A new era of work is here. AI adoption is accelerating, workforce expectations are shifting, and organizations are navigating growing complexity around culture, inclusion, and risk.
For HR and talent leaders, the challenge is integrating simultaneous shifts into a strategy that drives performance, builds capability, maintains trust, and retains top talent. Insights from Korn Ferry, McLean & Company, Catalyst, and the Meltzer Center for Diversity and Inclusion define seven trends shaping this year.
Leadership and Innovation
Leadership development remains HR’s top priority heading into 2026, while enabling innovation has rapidly risen alongside it.
These priorities are deeply linked, with innovation relying on leadership capability, a supportive culture, and effective change management. McLean & Company reports that organizations with strong leadership are over twice as likely to excel in innovation.
Yet a gap persists. Many leaders are stretched thin, with limited capacity to manage change effectively, develop talent, and engage teams. In 2025, people leaders were 1.6x more likely than individual contributors to report higher job-related stress than the previous year. Without stronger people leadership, even the most advanced technology strategies will fall short.
Change Management and Inclusion
AI, digital transformation, and today’s evolving legal landscape are accelerating the pace of change.
McLean & Company outlines that 70% of organizations are facing challenges managing change, with most attributing these difficulties to limited leadership accountability and gaps in change management, impacting productivity and increasing change fatigue.
When HR manages change effectively, McLean & Company notes that respondents are 2.3x more likely to report high performance in innovation and 38% less likely to agree that “change fatigue is negatively impacting my ability to be effective in my job.”
As the legal and political environment continues to evolve, a clear trend is emerging, supported by Catalyst and the Meltzer Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Retreating from inclusion efforts is not a neutral choice—it introduces meaningful risk across four critical areas: talent, financial performance, legal exposure, and organizational reputation.
Most organizations are not retreating from inclusion; they are monitoring shifts, embedding fairness and opportunity into core business practices, equipping leadership, and focusing on outcomes rather than optics.
AI and Leadership Pipelines
While organizations are making progress in AI adoption, Korn Ferry shows 40% of CHROs say the biggest obstacle to integrating AI into their organizations’ talent management is insufficient AI-related knowledge and skills within HR teams.
As advancements move from exploration to implementation and begin reshaping work by flattening structures, automating tasks, and reducing the number of entry-level roles, HR leaders must identify gaps and assess AI’s impact.
In 2026, talent leaders will start recruiting a new type of colleague: the autonomous AI agent. According to Korn Ferry, more than half of talent leaders are planning to add autonomous AI agents to their teams in 2026.
While these shifts drive efficiency, organizations may weaken leadership pipelines and long-term capability by cutting entry-level jobs.
Skills-Based Hiring and Continuous Learning
As work evolves, skills are becoming the foundation of workforce strategy, and continuous learning is a strategic imperative.
Skills-based hiring is gaining traction, expanding access to talent and increasing agility. Simultaneously, organizations that embed learning into the flow of work see stronger leadership effectiveness and greater adaptability.
Closing the gap between intent and execution will require making development non-negotiable, integrating it into daily work, reinforcing it through culture, and making it owned by leaders.
Returning to Office
Organizations are recalibrating where work gets done, with many increasing in-office expectations to strengthen collaboration, culture, and leadership development.
However, flexibility remains a core expectation for employees. Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2025 survey of more than 15,000 global workers found that while 59% work full-time in the office, only 19% are happy about it.
Rigid, one-size-fits-all policies risk disengagement and turnover. As a result, future-ready organizations are redefining the purpose of the office, using in-person time for collaboration, mentorship, and connection, while aligning expectations to the nature of the work.
Culture, Values, and Trust
In periods of transformation, culture becomes a critical stabilizing force.
Organizations that align values with strategy and reinforce them through leadership are more agile, innovative, and resilient. Yet many struggle, as employees perceive a gap between stated values and their experience.
This misalignment erodes trust and contributes to change fatigue.
To address it, organizations must move beyond defining values to embedding them—integrating them into performance, compensation, and leadership accountability.
HR as a Strategic Partner
Across these trends, HR’s role is expanding from program owner to strategic partner.
Realizing this potential requires stronger cross-functional collaboration:
- With IT, to lead human-centered AI and digital transformation
- With Finance, to measure impact and optimize investments
- Across the business, to align talent strategy with organizational goals
Organizations with strong collaboration are more likely to innovate and perform at a higher level.
The Path Forward
AI is transforming work, leadership is under pressure, and organizations are navigating increasing complexity.
Success will depend on integration, not isolation. Leading organizations will:
- Invest in leadership as the foundation for innovation and change
- Balance AI-driven efficiency with long-term talent development
- Build skills-based, data-driven workforce strategies
- Embed continuous learning into daily work
- Align culture, values, and strategy to build trust
- Maintain a clear commitment to fairness and opportunity
- Strengthen cross-functional collaboration
In a time of rapid change, competitive advantage will not come from technology alone. It will come from aligning technology with people, leadership, and purpose to create organizations that are not only more efficient but also more adaptable, resilient, and human.
Get Involved
Through its Inclusive Leadership & Opportunity efforts, the Partnership convenes employers around practical, business-aligned strategies that strengthen talent pipelines, leadership development, and organizational performance.
Leaders committed to building strong workplaces that expand opportunity can engage directly through our quarterly Talent Exchange, which brings together 120 Partnership members across industries.
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