Latest HR & People Analytics Trends: Promotion in AI-related roles, 2026 Budget Increases, AI Talent Framework, Mental Health training, AI Tools

👋 Hello Everyone and Happy Sunday !

Thrilled to bring you the 𝟭𝟮𝟬𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 of Weekly People Analytics Research 💥 — your go‑to check‑in for the latest insights shaping the future of work. 🎉

☕ Some of you might be sipping coffee, tea, or enjoying a quiet lunch break while diving into these insights. Wherever you are, I hope this week’s edition brings you inspiration, reflection, and a fresh perspective—just as it always does.

💡 Last week’s research painted a clear — and urgent — picture of where HR is today, and where it’s heading:

• 😀 AI & Job Satisfaction – UK Government research finds tools like Microsoft Copilot may not dramatically boost raw productivity, but they do deliver notable time savings ⏳ and higher job satisfaction .

• 🧠 Wellbeing Gap – CIPD & Simplyhealth reveal that while many organisations act on employee wellbeing, only 29% equip line managers with mental health training — a critical leadership gap.

• 🔄 AI Transformation – Boston Consulting Group (BCG) ’s AI Talent Horizon shows that across all stages of AI adoption, the transformation of Tasks, Talent, and Teams is both deep and unavoidable .

• 📉 Pay Trends & AI Impact – Mercer US predicts that by 2026, remote employees and non‑specialised tech talent will see smaller pay rises as AI reshapes demand.

• 🚀 Career Acceleration – Burtch Works reports that AI‑skilled employees are moving into management roles twice as fast as peers in other tech fields.

Last Friday, on Friday, September 19th, our Lunch & Learn session with George, We’ve explored with the brilliant Andy Nisevic - One Degree Training & Coaching Ltd what it means to lead when the script runs out — from building trust in uncertain times, to reframing beliefs, practising deliberately, and hardwiring behaviours that truly move the needle.

We’ve seen how honesty, adaptability, and focus on high‑impact actions can transform leadership effectiveness. And we’ve reminded ourselves that AI, change, and disruption aren’t just about technology — they’re about people, skills, and the environments we create for them to thrive.

📺 Missed it? The full replay is now on YouTube — packed with insights you can put into action today. 🎥 Watch the full conversation here: Link

Next Friday, 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟲𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟮:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗧, join me for a Lunch & 𝑳𝙚𝒂𝙧𝒏 – Special Leadership Edition – LinkedIn Live with the brilliant Kristina Klenina 🎙️ Founder & CEO of PB Founding , who helps leaders and executives craft personal brands that inspire trust, influence, and opportunity.

💡 Topic: 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐑 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

✨In a world where HR is no longer just a back‑office function but a strategic driver of culture, trust, and transformation, the leaders who stand out are the ones who are seen, heard, and remembered.

☝️ Personal branding isn’t about self‑promotion — it’s about clarity of message, consistency of action, and authenticity of presence. It’s how leaders amplify their impact, attract the right opportunities, and inspire confidence in times of change.Kristina will show us how personal branding can become a strategic lever for HR leaders — helping them influence at the highest levels, champion the employee experience, and shape the future of work from the front of the stage, not the back of the room.

In this interactive session, you’ll discover:

➡️ Why personal branding is now a leadership necessity, not a luxury

➡️ How HR leaders can align their brand with organisational transformation goals

➡️ Practical steps to build visibility, credibility, and influence

➡️ Real‑world examples of leaders who’ve used personal branding to drive changePlus…

📰 𝐇𝐑 & 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 – This week’s top trends shaping the future of work.🎙️ LIVE Q&A – Bring your questions directly to Kristina, with George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL guiding the conversation with his trademark insight.

📌 Set your reminder and join us LIVE — let’s explore how to lead, influence, and inspire through the power of personal branding.

🔥 Now, let's do a recap of the week on published research:

AI‑skilled employees are moving into management roles twice as fast as their peers in other tech fields !

