10 Hiring Trends That Matter Most in 2026

By Jeanne Meister

As we move into 2026, AI is no longer the next wave of technology, it is a strategic imperative with the power to reshape how companies compete, operate, and innovate. If 2025 was the year of AI experimentation, 2026 will be the year of AI transformation. The stakes are high: a 2025 Dataiku/Harris poll found that 74% of CEOs believe their jobs are on the line if they fail to deliver measurable business results from AI.

1. AI Fluency Is a Baseline Enterprise Skill

In a world where AI is evolving at breakneck speed, AI fluency is not optional; it is an expectation for all employees, no matter their role or level. Job postings requiring AI literacy have risen more than 70% from a year ago, according to Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn. Companies like Shopify, Zapier, and BlackRock are mandating AI literacy for both current employees and new hires. The reason? McKinsey research reports that companies with AI capabilities outperform competitors by two to six times in total shareholder returns.

As we enter 2026, companies are moving from mandating one-size-fits-all AI literacy training to creating more targeted training. Hannah Calhoon, VP of AI at Indeed, shares, “We are committed to role-specific training for many functions, including engineering and legal. The results have been impressive, with over 85% of our engineering team now using AI coding tools weekly, driving a 20% productivity increase while maintaining code quality. The legal team also went through role-specific AI training, and they have identified 20% of legal tasks that can be automated, reducing the time to review contracts from 26 hours to 2 hours.” This targeted approach to building AI fluency has replaced broad, generic AI training at Indeed, ensuring teams focus on high-value strategic work.

2. Companies Are Intentional in Screening and Assessing AI Fluency

Since AI fluency is a baseline requirement for hiring and consideration for promotion, companies are revamping recruiting processes to assess AI usage. Zapier’s Chief People and AI Transformation Officer, Brandon Sammut, believes this is the company’s Code Red moment to embed AI fluency into hiring, onboarding, performance management, coaching, and HR operations. Sammut started by reimagining the application process to evaluate AI fluency. Job candidates at Zapier are asked both how they use AI in their current work and to describe a workflow relevant to their role, and explain how AI could improve it.

Once hired at Zapier, employees are evaluated on AI fluency specific to their role on a four-point scale, from unacceptable to transformative. For example, to be considered transformative in their use of AI, a recruitment manager should be able to streamline the hiring process with AI to reduce time to hire by at least 30% and recommend ethical AI practices for company policy.

Screening for AI fluency is happening at companies outside of tech, such as BlackRock. Nigel Williams, BlackRock’s head of talent acquisition, seeks applicants who are skilled in using AI tools, including interacting with and effectively communicating with AI agents.

3. Some Entry-Level Jobs Are Decreasing, but AI Is Not the Sole Reason

During 2025, Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab and ADP reported a decrease of 16% in entry-level jobs for early-career workers in roles most exposed to AI automation—such as software development and customer service.

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While AI is often cited as the sole reason for this decline, there are other contributing factors leading to a decrease in entry level jobs, such as the redesign of early-career jobs and a skills mismatch. Recent University of Phoenix research found that one-third of HR leaders expect to create entirely new entry-level jobs with the primary purpose of partnering with AI.

In addition, Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Group, cautions that looking at a snapshot of entry-level job hiring does not tell the full story of a skills mismatch.

The Cengage Group Graduate Employability Report found that only 30% of college graduates in 2025 found jobs in their field. Hansen believes this is partly due to the divide between what employers expect and what universities teach. Cengage research shows employers prioritize job-specific skills, but only half of educators devote 20% or less of their curriculum to teaching workforce skills needed for employment. Roughly one-third of graduates wish their university worked more closely with employers to build career-relevant skills. This employer–university disconnect is yet another reason why entry-level job candidates are not finding employment.

4. Knowing How to Use AI as a New Team Member Is a Must-Have Skill

Global Growth Insights estimates that in 2026, companies will spend roughly $6.5 billion on AI certification programs. But what is often missing is training on how to work with AI as a new team member. University of Phoenix research conducted among 604 HR leaders and workers found that four out of ten workers want to partner with AI as a new team member—not just learn the technical skills to use AI in their jobs.

Learning to collaborate with AI on-the-job will be crucial, as Gartner predicts that at least 15% of routine work-related decisions will be made autonomously by AI agents in 2028, up from 0% in 2024.

While AI adoption is accelerating, many workers feel unprepared to use AI effectively in their jobs. In response, some companies—such as Synchrony—are investing in active listening programs, town halls, and online surveys to understand what training is needed to work with AI. According to DJ Casto, Chief Human Resources Officer, the company has launched a new AI Field Guide providing practical guidance to work with AI, along with real employee stories illustrating how workers are collaborating with AI.

5. Leaders Must Address the Gap Between the Rhetoric and Reality of Skills-Based Hiring

An analysis by Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute finds that while 85% of companies report adopting skills-based hiring, only 0.14% of hires are employed in roles where degree requirements have been eliminated in corporate hiring policies.

