Panel

Beyond the Headlines: What AI really means for the world of work

ORGANIZED BY

Ius Laboris, ICARUS AI Inc.

14-Sep

16:30-17:30

Conference Room 3

Beyond the headlines and the hype, this session explores how AI is already transforming workplaces across Asia-Pacific. Through practical examples and audience discussion, we'll examine how employers, governments and educators can work together to ensure AI benefits both people and business.

Overview

This session will explore what AI already means for workplaces across the Asia-Pacific region, how developments in the region connect with global trends and how organisations can prepare for what comes next. The panel will look at how AI is being used in recruitment, performance management, workforce monitoring and other decisions affecting workers. It will also examine the changing regulatory landscape across the region, where different laws, guidance and enforcement approaches create real compliance challenges for employers operating across several countries. It will also explore how organisations can build the human rights capability needed to identify these risks, put the right safeguards in place and use AI responsibly in practice.

Bringing together perspectives from employment law, responsible AI, education and workforce development, the session will focus on practical examples and actions that employers, educators and policymakers can take to manage regulatory risks and build resilient and responsible workplaces.

Why it matters

AI is already shaping hiring, performance and workforce decisions, often faster than laws, guidance and internal safeguards can keep up. This creates legal, regulatory, governance and human rights risks. The session will help participants understand these risks, strengthen human rights capability and prepare workers and organisations for changing skills, roles and career paths.

Key questions

How is AI already changing the way organisations make decisions about their people, from hiring and performance management to workforce monitoring, and where are you seeing the biggest legal and governance risks?
How can organisations build the human rights capability needed to identify risks, apply proper safeguards and use AI responsibly in everyday workplace decisions?
How is AI changing the skills people need and what should employers and educators do to prepare workers for this transition?
What should a coherent global compliance framework for workplace AI include, given the different and rapidly evolving AI, employment and data protection regimes across jurisdictions?

Who should attend?

A wide audience, including employers, HR and legal professionals, policymakers, educators, business and human rights practitioners and anyone interested in how AI is changing the workplace.

What participants will gain

A clearer understanding of how AI is already changing workplace decisions and where the main legal, governance and human rights risks arise.
Practical ways to build human rights capability through better policies, training, oversight and worker safeguards.
Examples of how organisations can use AI responsibly while protecting trust, opportunity and long-term workforce development

Catherine Leung

Partner, Head of Employment, Ius Laboris Hong Kong

Catherine is the Head of Employment in the Lewis Silkin Hong Kong office and is recognised as a leading international employment lawyer by legal directories. Her expertise spans a full spectrum of employment law matters, including redundancies, bonus entitlement disputes, team moves, data privacy, and complex discrimination and sexual harassment cases. She is also adept at managing investigations from the Labour Department and the Equal Opportunities Commission, and provides comprehensive advice on global mobility and immigration issues. Catherine has extensive experience working with multinationals and high-net-worth individuals across diverse sectors such as financial services, professional services, luxury retail, and technology. With a strong international focus, she collaborates with lawyers across the Asia Pacific region, assisting clients in navigating complex cross-border employment law challenges.

Christiane Haberl

Director, ICARUS AI

Dr. Christiane Haberl is Chief Learning Officer at ICARUS AI Inc., leading the organization’s work on learning design, capability-building and workforce readiness. Her contribution to the session focuses on how responsible AI capability can be built, measured and embedded inside organizations. She will explore how employers can move beyond one-off awareness training toward continuous, role-based learning that helps workers and managers recognize risks, exercise judgment, participate meaningfully and act when AI creates human rights concerns in the workplace.

Desmond Wee

Partner, lus Laboris

Desmond Wee Co-heads Rajah & Tann Singapore’s Employment Practice one of the largest specialist employment law practices in Singapore and leads the Non-Contentious team. Desmond is also the head of the Firm’s Corporate Commercial Practice With over two decades of legal experience, he advises clients on a wide range of employment and corporate matters, including employment policies and contracts, executive compensation, restructuring and retrenchment exercises, labour issues arising from mergers and acquisitions, and regulatory compliance. Desmond is consistently recognised by leading legal directories, including Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, asialaw, and Doyle’s Guide. Clients commend him for his practical, responsive, and commercially focused advice, describing him as a trusted adviser who delivers clear and effective solutions to complex issues.

Ken Chamuva Shawa

Head of the Economic and Regional Analysis Unit, International Labour Organization

Ken Chamuva Shawa is the Head of the Regional Economic and Social Analysis Unit (RESA) at the ILO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand. His research interests include the economics of labour markets, health and labour, the growth-finance-environment nexus, trade, and agricultural policy. He holds a PhD in Health Economics and Policy from the University of Lancaster, UK; and a PhD in Economics (econometrics and financial economics) from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He also holds an MSc in International Environmental Management from the University of Northampton, UK, and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Malawi. He obtained his first degree in Economics from the University of Malawi.

Nektarios Baziotis

Founder, ICARUS AI

Dr. h.c. Nektar Baziotis is President–CEO of ICARUS AI Inc., where he leads work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, education, human capability and responsible digital transformation. His contribution to the session focuses on moving beyond digital training toward real human rights capability in the workplace. He will address how organizations can prepare workers, managers and institutions to understand, question and responsibly govern AI systems, ensuring that human oversight is meaningful, rights-based and connected to practical decision-making