💡 Findings of researchers:

💡The explosion of Generative AI and AI tools is rewriting the rules of hiring and career growth in US.

📈 Job postings skyrocket – In the US, AI‑related roles more than doubled from 66,000 to nearly 140,000 between January and April 2025.

🔦 Selectivity rises – Despite the surge, economic uncertainty is prompting employers to be more discerning in their hires.

👩💼 Leadership comes faster – Individual contributors with AI experience are being promoted to management roles 2× faster than in other tech fields.

📉 Women represent less than 30% of professionals in both Data Science and AI roles.

⏭️ Tenure takes a back seat – Years of experience are no longer the main ticket to promotion in AI & Data Science roles.

🎓 Advanced degrees dominate – Master’s‑level talent now makes up the clear majority in both AI and DS, while the share of Bachelor’s‑only hires is shrinking — especially in AI — tightening the supply for production‑ready IC‑1/IC‑2 roles, according to a new interesting research published by Burtch Works , using data from the compensation of 724 Data Scientists and 162 AI Professionals (total 886) candidates collected from May 2024 to April 2025.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers found that in both US professions — Data Science and AI — a significant gender gap persists, with women representing less than 30% of professionals.

We know that this disparity begins at the college level, where far fewer women than men apply to scientific and technical degree programs.

𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:

I find these findings both inspiring and challenging. The pace at which careers are accelerating in the AI era is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Talented individuals are stepping into management roles faster than ever and while that’s a testament to their skills and adaptability, it also means many are navigating leadership without the time or support to truly prepare for it.

This is where the real test begins for organisations. Promoting someone is easy. Equipping them to lead to inspire, to build trust, to make decisions in uncertainty is harder. And when promotions outpace preparation, the risk isn’t just to the individual, but to the teams and transformations they’re meant to lead.

Here are my recommendations: 🌟 For Organisations:

🌟 For Organisations:

✔️ Integrate leadership readiness early — start building leadership skills before the tech promotion happens.

✔️ Pair new managers with seasoned mentors who can guide them through the human side of leadership.

✔️ Invest in adaptive leadership training to prepare managers for ambiguity, change, and cross‑functional collaboration.

🙏🏼 What were the best HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich You continue to source wonderful data, this time on AI careers. It is not a surprise that AI skills are in such high demand as AI insights are dominating work. Moving AI technical skilled employees into leadership or managerial roles may be more troublesome.We have discovered two parallel career paths ... a managerial path and a technical path at stage 3 and 4. We found when technical experts move from stage 2 (individual contributor ) to the managerial stage 3, they lose some of their technical expertise and enter a new career pathway.I would assume this is a risk of moving technical experts in AI (stage 2) into managerial roles for stage 3 ... the loss of some technical expertise.It will be interesting to see which firms can leverage AI capabilities into stakeholder value and how to make that happen by careers of AI trained employees.

Maxim Yelisyeyev Great research. What stood out to me is that advanced degrees dominate. But I’ve met exceptional self-taught AI practitioners who deliver at the same level.

Nicole Vaughan Wetherley The speed of AI career growth is exciting, but I’m glad you pointed out the gender gap. With less than 30% women in AI and Data Science, we’re missing out on a lot of valuable perspectives that could make teams and systems so much stronger.

Alain Somvang Your analysis on career acceleration in AI is spot on, but it could highlight profound organizational risks, imho.Beyond just the lack of leadership readiness, there's a real danger of creating a gap in treatment and recognition between these new AI-related managers and more experienced leaders.

Sandra Domeij I'd say that it's even more important to identify what makes people great leaders – AI literacy is arguable increasingly important, but we're still leading other humans.

Remote employees and non‑specialised tech talent face smaller pay rises in 2026 as AI reshapes demand !

💡 Findings of researchers:

💡 As we look toward 2026, one thing is clear: the game has changed for Total Rewards leaders. The post‑pandemic frenzy of 💥 double‑digit salary hikes and frantic market adjustments is firmly behind us.

