A new report points to rapidly changing relationships between employers, employees, and AI.
Globalization Partners this month published its 2026 World at Work Report, “Beyond Boundaries: AI, Global Talent, and the Structural Evolution of Traditional Work.”
“Arguably the most significant technological shift of the century, AI has moved beyond improving efficiency and is changing how organizations operate, make decisions, and manage their workforce,” the report reads, describing the future of work in its “Workplace 2.0” section.
More than one-third of workers believe “AI Coworkers” will be the most impactful business trend over the next decade.
Other Workplace 2.0 trends include the dissolution of rigid workdays, and a a collapsing of traditional top-down organizational charts amid phaseout of performance reviews and linear career ladders.
In addition, provable skillsets will continue to gain credibility when compared with conventional education achievements, many professionals predict.
“Employees and executives share a strong consensus on how workplace norms will change over the next decade,” reads the report. “Strict desk requirements, static organizational hierarchies, and traditional career trajectories are quickly giving way to dynamic, skills-focused operating models tailored for agility and responsiveness.”
AI is having other workplace impacts, too.
The workforce is restless, with a majority of professionals considering job shifts within the next year, according to the report (a figure up from the year prior)—and more than 70% of them want their next employer to embrace AI and emerging technology as a core part of how the company operates.
In fact, “AI alignment” is becoming a non-negotiable for some as over half of employees state they would turn down a job offer if a company’s values and ethical standards around AI did not match their own.
“Evaluating an organization’s ‘AI taste’ isn’t just about reviewing its outputs,” explains Laura Maffucci, who functions as Head of Human Resources for G-P. “It’s also about how ethically and intentionally the company embeds AI into its daily human workflows.”
“Modern candidates can spot the difference between superficial automation and meaningful human-AI collaboration,” Maffucci says.
