11 HR Trends for 2026: Shaping What’s Next

Today we'll be talking about HR trends for 2026.

Already time time flies. Um today we'll be speaking about what is impacting our world. We'll take a little bit of an

world. We'll take a little bit of an outside in look and look at what is happening in the world outside of HR.

How is that impacting our people policies, our strategy, the way we manage people? We um ensure that we have

manage people? We um ensure that we have a consistent flow within our businesses.

What does that mean for HR? And we've

bucket that into five priorities uh with 11 trends and then at the end we'll take some uh key takeaways. That is the flow.

Um as you know by now we try to make these events as interactive as possible.

So if you have any questions feel free to drop them in. I'll be disappointed if we don't get any questions and knowing our audience we will get a lot of questions. just drop them in whenever

questions. just drop them in whenever there's a trend that's relevant to your question or something pops up. Just drop

them in. We might pick quite a few as we go and we might reserve a couple of them later kind of depending on the on the topic. So don't hesitate just jump in

topic. So don't hesitate just jump in and ask your questions with that. I'm

Eric from Vulpin. I'm one of the two founders of the academy to innovate HR.

Been doing this for nine years and still very much loving this and I've been doing it for the past five years, six years.

>> Four and a bit.

>> Four and a bit. Almost five. almost five

with the fantastic Der Velzman who is sitting right next to me. I can stick out my hands. Dieter, can you maybe give a brief introduction? People know you already.

>> Fantastic. Thanks so much, Eric. And and

good day, everyone, regardless of where you are joining us from. We we're so um pleased to have you with us. My name is Dr. Dita Felzman. So, I'm the chief HR scientist at AHR. I lead the advisory

and insights lab. And a lot of what we will be talking about today is really some of the insights that we've gathered over the last year or so. Um and that helps us to look a little bit forward into the horizon around what do we think

is happening in the world of HR and more importantly how do we prepare ourselves for for what is to come. It is a very exciting time in HR but we do know that there's a lot of things on the horizon that we do need to be prepared for and

there's quite some uncertainty and fluctuation. So quite looking forward to

fluctuation. So quite looking forward to us to guiding that conversation.

So maybe I can kickstart users there Eric before going back and deep diving into the the critical priorities. And

this is a question we get quite frequently. I think there's sometimes a

frequently. I think there's sometimes a misconception when we think about these trend presentations. You know, it's not

trend presentations. You know, it's not me and you that go and sit in a dark room somewhere and then, you know, after a couple of hours come out with what the trends actually are for for the year to come. But we do do a lot of continuous

come. But we do do a lot of continuous research to try and understand what are the key challenges that we as HR professionals are dealing with in organizations. So, we spend quite a lot

organizations. So, we spend quite a lot of time. I think we're in the privileged

of time. I think we're in the privileged position to have more than a thousand clients, more than 200 countries. So, we

ask the question there around what is on your radar? or what is keeping you awake

your radar? or what is keeping you awake at night as well as then continuous data collection mechanisms that we utilize throughout the course of the year to better understand the topics that matter to us like HR skills what's happening in

the macro environment and then we also keep an eye on what are other people talking about and what is starting to happen so we make sure that the trends that we present and the priorities that we identify is really as practical and

as action focused and as oriented as possible so we'll be sharing a little bit as Eric has already mentioned there is also the report available that you can find in the community afterwards as well as an excellent article that some

of our colleagues also wrote about the 11 trends. But for today we are going to

11 trends. But for today we are going to work through what are the critical priorities and what are the trends that is on the horizon there as well. So Eric

what is the first priority that we need to think about and maybe let's give us first a bit of an overview on the story of what story are we seeing on the horizon in terms of the priorities for next year.

>> Today we'll be covering five priorities.

The first priority being HR co-leading the transform the organizational AI transformation.

The second priority that we'll be speaking about is reinvesting AI capacity gains into growth or into other things. We'll be discussing that trend.

things. We'll be discussing that trend.

Um the third priority is from headcount to skill count where we reexamine roles, responsibilities and processes. The

fourth priority is redesign HR for crossf functional work. And the fifth priority is building AI fluency as a core HR capabilities capability. Over

the next hour or so, we will be addressing each of these priorities, talk about them for about 5 to 10 minutes each. And of course, as I said,

minutes each. And of course, as I said, if you have any questions, feel free to just drop them in, whether it's related to the trend or unrelated, just drop them in and we'll be here to uh to

answer them. So let's zoom in on that

answer them. So let's zoom in on that first priority which is co-leading the organizational AI transformation and dieter I want to start with a story >> because in the past two weeks I think

I've done 10 different events related to AI and uh two days ago I was at actually at an in-person event and I was talking to this fantastic lady that I I had

known for a long time actually and she was telling me that she was working for this large multinational organization around 20,000 employees and She was in the global team and she said, "Well, I'm

in this tricky situation where I'm sitting in a meeting with IT, with legal, a couple of representatives of HR including myself and we're talking about

how robots and AI agents and people should collaborate and what that means for the skills that we need as an organization over the next 10 years. So, which skills do we need to

10 years. So, which skills do we need to build?" and she says, "Eric,

build?" and she says, "Eric, no one knows what they're talking about, including myself."

including myself." And for me, that is really telling about this first priority. We are looking or HR is being looked at to co-lead the

organizational AI transformation because we know that a big part of AI success sits in skill development, sits in understanding people, processes, and

recrafting jobs. And that is a big

recrafting jobs. And that is a big priority that we see happening today already and that we in 2026 will see much more about. What what comes to mind

when you hear a story like that deter?

>> I think it definitely resonates Eric and I I think also just maybe anecdotally from my side whenever I speak to clients they ask this question around but what is our role as HR in the AI transformation? I think we've shifted

transformation? I think we've shifted and last year when we had this conversation around trends you know I think we were talking a lot more around the impact that AI will have. Um I think a lot of people were still figuring out very much but what is the value what

does experimentation look like whereas I think if we look at some of the numbers as well 86% of organizations kind of say that they're utilizing AI in one or more functions already and I think what resonates with the story is that very

much I think we are struggling that piece around how do we convert what our role is into action and what should we be doing as HR in the room with all these other different stakeholders because we do know that success is going

to be dependent on crossunctional collab collaboration because AI doesn't work vertically, it works horizontally. And I

think that's one of the key things that really resonates with me, you know, about what you've mentioned.