🔥 The biggest challenge ahead? A diverging labor market. Some sectors are heating up, others are cooling down — and the “all jobs in high demand” era is over.

🎯 For the merit process, the answer is simple: spend wisely. The days of spreading your budget like peanut butter are gone. It’s time to move from a flawed, one‑size‑fits‑all system to a modern, data‑driven approach — one that gives managers smart recommendations to make pay decisions aligned with your company’s goals and values.

⚖️ And through it all, fairness must remain non‑negotiable. Compensation practices should be equitable for every employee — no matter where they work or what role they play.

💰 2026 will reward organisations that combine strategic precision with human‑centered fairness, according to a new interesting research published by Mercer using data 📊 from their internal clients.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

🏠 While remote and hybrid models are here to stay, a clear trend is emerging — fully remote employees are receiving smaller pay increases (3.6% year‑over‑year) compared to the overall workforce (4.0%).

𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:

I really like these findings about 2026 compensation trends because it's shows how the evolving reality of remote and hybrid work is quietly reshaping compensation and not always in ways we intend.

Fully remote employees are, on average, seeing smaller pay increases than the broader workforce. On paper, the difference may seem small… but when you consider that women are more likely to work remotely, the potential for widening inequities becomes impossible to ignore.

⚖️ And as we modernise, equity must remain front and center. Compensation practices should be fair for all employees — regardless of where they work, what they do, or how fast their sector is moving.

The future of work isn’t just about flexibility, it’s more about ensuring that flexibility doesn’t come at the cost of fairness.

Here are my recommendations: 🌟 For Organisations:

✅ Spend wisely — precision beats tradition.

✅ Make fairness non‑negotiable, across roles and geographies.

✅ Align compensation decisions with business goals and human values.

🙏🏼 What were the best HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Thanks for sharing good research by Mercer, as expected. Every time I see work on rewards and compensation, I am drawn again to Charles Tharp's brilliant three questions:Pay --- versus whom?Pay --- in what form?Pay --- for what?This research offers insights on these questions that is helpful.

Jos van Snippenberg Interesting research about 2026 compensation trends. The research emphasizes to me that organisations are in a "pause modus". It is a consequence of the uncertainty of how organisations will embed humans and tech in the near future. The exponential growth of technology make frontline and hands on roles more visible and also valuable. The vulnerability of these roles are better seen, and requires also higher pay increases.

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL When looking at rewards and compensation, I would normally say that there should be equity based on knowledge, skills, experience and ability. However, there is one more area that needs to be looked at with regard to remote working - that is the employees' ability to identify, put into context and to share implicit learning (of the type that would normally be picked up in the workplace).

Arturo Aranda Marín Digitization and AI are accelerating the segmentation of the labor market, and it is no longer enough to apply uniform wage policies. More precise management is required, based on data and aligned with the organization's values. Equity is not only an ethical principle but also a key tool for attracting and retaining talent in an increasingly competitive environment.

Dr. Masroor Hussain Shah Remote workforce is getting less as compared to other employees. This is unfair. As you rightly mentioned that most women work remotely, if they are rewarded with less annual or performance increase, it is unfair. The historical premise is being confirmed that women are always paid less as compared to men. I strongly urge and suggest to consider the performance and reward increment or pay increase on merit regardless of any gender, ethnic, religious or cultural bias. As of now DEIB is being dubbed as the central norm of any progressive work culture. If this is the case, then pay equity should be the core of pay and rewards.

Dr. Kua Kee Tui The data reveals a concerning trend: remote employees and those in non-specialised roles are receiving smaller pay adjustments. This is largely influenced by factors such as location, visibility, and outdated compensation models. If this trend continues, organisations risk discouraging talented individuals who are equally capable but working in different environments.

Across all stages of AI adoption, the transformation of Tasks, Talent, and Teams is undeniable !

