Leading Through Uncertainty: What Are HR Leaders in the Entertainment sector really thinking in 2026?

With AI accelerating that uncertainty even further, leaders are having to rethink what “good leadership”, “good assessment”, and even “good HR” now look like. 

The conversations revealed a set of emerging truths which are challenging, sometimes counterintuitive, and critical for leaders in the HR/people function shaping their strategy for the years ahead.

Human connection is still the differentiator- especially for the youngest talent 

Younger generations are sending a clear signal: 

AI-powered coaching and feedback tools are great for scale and first line support, but when businesses push machine led solutions too far into areas like performance conversations or development, employees interpret it as a lack of care. 

Freedom beats formula: “Show the answer, not the path” 

Purpose still matters but younger workers are rejecting rigid playbooks. They want autonomy in how they solve problems, not prescriptive processes handed down from above. 

With AI placing answers at everyone’s fingertips, leaders must now shift from directing to enabling and move away from centralised control and towards a culture where employees are encouraged to be change agents. 

This raises a new question for organisations: 
If innovation is now bottom up, how does it filter back up to leadership? 

Wisdom isn’t downloadable 

AI gives us instant knowledge, yet businesses are struggling with a deeper issue:

How do you build resilience, curiosity, tenacity, creativity and judgment when the “school of hard knocks” has been replaced by a chatbot? 

These are not skills you can prompt for. They are earned through experience, failure, conflict and time, things AI cannot replicate or accelerate. 

Talent assessment is being reinvented, because AI has changed the game 

Across all three sessions, concerns about AI’s impact on candidate assessment at all levels dominated.  HR leaders are seeing: 

• AI polished CVs with identical structure. 
• Cover letters that look perfect but say very little. 
• Real time AI prompting during video interviews. 
• Second stage presentations that wow visually but lack depth when challenged. 

This has triggered a shift back towards judgment-based assessment (particularly when assessing senior leaders and execs), involving bringing candidates onsite, giving them ambiguous tasks, observing their reasoning, biases, assumptions and steadiness under pressure-based assessment. 

Paradoxically, with advances in AI, the role of Executive Search Firms is becoming more critical and in particular their ability to ascertain “authentic intelligence” on candidates through psychometric assessment and 360° soft-referencing upstream. 

The modern CPO is moving from reactive problem solver to proactive strategy and culture champions 

Instead of cleaning up difficult scenarios, CPOs are increasingly shaping purpose, values and leadership expectations from the front and challenging long held norms in the process. 

One area they are influencing heavily: talent pools. 

Many CEOs in specialist sectors (sport, entertainment, gaming) remain attached to hiring “insiders”. 
But CPOs are pushing back. 

Their argument is: 

• Leadership skills are transferable. 
• Sector fluency is often overvalued. 
• Fresh perspectives outperform recycled thinking. 

The smartest organisations are widening their lens, pairing sector nuance with cross sector creativity. 

Rethinking progression: The CHRO of the future might come from anywhere 

Leaders across sessions questioned whether HR career paths are too linear.

Why shouldn’t HR talent move into business leadership roles? Why shouldn’t future CHROs come from commercial or operational backgrounds? 

HR leaders possess what many boards now call “power skills” including empathy, coaching ability, self-awareness and judgment. These are increasingly seen as traits of outstanding CEOs.  

And if boards value these skills, then why aren’t more CHROs already on them? 

A reality check on inclusion: Is the conversation losing its edge? 

There was a sense that inclusion has been diluted, replaced by safer, more palatable “equal opportunities” language.  

What this all means for HR leaders 

Across every conversation, one theme was consistent: 

Judgment is now the most valuable capability in any organisation. 

AI can optimise, polish and accelerate, but it cannot: 

• Build wisdom 
• Test character 
• Inspire resilience 
• Create curiosity 
• Enhance courage 
• Demand accountability 

These remain fundamentally human. 

As organisations shift into an AI enabled era, HR has the unique opportunity to redefine what great leadership looks like and elevate the CHRO into a truly strategic seat, not just a guardian of process. 

The companies that thrive will be those that invest deeply in the capability’s that machines can’t replicate and put humans, not technology, at the centre of transformation. 

Alongside the everyday demands of their organisations, today's leaders are facing obstacles and challenges on an unprecedented scale.

Our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ series explores how senior leaders manage continual complexity, ambiguity and transformation. In a world where change is the only constant, we spotlight the real-world, inspirational stories of leadership in uncertain times.

Explore our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ collection here.

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