Workforce data, smarter AI integration among greatest workplace priorities in the new year
The elevation of workforce data is no longer a possibility — it is here. And in the coming year, that data will play a bigger role than ever in C-suite decision-making.
“In 2026, an organization’s people data will rival its financial data in strategic importance,” predicts Steve Holdridge, president and COO at HCM tech company Dayforce. “AI will elevate workforce intelligence to a board-level asset, transforming it from a historical view of headcount and costs to a living map of capability, agility and operational potential.”
As Doug Dennerline, CEO of performance management platform Betterworks, points out, the C-suite is already asking different questions. “CEOs and boards are beginning to treat people data as seriously as financial data, asking questions like: How healthy is our performance culture? How often are managers giving feedback?” he says. “These aren’t ‘HR metrics’ anymore — they’re business indicators.”
The growing importance of workforce data is just one of the prognostications people managers are making looking to the year ahead, ranging from what’s next for AI to skills-based hiring, flexible work and fostering employee well-being.
AI: From experimentation to strategic implementation
After years of hype, AI is poised to enter a more mature phase in the workplace in 2026.
John Kostoulas, vp of market positioning and strategy at Dayforce, predicts when it comes to the technology, the new year will usher in a shift from fear of missing out to fear of messing up. “Many organizations jumped on the AI bandwagon without a clear goal,” he notes, “and now they’re realizing that unchecked AI can create as many problems as it solves.”
The path forward isn’t about hiring AI experts, despite the rush to do so. “In 2026, organizations will realize they can’t simply hire their way into AI maturity,” says Carrie Rasmussen, chief digital officer at Dayforce. “Seasoned AI talent doesn’t exist at scale yet. The companies that invest in developing their current workforce and bring employees along on the journey of how AI can transform their roles positively will be the ones that win.”
Trent Henry, EY’s global vice chair of talent, highlights a critical gap: “AI adoption is accelerating, with 88% of employees already using some form of the technology at work,” he says, citing the company’s Work Reimagined report, released last month. “Despite this, only a small number of workers (5%) are using it in advanced ways to transform the way they work. With more organizations integrating AI into daily workflows, 2026 will be the year we see the focus shift beyond just mere adoption to its effects on the employee experience: how it strengthens trust, productivity and human connection.”
IBM’s CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux frames the opportunity differently: “Last year, AI helped us work faster. This year, it will help us go further. AI isn’t just accelerating our work; it’s amplifying human potential and fueling growth.”
Leslie DeMent, executive vp, people and experience at the marketing agency Attention Arc, adds, “If we rely on AI as a magic bullet, deploying tools without addressing culture or readiness, we risk creating systems that feel impersonal or even alienating. For us, the priority is reimagining how we understand, support and develop our people. Technology should enhance our humanity, not replace it.”
Leadership and tech infrastructure
Meanwhile, Ryan Starks, head of growth at workforce performance platform Rising Team, predicts that in the new year, company leadership will get its own tech stack. He explains, “Leadership development will finally get the same level of AI investment that engineering, sales and marketing already have.” But he goes on to warn, “CFOs will scrutinize HR budgets like never before, and every dollar will have to be earned.”
Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, a videoconferencing platform, predicts that given management-level employees use AI to a far greater extent than individual contributors, in the new year managers “will need to prove they can do what AI currently cannot: drive creative problem-solving, build authentic team culture, navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and shape strategic direction.”
Strategic direction will also continue to be guided more by the HR department in 2026. Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), says it’s time to retire the tired cliches about people management. “Worn-out phases such as ‘seat at the table’ are no longer relevant,” she says. “The importance of HR’s role has been firmly established as strategic. We’ve moved into a position that is respected up to the board level for its ability to support measurable business outcomes.”
Focus on skills
Mark Onisk, senior managing director of talent strategy and transformation at Skillsoft, a learning and skills development platform, is preparing for a year of streamlined skills management that involves the whole organization and the rising bar for digital literacy.
“In the past, organizations often tried to capture every possible skill, resulting in overwhelming and unmanageable skill libraries and ultimately ineffective workforce data,” Onisk explains. “Next year, companies will focus on a core set of high-impact skills — as few as 20 in some cases — that truly drive performance and are aligned to their organizations’ operating plans.”
AI will play a central role, he adds, not just in cataloging skills but in making them actionable through agentic, conversational interfaces, with “employees interacting as part of their daily workflow and receiving personalized development opportunities in real time.”
Strategic hiring
Meanwhile, when it comes to finding the right people for the right jobs in the new year, Josh Tolan, CEO of Spark Hire, a recruitment software company, calls for a fundamental reframing.
