AI Has Arrived. The Work Hasn’t Changed.

Why this is the CHRO’s problem to fix

AI is now widely deployed, and leaders broadly accept that their people must build new skills and work differently. Yet workforce readiness has not kept pace.

Aon’s 2026 Human Capital Trends Study found that 88% of leaders believe AI will require people to learn new skills. But while 73% of organizations have deployed or are piloting AI, only 18% say most of their workforce has completed any AI reskilling in the past year.

The technology is moving. The harder question is whether the organization is ready to move with it.

Download the report to explore three jobs for the CHRO

1. Redesign the work, not the headcount
   Understand work at the task level and determine what should be substituted, augmented or transformed as people and AI increasingly work together.
   
2. Fix HR first
   Rebuild HR’s own processes, capabilities and operating model to demonstrate what AI-enabled transformation can look like before scaling it across the organization.
   
3. Build trust from the start
   Establish clear decision rights, human oversight and governance as AI moves from supporting decisions to making them.

The question for CHROs

Closing the gap between 88% who know new skills are needed and 18% who have delivered them is becoming a measure of HR leadership.