Event category: Breakout

AI is no longer a future-state experiment; it’s becoming a core part of how work gets done. As a result, leaders are now responsible for managing not just people, but increasingly, AI agents are embedded across hiring, operations, and decision-making.

This session shows how the role of leaders will need to evolve to combine AI agents and human judgment to scale hiring, reduce costs, and build workforces that outperform in tight markets. Building on this foundation, the session explores how leaders decide what work should be automated, where human judgment is essential, and how to design teams and workflows where people and AI work together effectively.

Attendees will leave with a practical understanding of how AI fits across key components of the business, the leadership behaviours required to manage hybrid teams, and the common missteps that derail performance, trust, and culture when AI is introduced without clear ownership or intent.

Tactical Takeaways:

• • Leadership guardrails that prevent over-automation, cost-only thinking, and culture erosion

• • A practical framework for combining AI agents and human judgment across hiring, performance, and workforce planning

• • Clear guidance on how leaders manage AI-enabled work differently than people-led work, including accountability and decision ownership

• • Examples of where AI creates leverage vs. risk across key business functions

Pay transparency legislation is raising the floor — but employee expectations are raising the ceiling. At the same time, roles are evolving quickly: responsibilities are expanding, AI is reshaping job scope, and new hiring criteria are shifting what “qualified” looks like. This session explores how to recalibrate compensation when roles change midstream, when new skill premiums emerge, and when legacy pay structures no longer reflect current value. We’ll unpack how to price new roles fairly, adjust pay when responsibilities grow, and avoid compression or internal equity issues. Leave with practical tools to align compensation philosophy with regulation, evolving job design, and workforce trust.

Tactical Takeaways:

• • A checklist of compliance essentials vs. strategic transparency practices that build trust

• • A framework for adjusting pay when roles expand, hybridize, or materially change

• • Guidelines for pricing new roles and skills fairly in emerging or AI-influenced job markets

• • A practical method for identifying and correcting pay inequities and compression risks

Scaling a startup isn’t just about hitting product milestones-it’s about building people infrastructure that can stretch and evolve without breaking. From hiring your first P&C leader to navigating founder transitions and funding inflection points, this session offers practical insights for those supporting startups through the most volatile growth stages. 

Distributed teams are here to stay- but with global reach comes complexity, inefficiency, and misalignment. As organizations scale, the friction between geographies, time zones, and cultures can create operational drag. In this session, Vimal Patel will share insights from his experience at Kinaxis, where he has helped teams across continents stay aligned, agile, and effective. Attendees will gain practical strategies for designing and streamlining operations so distributed teams can thrive, no matter where they’re located.

In a fast-moving, competitive tech world- where AI, market shifts, and leaner teams are reshaping what success looks like- how do you define and grow truly great talent? At Klue, Senior People Business Partner Simran Bahia helped build a clear, three-pronged framework around performance, potential, and culture contribution. This approach not only provides clarity for employees, but also equips leaders to build high-performing, resilient, and collaborative teams. In this session, Simran shares how Klue refined this model, embedded it into culture and performance reviews, and used it as a springboard for growth and innovation. Expect a refreshingly honest and tactical look at how to evaluate, support, and elevate top talent in today’s tech sector.

Compensation for key tech jobs has increased at unprecedented rates year over year and has started to cool. What happens when the hiring environment changes? As Canada’s tech industry continues to mature we are experiencing economic cycles, government policies and shifting landscapes that challenge how we compensate and incent our employees.  All in the midst of a new transparent environment that pressure tests our internal structures, processes and programs. In this session, Mercer’s Liz Elliott and Jennifer Kwong contrast the current state of tech against other industries that have precedent undergoing significant shifts. We will highlight examples of resilience, hard decisions and innovation that drive strength through change and discuss unintended consequences that we only saw in hindsight. The discussion will be fueled by data, including Mercer’s salary planning forecasts going into 2026 and a summary of this year’s hottest jobs.