With over 6,000 HR and tech leaders gathered in Paris, UNLEASH 2025 was more than an event; it was a snapshot of where the future of work in Europe is heading.

We were there with an energized TechWolf team, hosting a presentation by our Chief Product Officer, Yasamin Karimi, a roundtable session on “Skills Are Not a Strategy”, a HR Leaders skills tour at our booth with SAP SuccessFactors, and a boat event cruising the Seine that brought together over 50 HR innovators from companies like Metlife, Siemens, UCB, Sanofi, Just Eat Takeaway.com, IKEA, etc.

In total we spoke close to 300 HR leaders across the 3 conference days. Here’s what stood out.

1. Skills are not the strategy

Our session title said it all. HR teams are done evangelizing “skills” as a concept; they’re now being asked to prove business impact.

At our roundtable, we hosted leaders across industries with a variety of use cases, from advanced implementation to talent acquisition breakthroughs. All shared one truth: skills only matter when tied to measurable outcomes.

• A global biopharma company turned EU pay transparency compliance into a strategic data initiative that finally brought HR and business together.
  
  
• A German global manufacturing giant used skills data to fill critical vacancies faster.
  
  
• A large professional services organization connected learning and staffing data to business metrics, a process that took 18 months but is now paying off.

When HR reframes the narrative from “building a skills taxonomy” to “driving workforce value,” they earn a seat at the executive table.

As one participant put it, “We stopped chasing people for data the moment we showed them what we could enable for them.”

2. Work intelligence is becoming the differentiator

Booth conversations showed that the market is waking up to the idea that skills alone don’t tell the whole story.

HR leaders want a living view not only of the worker, but of the work being done, including tasks, projects, and evolving responsibilities, to see how AI is reshaping their organizations.

Without it, the pitch and promise of a skills-based organization bumps into resistance or even rejection outside of HR. Sometimes even outside of one center of excellence.

As a result, TechWolf’s work intelligence approach resonated deeply, in demos with both customers and non-customers.

That alignment between skills + work data is now what separates isolated HR experimentation from enterprise-wide execution.

3. The maturity gap across EMEA is real

Across conversations, one pattern emerged: the gap between early adopters and late starters in EMEA is widening. Some organizations are still “figuring out where to start,” while others are already operationalizing skills across learning, career mobility, and staffing.

This diversity is both a challenge and an opportunity; it’s proof that the market is still early, but momentum is building fast. 

Yes, the early adopters are still few, but they’re starting to create a compelling blueprint. Combined with a sense of urgency in the market, fueled by AI transforming how work is done, the early majority is coming - and fast.

At TechWolf, we believe data is the starting point for all. Whether you have the most shiny employee experience layer, the coolest reporting dashboards, or neither, and you’re just focusing on getting a clear job architecture: 

• Employees won’t return to a platform that doesn’t know who they are
• Reporting is useless if granularity doesn’t go beyond, e.g., “programming” or “research”
• Up-to-date job descriptions are table stakes for any useful job-related data exercise

TechWolf fixes all of the above, no matter where you are on your journey.

4. A growing community of skills practitioners

From the crowded booth to our boat event, what stood out most was the sense of community.

Close to 300 meaningful conversations, 50+ attendees on our cocktail cruise on the Seine, and a consistent thread of curiosity about how TechWolf helps enterprises make skills work.

People came not just to learn what we do, but to talk about how to do it together, and this is the key.

At TechWolf, we do not have all the answers to help you become skills-based:

• We can’t give you a fancy login screen for employees. 
• We can’t even give you fancy dashboards to report on your data.
• We focus on giving you access to the best data on skills, tasks, and jobs. Continuously.

But maybe more importantly, we get you access to early skills adopters. Working with TechWolf means joining a community of enterprise organizations that have been trying to do the same as you.

We all know data is useless if not applied to what matters, but you might find you’re reinventing the wheel in doing so.

5. The next evolution: from skills to workforce value

This brings us to our last takeaway from UNLEASH. As we find across our customer base, we noticed the most forward-thinking HR leaders we met are no longer measuring success by how many skills they’ve mapped but by how much business value those skills create.

That’s the shift from HR transformation to workforce transformation.

In other words, skills are the data, not the destination.

As Thomas Otter wrote in his own UNLEASH reflections, “Change management is the most important skill for AI adoption success.”

That’s exactly what we saw in Paris. HR leaders focused not just on buying smarter systems & data, but on enabling their organizations to use them meaningfully.

Closing thoughts

UNLEASH Paris made one thing clear: Europe’s HR leaders are ready to turn the promise of skills into measurable business value.

From our roundtable discussions to booth demos, the conversation has evolved from why skills to what difference they make.

At TechWolf, that’s exactly the mission we’re on: helping organizations see not just the skills their people have, but the work they perform and the value they create.

Paris, you’ve been inspiring. Congratulations to the UNLEASH team for yet again raising the bar in event organization!

Next stop: Workday Rising Barcelona!