>> Yeah, I I love that. And I think it's also we're all trying to make sense of it. And I think we need to also

it. And I think we need to also acknowledge it. You know, it's it's one

acknowledge it. You know, it's it's one thing to make fun of this specific HR professional who who I like very very much. I have known her for a long time,

much. I have known her for a long time, but I think also the other people in the room to her point also didn't really know what they were talking about. And I

think that is the issue with AI that we're all trying to make sense of it. So

the challenge here is that AI is transforming every aspect of work.

But still a lot of organizations are treating it as a project. It's something

that we implement and then it's done and you know we have a success criterium and we see whether it meets those criteria and often it doesn't. And I think that is one of the issues that we see in

organizations that if as an organization you determine okay does you know does AI really make a big difference? It goes

beyond just me as an individual user using AI. AI needs to be embedded in

using AI. AI needs to be embedded in workflows and needs to be integrated into a much larger offering. So that

brings us to uh the next three specific trends. The first one being AI

trends. The first one being AI leadership coalitions start to emerge where HR is sitting at the table and that requires HR to have a perspective

on how AI is impacting the organization as well as the core roles in the organization.

The second trend is human- centered governance. The guides AI deployment. If

governance. The guides AI deployment. If

we think about how do we use AI, what is the role of the human in there? How do

we collaborate in a good way? How do we make sure that um we have the right policies in place? As an example, I I was speaking with an organization that recently participated in our AI boot

camp where we take a larger group of of employees of one company through the program. And I said, "Which which

program. And I said, "Which which software are you using?" And then she was laughing. She said, "Well, last year

was laughing. She said, "Well, last year we had forbidden all AI software, but this year we can use all of them."

Because the organization had realized that they really needed to jump on the AI bandwagon. So they said, you know, I

AI bandwagon. So they said, you know, I know we said you can't use any tools, but from now on you can use all the tools. And to me that is a signal of an

tools. And to me that is a signal of an organization that kind of goes wrong both ways. Like in the past you know

both ways. Like in the past you know they just said pertinently categorical no which is not the way to go and now they say oh yeah we really need to adopt it so just use whatever tool is best

fit. That is also not the way to go. Um

fit. That is also not the way to go. Um

so so how do we guide that from an HR perspective? And the third trend is

perspective? And the third trend is businesses invest in AI centers of excellence. um because we see that there

excellence. um because we see that there are more and more task force forces emerge that are focusing on the impact of AI. I definitely think so and all the

of AI. I definitely think so and all the data tells us that these task teams need to start evolving a lot more into governance structures in your organization right and I think that's where also this idea around the center

of excellence concept really comes from and I think Eric to kind of tie into the trend that you've mentioned some of the signals that we are definitely starting to see that I think highlights through the numbers also the story that you've just told around the fact that 98% of

organizations report an increased urgency to deliver on AI think last year the conversation was a lot around we need to do something with AI whereas now all of a sudden people want to know what what's the value going to be want to know what the impact is going to look

like >> but still and I I think that's really what I really want people to land this year around the fact that it is a human conversation like you've mentioned it's very much yes it's about tools and it's

about experimentation and it's about risk and making sure we manage the bias but ultimately it is a lot more about how are we going to build that AI enabled culture and what the data tells

us is 91% of organizations actually say they are not fully prepared to drive an AI AI enabled culture. I was with a client last week and I asked them to say, you know, they said they want to be an AI first organization. I said, what

what does that mean for your people?

>> Because we need to define this a lot more. And I think that's kind of where

more. And I think that's kind of where we see the signals at the moment. And I

think it matters because if as HR we don't step up into these conversations, claim our space. I do really think that we're going to lose strategic relevance and open ourselves up to some ethical and social risk in the organization. And

to me it's also very interesting that a lot of the organizations that I'm speaking with that are doing our program they say okay the business told us that in you know for the second half of this

year AI is really a focus and that's why we're now also upskilling in AI skills and I think it should be it shouldn't necessarily be this way. I think it

should be the other way around. I think

a HR here has a key role of leading this initiative and I love what someone is saying. I think Muhammad is saying in

saying. I think Muhammad is saying in the in the in the chat perfectly put as a priority. I work for a German

a priority. I work for a German organization. We operate globally. We we

organization. We operate globally. We we

created a team of 12 people to implement AI in the organization and HR is a key member.

>> Love that >> and I think those task force task forces can really make a difference and can really transform the impact that AI makes on the on the organization.

>> So I think the big question then Eric is what do we do about this right? So what

is the action that we need to take as HR professionals? And there's a couple of

professionals? And there's a couple of things we see on the horizon. Would love

your thoughts on them as well. I think

we've kind of spoken about the first one around being involved in these task forces, centers of excellence. And as

I've said before, step up there. I worry

when I when I hear people say it's an IT conversation and HR just contributes. I

think we've got a much stronger role to play there. The second one for me and I

play there. The second one for me and I mean you you're going to tease me about this because I think everything is always an or design challenge but I think it is around how do we utilize our knowledge around human impact in the AI

transformation. How do we think about

transformation. How do we think about jobs differently tasks the skills to really understand what the potential impact is going to be and let's set and socialize those guard rails. I think

it's so important that we actually utilize the process and there's something I'm hearing a lot more at the moment around we need to own the narrative around AI in the organization as the HR team and to make sure that we

actually lead the change and build trust something we'll talk about slightly later one of the other trends but we know that there is still some fear out there around what is actually going to be the human impact of of of um of AI

and we've got a critical key role uh to play there >> and to lead change as well and I there's there's this this beautiful graph that I uh I've recently wrote about on LinkedIn

that the organizations that report the highest change readiness are also if you compare them those that are poor versus those who rate themselves as excellent

on change readiness they see a 700% increase in the impact that change is making and for me that's a big question of okay how ready are we to start

changing because we are in an AI transformation 2026 is the year where it will I This year we're already seeing some impact, but I I really believe that next year we'll see much more impact.

