & the Wider Organization to Actively Lead AI Driven Change?
Across life sciences, accountability has shifted. AI is no longer a technology priority sitting with the CIO; it’s a value creation imperative landing squarely on the CHRO.
The question every leader in this room is navigating is the same: how do we get to value, fast,
without losing what makes our organizations distinctly human?
This session explores two interconnected challenges. Firstly: making workforce strategy agile
and future proof and rethinking how work gets done when humans and AI agents operate as an
intelligent system. Secondly, the session examines how organizations are preparing leaders to
actively steer AI-driven change. Specifically, this means understanding how to build the trust that
helps people see agents not as a threat but as a way to enrich work, reduce lower-value activity, and create space for purpose and judgment.
1:40 pm Discover: How Novartis is Redesigning Work, Workforce Capacity, & Operating Models to Launch New Medicines Without Proportional Headcount Growth
- Explore how Novartis is combining workforce planning, organization design, and AI to dynamically deploy skills, talent, and technology against shifting business priorities and launch timelines
- Learn how the US business is reimagining critical workflows through AI-powered transformation engines that accelerate launch excellence, improve productivity, and create capacity for growth
- Discover practical lessons from moving beyond AI experimentation to measurable value creation by redesigning work so humans and AI agents operate together at scale
2:00 pm Discover: How Vertex is Scaling an AI-Enabled Workforce by Prioritizing Enterprise Bets, Redesigning Work for Human-AI Collaboration, & Accelerating Productivity Across a Growing Global Business
- Learn how Vertex is identifying and prioritizing its biggest enterprise bets to increase workforce capacity across internal, external, and digital labor
- Explore the approach Vertex is using to reconstruct jobs, workflows, and org design so AI augments people and captures measurable value
- Understand how Vertex is embedding AI enablement into performance, talent, and workforce planning to drive adoption, protect culture, and scale with discipline
2:20 pm Develop: Scaling Workforce Capacity Without Scaling Complexity
Unpack how leading organizations are redesigning work, operating models, and workforce capacity to support growth, launches, and productivity without proportional headcount expansion.
Interactive Q&A Session Facilitated by the Chair
2:40 pm Action: Prioritizing the Enterprise Bets That Create Capacity
Work in groups to identify the highest-value workflows, roles, and organizational shifts where AI could create capacity and enable disciplined, measurable scaling.
Interactive Roundtable Discussion Facilitated by the Chair
3:10 pm Comfort Break
People Strategy Studio By Invitation Only | Part Two
Democratizing AI Across the Enterprise: Equipping Every Employee to Adopt, Experiment, & Create Value
3:20 pm How Do We Prepare Leaders & the Wider Organization to Actively Lead AI Driven Change?
Central to that journey is a new vocabulary for the work itself. Not training, but continuous AI literacy embedded into daily work. Not job descriptions, but skills portfolios and AI collaboration profiles. Not productivity, but creating a cognitive premium, the irreplaceable value humans bring in deploying judgment, creativity, and complex decision-making. Not headcount management, but agentic orchestration.
Drawing on Accenture’s research, refreshed skills data, and real client cases, this is a genuine peer
exchange, where the insights from discussion in the room matter as much as the ones we bring to it.
Together we will shape what the future of work looks like for our organizations, our societies, and our people.
3:20 pm Discover: AI for Everyone, Not Just the Technical Experts
- How Recursion launched AI platforms across the business, and what was learned about the governance, support, and clear guardrails needed to help every function put AI to work
- How Recursion built readiness and confidence through leadership buy-in, training, and shared experimentation so both early adopters and more skeptical teams could find practical value in their day-to-day work
- How a five-day company-wide hack event created a step change in adoption by surfacing real use cases, building momentum, and making AI part of how the company operates rather than a side initiative
3:40 pm Discover: How insitro Scaled Agentic AI from a 20-Person Pilot to an Enterprise- Wide Transformation Driving Measurable Productivity & Workforce Reinvention
- Explore how a structured rollout combining data governance, tool selection, and change management turned early resistance into enterprise-wide adoption at scale
- Learn how positioning AI as a “supercharged intern” unlocked 5+ hours per employee per week while enhancing quality, decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration
- Understand how agentic AI is reshaping workforce design from a traditional pyramid to a “diamond model” and what this means for hiring, skills, and organizational strategy
4:00 pm Develop: Making AI Practical, Trusted, & Useful Across the Enterprise
Take a deeper look at what it takes to launch AI platforms, build confidence, establish guardrails, and scale agentic AI from pilots into everyday workflows across the business.
Interactive Q&A Session Facilitated by the Chair
4:20 pm Action: Designing the Adoption System for Everyday AI
Collaborate with peers to map the support, governance, experimentation, and change management environment needed to help technical and non-technical teams adopt AI with confidence and measurable impact.
Interactive Roundtable Discussion Facilitated by the Chair
4:40 pm Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break
5:00 pm Interactive Panel Discussion: How Life Sciences Organizations of All Sizes Can Build an AI-Enabled Workforce
- How are growing biotech and scaling pharma companies designing their workforce and operating models to scale AI capabilities rapidly, without inheriting or creating legacy complexity?
- What strategic workforce planning principles are ensuring people, platforms, and processes grow together, rather than creating bottlenecks at scale?
- How are leaders balancing speed with stability and building AI-fluent teams, governance, and culture that can evolve quickly, without breaking?
- How are we aligning business growth priorities with AI-enabled scaling and transformation of people, process and technology?
5:30 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Conference Day One
5:35 pm Sips & Skills: Where AI-Enabled Workforce Transformation Conversations Continue
Networking Drinks Reception open to all attendees to continue the conversation with the strategic HR leaders reimagining work across life sciences organizations.