With everyone poring over predictions about star signs, stock markets, and elections, it feels only fair that the world of work gets its turn with the crystal ball. Last month, I looked back at my 2025 predictions and graded myself, which hopefully earned me enough credibility before I attempt this all over again.
So this January, instead of adding yet another vague “future of work” hot take to the internet, I am sharing what 2026 is likely to bring, grounded in data and lived experience. Unsurprisingly, Generative and agentic AI dominate a big part of the story, but they are far from the only forces reshaping how we work. Let’s jump straight in.
Here are the top four trends that will shape work in 2026, plus one idea some are calling a trend that I predict will not materialize.
1. Workforce Planning Takes Centre Stage
Workforce planning isn’t new, but in 2026 it’s everywhere. At the start of 2025, I wrote a whole piece exploring why the world is paying increased attention to the biggest expense on the balance sheet, driven by the age of efficiency and Agentic AI making it not just possible but imperative to rethink our approach. A mid-2025 McKinsey report found that only 12% of U.S. companies have workforce plans with at least a three-year focus and 2026 is when we change that.
In 2025, nearly 50,000 roles posted globally required strategic workforce planning skills outside of HR, in the offices of the COO, CFO, and adjacent functions. This group of business operators was effectively nonexistent in 2020 and has grown 34% since 2022.
In 2026, teams rethink how work gets done, not just who does it, with AI-driven modeling giving finance and HR unprecedented clarity into workforce costs and value creation. Terms like net new annual contract value (NNACV) will enter daily vocabulary to assess true role productivity beyond headcount. If your organization still treats one headcount as one headcount regardless of location, level, or skill, 2026 demands a more sophisticated, localized, and skill-oriented approach.
2. The Great AI Divide Deepens
AI has become the defining corporate skill, much like computer literacy was in the heydays. The lack of it now poses a real career risk. In 2026, expect what some call The Great AI Divide: a widening gap between AI-fluent employees and those playing catch-up.
According to the Bright Horizons 2025 Education Index, 42% of professionals expect AI to significantly change their roles within a year, yet around a third admit they feel unprepared for those changes. PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer confirms that workers leveraging AI skills, the so-called information elite, command wage premiums averaging 56% over similar roles without them. This is up from 25% the prior year, with demand for such roles growing by 7.5% amid overall job posting declines.
This imbalance is quickly becoming the newest socioeconomic fault line of the modern workplace, as AI-exposed industries see twice the wage growth and fourfold productivity gains compared to less-exposed ones. Employers who invest in AI literacy, reskilling, and equitable access to agentic tools will be better poised to reduce churn, close skills gaps exacerbated by delayed upskilling, and protect organizational agility across teams.
3. Virtual Agents Become Teammates — and Managers Transform
2026 is also the year where AI shifts from assistant to teammate. AI agents are already producing reports, summarizing insights, and automatically routing updates to business leaders. Soon they act as thought partners for complex strategies, nudging thinking with data. A Forbes feature recently highlighted eight such agents already embedded in HR systems by Workday and ServiceNow, with many more to come.
An even bigger shift awaits managers. As AI agents start taking on executional work, managers will be expected to oversee both human and digital teams, a practice dubbed AgenticOps. According to Gartner, nearly 40% of enterprise apps will have task-specific AI agents by the end of the year.
The good news? Automation of administrative work will allow managers to pivot toward more human leadership focusing on empathy, coaching, and culture. But it also demands a redefinition (yet again) of what “managing people” means in this new hybrid reality.
4. The Rise of Polywork and the Anxious Workplace
Economic pressure, non-existent job security, rising unemployment rates, stagnant wage growth, and inflation are all pushing more professionals to take on “polywork” i.e. reducing dependency on a single source of income by activating multiple income streams through dual employment, side hustles, or freelance gigs. SHRM has given this trend its stamp of recognition, calling 2026 the year of the “polyworker.”
While this offers individuals more financial stability, it’s also exasperating chronic burnout and what I am calling the anxious workplace. Employees are exhausted, stretched thin, and increasingly vocal about their stress so much so that Glassdoor called 2025 the year of fatigue. For organizations, this should mean rethinking workload design, benefits parity, and the sustainability of productivity expectations but I hold little hope we achieve that in 2026.
Which bring me to…
Not A Trend: The End of “Employee Experience”
Every year, I also flag a “not a trend.”
Surprisingly, I spotted a fair few HR trend predictors calling out employee experience as a trend in 2026. This felt tone deaf. This hasn’t been a trend for the past two years, and I do not see it emerging in 2026. The darling buzzword of HR conferences has lost its magic. With organizations in survival mode, 2026 could mark the death (or at least the pause) of the term, unless someone finds a way to translate it into tangible, measurable actions.
In summary, 2026 will be defined by intelligent systems, anxious workers, and managers who find themselves negotiating between the two. For HR, the challenge (and opportunity) lies in creating balance: pairing AI fluency with human empathy, and strategy with sustainability.
In many ways 2026 will feel like a repeat of 2025 but in fast forward.
And look, if I am wrong, remember the first cardinal rule of any prediction: there is no such thing as a wrong prediction, only predictions that have not happened YET.
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