Last May, Singapore hosted HR Tech Asia 2026– the premier HR Technology and Workforce management event in the region. We asked our Leadership and Talent Development Strategist, Tina Valdez, to share some of her own key insights and takeaways from the conference.

Digital innovation is evolving faster than most of us can imagine. The World Intellectual Property Organization notes that breakthroughs now spread across the globe in days rather than decades, and that applications that once took IT teams months to build can now be created in hours, often by people with no technical background at all. For HR professionals, this shift carries a clear mandate: we must understand, learn, and adapt to new ways of working so that we can support the demands of our stakeholders and ensure that both leadership and the workforce are ready for change that arrives faster– and more often– than we tend to realize.

HR professionals from around the world gathered in Singapore for the HR Tech Asia conference on May 5 to 6 to explore how digital innovation– especially in AI, HRIS, people analytics, and learning technologies– is reshaping the workforce. The conference gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas with practitioners across industries about the challenges we all face amid this surge in innovation, and about what we should keep top of mind in order to keep adding value in the AI era.

It’s hard to capture every insight, but here are the points that stood out to me most from what the speakers shared.

The Future of Work Is Human × Machine: How we should embrace technological innovation.

As AI evolves at lightning speed, what is your biggest fear? What impact can AI have on the work I do? And what can I do that machines or AI cannot?

“Change isn’t the enemy – it’s the strategy.”

As we usher in an era of digital innovation, we must remember that HR doesn’t follow the future of work – it should be leading it. As HR Practitioners, that means becoming a designer of future value: questioning what AI actually creates for the organization and weighing its long-term worth, rather than embracing every new tool reflexively.

This is an opportunity to step back and reset. As one speaker put it, “We are solving 2030 problems with 2010 org charts and 1990s thinking.” We need to treat AI as our organization’s partner in adapting to the future of work. Resetting means asking honest questions: How are we preparing for what’s coming? Are we willing to try anything new? The key is to begin with the end in mind and focus on what it will actually take to get there.

As much as we should resist the idea of FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out – I believe we should also be aware of an even greater anxiety that is taking hold among colleagues: FOBO– the Fear of Being Obsolete. FOBO stems from not understanding the power of technology and how it can be turned to our advantage. Consider this: machines should handle the hands work (execution), freeing HR to combine the head work (thinking and deciding) with the heart work (amplifying purpose and keeping things human). Played that way, we can come out stronger than ever. We simply need to reset, and to understand how AI can best work with us rather than give in to the fear that it will replace what we do.

Staying Curious Starts With You

What AI tools do you use? When was the last time you invested in learning the new technologies already making their mark? Beyond searching and reading, have you tried any of these tools yourself and explored what else they can do?

More than ever, it is time for HR professionals to attend to our own development with the same care we give to learning and development across our organizations. Understanding how AI can make our work easier, rather than viewing it as a threat to the work we love, is essential.

Here’s a thought worth sitting with: “AI doesn’t replace humans – humans who use AI replace humans who don’t.”

Whenever I ask HR colleagues which AI tools they use, they answer confidently: “ChatGPT, Copilot, Google Gemini, or Claude.” But when I ask how they use these tools, the room tends to fill with nervous laughter – especially when I point out that, for most people, AI has simply become Google Search 5.0. In reality, these tools are capable of far more once you learn to make the most of their features.

I strongly encourage everyone to keep learning through action– platforms like through YouTube and, LinkedIn, among othersand similar platforms, give us access to information, exercises, and simulations. and through exercises and simulations. Setting aside even one hour a week opens up a world of possibilities for making technology work for you.

Consider the three stages of AI literacy:

Awareness – completing a training.
Adaptation – measured by the number of tools you use daily.
Adoption – using AI to deliver clear outputs across production, process, procedures, profitability, and policy.

Our curiosity usually stalls at Stage 1. The real challenge is moving beyond simply knowing about these tools, and toward genuinely integrating and adopting them in how we work.

Workforce Watchlist: Who We Need to Keep in Focus

Which skills will be critical for the future workforce? And which are worth paying attention to – for myself and for my organization – to stay relevant and add value in an ever-changing digital landscape?

The 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report came up again and again throughout the conference. It identifies the top three skills the world will need by 2030 as AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy. But just as important are the next three, all of them distinctly human: creative thinking, resilience and agility, and curiosity and lifelong learning. Together, these six offer leaders a strong starting point as they hire and train for the future.

The scale of disruption is creating entirely new job descriptions while prompting companies to revisit roles they may no longer need. This is a chance to honestly assess how ready our organizations are for transformation.

It also made me think about graduates entering the workforce today; are they equipped for what future jobs will demand? And if not– what are the skills and qualities that can bridge that gap?.

As we shape our people strategy, keeping a watchful eye on the skills our teams must develop– and the skills we need to recruit for– is key to driving a transformation agenda that is genuinely future-proof.

Building a Talent Pipeline Advantage

Is our company clear about what it needs to turn our stakeholders’ vision into reality? Are our talent sources equipped, in both skill and technology, to drive that agenda? And are our leaders ready to lead the digital transformation?

If we want a talent advantage aligned to the skills of the future, several points from the conference discussions stood out as especially important:

Clarity – How clearly does everyone in the organization understand the scale of the digital or AI transformation? Does each person have the skill set needed to drive the strategy and meet the future state?
Intelligent learning – Create the right conditions to identify which roles need to be automated or digitized, and ensure there are real opportunities to upskill the people affected.
Co-learning – Build an environment where teams learn from one another and make full use of online learning.
Breakthrough leadership – We cannot overstate the need for psychological space to innovate, and leaders are central to creating it. People take time to change; leaders must trust them, let go of control, and cultivate a space that feels safe and collaborative.

Leaders must also model the transformation themselves. One striking statistic from the conference: only 32% of C-suite leaders use AI tools daily. That brings us back to where we started: the value of staying curious and committing to continuous learning– a mindset that needs to be adopted by everyone in the organization, leadership included.

The Bottom Line

If there was one message that echoed through every session in Singapore, it is this: the AI shift is not a wave we wait out, but a current we choose to swim in. The technology will keep accelerating with or without us – what remains entirely within our control is how we respond.

HR has a rare chance to stop being the function that absorbs change after the fact and to become the one that designs it: pairing the precision of machines with the judgment, purpose, and humanity only people can bring. That future will not be handed to us by a tool or a vendor or a report. It will be built by professionals curious enough to keep learning, courageous enough to reset outdated thinking, and human enough to keep people at the center of everything technology touches.

The wave is already here.

Let’s lead it.

Tina Valdez is an accomplished HR Leader & Advisor, Talent Management, and L&D Practitioner with over 25 years of experience driving talent management, leadership development, performance management, and diversity initiatives. She has been instrumental in streamlining learning initiatives across regions in her previous roles. Her extensive experience and strategic insights make her a valuable mentor for HR strategy and talent development professionals.