Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving quickly from experimentation into the way organizations work, decide, serve customers, manage risk, and create value.
But putting AI into the organization is only the beginning.
The harder questions are emerging now:
How does AI become part of real work? What creates trust without creating overreliance? What happens when roles, expertise and decision rights begin to shift? How does governance become everyday behavior? What do leaders need to do differently? And what does all of this require from the professionals responsible for leading change?
Lead Change™ 2026 brings together experts, practitioners, evidence, real-world experience, and the collective intelligence of the change and transformation community to explore those questions together.
This is not another AI trends event.
It is a one-day Summit about what AI adoption is requiring from organizations — and from the people leading change inside them.
Register for Lead Change™ 2026
The Work Is Already Changing
Organizations are investing heavily in AI, but value does not appear simply because technology has been deployed.
AI has to become integrated into workflows, decisions, leadership, governance, capability, and everyday behavior.
And unlike many previous technology changes, the thing people are adopting may continue to change after it arrives.
People are learning when to use AI, what to delegate, what to question, what to verify, and where human judgment must remain.
Roles and expertise are shifting. New governance questions are entering the workflow. Leaders are being asked to provide direction while the future state is still emerging.
At the same time, change and transformation professionals are being asked to navigate issues that sit well beyond traditional communications and training.
The work of AI Adoption is changing the work of change.
Lead Change™ 2026 is designed to help you understand that shift while it is happening.
Five Conversations Shaping AI Adoption Now
From
AI Deployment
to Real Adoption
AI Deployment
to Real Adoption
What separates technology availability and usage from meaningful integration into work and business value?
Explore the emerging patterns behind stalled adoption, weak workflow integration, resistance, low trust, unclear value, leadership inconsistency, capability gaps, and other conditions organizations are encountering now.
Human
+
AI Work
+
AI Work
As copilots, intelligent workflows, and AI agents become part of work, people are being asked to make new decisions about delegation, verification, intervention, accountability, and trust.
What happens to roles, expertise, identity, agency, and judgment when humans and AI increasingly perform work together?
Leadership
and Governance
in Practice
and Governance
in Practice
AI governance becomes real when policies meet workflows.
What should remain human? What can AI recommend or do? Who reviews, overrides, escalates, and remains accountable?
And how do leaders create direction, trust, experimentation, and appropriate control when the environment itself continues to change?
The Human
Conditions of Adoption
Conditions of Adoption
AI adoption is operational — but it is also psychological, social, and cultural.
Trust. Fear. Professional identity. Perceived value. Capability. Agency. Change fatigue. Manager behavior. Sensemaking.
How are these factors shaping adoption, and what are practitioners learning about addressing them?
The Future of Change and Transformation Work
AI is adding new subject matter to the profession while increasing the importance of deeply human capability.
Change and Transformation professionals increasingly need AI fluency, while also strengthening judgment, sensemaking, influence, coaching, facilitation, executive advising, and intervention under ambiguity.
Built Around the Work — Not the Hype
Lead Change™ 2026 brings multiple perspectives into one connected conversation.
Throughout the day, you will encounter:
- expert insight and emerging thinking;
- real-world cases and practitioner lessons;
- current evidence and research;
- adoption challenges and failure patterns;
- human, organizational, governance, and technology perspectives;
- practical demonstrations of technologies affecting adoption; and
- facilitated opportunities to compare what you are seeing with peers.
The purpose is not to predict an artificial intelligence future.
It is to better understand the reality already unfolding inside organizations.
Leave Seeing the Work Differently
A one-day Summit is not a substitute for applied training.
It can, however, materially change what you notice, the questions you ask, and the conversations you are prepared to lead.
You will leave Lead Change™ 2026 with:
- a clearer picture of what meaningful AI Adoption actually requires;
- greater awareness of the patterns that can strengthen or derail adoption;
- practical examples of what organizations and practitioners are trying and learning;
- sharper questions to ask business, technology, risk, Human Resources, and executive leaders;
- greater insight into human-AI work, governance, leadership, identity, agency, and judgment;
- a clearer view of how change and transformation practice is evolving; and
- relationships with professionals confronting many of the same questions you are.
