AUTHORS
Karalee Close
Senior Managing Director - Talent Reinvention, Global
Gaston Carrion
Managing Director - Talent Reinvention, HR Reinvention
Mamta Kapur
Senior Principal - Accenture Research, Talent Reinvention, Europe
Everyone can see that AI is changing work. What hasn’t been settled is what people and organizations do about it.
Suddenly, it’s not what AI can do but how it’s used to create lasting value. How is work being redesigned so people and AI do what each does best? How is newly created capacity being funneled back into the business? How are jobs and careers evolving, how are organizations building judgment and expertise? This is the work that matters moving forward—work that creates lasting business value, builds human capability and opportunity, while deepening an organization’s ability to learn and adapt.
This report explores five trends that define that future.
Five trends shaping the future of work
-
01. New economics
01. New economicsNew economics of work take hold
As AI takes on routine tasks, organizations must rebalance work in a way that’s meaningful for people and allows freed-up capacity to be reinvested back into the business.
-
02. Work intelligence
02. Work intelligenceWork intelligence fuels a dynamic talent strategy
The work inside jobs is changing fast. Closing that gap starts by identifying the work that creates value and knowing where human contribution matters most.
-
03. Employee experience
03. Employee experienceEmployee experience powers performance
The experience of work now drives business performance. Leading organizations understand how their people navigate change and embrace opportunities.
-
04. Decision advantage
04. Decision advantageDecisions become the operating model’s advantage
When each decision makes the next one better, organizations build a competitive advantage that is entirely unique and grows with time.
-
05. Leadership wisdom
05. Leadership wisdomLeadership demands the wisdom to act amid uncertainty
As information becomes abundant, leaders stand out by making bold decisions when the path is unclear and inspiring people to follow.
New economics of work take hold
AI changes what work costs. Leaders decide what it’s worth.
The economics of work are being rewritten. How organizations allocate work across people and AI, and reinvest the capacity released, will determine whether they create lasting value and drive growth. That means continuously rebalancing people and AI around the outcomes that matter most.
What’s changing
- Work allocation is now an economic imperative. AI introduces new costs that shift with every model, task and token, and most organizations are still developing the visibility they need to understand what it truly costs to deliver outcomes.
- Human-led work matters more than ever. As AI absorbs routine work, human judgment, creativity and expertise are becoming more valuable than ever. The organizations pulling ahead are the ones that build those capabilities while keeping work meaningful and sustainable.
- Reinvesting released capacity is a shared responsibility. It’s a collective decision for the C-suite. All parts of the organization need visibility into where capacity is being created, what it costs and where it can create the greatest value.
Only 35%
of organizations can precisely calculate the cost per business outcome for their highest-volume AI use case.1
projected rise in AI token consumption over the next 24 months.2
of executives plan to reinvest the capacity AI frees up toward higher-value work.3
What to do
Work intelligence fuels a dynamic talent strategy
Start by understanding the tasks, decisions and workflows that drive value.
The skills, expertise and career paths that organizations built their workforces around are changing. Organizations need to understand that change at task, decision and workflow level to shape their talent strategy around the future of work.
What’s changing
- Work is changing, and so are the skills needed. AI is driving significant changes to roles across all career levels, and the expertise gap between entry- and mid-career jobs is widening, making it harder to build the talent pipeline the business needs.
- Build the foundations of expertise. As AI absorbs the routine tasks that once built judgment and expertise, one in five managers are already concerned that junior employees are missing the hands-on experience they need to develop and advance.
- Work is becoming more cognitively intense. Working alongside AI is raising cognitive demands for most occupations, and that burden is falling unevenly across the workforce.
- Long-held assumptions about who does what are changing. Work that once built expertise at entry level is disappearing. AI is redrawing the boundaries of who does what and changing the assumptions that shaped career progression for decades.
62%
of leaders expect AI to transform their business model within three years.4
of changes to roles across all career levels are being driven by AI, making work intelligence a prerequisite for any talent strategy.5
What to do
Employee experience powers performance
Once an HR metric, employee experience is now a C-suite priority.
AI is changing how people experience work: their workloads, their relationships and their sense of purpose. How organizations respond to that shift is becoming one of the most consequential drivers of performance.