💡 Findings of researchers:

🤖 At every stage of AI adoption, the impact on tasks, talent, and teams is undeniable. AI is taking over execution, freeing human teams to focus on strategy, design, and oversight.

🔄 Roles are broadening and blending, as functional lines fade and hybrid skill sets emerge. 🏗 Traditional organisational pyramids are giving way to flatter, AI‑augmented pods — reshaping the need for junior, coordinator, and even some manager roles.

🧠 Skills are shifting too: AI fluency is becoming essential across the board, alongside systems thinking, problem framing, and sound judgment.

👉 What sets great leaders apart is not just adopting AI tools, but investing in workforce readiness, communication, and cultural alignment.

☝️ Today, most tech organisations are still in the tool‑based adoption stage — using AI to speed up tasks and reduce repetition. A smaller group has moved into workflow transformation, embedding AI into processes for true co‑creation. The next horizon is agent‑led orchestration, where AI manages end‑to‑end execution and humans steer strategy and oversight.

In each stage, the shifts are significant — and the leaders who navigate them with clarity, fairness, and vision will define the future of work, according to a new interesting research published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) using data from AI-native leaders, our client experience, and job market data.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers has developed the AI Talent Horizon Framework.

It’s built on two key dimensions :

• AI Maturity. It progresses from tool-based adoption by individuals, to workflow transformation, to full, agent-led orchestration. Most organizations, and even teams within them, operate across multiple stages at once, not in a linear path.

• Workforce Impact. This spans how tasks are executed, to what skills are needed, to how teams are structured, to how organizational culture must evolve to support new ways of working.

𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:

I believe we are living through one of the most profound shifts in the history of work — and AI maturity is the clearest lens through which to see it unfold. The emergence of four distinct talent archetypes is particularly fascinating, because it shows just how deeply AI is reshaping the fabric of organisations.

With every step forward in AI maturity, the transformation of tasks, talent, and teams is profound. The question for leaders now is not if this transformation will touch their teams, but how ready they are to lead through it.

Here are my recommendations: 🌟 For Organisations:

✔️ Invest in AI fluency at every level – Make AI literacy as fundamental as digital literacy once was, ensuring all employees can work effectively alongside intelligent systems.

✔️ Redesign roles for human–AI collaboration – Shift job descriptions from task‑based to outcome‑based, emphasising judgment, creativity, and systems thinking.

✔️ Flatten hierarchies where it adds speed and value

🙏🏼 What were the best HR expert opinions:

Liz Lucero So many learnings - what I find most interesting is there is now clear "right way" just yet. There will be a lot of experimentation and depending on what companies are optimizing for, they will naturally choose different paths.

Dave Ulrich Very very relevant framework for evolving AI impact on tasks, talent and teams. I like the evolution of AI and the four archetypes along that journey. I think that the term "talent" will increasingly be both people and technology combined and that workforce planning will be around worktask which can be done by either people or technology or both. AI will not be a separate agenda, but integrated into daily work like ethics is not a separate topic for study as much as it is integrated into everything we do.Thanks for sharing. Clearly more to come on AI journey

Lajos Toth The most overlooked skill in an AI-first world? Understanding how and when to take risks, and embracing the benefits of doing so.

Many organisations are acting on employee wellbeing — yet only 29% equip line managers with mental health training !

💡 Findings of researchers:

☝️ Wellbeing isn’t just a “nice to have” — it’s a strategic imperative.

📈 The average number of absence days per employee has risen to 9.4 days a year — the highest in more than 15 years.

🧠 Mental ill health is now the top cause of long‑term absence (41%), while 🤒 minor illnesses remain the main driver of short‑term absence (78%). Yet mental ill health is also the second leading cause of short‑term absence (29%), and stress is a major factor in both short‑ (26%) and long‑term (28%) sickness.

💡 The good news?

• More organisations are taking a strategic approach to wellbeing — up from 44% in 2020 to 57% in 2025.

