What happens when leaders learn to think with agents, not just prompts?

Sarah Holywell, CLO at Farmers Insurance, leads this hands-on session exploring how leadership itself must evolve as AI agents become part of everyday work. Moving beyond AI literacy and prompt-writing, Sarah introduces the concept of “agentic thinking” and helps leaders understand how to break down work, determine where human judgment remains essential, and identify where agents can safely augment execution. The session also draws on Lead from the Future by Mark Johnson and Josh Suskewicz, applying its “future-back” planning method—rooted in the jobs-to-be-done theory developed by Clayton Christensen and colleagues at Innosight—to help leaders set a long-term vision for human-agent work and reason backward to today’s decisions. Through practical exercises, you’ll map real workflows, identify human-in-the-loop moments, and build an “Agent Charter” that defines goals, tools, guardrails, and success criteria for AI-enabled work. Alongside fellow senior learning leaders, you’ll examine how organizations can prepare managers to lead in emerging human-agent systems while developing the operational thinking, governance mindset, and future-focused leadership capabilities needed to navigate an AI-driven workplace.