What’s changing
- People need to see a future for themselves. AI is reshaping roles and career paths. Organizations that help their employees understand where they fit, how they can contribute and what opportunities lie ahead create better conditions for stronger performance.
- Trust is built through experience. When people feel heard, are involved in shaping what comes next and know their leaders mean what they say, trust follows and performance improves.
- There is no single employee experience of AI. People experience AI differently depending on their role, workload and how much their day-to-day work is changing. One size does not fit all—understanding individual needs is key to sustainable outcomes.
- Learning and connection must be intentional. AI creates space for collaboration but can quietly erode the everyday interactions where people learn from colleagues and build relationships. Organizations must deliberately preserve human connection within the experience of work.
40%
of executives rank employee experience and trust among the shifts most likely to affect organizational performance in the next three years.7
of employees say clear guidance on how their role is evolving would be one of the best ways to help them adapt to change.8
of employees strongly agree they are active co-creators in shaping how AI changes their work.9
What to do
Decisions become the operating model’s advantage
As AI becomes widely available, advantage shifts to operating models and decision-making.
Organizations that redesign their operating model to learn from each decision create an advantage no competitor can replicate.
What’s changing
- Faster doesn’t mean better. The competitive edge is moving from decision speed to decision quality, toward the choices that set direction, allocate resources more effectively and resolve trade-offs in ways that create lasting value.
- Every decision makes the next one better. The context, judgment and outcome behind every decision an organization makes is a learning asset that compounds over time, and unlike technology, it cannot be purchased or replicated by a competitor.
- Governance is a performance capability. When decision rights and boundaries are clear, people and AI can move faster with greater confidence, making governance not a constraint on performance but the condition that enables it.
- Human accountability is now even more important. As AI takes on more tasks, the work that remains demands more: greater judgment, deeper accountability and the wisdom to look beyond AI’s recommendations. Being in the loop is not enough.
52%
of employees expect change in AI-supported decision-making in the coming year, signaling that the shift in how decisions are made is already underway.10
of C-suite leaders say agentic AI has already exceeded expectations on decision speed.11
report that human accountability is clearly established.12
What to do
Leadership demands the wisdom to act amid uncertainty
All leaders have information. The best ones have judgment, confidence and the ability to inspire.
What sets leaders apart is not access to information but the judgment to act on it — combining context and experience, moving forward when the path is unclear and inspiring people to follow.
What’s changing
- The leadership playbook is being rewritten. Leaders traditionally stood out for their expertise and knowledge. As AI makes both widely accessible, leadership is shifting from what they know to how they act, decide and bring people with them.
- Wisdom in action is becoming the new leadership standard. Leadership is no longer just about making decisions and setting direction. It’s about modeling the choices and behaviors an organization needs, taking responsibility for what follows and inspiring people to commit to the work.
- Four attributes define leaders who thrive amid uncertainty. Curiosity, courage, connection and the ability to balance competing demands are the qualities that allow leaders to act with conviction, bring people along and build the trust that sustains performance through change.
2x
C-suite postings requiring five or more leadership behaviors nearly doubled, yet emphasis on human connection, one of the most critical, is declining.13
of C-suite leaders report that human accountability is clearly established as agentic AI takes on more autonomous work.14
of organizations have monitoring capabilities robust enough to question AI outputs, understand where it fails and decide when to trust or override it.15
What to do
Case in point
¹ Accenture, AI Tokenomics Survey, 2026.
² ibid
³ ibid
⁴ Accenture, Pulse of Change Employee survey, October 2026.
⁵ Accenture Skill Evolution Analysis, 2026.
⁶ Accenture, Pulse of Change CxO survey, October 2026.
⁷ Accenture, Pulse of Change CxO survey, July 2026.
⁸ Accenture, Pulse of Change Employee survey, July 2026.
⁹ ibid
¹⁰ Accenture, Pulse of Change Employee survey, July 2026.
¹¹ Accenture, Pulse of Change CxO survey, July 2026.
¹² Accenture, Pulse of Change CxO survey, July 2026.
¹³ Accenture Job Postings analysis, 2026.
¹⁴ Accenture, Pulse of Change CxO survey, July 2026.
¹⁵ ibid