The goal is not simply to know more about AI.
It is to understand what you need to see differently when you return to your work.
FEATURED KEYNOTE
Travis D. Hahler
Senior Director, Global Strategy & Transformation
Salesforce
Author, Rethink Resistance
Rethink Resistance
to AI Adoption
What if resistance to change isn’t rebellion—but biology?
Travis D. Hahler brings neuroscience and nearly two decades of transformation experience to Lead Change™ 2026, helping leaders understand why people resist change and what that means for leading AI adoption.
Every participant receives a complimentary copy of Travis Hahler’s book included with their conference ticket.
Get to know our keynote speaker → Watch Theresa Moulton’s recent CMR conversation with Travis Hahler
The Summit Experience
The Lead Change™ Exchange: What Are You Seeing Now?
Before the main Summit begins, join an open facilitated working session with peers.
Compare what you are seeing inside organizations around AI Adoption, leadership, governance, identity, human-AI work, and the changing role of the profession.
Change Management Review™ State of the Field
A synthesis of what is changing in AI Adoption, what Change Management Review™ (CMR) is seeing across the field, and what those developments may mean for the future of change and transformation work.
Keynote
Travis Hahler
Senior Director, Strategy and Transformation, Salesforce
Author of Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change
Every Lead Change™ 2026 registration includes a copy of Rethink Resistance.
Throughout the Day
Expect a carefully curated mix of:
Expert Presentations · Panel Discussion · Real-World Case Study · Technology Showcase · Fireside Interview · Practitioner Perspective · Closing Synthesis
The agenda is designed as one connected conversation, not a collection of unrelated presentations.
Voices Selected for Substance
Lead Change™ 2026 will bring together researchers, practitioners, executives, advisors, technologists, governance experts, behavioral experts, and transformation leaders who can help us examine AI Adoption from multiple dimensions.
Additional speakers announcing soon.
Curated by Theresa Moulton
Lead Change™ 2026 is curated by Theresa Moulton, Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief of Change Management Review™, to bring together the perspectives professionals need to understand AI Adoption and what it means for the future of change and transformation.
For nine years, Lead Change™ has convened professionals around the forces reshaping the field.
In 2026, the conversation is focused on one of the most consequential of those forces yet:
How artificial intelligence is changing organizations, work, people — and the practice of leading change itself.
Who Should Attend
Lead Change™ 2026 is designed for experienced professionals contributing to, advising on, or leading AI-enabled change and transformation, including:
- change management professionals;
- transformation leaders;
- project and program managers;
- Human Resources professionals;
- communications professionals;
- Learning and Development professionals;
- organizational development practitioners;
- culture and leadership advisors;
- AI Adoption professionals; and
- consultants supporting AI-enabled change.
Bring the Conversation Into Your Organization
AI Adoption crosses functions.
Technology may be focused on deployment. Leaders may be focused on productivity and value. Risk and legal teams may be focused on governance. Human Resources may be focused on workforce implications. Change and transformation professionals may be focused on how people and the organization actually make the transition.
Lead Change™ gives those stakeholders an opportunity to hear the same conversations and develop a stronger common understanding of what AI Adoption requires.
Bring your:
Change or transformation team · Human Resources colleagues · Program Management Office · change leadership team · internal community of practice
Then take the conversation back into your organization.
Bring Your Team
About Change Management Review™
Change Management Review™ (CMR) is an independent professional organization focused on shaping the work of change and transformation.
CMR advances the ideas, capabilities, and conversations professionals and organizations need to respond to a business environment being reshaped by intelligent technology — bringing together original thinking, applied capability development, professional community, and industry events.
Lead Change™ is CMR’s annual flagship event.
Join Us November 4
Lead Change™ 2026 — AI Adoption, Activated.
November 4, 2026 · Virtual Global Summit · 9:00 AM–5:00 PM Eastern Time
For groups larger than 30, contact editor@changemanagementreview.com for a bulk rate.
Register for Lead Change™ 2026