The People Imperative for AI Implementation

AI adoption is accelerating faster than organizations can adapt work, roles, skills, and culture. HR leaders are increasingly expected to guide this transformation, yet lack shared, evidence-based frameworks grounded in real-world practice. In 2026, the HR Strategy Forum is leading a year-long, cross-disciplinary collaboratory to define how organizations lead AI integration at scale through people, culture, and work design.

The Opportunity

Successful integration of AI in organizations is not a technology challenge—it is a people challenge.

To fully leverage the promise of AI, organizations need to thoughtfully transform work, roles, skills, and culture. Organizations must rethink work design, capability building, governance, and culture to realize AI’s promise. This puts humans at the heart of the conversation, and HR leaders can play a crucial role in clarifying, providing frameworks, and developing responsible guardrails for the people component of this transformation. By partnering with HRSF, you will help create an actionable and widely accessible roadmap for people-centric AI adoption.

Collaboratory Goals and Impact

By the end of 2026, the AI Collaboratory will deliver an open-source resource for the global HR community that includes:

• A practical, evidence-informed maturity model for people-centered AI adoption
• A blueprint that HR leaders can leverage as they guide their organizations across stages of AI maturity
• Real-world insights and case examples from enterprise implementation

Why Join HRSF’s AI Collaboratory

By joining the Collaboratory, you will help shape how organizations and their people navigate one of the most consequential technological shifts of our time. You’ll collaborate with and learn from a curated taskforce of leading academics and AI practitioners from organizations such as Adobe, Dolby, Microsoft, and Salesforce—those at the forefront of translating AI into real organizational impact.

• Help shape the frameworks HR leaders use to guide AI implementation
• Collaborate with and learn from HR leaders actively scaling AI initiatives
• Translate research, innovation, and experience into real organizational impact
• Gain visibility through open-source outputs accessed by thousands of HR leaders
• Build lasting relationships across transformation leaders, researchers, and AI-focused innovators