Unlocking Trust, Speed, and Skills in the Increasingly Contingent Economy

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Julie Stone, Chief Learning Officer at TTEC; Tigran Sloyan, CEO & Co-founder at CodeSignal; Ken Schumacher, Founder and CEO at Ropes; Nikki Eatchel, Chief Assessment Officer at Prometric; and Jennifer Lee, Partner at GSV Ventures.The speakers explored how contingent workers now make up nearly 40% of the workforce, creating new challenges for organizations seeking to maintain performance, trust, and culture as talent continuously rotates in and out. They examined how AI is reshaping the contingent workforce through Tinder-like talent marketplaces, rapid skills matching, verification systems, fraud detection, and real-time performance signals.The session discussed what it takes for contingent workers to be effective from day one, how skills-based hiring and assessment must evolve in a world defined by constant churn, and what this shift means for organizational culture, accountability, and long-term capability building. Through this conversation, the panel highlighted how employers can move beyond disposable labor models to build trust, quality, and alignment in an increasingly contingent workforce.