Open Minds, Human Hearts: Why the Future of Tech is Still Human-First

In the world of open source, we often talk about the power of the community. We know that when bright minds come together to solve a problem, the result is always greater than the sum of its parts. Last week, I had the pleasure of stepping away from my screen to host an event for a different kind of community: a group of People and Culture leaders dedicated to navigating the “Future of Work.”

There is something irreplaceable about gathering in person to discuss our common challenges. While we spend our days at SUSE championing digital transformation, the energy of a room of leaders sharing lived experience is a reminder that if culture is who we are on our worst day, we are always better together. 

The conversation was wide-ranging, but one theme stood out above all others: While we must embrace AI, the human factor is, and will remain, our greatest differentiator.

Beyond the Bot: The Skills AI Can’t Replicate

We are living through a time of incredible technological acceleration. At SUSE, we are leaning into AI to help our customers and our own teams reduce workload and simplify processes. But as technology handles more of the “heavy lifting,” humans should focus on purpose and intention. How we get work done will matter more than how fast it gets done.

There is a lot of noise right now about agents replacing humans. My peers in the People space and I reached a resounding consensus: agents  aren’t coming for our jobs; they are coming for our tasks.

We agreed that we and our teams in the People and employee engagement space must simultaneously drive massive background efficiency through technology while leading our own transformation. As we automate the “what” (the transactional and technical tasks), we must prioritize the “how”—specifically how we connect, challenge, and care for one another as the primary drivers of value.

Connection and Feedback as the Counter-Force to ‘Tech-Danger’

Human connectivity is the ultimate counter-force to ‘tech-danger’—the risk that new technologies bypass valuable human interaction and polarise us further. Baseline requirements of trust, connection and productive feedback are more important than ever; they drive performance and satisfy the core human needs that technology cannot meet.

We agreed that artificial intelligence will not replace emotional intelligence. Today more than ever, being able to provide feedback is critical to developing your team. People teams creating the opportunity, and necessity, for continuous feedback loops matter even more as skills evolve faster.  

When we provide our people with the choice to grow and the trust to fail productively, we move from being a collection of individuals to a high-performing community.

Transparency as a Strategy

One of my favorite takeaways from the discussion was the shared belief that “bringing everyone along for the journey” is no longer optional—it’s a competitive advantage. 

Strategies rarely fail because of the plan itself, but because of a lack of alignment. People teams must act as the connective tissue across the organization, ensuring the strategy is understood and that individual performance is explicitly linked to it. This includes ensuring ‘joy in achievement,’ where employees feel rewarded and celebrated for their specific contributions to the mission.

The future of work is fast-moving and occasionally messy, but it is also filled with open possibilities. By combining the efficiency of AI with the empathy and creativity of our people, we are building a bedrock of trust that allows us to navigate any change.

To my fellow leaders: let’s keep talking, keep sharing, and—most importantly—keep putting humans at the center of the story.