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The 'future of work' is an oft-examined slide under the microscope of HR leaders challenged with meeting talent and business demands over the coming years.
In an employment market being transformed by technology and new post-pandemic attitudes, research giant Gartner, has set out nine challenges in its latest Future of Work Trends for CHROs report that it believes CHROs must address to meet talent and business demands in 2026 and beyond to ensure their organization achieves its desired talent and business outcomes.
The context for the predictions is a workplace environment where AI investments, performance pressure and new employee expectations collide.
Senior Director Analyst Emily Rose McRae comments: “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.”
The list spans technology, culture, layoffs, security and pay, with each item revealing the widening mandate facing HR professionals.
Future of work meets restructuring risk
It’s no surprise that many future of work conversations center around AI replacing jobs. Gartner argues that a reverse pressure has emerged, that of leaders cutting jobs ahead of actual AI productivity gains.
Some CEOs, optimistic about the potential of AI investments to increase productivity and innovation, have already reduced headcount, says the report, even though returns have not yet been realized.
“Only 1% of layoffs in H12025 were the result of AI increasing employees’ productivity,” says the report.
It means business leaders find themselves in an impossible position, “being asked to make cuts to their teams on the basis of AI returns that have not yet been realized, and may never be.”
That puts HR leaders, as usual, between management and workers.
The challenge for CHROs is to deliver any layoffs in a human-centric way that won’t harm the organization’s employment brand.
Beyond that, the future of work requires rebalancing talent portfolios as CHROs take the lead on ‘talent remix’ efforts to ensure the size and structure of the current workforce “can effectively and sustainably support their organization’s strategic goals.”
Cultural pressures also feature prominently, with employers embracing “long hours, aggressive performance management, and minimal flexibility” without reciprocal investment in pay or benefits.
The report warns of “cultural dissonance” – when culture no longer reflects the reality of work.
Gartner Director Kaelyn Lowmaster, says that when the future of work meets unrealistic expectations it leads to disengagement without departure.
She calls it “regrettable retention,” saying, “disengaged employees remain in their role, and [cause] damage to the employment brand, both of which threaten CEOs’ performance ambitions.”
Her advice for future of work alignment was direct: “This year, the most successful CHROs 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.”
AI risk, workslop and new HR obligations
The rise of AI runs through several Gartner trends. One centers on employee wellbeing, saying that preserving resilience and safety in the workforce in the AI era is a core CHRO responsibility.
It extends beyond burnout to include psychological and legal exposure. Gartner warns CHROs that “managers and leaders are equipped to spot symptoms of disordered AI use or negative psychological, behavioral or emotional impacts of pervasive AI at work.
“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.”
Another AI friction point is what Gartner calls “workslop” - an abundance of fast but poor-quality work produced by or with AI. Employees are facing pressure to apply AI to everything with little time or autonomy to work out if the output is high-quality or even fit for purpose.
McRae argues that the best future of work strategies will target friction rather than speed: “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.”
Recruiting also enters the future of work conversation what might be best termed as a fraud arms race.
“AI has made hiring an arms race: candidates use AI for easier application and to stand out, organizations use AI to sift through a higher volume of candidates and to detect genuine, qualified matches and avoid malicious actors.”
Gartner predicts that we will see CHROs combine AI with interviews and experiential skills assessment in recruiting workflows.
Security rounds out the AI-linked trends, with a warning that: “The AI arms race and economic nationalism have drastically increased the risk of insider threats, specifically in the form of corporate espionage.”
HR leaders will need to address “the behavioral and motivational side of addressing and identifying sources of insider threats,” says the report.
Skills, careers and digital doppelgangers
The future of work is not only about risk and people management. Career reinvention and new skill models are also anticipated to feature in the CHRO in-tray.
Workers in digital roles may pivot into trades as they seek AI-proof pathways for instance.
Gartner expects apprenticeship models to support such transitions and encourages CHROs to prepare for both retention and retraining needs.
“Organizations are scrambling to hire talent with the latest AI skills,” but technical skills alone do not unlock value, with process expertise mattering more.
The most successful organizations in 2026 will prioritize finding work process experts, described as: “Employees whose creativity and systems thinking allow them to redesign entire processes, not just optimize individual tasks.”
The final trend pushes the future of work into uncharted compensation territory: paying employees for the training of their digital twins.
“Digital twins or AI avatars are already being developed to replicate high-performing employees, and even CEOs.”
This creates a whole new set of governance and pay questions.
“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 organization.”
For CHROs, it means the future of work appears both bigger and messier than ever before.
“The best organizations will update their AI governance to protect and reward employees’ likeness as AI is increasingly shaped in their image.”
Be careful out there.
