HR teams are under more pressure than ever. Budgets are tight. Expectations are high. The pace of change is accelerating. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) and flexible workforce models are reshaping not just how people work, but how talent is accessed and managed. Many HR leaders are trying to make sense of the headlines—AI replacing jobs, rapid automation, economic uncertainty—while still managing day-to-day realities like staffing shortages, retention risk and compliance oversight.
But the real story is more nuanced. According to recent data, only 17% of HR teams have fully embedded AI into their operations. Yet 62% of employers expect to use AI in most hiring steps by 2026. The gap between intent and execution is now one of HR’s most critical issues.
Based on hundreds of conversations with HR teams and the workforce data emerging today, here is what HR leaders should expect—and prepare for—over the next year.
1. AI Will Become a Practical Tool for Reducing Administrative Burden
AI has generated lots of interest in HR. But for most teams, the value remains aspirational. The organizations that will see the most value in 2026 will be those focusing on intentional execution, not experimentation.
Where AI will deliver the fastest wins
AI will transform areas HR struggles with today:
- Screening and matching candidates faster
- Identifying next-best actions and talent supply gaps
- Suggesting improvements to job descriptions and outreach
- Scheduling shifts and managing attendance
- Predicting when workforce demand will spike
The data show real pain points: for instance, HR teams spend 520 hours per year screening CVs, and 48% of managers admit bias in hiring decisions. Meanwhile, 70% of candidates admit to exaggerating or mis-representing on their CVs, and interviews are shown repeatedly to be inconsistent as decision tools.
AI is not a replacement for HR judgment, but it is a means to bring consistency, structure and speed to processes that today are slow, manual and error prone. When AI and human judgment align, matched candidates are significantly more likely to lead to hire.
What HR should do now
- Select one high-impact, admin-heavy process (e.g., screening or scheduling) and apply AI to that first.
- Ensure the foundations are solid (job criteria, measurement, process) before layering AI.
- Train your team to work with AI tools—not feel replaced by them.
- Monitor outcomes, iterate, measure speed and quality improvements.
2. Flexibility Will Become a Workforce Expectation, Not a Perk
As AI delivers unparalleled information and choice, it has fundamentally changed our expectations. For example, my son loves the movie Cars, and I wanted to buy him a Doc Hudson toy car. Ten years ago, I would have had to scour the shelves at Walmart, only to find they didn’t have it in stock, and then try Target next. Now, I can do a quick search and instantly find that Amazon carries the car, then order it for next-day delivery. As AI and other technology democratize information, job seekers will demand the same type of flexibility and control in their work life that they get in their personal life.
Yet flexibility creates challenges for HR and frontline operations. The hidden costs of decentralized workforces include scheduling gaps, fragmented systems, high turnover, low morale, lost productivity and budget overruns.
In 2026, flexibility and operational reliability must go hand in hand. Workers want autonomy; leaders want stability. AI-enabled tools and smarter platforms will be a critical bridge.
What this means for HR
- Reassess job structures: Do your roles permit time/location flexibility, shift swapping, project-mode assignments?
- Update measurement: Move away from “hours logged on-site” toward outcomes, responsiveness and agility.
- Invest in workforce tools: Scheduling, attendance tracking, mobile interfaces will become table stakes.
- Support managers: Provide training and oversight so they can lead teams in flexible models.
3. The “Uberization” of Talent Will Reshape How Work Gets Done
A major shift: more workers want to pick and choose when and how they work. They don’t want long hiring cycles. They want speed, transparency, shift variety and control. This corresponds with a broader move toward platform-based workforce models—what many are calling the “Uberization” of talent.
In most other industries, such as ride-sharing or hospitality, you can see where a driver or restaurant falls on a five-star rating system before booking. In talent acquisition, however, many candidates lie on their resumes and it’s difficult to get an objective assessment of their past performance. That’s changing as some platforms are now delivering talent marketplaces with ratings systems. Like with ridesharing, this system allows workers to rate the companies in addition to the employers rating the workers on factors like reliability or skill set.
How this plays out in practice
Your workforce will increasingly look less like “headcount by job title” and more like “workforce by skill, availability and platform rating.” The distinctions between full-time, part-time, gig, and micro-assignment blur. What matters is the quality of match, speed of deployment and worker experience.
What HR should do now
- Build talent-pools instead of relying only on job postings.
- Adopt skills-based directories and platform-views of talent availability.
- Integrate your internal workforce-planning system with contingent/flexible talent models.
- Establish clear governance: How do we manage ratings, reviews, worker-app experience, compliance, classification and culture within a platform-based workforce?
4. HR Teams Will Be Expected to Move Faster and With Better Insight
In 2026, the organizations that thrive will treat technology as an ally that allows HR to reduce admin load, improve quality and strengthen worker relationships.
Key expectations for HR in the next year:
- Make decisions using real-time data, not lagging indicators.
- Standardize core talent and staffing processes to reduce bias and increase reliability.
- Strengthen compliance, especially as AI and platform work increase.
- Free up HR capacity from administration and drive more time into culture, engagement and strategic talent planning.
- Communicate clearly with workers about how AI, flexibility and platform work models impact them. Transparency builds trust.
Actionable Next Steps for HR Leaders
- Select one process (screening/matching, scheduling, workforce forecasting) where AI or platform-enabled flexibility can give quick wins.
- Standardize your inputs: job criteria, ratings, process flow should be clear and consistent before adding tech.
- Pilot a flexible work model or talent-pool concept: use platform tools to manage worker availability, shifts and performance.
- Train your leadership: equip managers to operate in flexible, platform-based models—not just traditional teams.
- Monitor outcomes: track time to fill, worker satisfaction, retention, quality of hire, cost per shift and scheduling gaps.
- Communicate clearly to workers and managers alike. Explain what is changing, why and how you’re supporting them.
James Terry is Head of US Revenue at Indeed Flex. James has worked in the HR and staffing sector for over 15 years and holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Throughout his career, James has built expertise in strategy, sales and leadership, with a focus on driving high-performing organizations.