Workhuman Live Orlando 2026

Where People Leaders Find Their People

The headlines going into this year's Workhuman Live Orlando were rough. Burnout up. Engagement low. And Workhuman's own newly released 2026 Humans at Work Barometer showing that while most employees say their company is doing well, nearly half say work was better in that past.

That's the world people leaders carried with them when they walked through the doors at the Gaylord Palms this April. The challenges are real, and so was the need to be in a room with people who get it.

What Workhuman Live does, year after year, is provide exactly that. We help people leaders find their people, and send you home with not just new ideas but a renewed belief that this work is worth doing. Four days. Sixty-plus sessions. Incredible mainstage wisdom and even one former first lady.

Here's what happened.

The Main Stage: Clarity, Courage, and the Human Advantage

Eric Mosley — The High Cost of Untapped Potential

Workhuman CEO and co-founder Eric Mosley opened Tuesday with a keynote that reframed the AI conversation entirely. His central argument: AI is becoming commoditized. Strip it from both sides of the competitive equation and what you’re left with is your humans against their humans — same as it ever was. In a world where most AI projects fail to deliver meaningful returns, the real differentiator has never changed. It's the quality, visibility, and development of your people.

Eric also unveiled a major product innovation built on Workhuman's recognition data foundation: Workhuman Future Leaders — a patent-pending AI model that can predict VP+ promotions years before organizations make the decision. The talent is already in your data. Future Leaders helps you see it.

“What in the world changes for the better if we are successful? Everything. Everything changes for the better.” — Eric Mosley

Dr. Angela Duckworth — Grit and the Science of Human Performance

University of Pennsylvania professor and bestselling author Angela Duckworth brought her research on passion and perseverance to the Workhuman Live stage – and delivered one of the week’s most powerful ideas. The passion that defines truly great performers is not intensity. It’s consistency. And the organizations that create the conditions for people to stay on their learning curve – through recognition, feedback, and genuine belief in their potential – are the ones that will compound over time.

“Every gritty performer I have ever interviewed has somebody in their life who does not let them quit on a bad day.” — Dr. Angela Duckworth

60+ Sessions: Insights for Work on Monday

Across three days of concurrent breakout sessions, attendees heard from researchers, practitioners, executive leaders, and Workhuman customers on the ideas reshaping the future of work.

Just a few highlights:

• AI and the Human Advantage: McKinsey's research put the core challenge plainly: 70% of employees are personally ready to embrace AI, while only 27% believe their organization is ready to support them. Raj Verma from Sanofi showed what closing that gap looks like in practice — building trust before tools, reaching 80% workforce AI adoption by treating culture as the foundation, not the afterthought. And Homebase's lean HR team proved that people functions don't need a mandate or a budget to lead AI transformation. They just need the audacity to start.
• Recognition as Strategy: Manulife's Melinda Drexler showed recognition at genuine scale — in 2025 alone, 800,000+ moments, one every 38 seconds — generating behavioral analytics no survey could surface. Lisa Monaco from Moody’s explained how they see recognition as a well-being initiative: in times of change, recognition is one of the most important parts of change management. And Workhuman's Dr. Meisha-ann Martin made the case that with manager engagement down to 22%, recognition isn't just a perk — it's the most underused leadership development tool most organizations are already sitting on.
• Culture, Leadership, and Human Connection: Abhijit Bhaduri reframed the AI threat entirely: the real crisis isn't skills obsolescence, it's identity loss. Jason Lauritsen's research found that the most disconnected employees in most organizations aren't remote workers — they're fully on-site, non-managers. Hamza Khan made the case for replacing the 'Great Man' model of leadership with what he calls the Great Many — distributed, people-centered teams where everyone leads and everyone follows, because the organizations that will outlast this era aren't built around star players, they're built around strong collectives. And Jennifer Moss and Khalil Smith each made the same underlying argument from different angles: culture changes best through small, consistent, behaviorally specific actions.

The 2026 Humans at Work Barometer

This year's conference also coincided with the release of Workhuman's 2026 Humans at Work Barometer, a global study of more than 6,000 employees across 10 countries. The headline finding: 72% of employees say their company is financially healthy, while simultaneously half say they are not doing okay. Companies are succeeding. The humans inside them are struggling to keep up.

Read the Research.

Future Leaders: Your Next Leaders Are Already Here

One of the most talked-about moments of the conference was the unveiling of Workhuman Future Leaders — a patent-pending AI product that identifies high-potential employees years before a promotion decision is made.

Trained on billions of recognition moments and other human patterns in a company’s own organization, it surfaces the behavioral signals that distinguish tomorrow's leaders – hiding in plain sight now.

Succession planning has always been more art than science. Future Leaders changes that. Explore how the Workhuman platform turns human data into leadership development insight your organization can act on to spot and keep future leadership.

Workhuman Central: Recognition in Motion

Workhuman Central was the living proof of what recognition looks like when it’s woven into the fabric of an experience. Attendees recognized each other in real time at the Gratitude Bar, made one-on-one connections at Connection Cove, captured insights at the Perspective Pavilion, and found their communities at Central Park gatherings. And during the wrap up party — a special appearance by Workhuman’s house band: The HR Violations!

And the conference closed on the main stage with a very special guest whose conversation with the Workhuman Live community was a reminder of why this work – the unglamorous, daily work of caring for people at work – has never mattered more. IYKYK!

Explore the Workhuman platform: workhuman.com/platform

Nashville 2027: Meet Us in Music City

Orlando delivered. Let's get the band back together in 2027.

Workhuman Live 2027 is heading to Nashville, Tennessee – and we’re tuning up something worth the trip. Whether you’re a Workhuman Live veteran or you missed Orlando and you’re kicking yourself, Nashville is your moment. The lineup will hit different. The conversations will go deeper. And we can pretty much guarantee the after-hours scene will be on another level.

This conference is the place where HR stops feeling like a solo act and starts feeling like a band — playing together, in tune, toward something bigger than any one of us could pull off alone.

Wondering what you can expect? Have a look at the 2026 agenda for a sense of where we like to shine the spotlight.

Secure your early bird rate before it goes up, download the 2026 session agenda to see the kinds of sessions and speakers you can expect, and if you’ve got something to say – submit to speak. The stage is yours.

Secure your early bird rate: workhumanlive.com/#tickets