2026 Talent Transformation Yearbook

AI Progress Report

We surveyed 500 HR and talent leaders to learn who is making the most progress with AI. Turns out the ones pulling ahead did the unglamorous work first.

This report started with a thesis:

The people who set AI strategies aren’t the ones using it in practice. And the people using it day-to-day don’t have a seat at the strategy table. We thought this gap would explain why so many AI pilots and projects stall.

 

But the data we captured turned our thesis on its head.

There is still a gap, just not where we expected it to be.

What separates organizations is the unglamorous work: clean data, process ownership, trained teams and managers brought along. Organizations that spend the time to build these foundations are much more successful in their implementation of AI.

What's inside the yearbook

3Fad or Future

Grade this year’s predictions. Were they a fad, the future or too early to call?

4Superlatives

What does a successful AI implementation look like in practice? Read about eight talent teams who did the hard work first and achieved exceptional results.

Talent Class of 2026 Superlatives

5Next year’s syllabus

Everything we’ve learned turned into a roadmap for 2027.

What does AI progress look like?

Download the report to see what top-tier organizations do differently.