👋 2026 just entered the chat

real trends, brutal truths, and what hr needs to prepare for 💼

December 30, 2025

Howdy HR friends!👋

2026 is shaping up to be another year where the workplace changes in ways we're only starting to understand. Some trends are real and measurable. Others are just noise dressed up as strategy.

This edition synthesizes the most common trends predicted by HR leaders, and research firms like Gartner, heading into the new year. From AI adoption rates to retention crises to the death (or evolution) of the college degree.

Today’s edition is presented by SelectSoftware Reviews

Heading into 2026, choosing HR software shouldn’t feel like punishment. You’ve spent enough hours comparing tools the hard way. HR leaders are moving to a faster, smarter solution with SSR’s free HR software matching service.

👇️ Coming up

In today’s edition

👋 2026 just entered the chat

🛋️ The Break Room: What's your organization's biggest priority heading into 2026?

📚 Human Readsources: AI safety oversight roles, NY employment agreement bans, and non-compete regulations shaking up the talent landscape.

💭 Opening thoughts

👋 2026 just entered the chat

Let's be honest, we're drowning in "AI will change everything" takes. But here's what some of the data actually shows: by 2026, your job isn't disappearing, it's splitting in two. AI handles the repetitive stuff while humans are expected to level up into strategic, creative, emotionally intelligent work. Sounds great, right?

Except most organizations are spectacularly unprepared. HR teams? Caught in the middle, expected to be strategic visionaries while drowning in admin work that AI supposedly should've eliminated by now.

For easy reading

🧠 Let’s unpick

AI isn't the story anymore. How organizations respond to AI is the story. Turns out, when you strip away the hype and the hedge language, a few patterns become impossible to ignore.

1. AI won't replace humans, but most organizations aren't ready for it anyway

  • 55% of companies already regret their AI-driven layoffs after discovering machines can't replace judgment, creativity, and human coordination

  • Only 25% of employees will have high "AIQ" by 2026, most organizations are massively underinvesting in AI literacy

  • Most managers are experimenting with AI in performance management without any formal training on bias, ethics, or appropriate use

2. "Soft skills" are becoming "Power Skills" and they're worth more than technical expertise

  • Emotional intelligence, creativity, resilience, curiosity, and social influence are what industry experts now call "Power Skills"

  • Gen Z expects these skills to carry equal weight with technical abilities like coding and data analysis

  • Organizations investing in developing these capabilities through coaching and experiential learning will stay ahead

3. Annual performance reviews are dying (finally)

  • Annual reviews are broken and will shift to continuous, AI-integrated feedback loops

  • AI will monitor meetings, detect tone and conflict, and nudge supervisors in real-time when feedback is needed

  • The future of performance management processes is automation, but the future of managing performance can't be

  • Feedback will become a normal activity rather than a dreaded annual event

4. Remote work is shifting from standard to premium perk

  • Hybrid workers' required office days are climbing: 34% now go in four days a week, up from just 23% in 2023

  • "Hybrid creep" will intensify as companies push return-to-office mandates

  • Remote work is becoming a competitive benefit and strategic advantage for attracting top talent

  • Flexibility is shifting from "where" you work to "when" you work, with Millennials and Gen Z leading the charge

5. HR tech budgets are about to get brutally scrutinized

  • Poorly adopted systems and consultants that don't scale are getting axed

  • HR's top focus: upgrading technology and moving to single-base architecture (no more Frankenstein stacks)

  • CHROs will be judged by how much time their tools return to managers, not how many tools they deploy

  • The question: does your tech deliver scalable impact or just create more admin work with a shinier interface?

You can read more at...

🎬 Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

  1. 🧠 Start building your "AIQ" training program today to ensure your workforce can effectively collaborate with AI tools; aim to have at least 50% of employees AI-proficient before your competitors do.

  2. 🌱 Develop transparent, skills-based career paths that emphasize "Power Skills" like emotional intelligence and creativity, without clear progression opportunities, you risk losing your top talent to competitors who offer growth.

  3. 📈 Redesign performance management. Pilot continuous feedback loops,even if they're not fully AI-integrated yet. Train managers to give real-time, specific feedback instead of saving it all up for one awkward conversation per year. Make development conversations separate from compensation conversations so people can actually be honest.

  4. 🤖 Audit your HR tech stack ruthlessly. Look at every tool and ask: does this save managers time, or does it create more admin work? Is adoption actually high, or did we just pay for licenses people ignore? Can these systems talk to each other, or are we manually exporting and importing data like it's 2015? Be ready to cut systems that don't deliver measurable impact, even if they seemed like a good idea when you bought them.

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

2026 is the year AI integration gets messy. The winners won't be the organizations with the fanciest tools, they'll be the ones who figured out AIQ training, building growth career paths, continuous feedback, and how to build an effective HR tech stack. Stop predicting. Start building.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

We know you’re super busy and really appreciate you saving some room for us in your inbox 😀

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