Gartner Identifies the Top Future of Work Trends for CHROs in 2026

13 January 2026 — Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company, has revealed nine future of work trends that chief human resource officers (CHROs) will need to address in 2026 and beyond to ensure their organisation achieves its desired talent and business outcomes. 

"This year's predictions address significant workplace forces CHROs must navigate in 2026: HR's changing - and expanding - mandate, the AI-enabled workforce, mounting pressure for growth and the shifting employment deal," said Emily Rose McRae, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner HR practice.

The top nine future of work trends for HR leaders this year are: 

1. Reductions in Force (RIFs) Before Reality
Optimistic about the potential of AI investments to increase productivity and innovation, some CEOs have reduced headcount. Yet, current workforce reductions are not due to better performing AI - only 1% of layoffs in H12025 were the result of AI increasing employees' productivity. This places business leaders in an impossible position - being asked to make cuts to their teams on the basis of AI returns that have not yet been realised and may never be. In some cases, organisations will end up needing to rehire for roles they have cut. 

In 2026, CHROs must deliver any layoffs in a human-centric way that does not harm the organisation's employment brand. Longer term, CHROs must lead "talent remix" efforts to ensure the size and structure of the current workforce can effectively and sustainably support their organisation's strategic goals. 

2. Organisations Face Culture Dissonance Amid Performance Pressure
Several high-profile organisations have embraced a startup-style culture featuring long hours, aggressive performance management and minimal flexibility. Organisations are expecting more from employees without offering more (compensation, flexibility or benefits) in return.

"This is leading to cultural dissonance - when culture no longer reflects the reality of work," said Kaelyn Lowmaster, Director in the Gartner HR practice. "As a result, we're seeing "regrettable retention," where disengaged employees remain in their role, and damage to the employment brand, both of which threaten CEOs' performance ambitions. The most successful CHROs this year will be clear and explicit about the reality of their employee value proposition (EVP), including what they expect from employees (output, hours, location, etc) in return." 

3. AI's Biggest Hidden Cost: Employees' Mental Fitness
Preserving the resilience and safety of the workforce in the AI era is a core HR responsibility in 2026. CHROs must ensure managers and leaders are equipped to spot symptoms of disordered AI use or negative psychological, behavioural or emotional impacts of pervasive AI at work. They must also ensure their teams act now to prevent erosion of key skills. The most successful CHROs will also proactively work with legal and IT to have a plan for preventing and responding to AI-related psychological injury.

4. AI Workslop Becomes Organisations' Top Productivity Drain
An overwhelming focus on AI adoption and improving individual employee productivity has led to "workslop" - an abundance of fast but poor quality work produced by or with AI. Employees are being pressured to adopt AI for as many potential use cases as possible, with no time or autonomy to discern if the output is high quality or fit for purpose. 

"In 2026, the best CHROs will focus on saving employees effort, not just time, by aiming AI at the most arduous, friction-filled moments in employee work, rather than quick wins," said McRae. "Effort, rather than time spend, is the most reliable indicator CHROs should use to understand where AI should reshape work and provide value."

5. Employers Reverse the Candidate Fraud Arms Race
AI has made hiring an arms race: candidates use AI for easier application and to stand out, while organisations use AI to sift through a higher volume of candidates and to detect genuine, qualified matches and avoid malicious actors.

This leaves organisations faced with an overburdened and fraud-ridden process at the very moment recruiting headcount is under increased scrutiny. CHROs in 2026 will increase the value of the human in recruiting workflows by combining "high touch" approaches (in-person interviews, experiential skills assessment) with emerging AI tools.

6. Corporate Espionage Moves from the Pages of Fiction to Our Payrolls
The AI arms race and economic nationalism have drastically increased the risk of insider threats, specifically in the form of corporate espionage. Employers are also facing regulatory and reputational pressure to address technological sovereignty and to reduce dependency on technology from companies based in other countries.

HR must increase its role in protecting organisational security in 2026. In addition to organisations' more intensive cybersecurity efforts, CHROs will need to invest heavily in the behavioural and motivational side of addressing and identifying sources of insider threats.

7. Tech-to-Trades Career Paths Blossom
As AI continues to proliferate, workers in some fields, such as software development, finance and professional services, will look to pivot to more "AI-proof" careers — such as the high-demand, hands-on, skilled trade work that is less likely to be fully automated in the near to medium-term. 

Retraining and apprenticeship programs will emerge in 2026 to help digital workers transition into skilled trade professions. CHROs must be proactive both in planning to retain their key digital talent, offering reskilling support where appropriate, and building new pipelines for skilled trade roles, potentially in collaboration with industry partners. 

8. Process Pros, Not Tech Prodigies, Unlock AI Value
Organisations are scrambling to hire talent with the latest AI skills and to upskill their existing talent to use existing AI tools effectively. However, success with one AI tool will not automatically result in quality output from another. Optimising individual use of AI-based productivity tools on its own does not lead to growth or cost reduction.

The most successful organisations in 2026 will prioritise finding work process experts — employees whose creativity and systems thinking allow them to redesign entire processes, not just optimise individual tasks. CHROs should update their recruiting processes to prioritise AI judgement and critical thinking over technical skill. They should also tap leaders to establish an employee working group to identify processes, not just tasks, that can be redesigned using AI.

9. Employees Get Paid for Training Their Digital Doppelgangers
In 2025, AI programs trained on real human artists to mimic their style, tone and behaviour in original works. In 2026, this trend will come to the broader workforce - digital twins or AI avatars are already being developed to replicate high-performing employees, and even CEOs.

Digitally replicating employees - specifically the knowledge, habits and individual behaviours that make them successful - opens uncharted territory in terms of compensation. Employees will demand to be paid, not just for training AI tools, but for the ongoing use of their digital likeness long after they've left the organisation. The best organisations will update their AI governance to protect and reward employees' likeness as AI is increasingly shaped in their image.

Learn more via the webinar: The Gartner Top 9 Future of Work Trends for 2026 and Beyond. Additional information for clients is available in the associated article "9 Future of Work Trends For 2026."

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