Every year, reports on the future of work promise new insights. In 2026, insight will not be the differentiator.
The forthcoming The Future of Work 2026 Report — From Insight to Courage report was written from a simple observation from our 2025 global HR Leadership Summits (HR World Summit 2025 and Horizon Summit 2025), CHRO Dialogues, and global research throughout 2025: most organizations already know what needs to change. What they struggle with is acting on that knowledge.
Artificial intelligence is advancing. Talent models are evolving. Leadership expectations are shifting. Yet progress remains uneven—not because leaders lack data or frameworks, but because meaningful change now requires confronting power, redesigning work, and making choices that carry real consequences.
The 2026 report synthesizes empirical research, candid CHRO dialogue, and academic thought leadership to surface ten predictions that define this moment. These are not trends to monitor, but decisions leaders will have to make.
Each Prediction highlights why the issue has become urgent, what has materially shifted since 2025, and the bold decisions required in the next 12–24 months. Collectively, they portray HR in 2026 as a force driving stakeholder capitalism, enterprise value, and ecosystem collaboration. The message is clear: the future of work will belong to those with the courage to create it.
The Future of Work 2026 Report: 10 Predictions
Prediction 1. Work Will Be Redesigned Around Value Creation, Not Technology Adoption
AI adoption is no longer the challenge; unchanged work design is. Organizations are discovering that layering new tools onto fragmented, overloaded systems only amplifies inefficiency and anxiety. In 2026, value will come from deliberately stopping low-impact work and redesigning roles, workflows, and decision rights around outcomes that matter.
Prediction 2. HR Will Become an Ecosystem Orchestrator
The traditional view of HR as an internal support function is giving way to a broader mandate. As value creation increasingly happens across ecosystems—employees, partners, platforms, customers, and communities—HR is being pulled into a new role: aligning these actors into a coherent system. This shift demands strategic authority, not just coordination.
Prediction 3. Stakeholder Capitalism Will Move From Principle to Operating Model
Serving multiple stakeholders is no longer an abstract ideal. AI deployment, cost pressures, and workforce expectations are forcing leaders to make trade-offs in real time. In 2026, organizations will be judged less by their stated commitments and more by how transparently they manage competing stakeholder interests.
Prediction 4. Managers Will Emerge as the Primary System Constraint
Across industries, the same pattern is visible: transformation succeeds or fails at the manager level. Managers are expected to absorb complexity, enable performance, safeguard wellbeing, and translate strategy—often without clarity or authority. Organizations that fail to redesign the manager role will find that no amount of technology compensates for this bottleneck.
Prediction 5. People Analytics Will Shift From Reporting to Decision Intelligence
Dashboards are plentiful. Impact is not. As pressure mounts, HR analytics will be forced to evolve beyond activity metrics toward measuring decision quality, influence, and managerial effectiveness. This transition is less technical than cultural: it requires the willingness to surface uncomfortable truths.
Prediction 6. Wellbeing Will Become an Outcome of Work Design
Wellbeing initiatives have multiplied, yet burnout persists. The reason is increasingly clear. Wellbeing improves when workload, prioritization, role clarity, and decision rights improve. In 2026, organizations will recognize that wellbeing cannot be bolted on—it must be engineered into how work gets done.
Prediction 7. Leadership Identity Will Prove a Bigger Constraint Than Capability
Leadership development has focused heavily on skills. But many transformations stall not because leaders cannot do what is required, but because it challenges who they believe they are. Letting go of control, sharing authority, and holding competing tensions—performance and care, speed and trust—are identity shifts, not training gaps.
Prediction 8. Ethical AI Will Become a Question of Power and Accountability
As AI influences hiring, pay, performance, and opportunity, ethical considerations can no longer be delegated to principles or committees. Someone must own the consequences. In 2026, organizations will confront a hard truth: ethical AI is not a technical issue, but a governance and leadership one.
Prediction 9. Talent Access Will Replace Talent Scarcity
The long-standing narrative of talent shortages is beginning to fracture. AI, flexible work models, and inclusive design are unlocking previously underutilized capability—across geographies, life stages, and neurodiversity. The question is no longer whether talent exists, but whether organizations are willing to redesign work to access it.
Prediction 10. The Real Divide in 2026 Will Be Between Shapers and Managers of the Future
The future of work is already visible. Some organizations are shaping it—redesigning systems, challenging assumptions, and accepting short-term discomfort for long-term value. Others are managing around it, adopting the language of transformation while preserving existing structures. The difference will not be subtle.
From Insight to Action
Taken together, these ten predictions point to a single conclusion: the next phase of the future of work is not about knowing more. It is about choosing differently.
For HR leaders, this represents a shift from stewardship to moral and strategic courage—asking harder questions, stopping low-value activity, and confronting behaviors that undermine long-term value. It is a transition that will increasingly be tested in boardrooms, leadership forums, and global conversations about the role of work in society.
Many of these themes will continue to surface in senior leadership discussions throughout 2026, including at global gatherings where HR leaders come together to move beyond theory and confront execution.
The Future of Work 2026 — From Insight to Courage report will explore each of these predictions in depth, drawing on research, CHRO perspectives, and academic insight to clarify what action now requires.
The full report will be released soon.
If you would like early access and updates, you can join the waitlist below.