“A huge priority for HR teams going into 2026 will be getting serious about connecting hiring decisions to actual business outcomes — not just filling seats but showing how the right hires move the company forward,” he says.
His message to people managers: “If you want a seat at the table, stop talking to leadership about time-to-fill and start talking about revenue per employee, client retention tied to team stability, or how reducing turnover in your customer-facing roles directly impacts your bottom line.”
Flexibility: The evolving battleground
The tension between RTO mandates and employee expectations about flexible work arrangements is set to reach a critical point in the months ahead.
As Weishaupt reports, companies continue steadily calling employees back to the office, and among hybrid workers the required in-office days keep climbing. Meanwhile, 9 in 10 millennial employees cite work flexibility as their No. 1 priority.
The stakes are high, Weishaupt points out, noting that more than one-third of prospective hires would reject a job if it did not feature flexible hours.
The concept of flexibility itself is evolving, meantime. “Workplace flexibility is changing from ‘where’ you work to ‘when’ you work, and with it, the concept of microshifting is on the rise,” Weishaupt says. Among those interested in microshifting, the large majority are millennials and Gen Z — in other words, the majority of today’s workforce and the future of the workplace.
The caregiving crisis
Deborah Hanus, CEO of Sparrow, a leave management platform, warns that employers face “a double crisis” in 2026 as companies are bleeding senior talent to caregiving responsibilities while AI hollows out junior roles, leaving only a narrow band of mid-career employees.
Hanus points to a disturbing trend: Half a million college-educated women at director and vp level left the workforce this year due to RTO mandates that have been “implemented without the care and support that made remote work successful for working parents in 2020.”
Her solution: “Parental leave is table stakes; leave for caregiving is the new differentiator. In 2026, the companies that will win the war for talent are those offering robust support for the sandwich generation.”
Workplace culture and safety
Karishma Patel Buford, CPO at Spring Health, a mental health solutions company, predicts that political polarization in the workforce could lead to a drop in perceived empathy and psychological safety. “HR leaders will feel pressure to take a political stand but there is an inherent risk to belonging with companies taking anything but a non-neutral stance,” she says.
Casey Heck, senior vp of HR at online compliance and workplace training company Traliant, warns that in the coming year, harassment risk will continue to rise, meanwhile, noting the spike in new EEOC lawsuits including Title VII claims, which cover workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
“Managers will be treated as a greatest source of organizational risk,” Heck says. “Everyday decisions and interactions are increasingly tied to claims of bias, discrimination or retaliation.”
Well-being: Less noise, more connection
With employee well-being a growing consideration, Ali Bebo, CHRO at education company Pearson, challenges conventional thinking around the topic.
“We’ve spent the last decade piling on more — more tools, more check-ins, more bonding rituals, more surveys,” he says. “Then we act surprised when people feel burnt out. Engagement isn’t about adding another thing to the to-do list and calling it ‘culture.’ High-performing teams don’t run on volume; they run on connection.”
Bebo’s advice: “The best leaders won’t build louder workplaces; they’ll build clearer ones by simplifying systems, protecting people’s time, and making ‘less, but better’ the new standard for engagement.”
With nearly one-third (31%) of U.S. workers feeling stressed often or always because of their jobs and about the same share of the workforce saying they would take a pay cut to get better mental health support, according to the 2025 Workplace Mental Health Report from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), employers in the coming year may be persuaded to finally move beyond performative wellness toward more flexible work arrangements and more meaningful mental health support.
Frontline connection
Employers in 2026 are being called on to foster greater engagement with their frontline workers.
Jenny Shiers, CPO at digital workplace platform Unily, predicts it will be more important than ever for employers to “build a culture of real-time, two-way communication with their frontline teams. The pace of change isn’t slowing down, and frontline workers are critical to executing boardroom priorities, so keeping them aligned and engaged needs to be a core priority.”
A global survey of 7,550 frontline workers by Workvivo by Zoom underscores just how integral frontline employees are — and how disconnected they can feel. The research revealed that while frontline workers make up 80% of the workforce, nearly 9 in 10 don’t believe their company culture applies to them — with nearly half feeling so cut off from the company that they don’t even know who their CEO is.
Shiers suggests it’s time for people managers to make the shift from occasional check-ins with frontline employees to “approaches where listening is continuous and happens naturally within the flow of work.”
Hanus points to a disturbing trend: Half a million college-educated women at director and vp level left the workforce this year due to RTO mandates that have been “implemented without the care and support that made remote work successful for working parents in 2020.”
Her solution: “Parental leave is table stakes; leave for caregiving is the new differentiator. In 2026, the companies that will win the war for talent are those offering robust support for the sandwich generation.”