Are we ready for the change? And I think HR plays a key role in getting ready for that change.

>> And I think that leads us to our first poll. We would love to hear from you

poll. We would love to hear from you around how ready do you think your HR function is to actively co-lead AI transformation in your organization? Are

you at the moment not at all involved?

So, it's something that you see happening outside of HR. are you

somewhat involved, heavily involved, or are you actually leading the charge pertaining to what's currently happening? So, we'd love to hear your

happening? So, we'd love to hear your thoughts there on uh on the polls if we could launch that.

What do you think is the verdict going to be?

>> If I say it now, then then I'll probably spoil it. I don't want to influence

spoil it. I don't want to influence anyone. Um

anyone. Um >> I think for me the reality is is organizations are slightly at at um at different stages, right? And I think it is an important thing for us to also say and I we asked this question not from a

place of judgment at all but also from a place I think of understanding that people are at different places but it is important to kind of start gaining that momentum if you're not yet in that heavily involved or leading the charge type of area

>> and I think it also speaks a little bit about what are the core capabilities that we have within our HR departments because I have seen HR departments that are really leading the charge on on

people analytics on data and on IT as well and I do see that those organizations are much better equipped for HR to lead the charge versus organizations that have underinvested in

people analytics capabilities and HR IT capabilities. So I'm very curious what

capabilities. So I'm very curious what comes out of the the poll. Let's see

what the results tell us. So quite a spread, right? So I think quite a lot of

spread, right? So I think quite a lot of people still saying not not involved or somewhat involved there. Um and then I think a slightly lower percentage starting to shift a bit more towards the heavily involved and leading the charge.

I think that just for us is a is a trigger on the horizon, a flag to say, you know, this is something we do need to get stuck into into 2026. So, make

sure that those actions that we've listed is something that pops up on you and and we prioritize this around what our role is going to be uh with regards to to AI in the future. Um, Eric, that

brings us to the second trend that's also an AI related one. Uh, that talks a lot more about reinvesting AI capacity.

And I think to to meet your earlier story, I'm going to start on my side and you always tease me about this because I say I have a lovehate relationship with news outlets, right? I think we report things in the news that has actually is

a lot more nuanced. And the second one that talks about the fact that we hear things like organizations such as Salesforce, IBM, CLA, we hear these headlines that says, you know, I think on Salesforce side 50% of their work is

now being done by AI. We see massive layoffs starting to happen. IBM did the same with one of their big projects there as well. But what we actually find here is that the AI capacity that we gain, we know one of the big promises of

AI is around productivity and time saving. The story is a lot more nuanced.

saving. The story is a lot more nuanced.

And what we talk about here in this trend specifically around this priority is what are you going to do with the capacity that you gain in your organization and are we going to have the right conversations because there's

different strategies that we can take to be able to get there. But if we do not talk about this, I think we are starting to spread a pretty false narrative that AI is out there to steal your job, which I don't believe is the reality. I think

yes, AI will replace some tasks and activities and some instances, the impact will be a lot higher. But in this particular priority, we're talking a lot more about what do we actually do with this reinvestment that we need to make

because it's not something that's just naturally if we don't do anything with it, it will shape itself. And I think in this trend, we're starting to see a couple of things starting to happen. The

first trend here is really around the capacity that we gain and we're starting to see some significant numbers in terms of the time being saved as well as some productivity gains. What do you do with

productivity gains. What do you do with that in the organization? There's a very first knee-jerk type of reaction that a lot of organizations have around you know it's all about cost savings. We can

do the same amount of work or potentially even more with what we have now. Whereas other organizations are

now. Whereas other organizations are taking this approach a lot more in terms of saying but you know we are actually reinvesting into the future. We want our human beings to do something different.

But that's also leading then towards trend number five which is the reality that there is techno stress on the rise and something that on the HR agenda we have to put for 2026 is the well-being

of our people owning the narrative around AI and also the fear of being obsolete. How do we help people see

obsolete. How do we help people see around what the reskilling is going to look like and how we are able to get them there? But would love to hear your

them there? But would love to hear your thoughts on on this particular priority.

I I I I know that that fobbo word is not your favorite word. I I heard you say in a in a recent event, a recent event, what what I what I find very fascinating and it's a question that was asked in

the chat and and given a thumbs up from AA saying what is the risk of treating AI as a magic solution rather than a tool that requires thoughtful oversight

in for example hiring and management and I think that's very relevant in the in the context of these trends.

I think so. Right. And and what we've already started to see and I'll let the cat out of the bag a little bit here. We

see what something that we are referring to as AI regret. So some organizations making the decision around replacing roles with AI and then later on having to go back and kind of say but hang on you know news for some but actually

people are more than just the skills that's on paper. And I think AI is not the magic solution. I think it's an incredible solution but it's not the magic solution or the silver bullet that's going to fix absolutely

everything. I think there's two risks

everything. I think there's two risks that we run there. The one is we don't properly think through what the actual work now needs to look like and what is human being responsibility, what is AI responsibility. And on the other side, I

responsibility. And on the other side, I think if we're not intentional about this, and we've seen this time and time and time again with technological progress, right? We get to this point

progress, right? We get to this point where we go through this expectation cycle of what we think it's going to do, it disappoints us, and then we land somewhere in the middle. And I hope that that doesn't happen with AI. But I do

think then it requires a lot more education and a lot more considered intentional understanding of its impact.

