What happens when AI agents begin doing the work that HR professionals used to do? How do organizations redesign jobs, develop talent, and decide which decisions must remain human?
In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Gina Vargiu-Breuer, Chief People Officer and Executive Board Member at SAP, live at UNLEASH 2026 in Paris, to explore how AI is transforming HR, recruiting, skills, and the way organizations operate.
Gina shares how SAP is redesigning HR workflows around AI agents, rethinking recruiting, and building skills profiles for 84,000 employees. They explore why traditional job architectures may be becoming obsolete, how AI could help organizations identify talent based on potential, and why human judgment remains essential in decisions affecting people’s careers.
The conversation also tackles one of AI’s biggest workforce challenges: How will young professionals develop experience and judgment when AI performs the work through which previous generations learned? Gina explains why SAP continues investing in early talent, how roles are being redesigned, and why HR professionals must become organizational architects.
For HR leaders, business executives, and professionals navigating AI transformation, this conversation offers an inside look at the organizational changes already underway at SAP and the difficult decisions leaders must make about the future of human work.
Want to dive deeper into this topic? Read Nirit’s Forbes article, ”AI Experimentation At Work Needs These Four Conditions”, to explore these ideas further.
Guest Information:
Gina Vargiu-Breuer is the Chief People Officer and Labor Director at SAP, Member of the Executive Board. In her role, Gina leads the People & Culture organization and owns SAP’s global People Agenda. She brings over 20 years of experience in international human resources to SAP. Before joining SAP, she served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Siemens Energy for more than four years. During this time, she spearheaded the company’s spin-off from Siemens AG and successfully drove the transformation for 94,000 employees. She holds a master’s degree in Economic Psychology from the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany.
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-vargiu-breuer/
Gina’s blog for WEF 2026: https://www.weforum.org/stories/all/ai-without-humanity-is-incomplete/
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: How AI Is Transforming HR at SAP
00:45 Why AI Transformation Requires Organizational Redesign
02:10 How AI Agents Are Changing HR Workflows
03:30 Which HR Decisions Should Stay Human?
04:15 Can AI Replace Human Judgment in Recruiting?
05:15 What Human Skills Will Matter Most in the AI Era?
06:20 How Will Entry-Level Employees Develop Judgment?
07:10 Why SAP Is Still Hiring Early-Career Talent
08:40 Rethinking Talent Development When AI Does the Routine Work
09:30 How AI Agents Are Redesigning Jobs and Responsibilities
11:15 How Will AI Transform the HR Function?
13:10 How SAP Is Building a Skills-Based Organization
14:20 Can AI Measure Employee Skills More Accurately?
15:20 Are Traditional Job Architectures Becoming Obsolete?
16:45 How Do You Identify and Measure Employee Potential?
17:45 Why HR Must Become the Organizational Architect
18:25 How SAP Is Managing Employee Fear of AI
19:45 The Most Important Question About the Future of Work
