“Laurens makes topics like AI and skills-based working both accessible and inspiring, with great energy and applicable insights.”
— Jolanda Sappelli, CHRO a.s.r.
Laurens Waling is a speaker, moderator, and expert at the intersection of AI, HR, and the future of work. He is known as a bridge builder who connects technological innovation with human perspective and societal impact.
Laurens Waling works around one central question: how do we keep people and work meaningfully in motion in a world that is changing ever faster? As a speaker, writer, advisor and Chief Evangelist at 8vance, he connects technology, work and personal leadership in a way that helps organisations not only understand what is changing, but also act on it.
His fascination with technology and organising started early. At the age of sixteen, Laurens founded his first IT company, driven by curiosity and a desire to solve real problems. That combination of building, thinking and organising has remained a constant thread throughout his career.
Laurens studied public administration and intervention science and worked from 2004 to 2013 as a consultant / partner at Alares, an innovation and organisational development firm. During that time, he gained deep experience with change processes, organisational design and the role of technology in making organisations more adaptive. It was there that he developed a lasting conviction: change rarely fails because of a lack of vision or plans, but almost always because of behaviour, decision-making and group dynamics.
In 2013, Laurens founded Part-up, a cooperative platform and online marketplace for job carving and job crafting. Part-up enabled work to be unbundled from rigid job roles, allowing people to collaborate based on skills, time and energy. The platform grew into an international community for flexible collaboration and skills-based organising, used by organisations such as the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Ministry of Finance and the Dutch Tax Authority. In 2018, Part-up received the New Organizing Award, and in 2021 the company was acquired by Prevermo and positioned under Amplooi.
Since 2022, Laurens has been Chief Evangelist at 8vance, a Dutch-German high-tech scale-up focused on AI-driven skills-based matching, talent intelligence and talent ecosystems. 8vance developed its own AI model trained on millions of anonymised profiles and vacancies. This enables organisations to match people based on skills, ambitions and learning potential, rather than job titles or formal qualifications alone.
In his day-to-day work, Laurens supports organisations across healthcare, government, industry, education and services with challenges such as labour market shortages, internal mobility, lateral entry and development. He shows how AI can help make hidden talent visible, while consistently emphasising that technology only works when organisations are willing to rethink how they approach work, leadership and collaboration.
As a speaker and moderator, Laurens is known for his energy, clarity and ability to make complex topics accessible. He combines insights from change management, technology and hands-on experience with interaction and reflection. His sessions explicitly address personal leadership in times of change: how you involve yourself, mobilise groups and organise work in ways that make people feel seen and engaged.
Laurens regularly speaks at conferences and events on AI, HR, the future of work and organisational change. His style is substantive, grounded and people-centred. No distant future visions, but stories, interventions and questions that invite audiences to take their first steps themselves.
His belief is clear: the future of work is not shaped by technology alone, but by the choices we make today in how we collaborate, learn and lead.