>> 100%. And I think it also has to do with how where the technology is at the moment because on the one hand there's a lot of hype around it. At the same time,

it's in a very immature stage. It's very

hard to leverage AI and have an very reliably high quality outcome. there's

still a lot of ifs, buts and and contingencies that we're just not that sure of. And I think at the moment we

sure of. And I think at the moment we see that AI is really being used by the individual, you know, to make themselves a little bit more effective. I write a job description just slightly faster or I can create a personalized development

plan, you know, I can create six of them in two hours. I had someone tell me quite recently where it used to take me, you know, two days to really properly do that. Well, um, and I think that is

that. Well, um, and I think that is really me as an individual, how I use an artificial intelligence. What I think

artificial intelligence. What I think will become very interesting and I expect to see more of that in 26. Um, is

to what degree can we use these tools in our end-to-end processes? To what degree do they integrate with some of our HR technology? To what degree do they

technology? To what degree do they integrate in our processes? So, it's not just an individual supported by a tool, but it's a tool taking over one or two tasks. And I think that brings us to the

tasks. And I think that brings us to the discussion of okay what does that then do in you know the the skills how do we reinvest some of that additional capacity because at the moment it's just

an individual who's slightly faster. I

think in the future we will get larger wins also on a departmental and on an organizational level where today we don't really see AI make a translation

and start to move business level KPIs. I

think so and I think you you know kind of put that into context a little bit with the signals that we are also seeing and I think you're spot on about that that at the moment it's been very much around individual time saving right productivity and I think this

description of you know AI being a companion to me whereas I think in the next year it will shift I think especially with a gentic AI developments it will shift a lot more towards that colleague level that process level that

practice and efficiency level as I've mentioned just some of the signals around this trend that we are looking at here is to say what is the real value look like? What does the AI shifts in

look like? What does the AI shifts in work look like? It's not just about time saved and we need to have a bigger conversation there. And then definitely

conversation there. And then definitely there the cultural and psychological implications. I was with a client last

implications. I was with a client last week and it was so interesting and it's a very very big global organization and their group CHRO made this comment to say for her AI is not about technology, it's about culture. It's about what type

of organization do they want to become in future because it is also and you can see this from the numbers here 68% of people are struggling with the pace and volume at which AI is actually changing

work and the workforce and it is starting to creep a little bit into the worry component there. Three in five workers actually worry about job loss and what AI is going to do and they don't necessarily see the opportunity

but they see the risk pertaining to that.

>> Yeah. Yeah, and I think that also begs the question like how do we then reinvest some of that um some of that time that we potentially save? What are

we going to do with those those 120 122 hours? How do we reinvest them? And we

hours? How do we reinvest them? And we

we see three scenarios how that can can pan out pan out. The the first is what I refer to as capacity extraction. We see

value and we take that value away. So if

there's now work that we used to do with 20 people and now we do it with 18 people, we extract those people from the process and we operate at a more efficient level. That is kind of the

efficient level. That is kind of the downturn, the downsizing scenario. I

think what is for me more viable from a business perspective especially long-term is how can we start to think about enlarging the pie. So we call that

capacity amplification where essentially with the same people you start to produce more. So where before you

produce more. So where before you produce the same with fewer now with the same you start to produce more. But

where I really believe the impact of AI will have a great impact not just on our organizations but also on our clients and that is our internal HR clients but

also on the end customer is how can we leverage artificial intelligence and the technology that it offers to create more

value to rethink our jobs to deconstruct what makes up our jobs and to really start leveraging artificial intelligence for parts of the job that maybe it's

easier to to to automate. So think about HR administration while we invest more time on the more tactical on the more strategic elements of our work. We call

that capacity reinvestment where we're really starting to build more long-term value.

>> I think a quick example of that is there's two organizations and you can find more detail about this in the report that's already you know kind of made the decision to rather reinvest the capacity right. So there's a Belgian

capacity right. So there's a Belgian telco organization that said, you know, we know AI is going to disrupt our workforce. We give people kind of 12

workforce. We give people kind of 12 months to transition into some of these newer roles that we know is geared for the future. Um, and I think there's some

the future. Um, and I think there's some interesting things that organizations like IKEA for example is also doing there around reskilling and almost utilizing and they play somewhere in the amplification and reinvestment space as

part of that. Before we move to the next one here, I do want to also stress the fact that I understand and realize that a lot of organizations might be caught up in the capacity extraction component.

I think for us as HR, there's still something there around how do we treat the workforce there with dignity when there's difficult conversations that is being made um as part of that. But I

think to take away from this one for me is around decide what you're going to do with a capacity. Don't let that just automatically happen. Have an

automatically happen. Have an intentional conversation with your leaders around that. Eric, our third priority. What does headc count to skill

priority. What does headc count to skill count mean?

>> That is moving. Yeah. From from

headcount to skill count and that is really thinking about how does AI impact our roles and our processes. For me the what's really stood out is that about five six weeks ago there was this

publication by MIT about the business impact of AI and it was a flagship publication and and uh I think it had some impact on the stock market or at least there were quite some big news

articles with with strong headlines saying okay AI is not making the impact that we thought it would make because what we're seeing is that AI adoption goes up um there's a lot of pilot

projects related to AI but then actual implementation and successful pilots, those are very few and far in between.

And in the report, they dive into why is that? And they they highlight a couple

that? And they they highlight a couple of of key elements. And one of them is the the the lack of AI skills in our organization.

The other is the lack of embedding of AI within our processes. And that's the example that I gave earlier. you know me as an individual I'm a little bit more effective and you know with an AI

however within my HR organization HR is not really making much of an impact beyond the individual being slightly more effective and that is where the MIT report says this is where we can find

the biggest win and that requires us to rethink what roles look like what skills look like and how we can um leverage the

strong parts of the um uh of uh uh priority uh and of the technology in order to really build impact. And the

challenge here is that the workforce is fluid, a fluid ecosystem. Um we have different types of employees and soon we'll also have AI agents and robots

within our processes. So what does that mean for how we manage people, how we look at jobs and how we move beyond jobs towards roles and towards skills as

well. So hence from headcount to skill

well. So hence from headcount to skill count. Um we also see in that seventh

count. Um we also see in that seventh trend that leadership is also radically changing while management is shrinking and my favorite example there is a large

study that was done um at GitHub a GitHub a large code base and they have a lot of teams working on open-source software you think open source software I'm in HR you know why is that

interesting well open source software essentially 80 90% of the internet and of all technology runs on open-source software so these people in their free time are building tremendous value and

they implemented an AI. This was around 23 and everyone all of a sudden had access to a very powerful colleague essentially who could help them with their work. And what was very

their work. And what was very interesting to me is that we saw that first of all people worked were more productive. So they they were able to do

productive. So they they were able to do more write more codes of the same quality in little in fewer time. At the

same time they had fewer questions for their managers within the project. So

the managerial scope went down because I have an AI. I have a simple question. I

can ask the AI before I bother my manager. So you saw that management and

manager. So you saw that management and the time spent on managerial activities also went down. So that raises the question of to what degree does AI

really impact leadership and management.

