AI & the Future of Work: Thriving in an AI Driven Labor Market
AI is reshaping the nature of work, and the labor market we are stepping into looks nothing like the one before it. While nobody can predict the future of an AI-driven labor market, we can look closer at the questions that matter most: What skills are needed for entering an AI-driven workplace? How is AI shaping specific HR processes, such as recruitment or onboarding? And how can organizations make decisions that support the successful implementation of AI, in ways that also work for their people?
Recently, the people building the world’s most powerful AI models asked the world to slow down the speed of AI implementation. The people leading nations told them not to. Somewhere between those two positions, organizations and employees are left with the question: How to survive and thrive in the AI-dominant workplace? This directly points to the split between AI adoption and readiness: companies are switching AI on faster than employees can catch up.
In this event, we will discuss how AI is changing the way work gets done, which jobs remain, what skills matter, and what it means for current and future employees. We will also discuss how organizations can make better decisions by using data to understand which people, skills, leadershipstyles, and cultures are most likely to succeed.
The event will open with a keynote by Rina Joosten-Rabou (Pera). Afterward, two researchers from the Amsterdam People Analytics Centre, Neris Güven and Helen Zhao, will share the latest research on how AI is transforming the nature of work. A roundtable will follow, joined by Matthijs Werkman (Randstad) and Corine Boon (Amsterdam Business School), diving deeper into what this means for both employees and organizations.
Speakers
Rina Joosten-Rabou has spent over a decade building AI at the centre of how organizations make decisions about people. As CEO of Pera People Science, she has spent 10+ years applying AI and deep learning to workforce decisions, turning intuition-based HR into evidence-based practice. She also serves on supervisory boards, helping companies navigate how AI is reshaping their business models and organisations, and has contributed to national AI initiatives including AIC4NL, the Netherlands’ €200M AI investment programme. That combination gives her a grounded, practitioner’s view of where the AI-driven labor market is heading, and what it takes to stay relevant.
Matthijs Werkman is AI Lead & Responsible AI Officer at Randstad Groep Nederland. Before that, he held various strategic roles within this HR service provider, including Chief Portfolio Officer & manager solution design. In his current AI role, Matthijs focuses on the core question: the technology is already available, but how do we make it truly applicable? His work involves identifying opportunities for generative AI, building a network of AI skills and responsibilities within the organization, and maximizing organization-wide value.
Corine Boon is professor of HRM and People Analytics at the University of Amsterdam Business School and is the Director of the Amsterdam People Analytics Centre. Her work focuses on strategic HRM, people analytics, and how AI and the future of work impacts organizations and employees.
Neris Güven is a PhD candidate at University of Amsterdam Business School. Her research interests span generative AI at work, job crafting, and professional identity. Her work examines how employees use generative AI to redesign their daily work and how this relates to need satisfaction, meaningfulness, and engagement. She also studies the identity tensions academics experience as AI keeps evolving.
Helen Zhao is a PhD candidate at University of Amsterdam Business School. Her research examines how AI can be leveraged to improve employee well-being, and how AI itself reshapes employee well-being. Her work investigates how employees’ proactive use of AI impacts workplace relationships, and how organizations can better design their AI system to optimize digital transformation.
