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Howdy HR friends!👋

Hope your Tuesday’s treating you kindly (and your HR tech isn’t crashing… yet).

As 2025 winds down, everyone’s talking predictions — but we’ve done the digging for you. This week, we’re breaking down the top HR priorities for 2026 from the latest industry reports and research.

From AI readiness to retention red flags, the year ahead is shaping up to test every part of the people function — strategy, empathy, and maybe your caffeine tolerance too. ☕

👇️ Coming up

In today’s edition

🔮 The future belongs to HR teams who embrace their robot sidekicks

🛋️ The break room: What's your #1 HR tech priority heading into 2026?

📚 Human readsources: Navigating the evolving workplace: RTO debates, addressing discrimination, and building effective career development strategies.

💭 Opening thoughts

2026 could be hr’s most empowered year yet

With 72% of HR leaders feeling overwhelmed by their workload, AI continues to represent a fundamental reimagining of what human resources can accomplish.

By 2026, the strategic advantage will belong to organizations where HR professionals have evolved from administrators to AI-empowered business partners, delivering unprecedented value through data-driven people strategies.

HR departments must continue to actively cultivate AI competencies within their teams while simultaneously redefining their value proposition around uniquely human capabilities that complement—rather than compete with—artificial intelligence.

For easy reading

🧠 Let’s unpick

🔮 the ai evolution in hr: from experimentation to execution

AI in HR isn't new. We've been testing chatbots, experimenting with resume screening, automating onboarding tasks. But here's what's actually different as we head into 2026.

According to research, 83% of HR professionals globally express excitement, hope, or optimism over the potential of agentic AI—a significant shift from cautious curiosity to genuine enthusiasm.

72% of high-performing HR teams are already using four or more specialized HR tools, compared to an average of three. Meanwhile, 4 in 5 HR and finance professionals say they'll likely purchase new HR and payroll tech in the coming year to address outdated systems, limited analytics, and compliance concerns.

What HR teams are actually prioritizing in 2026:

According to PSB Insights research, here's where HR is putting its focus:

• 43% of HR professionals are prioritizing tech upgrades and improvements to eliminate outdated, clunky systems that don't reliably automate key tasks

• 39% are focusing on employee development, upskilling and reskilling—not just for employees, but for HR pros themselves as roles expand

• 37% are increasing AI incorporation into HR to reduce manual workload and focus on engagement and retention

• 36% are enhancing employee experience, engagement and well-being through better tech and holistic support

• 34% are working on attracting and retaining talent with improved employer brand and opportunities

But notice something? These priorities aren't separate initiatives—they're interconnected. Better tech enables better employee experiences. AI frees HR to focus on retention. Development programs help with attraction. It's all part of the same transformation.

Gartner emphasizes that CHROs should also prepare for a "now-next" strategy—clearly defining how to get the most from talent over the next 12 months, and the actions to improve talent outcomes over the next one to three years. This includes:

• Helping leaders "routinize" change by resetting expectations about their role, teaching them to regulate discomfort with change, and building employees' change reflexes

• Preparing for human-AI work scenarios based on how and where AI is deployed in the organization

• Empowering managers to hold productivity discussions with employees, creating a culture where teams can provide open feedback on productivity behaviors

What should you actually do now?

You can read more at...

🔗 AI Strategy Reshapes HR: Preparing for Human-AI Workplace (HCA Mag)

🔗 The Rise and Fall of Prompt Engineering: HR's Shifting AI Focus (Human Resource Executive)

🔗 HR Trends for 2026: AI, Tech Upgrades and Employee Development (Paycom)

🎬 Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

1. Schedule a bi-weekly standing meeting between your HR lead and IT lead. Don't wait for a formal integration plan. HR and IT need to be "connected at the hip" because AI behaves like people, so start building that partnership immediately.

2. Create a monthly "tech sandbox" meeting where your HR team can share discoveries, test new tools, and collaborate on workflow improvements without fear of failure.

3. Retrain your recruiters to screen for adaptability and results, not AI technical skills. Recruiters are "highly impacted" by AI changes and need to identify fundamentally different candidate qualities now.

4. Replace your next skills assessment with application interviews—Stop asking "can you write prompts?" and start asking "show me how you've used AI to solve a problem and what you learned." Focus on outcomes, not technical proficiency.

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

AI in HR has shifted from experimentation to execution. 83% of HR pros are optimistic about AI, with top 2026 priorities being tech upgrades (43%), upskilling (39%), and AI incorporation (37%).

The key change: stop training prompts, start measuring outcomes. HR needs tight IT partnerships, recruiters must screen for adaptability over technical skills, and leaders need strategies for human-AI collaboration.

☕The break room

What’s your take?

📚 Additional reading

Human Readsources

🏢 Return-to-Office Mandates Spark Employee Exodus (HR Executive) - Return-to-office mandates clash with employee preferences amid economic uncertainty.

⚖️ Google Exec Claims Racial Bias in Firing Lawsuit (HCA Mag) - Black executive sues Google for discrimination, unfair termination.

🪜 Cisco Executive Reshapes Entry-Level Jobs Amid AI (HR Brew) - Cisco executive reshapes entry-level roles amid AI automation challenges.

That’s it for today.

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

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