The final conclusion from the study was also that the scope of of teams went down. So you had smaller teams with

down. So you had smaller teams with individuals who were more productive and who reinvested and it goes back to the previous priority who reinvested that

excess time in exploring new tools and learning new skills. And I think that is a very hopeful uh narrative where we see individuals that are more productive but

at the same time better able to express themselves and develop themselves. And I

think the signals that we are seeing related to this trend is very much around you've already spoken about from jobs to skills. We know the skills based movement over the past couple of years have definitely been gaining traction.

It was also one of the trends that we spoke about a year or two ago. What I

think is really important now in this AI era is that to really leverage that we have to think differently about job design that you've spoken about and structural rigidity. What that just

structural rigidity. What that just means is if we are not flexible enough to start leveraging where these opportunities are, we are going to see that organizations do not leverage and I think that MIT report quoted something

like 95% of projects don't see the value that was intended. Um so I think that there's an interesting component there for us to think slightly differently about how we set up work. You've spoken

about the great flattening. I think it's really interesting to see um and there's another study that came out that spoke about the fact that the number of middle management they estimate just in the last year has gone down by 6%. which I

think is quite interesting. We are

possibly also seeing and I know this is a little bit scary and sounds like a science fiction movie, but we are possibly seeing the last generation of managers and leaders that will be looking after teams that are only

humans. And I'd like that to sink in a

humans. And I'd like that to sink in a bit because that demands a very different skill set that we need to grow in terms of what oversight and management actually looks like. And I

think that's going to be really interesting to see. And we know hierarchies are starting to flatten and that also just means that we are structuring teams in a very very different way. So what I want you to

different way. So what I want you to take out of this particular trend is that we have to think differently around how AI is disrupting management, leadership and jobs. And there's a couple of actions here that I think we

do need to take um Eric in terms of moving this one forward. And the first of those actions is not really looking at um you know from an organizational design perspective not necessarily

looking at jobs anymore but what are the skills that are sitting behind these jobs cuz imagine that future manager that is managing people and robots. What

is then the level of analysis at which you look at work? You look at it from a skills perspective. You look okay these

skills perspective. You look okay these are specific skills and tasks that can be done by a robot by an AI agent. These

are the tasks that I would much rather have a computer do. So you know if you say you have a doctor for example would I want a doctor would I want the robot to tell the diagnosis to the to the

patient you say no I'd rather have the doctor do it but in the process of setting the diagnosis I would love to evolve AI because it has almost infinite knowledge and is able to you know out of

the thousand or so conditions that are out there are able to do that diagnosis in a better way. So you have a robot doing part of the work and you have a doctor doing a different part of the

work both playing into their individual strengths. And I think that is how we

strengths. And I think that is how we start to reinvent the way we build up roles and the way we build up jobs by looking at the smallest components which are the tasks and the skills.

>> I think the second one there is also then related to you know beyond the job design that you've mentioned or the work or the skill design is to really actively think about how do you build an adaptable organization. So ecosystem

adaptable organization. So ecosystem agility. So things here that falls into

agility. So things here that falls into that is internal skill mobility. How do

you start thinking a lot more in terms of things like pods and task teams. So I don't want to quote the word it's not the agile movement I'm talking about but I think that there is some significant shift that we can make here around

actually thinking about our organization as an open ecosystem which ties in a little bit with the capacity point that we've made previously. And then the last one before we move to the next trend and I I really want we don't need another

leadership model. This is not what

leadership model. This is not what business action is oriented towards but it is about us rethinking what do we expect of leaders at the different levels within the organization and you know I think there's a part there around

the oversight piece that we've spoken about there's a part there around managing the change for the organization there but I think that there is also a component there around how do we help leaders in future that are going to have

to manage these human and technology blended teams and ways of work and I think that's an important component to be able to reinvest We've always been talking about the changing role of management and leadership, but I think

it's really a big priority for us for 2026 >> and I think that that that then requires different skills for um for managers. I

see someone asking could you repeat that managers are no longer managing humans.

So the the the the point there is that it becomes a blended workforce and that requires a different way of managing and with that also a different skill set of what becomes important. I think

organizational development, job crafting um becomes much more important and and from an HR skill that becomes I think a managerial skill because it's about

designing the processes and bringing the the strong suits of a very rapidly evolving technology together with an an uh like the softer people side of

management. And I was reading very

management. And I was reading very recently on on Twitter, they did kind of a calculation of what the cost of a humanoid robot and that boiled down to I think $16 an hour. So if you were to kind of, you know, get a humanoid robot,

you have a worker that does, you know, works for you for $16 an hour.

>> And that is a a robot that has a certain proficiency level that is probably not your average, you know, your average human performer at this point. But for

which tasks do you >> put that $16 an hour humanoid robot at work? And for which task do you put an

work? And for which task do you put an actual human at work? And these become really real conversations. They won't

happen overnight, but in half a year, in a year, we might have to really think about how do we build those skills and how do we prepare our managers for that kind of future.