• Employee wellbeing is firmly on senior leaders’ agendas (61% → 2020 vs. 2025 → 75%).

• Line manager buy‑in has grown from 58% to 75% in the same period.

⚠️ Still, there’s work to do:

• Nearly two‑thirds (64%) of organisations are acting to identify or reduce workplace stress.

• But only half (50%) believe their efforts are truly effective.

🏡 And let’s not forget — working from home can help lower absence and boost productivity when done right, according to a new interesting research published by CIPD supported by Simplyhealth using data from a survey of 1,101 HR and people professionals or management-level employees with major HR decision-making involvement or influence in their organisation.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers also revealed that senior leaders and managers are becoming more effective champions of mental wellbeing.

📈 This year, there’s been a clear rise in organisations where leaders actively promote mental health through their actions and behaviour.

🤝 Managers are also stepping up — showing greater confidence and competence in supporting and assisting employees with mental health challenges.

𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:

Based on these findings, I believe employee wellbeing is no longer a “nice to have” but it’s a strategic imperative that shapes performance, trust, and retention. The data is clear: absence rates are at a 15‑year high, mental ill health and stress remain leading causes, and yet too few organisations equip their managers with the skills to respond effectively.

We noticed that first‑hand that when leaders and managers are trained, confident, and committed to supporting mental health, the ripple effect on culture and performance is transformative. Wellbeing isn’t just about initiatives — it’s about embedding care, competence, and courage into the way we lead every day.

Here are my recommendations: 🌟 For Organisations:

✔️ Train every manager in mental health awareness and response

✔️ Model wellbeing from the top

✔️ Measure impact, not just activity

✔️ Address stress at the source

✔️ Empower hybrid and flexible work

🙏🏼 What were the best HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Again, great study of timely topic. Coming out of the pandemic (remember COVID????) as a physical crisis, the endemic of mental health rose and has continued. There are many symptoms of mental health: depression about the past, anxiety about the future, loneliness in the present, etc. These symptoms shape the employee experience as this research indicates that then impacts stakeholder value.The good news is that mental health is now taken seriously and the better news is that actions have been identified to help improve it, including counseling, emotional support groups, employee experience efforts, benefits policies, and leadership support. More can clearly be done on this agenda. Thanks for highlighting this important topic.

Galina Turcan Expected outcome — wellbeing is a business strategy, not a side initiative. Ensuring managers build the right awareness (not just formal training) makes ROI visible in engagement, trust, and performance.Regular measurement — monthly and quarterly — helps track progress and act early. Even paying attention to these results signals and reinforces a culture of wellbeing: an environment of awareness, accountability, and sustainability. Organisations that treat wellbeing metrics with the same discipline as financial KPIs are the ones that truly embed wellbeing into their culture.

Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar Nicolas your recommendations resonate - especially the call to embed care into daily leadership.That’s not a perk, it’s a practice.❓And what if wellbeing were measured like performance? Dashboards would track empathy, stress signals would trigger support - not silence & culture would become the new KPI.

AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot don’t seem to boost Productivity as much as they deliver time savings and greater Job Satisfaction !

💡 Findings of researchers:

📈 Evaluation results show high satisfaction with M365 Copilot across user groups — with 72% of respondents saying they were satisfied or very satisfied throughout the pilot period.

⏳ While small time savings were seen across most use cases, written tasks delivered the largest time gains — freeing people to focus on higher‑value work.

💡 What’s even more exciting?

• Neurodiverse employees reported statistically significantly higher satisfaction than other users 🙌

• Non‑native English speakers shared powerful stories of improved wellbeing, technical skills, and even future career ambitions 🌍

This isn’t just about AI making work faster — it’s about making work more inclusive, more accessible, and more empowering for everyone, according to a new. interesting research published by UK Government using data 📊 from a 3-month pilot, of 1,000 employees, conducted by the Department for Business and Trade from October 2024 to March 2025 (The sample contained a mixture of volunteers (~70%) and randomly selected participants (~30%) to ensure that findings were as representative as possible across a range of characteristics.)

