INSEAD AI Forum Americas debates AI's impact across industry, careers and society

FONTAINEBLEAU, France and SINGAPORE and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Every industry is now being asked the same question: not whether to adopt AI, but how to do so in a way that strengthens rather than hollows out the organisations and people building them. That question sat at the centre of INSEAD's AI Forum Americas 2026, which brought together business leaders, scientists, founders and policymakers in San Francisco this week for two days of debate on how artificial intelligence is reshaping industry, work and society. 

Across keynotes, panels and workshops spanning healthcare, robotics, organisational design and the future of careers, a consistent thread emerged: AI's promise is inseparable from the discipline of implementation. Capturing its value responsibly means building the right frameworks, exercising sharper judgment about what to automate and what to protect, and investing in the human partnerships that make transformation durable rather than disruptive. 

Day One: Launching the INSEAD Future Council 

Day one started with the official launch of the INSEAD Future Council. This new initiative looks to bring together a network of communities, including enterprises, start-ups, investors, global innovation corridors, think tanks and academics, to work alongside INSEAD.  

The Council aims to deliver practical value across five pillars, starting by giving industry access to INSEAD's MBA and EMBA talent through student projects and hiring opportunities. It will also foster knowledge by bringing real-world challenges and data into academic research, and improve learning by designing education programmes around current priorities. The Council will also create a connected network between industry and INSEAD's global alumni community, and generate impact through shared research and events. 

"The Council is a two-way partnership: INSEAD brings a global platform, faculty, talent and an alumni network, and Council members bring the strategic challenges we all face as we roll out AI at the fastest possible pace," said Victoria Woo, Senior Director of the INSEAD San Francisco Hub of Business Innovation. 

Dean of Research & Innovation Lily Fang used the Forum as an opportunity to give more details on the launch of the INSEAD Human and Machine Intelligence Institute (HUMII), made possible by a five-year, 15-million-euro gift from an alum. HUMII's mission is to research and teach how AI can amplify human intelligence and expand human agency rather than focus on the technology itself. HUMII's five founding principles, Fang explained, are modelled on INSEAD's own entrepreneurial roots – open and interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial and courageous, faculty-led and independent, focused on quality over hype, and deeply connected to the outside world – positioning the institute to earn further funding by proving its impact, much like a startup hitting milestones. 

"We have a very strong voice, perhaps increasingly needed by this world, to think about how this technology will impact human society and business," Lily Fang, Dean of Research & Innovation and Academic Director of HUMII. 

Learning, innovation, organisational challenges and the real-world impact of AI were recurring themes throughout the forum. This included the day's opening panel, which explored the growing impact of AI in healthcare with Marc Tessier-Lavigne, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Xaira Therapeutics. He explained how AI is reshaping how new medicines get discovered, from target identification to clinical trial design, and compressing timelines that used to take a decade into a fraction of the time. 

Josh Cohen of Apple University then took the stage to explain why companies need to consider a "4A" framework to better integrate AI into work. 

"The design idea is to avoid falling into either the language or the practice of knee-jerk automation, which does potentially great human damage. We avoid it by designing with a framework of alternatives in mind: automation when we can, augmentation when we can, addition when it's needed, and avoidance when excessive reliance undermines learning or erodes relationships." 

Day one also featured panels, organised by the INSEAD Future Council, focusing on the potential geopolitical tensions arising from AI development, and a session emphasising the value of diversity and emotional intelligence when it came to sparking innovation and entrepreneurship. Other sessions touched on the role of robots in the operating theatre, how much we should hand over to AI in the workplace, and why boards need to better understand AI to lead their organisations through this transformative moment. 

Day Two: From the Research Lab to the Factory Floor 

Day two opened with Yossi Matias, Vice President at Google and head of Google Research, who showed just how far AI has already reached into the real world, from satellites that spot wildfires before they spread, to LearnLM and NotebookLM tools built to support teachers rather than replace them, to MedGemma, an open-source medical model already downloaded millions of times. Matias's own team is even putting AI to work as a co-scientist, generating hypotheses and combing research literature across disciplines. 

The sessions that followed dug into what it actually takes to make AI work inside an organisation, from building AI-ready teams and rethinking incentive structures, to the operational realities of agentic AI, physical AI and robotics on the factory floor and city streets, to hard data on how automation is reshaping careers and long-term earning potential. 

The day closed with a keynote talk from Vivienne Ming, Chief Scientist at Possibility Sciences and author of the new book Robot Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People. She argued that AI's real power lies not in giving us answers but in pushing us to think harder.  

"Challenging people makes them better. Invest in better people by investing in technology that challenges us to be better," said Ming. 

The AI Forum Americas marked the second stop in INSEAD's 2026 AI Forum series. The global series began with the Europe Forum, held in Paris and Fontainebleau in June, and will continue in Singapore on 30-31 October. The AI Forums are part of IN:AI - The INSEAD Initiative on Responsible AI Leadership, which brings together education, research and engagement to advance responsible AI leadership.

Learn more about the INSEAD AI Forums.

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As one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD brings together people, cultures and ideas to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society. Our research, teaching and partnerships reflect this global perspective and cultural diversity. Our global perspective and unparalleled cultural diversity are reflected in our research, teaching, partnerships; as well as in our alumni network of over 73,000 members representing 176 nationalities across 183 countries.

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