As the end of the year closes in, CHROs must focus on getting the most out of both AI and talent to achieve any ambitious organizational goals amid the constant change that’s sure to continue in 2026, according to a new report.

The Gartner HR Priorities Survey suggests HR leaders should take an enterprise-wide view of AI’s impact on work—particularly how change is affecting leaders and employees—to evolve organizational culture and support performance expectations.

“In today’s climate, it is critical for CHROs to focus on the priorities that will enable their organization to respond to the broad trends impacting the workforce and business environment,” says Mark Whittle, vice president of Advisory in the Gartner HR practice.

3 top HR priorities for 2026

For its report, Gartner identified several areas HR must prioritize to move their organizations forward in an environment of change:

Harness AI to revolutionize HR

While enterprises typically develop a centralized AI strategy to provide an overarching vision and guidance, CHROs must also have an HR-focused AI strategy.

With such a plan in place, HR can evolve their function’s operating model to unlock new strategic capabilities, the report suggested. Most organizations and vendors are still experimenting, but CHROs need to be open to reimagining work, processes and talent to truly harness AI’s value, Whittle says.

Shape work in the human-machine era

“Pervasive use of AI will shape work going forward, but the exact shape organizations take will depend largely on the decisions executive leaders make about how and why AI is used,” Whittle explains.

According to Whittle, CHROs must prepare for the future of work while successfully driving talent results today. This requires a “now-next” talent strategy that clearly defines how to get the most from talent today (over the next 12 months) and describes the actions to drive better talent outcomes in the future over the next one to three years.

Mobilize leaders for growth in an uncertain world

When change seems as out of control as it is today, Whittle says, HR needs to take a new approach to prepare leaders, which the firm calls “routinizing” change. This means treating constant change as a normal business process, not as something “extra” that requires peak intensity all the time.

“Routinizing change also means showing leaders how to rebalance their time and energy to where it matters most and can be sustainable,” Whittle says. “That their role in change is not ‘more work’ but a regular part of their job they manage well.”

Strategies to embrace change

Whittle says HR can take several key steps to help leaders routinize change, including:

• Clarify to leaders that they must focus employees on making progress across the change journey, and reset leader expectations about their role in change.
• Help leaders regulate employees’—and their own—discomfort with change by teaching them to understand their own emotions, what’s driving them and what they can do to cope and move forward.
• Teach leaders how to build employees’ change reflexes by helping leaders identify what core change skills matter most, finding moments within daily work to practice those skills and securing employee commitment to building the necessary reflexes.

Productivity challenges among change

Changes are now stacked on top of each other—continuous and interdependent—so failure with one initiative can create damaging ripple effects on others, Whittle notes. Many of these changes are also externally driven, primarily via AI, tariffs and a changing compliance landscape.

“Externally driven changes can make leaders feel that change is unpredictable and uncontrollable,” he says.

In such an environment, CHROs will be even more integral in 2026 to delivering a culture that fosters a productive, engaged and skilled workforce—but many are struggling. In fact, a July 2025 Gartner survey of 222 CHROs found that less than half (47%) indicated their culture drives employee performance today.

HR needs to empower employees to provide “open feedback” on productivity, “actively shaping what works best for them and working together effectively,” Whittle says. “HR must equip managers to have actionable productivity discussions with employees. And employees must feel empowered to solve their own productivity problems.”