The Future of Work 2026: From Insight to Courage report, stems from a simple observation that emerged from conversations with HR leaders, CHRO panels at our conferences, and global research throughout 2025: most organizations already understand what needs to change. The challenge lies in acting on this knowledge.
Artificial intelligence is advancing, talent models are evolving, and leadership expectations are shifting. Despite this progress, meaningful change remains uneven—not because of a lack of data or frameworks, but because achieving real change now requires confronting power dynamics, redesigning work processes, and making choices with significant consequences.
The 2026 report synthesizes empirical research, candid discussions with CHROs, and academic thought leadership to outline ten key predictions that define this moment. These are not mere trends to watch; they are critical decisions that leaders will need to make.
1. Work Will Be Redesigned Around Value Creation, Not Technology Adoption
AI adoption is no longer the main challenge; the real issue lies in outdated work design. Organizations are finding that adding new tools to fragmented and overloaded systems only increases inefficiency and stress. By 2026, success will hinge on purposefully eliminating low-impact tasks and redesigning roles, workflows, and decision-making processes to focus on meaningful outcomes.
2. HR Will Become an Ecosystem Orchestrator
The traditional view of HR as merely an internal support function is evolving into a more expansive role. As value creation increasingly occurs across various ecosystems—including employees, partners, platforms, customers, and communities—HR is taking on a new responsibility: bringing these groups together into a cohesive system. This change requires not just coordination, but also strategic authority.
3. Stakeholder Capitalism Will Move From Principle to Operating Model
Serving multiple stakeholders is no longer a theoretical ideal. AI deployment, cost pressures, and workforce expectations are compelling leaders to make trade-offs in real time. By 2026, organizations will be judged less on their stated commitments and more on how transparently they manage competing stakeholder interests.
4. Managers Will Emerge as the Primary System Constraint
Across industries, the pattern is clear: transformation succeeds or fails based on managers. Managers are expected to handle complexity, boost performance, protect wellbeing, and implement strategy—often without clarity or authority. Organizations that do not redesign the manager role will find that no amount of technology can fix this bottleneck.
5. People Analytics Will Shift From Reporting to Decision Intelligence
Dashboards are abundant. Impact, however, is scarce. As pressure increases, HR analytics will need to shift from focusing on activity metrics to evaluating decision quality, influence, and managerial effectiveness. This change is more cultural than technical: it demands the willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.
6. Wellbeing Will Become an Outcome of Work Design
Wellbeing initiatives have increased, yet burnout remains. The reason is becoming clearer. Wellbeing improves when workload, prioritization, role clarity, and decision rights are better managed. In 2026, organizations will realize that wellbeing can’t be added as an afterthought—it has to be built into how work is done.
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.
8. Ethical AI Will Become a Question of Power and Accountability
As AI impacts hiring, pay, performance, and opportunity, ethical considerations can no longer be delegated solely to principles or committees. Someone must take responsibility for the outcomes. In 2026, organizations will face a tough truth: ethical AI is less about technology and more about governance and leadership.
9. Talent Access Will Replace Talent Scarcity
The long-held belief that talent shortages are permanent is starting to break down. AI, flexible work arrangements, and inclusive design are unlocking previously untapped potential across different regions, life stages, and neurodiversity. The question is no longer whether talent exists, but whether organizations are willing to redesign work to access it.
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 gain. 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.