>> Yeah. I don't think to make it practical, right? If you think about

practical, right? If you think about leadership competency models at the moment, we think about things like how do I inspire action? How do I coach others? How do I resolve conflict? I do

others? How do I resolve conflict? I do

see that in the future there will be a competency around how do I manage AI agents? that will be a core competency

agents? that will be a core competency that we need to teach our leaders and our managers. I think it brings us then

our managers. I think it brings us then to the the fourth priority which then starts coming a little bit closer to work because I want you to take out of the first three that these are things that's happening in the broader organization but it also then means that

ourselves as HR we need to start working very very differently. I recently spoke to to one of our clients and like you all would have picked up already I love organizational design so that's usually the conversation I lead with. Um and she

the CHRO made such an interesting comment to me around the fact that she said but you know we've broken down the silos and I said okay but help me understand what does that mean because everybody talks about how HR works in

silos and we are functional and very process driven and she said no we made a conscious decision a couple of years ago to shift the outcomes that we want to achieve and actually organize ourselves along those particular lines which I

thought was quite an interesting thing that she had mentioned at the time. Um,

what AI is now starting to do, and as I said earlier, it doesn't work in verticals. It actually works a lot more

verticals. It actually works a lot more in horizontals. It is starting to call

in horizontals. It is starting to call for us to really start thinking about a very, very different way of work within HR. Something that someone mentioned to

HR. Something that someone mentioned to me the other day really struck home that said, you know, it's not about AI changing work. It's about disrupting

changing work. It's about disrupting what we think work is. And in HR, that's going to be the important thing that we're going to have to think of. So,

here there's a couple of trends that also informs this. the first one and Eric you and I have since I've known you have started talking about this crossf functional component that we need to think about there but we really believe

that cross functional structures will start replacing HR silos so again we understand that operating model change is a very big thing that doesn't just happen within one year but we do think that that conversation will naturally

start to evolve when we start thinking about what does AI in HR look like for the longer term and what does that mean in terms of how we set up a couple of years ago we spoke about HR as a product else how do we think more in terms of

products solutions. I think with trend 9

products solutions. I think with trend 9 with increased spending also on AI we will be able to fuel and fund that a lot more for the future. So this priority is

about how we organize work within HR in future and how we also invest in AI to make sure that we can scale our impact for the future and how do we make sure that we see the value of those investments as we've spoken about

already >> and for me for a big part you know that I I I love people analytics and I I love the KPI side of the business. How do we then measure success in a holistic way?

And it's to me and and that's why Dietra and I on a regular basis have those the conversation. To me, it's always

conversation. To me, it's always baffling that you have one team focusing on employer branding, another on the the um candidate experience. Um and a third on onboarding and performance

management. Even though that is a very

management. Even though that is a very interlin chain where the people that you attract towards your brand are the people who need to perform a certain way and need to fit within that culture. And I think

by looking at it not from a silo perspective and okay this is my area of expertise and this is your area of expertise. What are the parallels? what

expertise. What are the parallels? what

are the horizontals that you can connect and how can you create an overarching um experience for employees that very intently also drives the business

outcome that we're trying to achieve and I think with that we we build an HR professional who has a better understanding of the value that they're driving end to end and who is also a

more competent partner of the business >> I think on the other side we've spoken a lot about you know employees are consumers right and I often ask this question to say if HR was a Could employees buy it for themselves with

their own money and is that the type of product, solution, service that they are getting from us? And we can only really deliver that when you think about what their cycle is and what that looks like.

To kind of put it make it a little bit more practical, we think that we are at that crossroads where they are going to have to make certain decisions around um the siloed mentality that we sometimes have. And this also then translates a

have. And this also then translates a little bit into our technology platforms, right? I love it. somebody

platforms, right? I love it. somebody

last week that I spoke to that really works in the in the AI and in the HR space. He made this comment to say I

space. He made this comment to say I don't want to talk to you about AI if I can't talk to you about data first. So

is all your data in the right place for us to actually start driving this? We

are seeing some signals around >> increased spending and we are seeing the AI and the HR AI technology market actually booming and I think that will continue over the next 5 years moving

into 2030 into 2031.

>> But as we've already mentioned here, it is about investment versus impact. Are

you investing in the right things? Are

you not just getting the technology but actually changing the way of work? And

are you connecting those two things to your earlier point around actually starting to shift the way we work and the value and the mandate that HR drives within the organization. And I see a big risk in there because we we we interact

with a lot of technology vendors and I think as as AIHR we have the pleasure of being a knowledge partner and we're kind of in that sense technology independent and the number of technology vendors

that says oh we're selling AI is is just increasing and tripling and sometimes they don't even have AI in their suite but because they mention AI you know they get into the door and I think it's in a very similar way it's very similar

to how it used to be with people analytics where every technology tool that oh we do people analytics because we provide you with a dashboard and these days we say every every HR technology provider says oh we provide

AI because we have an AI built within our single you know purpose tool and I think it's really about having that end to end understanding of how does that data live how does it move between

systems and how can we support an end toend employee journey with that data and also with um artificial intelligence what is that endto-end process and where

do we slot in AI and where do we slot in the human component of HR work and so that is kind of the warning that I want to give that so many vendors are saying

we sell you AI yes okay but you know it's really for us as AI as HR buyers to have an understanding of that end to end process and build in the the the tools

where they are needed instead of just jumping on the first vendor that says I'm selling you AI and with me you'll be AI first or AIdriven because you know that might be just a little bit of snake

oil vendoring.

>> I love that. Right. And and I think you know to add to that there is this idea don't let vendors define your AI journey for you because they they define it typically and I say this with a lot of love and respect but they define it typically in the tool set that they

already have. Um and exactly to your

already have. Um and exactly to your point there are so many things out there that's masquerading as AI which is more a marketing strategy than a real value strategy. So I think some of the things

strategy. So I think some of the things here for us to to think about is we do need to pilot new ways of work right and I think that brings together things like we've already spoken about new experiments task team themes but doing

that in a very intentional way um and making sure that we work in a multi-disiplinary squad um mix HR specialists with business leaders tech partners etc to start defining that we

think that there's a step up to make in terms of becoming strategic workforce partners which we won't go into the detail too much today but there's an article that Eric and I wrote that will come out pretty soon about that that

talks just about how we see the role of the HRB also being very much redefined in this new way of work that we think is on the horizon with AI and HR and then really there and again this we can't say

this one enough think about the things that's not that sexy it's not the sexy bots but the data that it draws from how do we create a unified way of thinking about these things to really start driving the value and the insights that

we have and I think you know to scratch below the surface a little bit because it's often the unpopular things that not everybody wants to do that really drives the real value and the foundations that we that we need for the future. Eric,

what does this tell us about our last priority about our own skill set in terms of AI fluency in in HR?

