The Next Leadership Edge: it isn’t AI fluency. It’s what AI can’t touch.

Tuesday, 6th October 2026 | 09:00 to 11:30 AM (BST)

The uncomfortable truth

Every organisation is racing to become AI native. Give it a year and the phrase will mean nothing, because everyone will be able to say it.

That’s the problem with a race to table stakes. Once everyone’s there, the advantage disappears. It moves entirely to the humans deciding what to do with the tools they now all have.

Most leadership teams are pouring their energy into proving they’ve adopted AI. Almost none are asking what happens to judgement, curiosity and courage while they’re doing it. AI doesn’t remove the need for those things. It removes the busywork that used to hide the fact you never built them.

That’s not a technology problem. It’s a leadership one, and it’s the one nobody’s put on the agenda yet.

Why we’re convening this room

Every brief landing on our desk right now says some version of the same thing. We need leaders who can hold ambiguity, read a room, make the call nobody can fully justify with a dashboard. And in the next breath, the same brief asks for an AI skills programme.

Those are two different problems, and treating them as one is how you end up with a team that’s fast with the tools and increasingly unsure of its own judgement underneath.

We want to talk about the gap that actually matters. Not the fluency gap. The human capability gap sitting underneath it, growing quietly while everyone’s attention is on the tools.

What we’ll explore together

• Where AI genuinely changes what leadership requires, and where the fundamentals haven’t moved at all
• The judgement, curiosity and courage that AI can’t replicate, and why most organisations are developing them by accident rather than on purpose
• How to tell when a leader is using AI well, and when they’re quietly hiding behind it
• What “AI fluent” will mean in two years, once it stops being a differentiator and starts being the baseline
• Where to put your energy, attention and development budget over the next one to three years

Who’s in the room

Senior people leaders who are thinking seriously about what AI means for leadership, talent and the future of work.

Expect to be in conversation with Chief People Officers, HR Directors, Heads of L&D and Talent, alongside senior leaders shaping AI adoption and organisational change.

A small, deliberately curated group in a peer-led session, bringing together people at different stages of the journey but grappling with many of the same questions.

What you’ll leave with

• A sharper, more confident point of view on what AI fluency should and shouldn’t mean for your leaders
• A small set of pointed questions to take back to your executive team about where your development budget is actually going
• New connections with peers wrestling with the same problem, and a reason to stay in touch

The format

An opening conversation with T- and Haavn, setting the frame for the morning: where AI genuinely changes leadership, and where it doesn’t.

Followed by an interview style conversation with AI leaders and clients further along their adoption journey. A real conversation you’re part of, not one you watch.

No case studies. No slides selling you something.

Why this matters

We think the organisations that get this right over the next three years pull ahead. Not because they moved first on AI. Because they built the human judgement to use it well, deliberately, while everyone else was still working out what tool to buy next.

If that resonates, we’d like you in the room.

This event will be hosted by T- and Haavn. Haavn helps creative, product and leadership teams move from AI curiosity to real-world impact. Founded by former Google, Meta, YouTube and Apple leaders, they combine hands-on AI experimentation with strategy, design and implementation to help teams understand what’s possible and build what matters.

When and where

06/10/2026 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM (BST) | London