2025 has been a year characterized by disruption – technological, political, economic (and beyond).

Yes, with disruption comes challenges, but the prognosis isn’t all negative.

Disruption also presents opportunities for organizations to completely rethink the status quo – how can the world of work be designed for the better?

UNLEASH spoke to HR experts from consultancies Heidrick & Struggles, Deloitte, and McLean & Company to reflect on the lessons learned in 2025, as well as to predict the top trends for 2026.

Here’s what they think needs to be top of HR leaders’ to-do lists next year.

HR in 2025: CHROs are uniquely placed to lead in this AI era

For Jennifer Wilson, Co-Head of Heidrick & Struggles’ global HR practice, the most surprising trend of 2025 was “how quickly expectations for HR skyrocketed, and how unprepared many organizations were for the scale of change”.

“At the beginning of the year, most executives framed AI as a technology challenge.

“By the end of the year, the most forward-thinking CEOs realized that while the technology is critical, the real battleground is organizational design, talent strategy, and workforce behavior.”

This realization has “pushed CHROs into the center of the enterprise in a way we haven’t seen before”.

This especially true as it has become clear that AI could not “simply plug-in and deliver” – in reality, AI disruption “revealed deep gaps in culture, leadership capability, and change readiness”.

“The urgency for CHROs to translate AI technology disruption into a human-led, AI-enabled strategy became undeniable reality of 2025”, continues Wilson.

She adds: “HR leaders are operating under immense pressure in a world where people strategy is the biggest driver of enterprise performance.”

Kyle Forrest, Future of HR Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Kyle Forrest, Future of HR Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP, agrees.

In 2025, organizations have realized that “a technology-first strategy rarely delivers the value they expect” – Deloitte research shows that “today, 59% of organizations are taking a tech-first approach, and these companies are 1.6x more likely to report their investments are falling short”.

“HR is uniquely equipped to address” the core obstacles to successful AI adoption, but, according to a recent Deloitte survey, “only 12% of organizations say HR is leading work redesign for AI”.

Despite this stat, progress is being made. Forrest is clear that one of HR’s biggest successes in 2025 has been “unlocking value creation with AI that drives business outcomes as well as human outcomes”.

2025 taught organizations that it is those “that intentionally design work around people rather than simply layering it onto existing systems…that thrive through change rather than keep playing catch up”.

Ultimately, “HR brings the people lens to ensure the organization has the talent, skills, and culture to respond effectively in an unpredictable environment”, comments Fallan Mitchell, Manager, HR Research & Advisory Services, McLean & Company.

HR’s 2026 New Year’s resolutions

If 2025 has been a challenging, yet exciting, year for HR, what does 2026 have in store?

Jennifer Wilson, Co-Head, global HR practice, Heidrick & Struggles.

UNLEASH asked Forrest, Wilson and Mitchell for their predictions for 2026 – what must be top of HR leaders’ to-do list next year?

Here are the three trends that standout from the conversations that must be HR’s resolutions for 2026.

1. Break out of your HR silo

In 2025, “the strongest HR teams distinguished themselves by building enterprise-wide agility”, according to Heidrick & Struggles’ Wilson.

“They broke out of their functional silos and operated as strategic integrators, linking Finance, Operations, Technology, and P&L leaders to create coherent, data-driven workforce strategies that moved the business faster.”

This is echoed by McLean’s 2026 HR Trends report which found that “HR strategic influence is grounded in collaboration”.

Forrest and Deloitte agree that in 2026 the “shift towards enterprise-wide collaboration” will accelerate – “HR must step into a more central leadership role”, particularly as organizations are “redesigning work for a world defined by human–machine convergence”.

“To shift from incremental gains to transformational impact, HR leaders will need to move beyond tool implementation and take the lead in fundamentally redesigning roles, processes, and operating models,” continues Forrest.

This explains why, for McLean, the most important and “non-negotiable” partnership is IT.

McLean’s Mitchell tells UNLEASH: “HR’s partnership with IT will make or break AI transformation in 2026.

“When HR and IT work together in 2026, it will enable organizations to realize the full potential of AI.

“To put it simply: HR and IT are more powerful together.”

2. Urgently lean into scenario planning

Successful organizations in 2025 “have leveraged scenario planning to anticipate disruption, prioritize changes, and build organizational readiness”, adds Mitchell from McLean.

Scenario planning is something that must continue into 2026; it “must move from ‘nice to have’ to a core HR competency”, notes Heidrick & Struggles’ Wilson.

She adds: “HR must now manage a multidimensional risk landscape that includes AI ethics, workforce polarization, geopolitical instability, and regulatory shifts.

“Culture, and particularly psychological safety, will become a strategic stabilizer in this environment”

Wilson warns that “in 2026, succession will move from an HR priority to an enterprise risk”; succession planning, therefore, becomes an “urgent” part of general scenario planning.

“With only 43% of CEOs and boards confident in their ability to attract and grow executive talent, the leadership pipeline has become a core business vulnerability,” Wilson continues.

“HR leaders must sharpen their approach to identifying, developing, and retaining future leaders by being a more predictive, data-driven view of leadership risk.”

Together with cross-functional collaboration, scenario planning will help HR leaders “expand their strategic range”, which is an imperative in 2026 according to Wilson.

Fallan Mitchell, Manager, HR Research & Advisory Services, McLean & Company.

3. Embrace leadership resilience as it’s a competitive advantage

McLean’s Mitchell reflects on how “leadership development stood out as a major challenge for HR in 2025”.

In 2026, it’s high time that employers “re-examine the role of the people leader and whether development is truly a top priority, or it will continue to take a back seat to more urgent demands.”

Wilson from Heidrick & Struggles agrees. She argues that the “the defining HR trend of 2026 will be the rise of enterprise-wide leadership resilience”.

“In a world where AI accelerates everything from decisions, disruptions, and opportunities, organizations will win or lose based on how adaptable their leaders are, and their leadership strategy is, at every level.

“Leadership resilience will become the critical differentiator between companies that can sustain transformation and those that stall under pressure.”

She concludes that the “the central question for 2026 will be: Do we have the leaders who can take us where we need to go?”