>> D and I had a discussion. I said we should make this priority number one because I think this is this is really really important and this is also really relatable. If we want to survive and

relatable. If we want to survive and thrive in a world that is AI first, it means that we also need to build that AI capability internally because it is very

hard to be leading in the organization if we haven't thought about the implications within our own HR department. So our fifth priority and

department. So our fifth priority and last but definitely not least is building AI fluency as a core HR capability and that is about building it

internally as a skill so that I as an individual can leverage AI but also having that conceptual understanding of how does AI relate to our business our

business processes and the value that we deliver to our end customer. Um, with

that we have a question. Yeah.

>> How would next poll?

>> How would you evaluate your AI fluency?

>> Your options there. I have the foundations in place. I know my way around, but I'm still learning. I'm

pretty good and I can't get wait to get started with things like custom GPTs and agents or, you know, I am AI. Others

come to me for help. I, you know, know absolutely everything. Where would you

absolutely everything. Where would you rate yourself at the moment? I think as people answer what's interesting for me about this question Eric is really around the fact that we do see and this comes from our own data as well that a lot of HR professionals kind of are

self-taught in AI >> and also due to the nature that a lot of them don't necessarily work in larger big teams or bigger organizations there is this idea on I don't know how I compare to others

>> so I think it's an interesting one because we are seeing this as a core core capability for the future >> and I think that that's also true kind of beyond beyond HR for everyone that you know everyone who uses AI at the

moment is self-taught because there's just not that much structure around it yet. So, I'm very curious to see what

yet. So, I'm very curious to see what the answers look like.

>> Drum roll.

>> Drum roll. 20% say I have the foundations in place. 51% the majority says I know my way around it. I've tried

it. I've experimented, but I'm still learning. You know, it's a moving bar.

learning. You know, it's a moving bar.

And I think I fit in that group because every day, every week, there's a new model, there's a new um feature, there's a new image generator. And I'm also learning every day. And I think that is

also a little bit the excitement of the topic that you know as soon as you stop learning two months later you're out of date. So I think it's good that the

date. So I think it's good that the majority identifies with that group. We

see 25% saying I'm pretty good. Can't

wait to get started with custom custom GBTs and agents and 3% say I am AI. That

is they use Xmachina I think is the terminology there. We have AI. I think

terminology there. We have AI. I think

we have a couple of bots actually entering the chat. I saw them earlier, so they might be voting as well. So here

the challenge is most HR professionals lack AI fluency. You know, they may they may have some experience trying it out, but they're not fluent in it yet,

creating risks. And it's really about

creating risks. And it's really about how can we on the one hand identify which tools help us complete certain tasks and then secondly how can we leverage those tools in an effective way

and that for me is really what AI efficiency is all about. AI fluency in sense also AI efficiency. Um and trend number 11 our final trend AI fluency

becomes a baseline HR competency where longer term you know it's really part of our competency um the skills that we need to have. There's a funny anecdote.

I uh was in a in a in a workshop two days ago and there was a live audience and I said everyone you know raise your hands if you think that um AI has is

increasing your productivity >> and everyone's hand went up. This was

you know in Amsterdam. It was in I think early adopter crowd. They they came for the AI topic. Everyone said I think AI is making a positive impact on our productivity. Then I said okay second

productivity. Then I said okay second question. There was about 50 people. I

question. There was about 50 people. I

said who is actively selecting on AI skills all the way in the back there was a lady and she was kind of looking around and her hand went up one out of 50 was actually starting to select on it

and I think for me there's the discrepancy that on the one hand we have an awareness that we know that it will make an impact on our productivity but we haven't had the conversation yet or or even thought about you know

conversation with leadership okay what does that then mean in terms of practice do we then start to you know add one or two questions in our behavioral interview. You know, how what when was

interview. You know, how what when was the last time you used AI and how did you use it? You know, give me the prompt that you used. Those kind of questions I think will help us filter and bring in

the talent that is really crucial for our future as an organization and also when we're hiring for HR professionals.

>> I think so. And I think some of the signals, Eric, that also ties into that a little bit and we've mentioned this.

You know 82% of HR professionals use AI but only 30% say they receive comprehensive job specific training. We

know effective AI fluency also needs to exist within the actual job that you do and in the process that you do as you've mentioned earlier. I think what is quite

mentioned earlier. I think what is quite interesting here as well is also that we are starting to see a lot more about the human advantage. So some skill sets that

human advantage. So some skill sets that we naturally have as HR professionals I think is going to be even more important in the future. The things like empathy, ethics etc as part of that. And then I think also there there are still a lot

of employees that are highly concerned about misuse. So 64% of employees

about misuse. So 64% of employees actually talk about that. Now I want to unveil something pretty quickly which we the audience will see a lot more about but we actually think that AI fluency is so important that we've actually adapted

the D-shaped model and we will start rolling this out a lot more. And I want to highlight two things here just around the fact that we think that AI fluency has to become a core competency. And for

those of you that don't know the model, the things at the top of the tea is the things that we believe all HR professionals need for the future. The

things that they live in the stem is a lot more about your role or the context of your organization within which you operate. But we define AI fluency really

operate. But we define AI fluency really as your ability to understand, apply and govern AI responsibly within HR. And

we've also highlighted here execution excellence because that also has an implication on some of the human related skills that we need in the future.

>> So I have a question in the chat and that's what are the top AI skills for HR professionals that will be um offered by AIHR for 26 27 >> the top skills that we will offer for

for uh >> well what what are the top skills for AI is essentially the question. So I think there's a there's a couple right. So

when we look at AI fluency and I think that's how I'm going to try answer that question. Um there is four categories to

question. Um there is four categories to think of there. The one is around can you apply AI confidently. So for us that is around foundational knowledge about what it is where to use it can you use the tools confidently in a way and

that's where how I speak to the tools where things like effective prompting enhancing my work outcomes come in.