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers found that 60% of respondents reported positive impacts to job satisfaction. However, 18% of respondents reported no impacts, and 20% of respondents chose not to answer this question. 2% of respondents reported mixed impacts, meaning they experienced a combination of positive and negative impacts to their job satisfaction.

𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:

I’m not surprised that the biggest impact we’re seeing so far is on time savings rather than direct productivity gains. In many ways, that’s exactly what you’d expect in the early stages of adopting a new tool — the first win is freeing up minutes and hours, not instantly transforming output.

But here’s where I think the real opportunity lies: quality. Time saved is only part of the story. What matters just as much — if not more — is how that time is used, and whether it leads to better thinking, sharper delivery, and more meaningful work.

The evaluation found no strong evidence yet that time savings are translating into higher productivity — but this wasn’t the primary focus of the research, and only limited data was collected to explore that link.

Here are my recommendations: 🌟 For Organisations:

✔️ Go beyond time savings with AI

✔️ Integrate AI into workflows

🙏🏼 What were the best HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich I like that research is indicating impact of genAI tools. It is impressive that Microsoft is studying the impact of Copilot.I am not surprised by the results that using Copilot saves time since it accesses, summarizes and reports data so quickly. I believe that time is a part of productivity. Freeing up time by accessing data creates what we have called a return on time invested (ROTI) formula. By saving time on accessing and summarizing data, time can be invested in other value added activities. See the five waves of AI where time can be spent with the most common use being access to information that this research confirms.Thanks again for your view that focuses on how the saved time is used that helps determine productivity, or I would say value added.

Mohamed Atef Elmelegey, GPHR®, SHRM-SCP® 📈🎯 Time saved is the surface win. The deeper value? Cognitive lift, emotional inclusion, and strategic clarity. AI’s real ROI shows up when humans think better, not just faster.

Alize Hofmeester🎯🌱 Really encouraging to see job satisfaction and time savings coming through so strongly in this research.In a time where workload and overwhelm are major stressors in many organisations, these early outcomes matter. For wellbeing and in the end also for engagement. Because when people start to feel some breathing room again, it changes how they show up, collaborate, and think.From what I see in transformations, real adoption often starts with exploration. People need to experience how a tool helps them as individuals and in the rhythm of the team. That is when the mindset shift happens: from curiosity to desire, from 'trying it' to 'working with it.'Over time, AI will become part of how teams function. Which also means that the strategic question for leaders is not just about productivity. It is about quality. What does better thinking, better collaboration, and better outcomes look like with AI as part of the team?This requires a shift at system level: new behaviours, new rituals, new operating models. Not just adoption but integration.

Andy Nisevic What a great example of how to use tech - to aide the human being, rather than replace them.Love this research and the results it shows.

📩 If you enjoyed this piece and would like to feature your HR research, any new study or explore partnership opportunities in my newsletter for FREE, please contact me via Private message.

♻️ If you want to be in the next newsletter next Sunday, Like & comment on my post next week and share with your network.

👉 Follow me as a Top Voice person on LinkedIn , and click the 🔔 at the top of my profile page to stay on top of the latest on new best HR, People Analytics, Human Capital and Future of Work research, become more effective in your HR function and support your business, and join the conversation on my posts.

Everyday, I share a new research article about People Analytics, Human Capital, HR analytics, Human Resources, Talent,….

Let's spread the HR knowledge together and understand the Future of Work!

That's it for last week's recap - Happy Sunday and wishing you health and success ! 👋

🙏 if you haven't already, subscribe to receive my Weekly People Research and join +22,000 HR passionate !

Thank you so much for your support and Happy Sunday !

Nicolas BEHBAHANI

#futureofwork #peopleanalytics #hr #humanresources