While a small group of organizations are leading the way in skills-based hiring, such as IBM, which has removed degree requirements for some technical roles through its New-Collar program, and Walmart, which uses a skills-first approach for management promotions, the reality is that skills-based hiring involves far more than eliminating degree requirements.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) notes that while employers are using skills-based hiring for entry-level workers, they are not expanding this approach compared to last year. Some reasons include insufficient buy-in from hiring managers, lack of skills verification, and general cultural resistance to change. This highlights the complexity of skills-based hiring and the need to be intentional in translating policy changes into actual hiring decisions.

6. Employee Fear of Becoming Obsolete (FOBO) Is Rising and Requires Action

Greater AI usage is leading to increased worker anxiety. Pew Research finds that workers are more worried than hopeful about AI expansion at work.

Some employees are experiencing FOBO—Fear of Becoming Obsolete.

As more organizations require AI fluency for hiring and promotion consideration, employees are increasingly concerned about their ability to demonstrate AI fluency. Many worry this could slow their career progression or even limit their eligibility for jobs at other companies.

This fear is real, and leaders must address it proactively. Organizations should surface employee concerns about AI through surveys and open dialogue, then act on what they learn. Leaders should clearly communicate the company’s AI strategy, reinforce the importance of AI fluency by providing access to relevant training, and create dedicated Slack channels where employees can share how they are navigating an AI-powered workplace.

7. Corporate AI Strategy Will Shift from Adoption to Transformation

Companies are moving beyond AI adoption toward AI transformation. AI adoption means doing the same work more efficiently. AI transformation, by contrast, embeds AI into the core of business operations, fundamentally changing how work gets done across the enterprise.

Zapier provides a compelling example of this shift. Today, 97% of Zapier employees use AI to support their core work—a milestone the company achieved in less than two years. According to Brandon Sammut of Zapier, “Our leaders made AI a company-wide priority—integrated into planning cycles, tracked through employee engagement surveys, and championed and led by leaders who declared AI a strategic business priority.”

In addition, Zapier aligned its AI efforts with business outcomes such as revenue growth and operational efficiency. This reframed success: the goal was not simply to work faster, but to measure how effectively AI was transforming work.

8. New Job Roles Are Being Created as AI Expands Across Organizations

While research often warns of jobs lost to AI, another shift is underway: new roles are emerging as a result of AI transformation. I first reported this in my HBR article, 21 HR Jobs of the Future. Several roles profiled—such as Future of Work Leader and Head of Employee Experience—are now common across organizations.

As companies use AI to transform work, entirely new roles are emerging. Some sound futuristic, such as Digital Ethics Advisor, responsible for building AI safety systems and ensuring compliance, or AI Decision Designer, charged with reviewing algorithms for bias and ensuring human accountability, but they point to a new set of capabilities needed in an AI powered workplace.

One new role taking shape is the AI Automation Engineer, which helps employees integrate AI into their day-to-day workflows. At Zapier, the AI Automation Engineer is already a formal role, as the company uses AI to transform nearly every aspect of work.

Some of these roles will initially emerge as work streams rather than full-time positions and will take time to scale. Ultimately, we can expect a wide range of new jobs focused on reducing bias, increasing transparency, and ensuring accountability as organizations embed AI more deeply across their operations.

9. Experienced Workers Will Benefit from AI Transformation

Experienced workers may have an advantage in a workplace powered by AI. According to Toptal’s November 2025 Job Report, professionals with more than five years in the workforce are outperforming both generalists and entry-level candidates in the job market—particularly when they combine domain expertise with AI skills.

This data points to a shift in employer demand toward experienced workers who bring business acumen, AI literacy, and the ability to contextualize AI insights within broader strategic decisions. As Erik Stettler, chief economist at Toptal, explains, “This uptick in demand shows that employers are looking for workers who can apply judgment to the data AI provides.”

This trend reflects a broader reality: AI’s impact on jobs is shaped less by job type and more by experience and expertise. Organizations are discovering that seasoned professionals can use AI to amplify their impact.

10. Leaders Will Manage a Hybrid Workforce

The future of work will be comprised of a hybrid workforce, where humans and AI agents operate side by side as integrated teams, achieving outcomes neither could deliver alone.

This hybrid workforce introduces new leadership challenges, from training and managing hybrid teams to measuring the combined performance of human and AI contributors. A new metric has also surfaced: the Human–Agent Ratio (HAR). This refers to to the number of AI agents deployed per employee within an organization. Gartner forecasts that by 2028, AI agents will outnumber human salespeople by ten to one. One consequence of this is that leaders will start measuring not only revenue per employee but also the human–agent ratio as an indicator of how deeply AI is embedded in everyday work. This ratio will vary by industry, function, task, and stage of AI maturity.

As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said earlier this year, “Today’s chief executives are the last generation to manage all-human workforces.” This will be the case not only for CEO’s but for all leaders who are now charged with re-imagining how work gets done in a human-AI workforce.

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