Advocating for responsible use. This

talks a little bit more about ethics, ensuring fairness, transparency, how I work with the data, how I champion its adoption. So this for me is a mindset

adoption. So this for me is a mindset component and then very much around how you integrate it into your work. So do I know how to actually design my work with AI and to optimize that as well. So I

think the things that we will be focusing on is this is the foundational level. We are working very much at the

level. We are working very much at the moment also on practical application use cases which I think is going to be really really important for people to get there. And as well as I think one of

get there. And as well as I think one of the critical things is how do you spot where to apply it and how do I know how to apply and start really building that fluency and we call it fluency because it's like learning a language.

>> You think about learning a foreign language. I won't I won't treat you to a

language. I won't I won't treat you to a version of my my version of Dutch but when you learn a foreign language you need to learn the grammar. You need to learn how the nuance works in the language. You need to learn the

language. You need to learn the vocabulary. And that's what AI fluency

vocabulary. And that's what AI fluency is about. I believe for the future.

is about. I believe for the future.

Maybe this is a good point to to go to the the next and the final poll that I think is in in two slides is which which of these priorities are the most important for your organization? We've

spoken about five priorities. Co-leading

organizational AI transformation, reinvesting AI capacity, um redesigning HR for cross functional work from headcount to skills count, rethinking work roles and leadership, or finally

build AI fluency as a core HR capability. be very very curious where

capability. be very very curious where kind of we see the majority. Do you have a prediction either?

>> I think personally I would put money on I think the first one around AI transformation or the last one in terms of building AI fluency and it's got nothing to do with the recent evening. I

think it's got a lot more to do that I think it's close to home in terms of what people need to be able to do.

>> I bet on AI fluency. Let's let's see what the answer what the answer is.

Feels like there should be like a little drum roll that with us >> and there should be a prize. We have a tie with 31 versus 31% on the one and

from headc count to skill count. How do

we really start to rethink work roles and leadership as a key key challenge?

So I think we should have more organizational design and development uh o events der um and the same number is saying building a fluency as a core HR capability and I love that because it

plays on two levels. The one is okay as an individual as a team we need to have the skills to apply this well but within the organization we really need to think about how do we structure this in a

better way so we are future proof and we create the impact that we want to create.

>> No I definitely think so and and let me summarize a couple of key takeaways for us right and then we can open up and and answer some of the the open questions.

Um for me there's there's four things that's really important that I would love you to take out of today in terms of how to get started. The first one is lead with courage in uncertainty. We

have an important part to play as HR and it is our role really there to not only change and transform ourselves but to guide our organizations through this transformation and that is about the COE's in which we form part of it is

about the discussions that we drive how we help them think differently about how we are disrupting and designing work for the future. I think the second one there

the future. I think the second one there is we have to humanize the AI revolution. we are falling into the trap

revolution. we are falling into the trap that it's all about the tech and less so about the human beings that sit on the other side. I spoke at a conference last

other side. I spoke at a conference last week and I made the comment I think in in an unpopular way where I said you know for some people it's pretty inconvenient that skills still come wrapped up in human beings and not in AI

but it is a reality around the fact that it's real people doing real work and real jobs and we need to really guide that conversation around not leaving people behind or transitioning people in a responsible way whilst keeping in mind

the benefit for for the business. We

have to build adaptable organizations.

Organizations are going to become and be stress tested a lot in 2026. We have to help them make sure that the way that we design them helps them flex with change, enable resilience and speed. Last year

we spoke a lot about things like anti-fragility. We spoke about

anti-fragility. We spoke about organizations that are geared for what's to come in the future. And then really the last one there is, and I cannot stress this one enough, redefine leadership to drive impact. I think our

role there is so important cuz I think there's never been a more difficult time and a complex time to be a leader. I

think it's important that we play that coaching guiding role when the whole organization is changing, the skill set is changing and the expectation is changing. I've said this before. I think

changing. I've said this before. I think

the root cause of all good and all evil in most organizations really come from the fact that you know we um what we do with leadership and how we equip and enable the maturity of our leaders in

the organization. So for me those are

the organization. So for me those are kind of four key and critical things there and I think really Eric this idea around the fact that you know change is inevitable. It's going to happen but

inevitable. It's going to happen but progress is a choice for me is an important thing and I think we have to make really a decision around what our role is going to be and I firmly believe we're at a crossroad said that before

but I really think we're there now that if we are able to really guide our organizations we are going to craft a much better future in terms of what work looks like for individuals and for society and for organizations. And I

think that's exciting if we keep an eye on the trends.

>> So let's let's dive into that because I have Monica here in the Q&A box and and and they say we see some pioneering companies like Mona merging HR and IT

leadership under one umbrella to drive digital transformation more effectively.

Question, do you see this as a viable model for the future? And if so, what would be the key success factors to make such a partnership between HR and IT effective?

>> Yeah, it's an interesting one that you and I have debated quite quite a lot as well. Right. in terms of what is the

well. Right. in terms of what is the what does that move look like? So from

my perspective, you know, I think that there will be much closer collaboration.

I think the mandate and when we say HR and IT is being merged, I think we also need to talk a lot more about a changing mandate that will exist there, right?

It's not like HR is falling away and sitting under it. That was also not what happened in the Moderna case. So I think there is definitely going to be a role for how we redefine what technology and HR is going to look like and how we play

that out. But I still firmly believe

that out. But I still firmly believe that there's a role for the science of HR and what we do and of human behavior to exist within whatever we want to call that into the future. I don't

necessarily think it will blend in completely into one thing. I think it will be much closer integrated than what it is today. But would love your view on that as well.

>> No, 100% what I said earlier. I think it and and people analytics and data and orchestration as we call it in the article that's coming up in a couple of

weeks um is really focused on on that that that is a core competency that needs to become part of HR. The most

successful organizations in managing this AI transformation so far are the ones with very well-developed technology HR technology mature HR data and where

that orchestration and you know bringing in agents and and partial automations are just part of the skills that they already have within HR. Those are the organizations that are most effective

and most successful. I don't think that will lead to a full blend of HR and IT, but I do think that HR gets a lot better

at it in order to perform well.

[Music]