Speaker on AI, skills & the future of work
Connecting Tech & Talent — Unleashing Potential — Chief Evangelist 8vance
Laurens brings energy and clarity to the room. During our HR & AI session, he kept everyone engaged with concrete, relatable examples, and we left with fresh ideas and renewed energy to move forward.
Joost Sluijs
HR Director, Radboudumc
Laurens naturally connects technology and people, creating space for open dialogue and new perspectives. His contribution inspires teams to experiment together and take the next steps with confidence.
Marcel Berghuis
CHRO Centre Parcs
In a fantastic presentation on AI developments in recruitment, Laurens held up a much-needed mirror. He showed clearly what this means for recruitment today and inspired reflection and action.
Sjoerd Burger
T.A. manager, Rijkswaterstaat
Recent publications
- 2026 is here. HR is no longer a function. It is stewardship and orchestration.
I am not an HR manager. But I work daily with HR leaders, boards and innovators across sectors. And as 2026 unfolds, one thing becomes impossible to ignore: the numbers are forcing a shift in what HR… Read more: 2026 is here. HR is no longer a function. It is stewardship and orchestration. - From 2025 to 2026: why the future of work is already here
As 2025 comes to a close, I mainly want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone I worked with this year. Clients, partners, colleagues, challengers, builders, sceptics and optimists. The conversations, experiments, pilots and sometimes uncomfortable… Read more: From 2025 to 2026: why the future of work is already here
About Laurens Waling
Laurens Waling MSc. is widely recognized as an expert and visionary in redefining work. His mission is to help talent thrive by harnessing technology to enable people to make meaningful contributions to the major challenges of our time.
As Chief Evangelist at 8vance, a leading Dutch-German high-tech scale-up, Laurens brings this mission into practice every day. The 8vance platform uses proprietary AI to connect people and work based on skills, personality, and ambition, rather than job titles alone.
With deep expertise in applying AI within the HR domain, Laurens advises organizations across sectors, from large enterprises and governments to healthcare and educational institutions. He supports them in tackling challenges related to recruitment, internal mobility, talent development, and organizational change. Prior to joining 8vance, Laurens founded the job-carving platform Part-up, which he successfully exited in 2021.
As a sought-after keynote speaker and moderator, Laurens guides audiences through the future of work. He clearly shows how AI is fundamentally reshaping recruitment and talent mobility, and what this means for leadership and HR. His style is energetic, sharp, and always human-centered, addressing both the opportunities and the dilemmas that come with technology.
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