Future of Work Symposium: Industry-Academy Insights on the Future of AI at Work

_
About the Symposium
The 4th Future of Work Symposium brings together industry leaders and University of Illinois researchers to explore how organizations can promote and facilitate the constructive use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Through dialogue between those developing and implementing AI tools in industry and those studying their social and behavioral implications, the symposium will examine how AI is reshaping organizations, work, and the employee experience.

The 2026 symposium builds on three previous events (October 2022, April 2023, and November 2024) that brought together researchers and practitioners to explore the future of work.

_
Featured Industry Leaders
The symposium will feature insights from leaders working across recruiting analytics, productivity research, organizational communication, and AI-enabled workplace technologies:

• Dr. Mengyang Cao, Head of Recruiting Analytics at Anthropic. Cao previously spent nearly a decade on Meta’s People Analytics team and holds a PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
  
  
• Dr. Shamsi Iqbal, Principal Applied and Data Science Manager at Microsoft. Iqbal focuses on productivity research and data- and research-backed approaches to helping organizations and people thrive in the changing workplace. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
  
  
• Dr. Katie Kang, Organizational Scientist and faculty member at George Washington University. Kang brings expertise in organizational communication, ethnographic research, and digital transformation, with experience spanning academic and industry roles.

_
What to Expect

Check-in & Light Breakfast | 8:30–9:00 a.m.
Arrive early to check in and enjoy a light breakfast before the symposium begins.

Research Agenda-Setting Workshop | 9:00–11:45 a.m.
Industry leaders will share concrete use cases from their work, followed by facilitated discussion connecting real-world practices with potential directions for research. The session will conclude with reflections from the industry leaders.

Building Effective Industry-Academy Partnerships | 12:00–2:00 p.m.
Faculty and industry leaders will discuss models for developing partnerships focused on AI and the societal transformations associated with its use.

Special Graduate Student Session | 2:15–3:15 p.m.
Doctoral students are invited to stay after the main symposium for an additional session focused on careers at the intersection of academia and industry. Students will have an opportunity to learn from and engage with the symposium speakers.

_
Continuing the Conversation
This year's symposium is jointly hosted by the Social & Behavioral Science Institute, School of Labor and Employment Relations, and the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. By bringing academic and industry perspectives together, the event aims to foster discussion about the future of AI at work and lay the groundwork for lasting industry-academy connections.