AI and Innovation Surge Up the Priority List for HR Professionals for 2026

AI adoption and technological innovation is a surging topic in the HR industry. 

That’s according to the CPHR Canada HR Trends Report for 2026. In this study that surveyed 1,626 respondents across various industries in the fall of 2025, it found that the topic of Enabling innovation rose eight spots from 10 to 2 on the list of top HR priorities for organizations in 2026. 

“As AI adoption accelerates, HR’s partnership with IT becomes crucial, not just to keep AI implementation human-centric, but to ensure AI is implemented to achieve the greatest return on investment and value across the organization,” the report states. “Beyond IT partnership, HR must equip leaders with the skills and tools to drive innovation, lead change, and foster cross-functional collaboration.” 

Simply put, the amalgamation of AI and HR is inevitable, and it’s time to start planning for how to implement that in an effective way while keeping the process people-focused.

How to Strengthen the HR-IT Partnership

No matter what your business is adapting to, your role as an HR professional is extremely impactful in managing and driving change. While IT’s job is to handle the technical aspects, HR’s role in keeping the process focused on people is paramount for a successful implementation. 

However, only 39 per cent of respondents to the study said their organization are highly effective at enabling the adoption of AI. The way to bridge this gap is to ensure HR and IT are connected and on the same page. 

Making sure there is equal focus on technical expertise and people is a catalyst for success in driving transformation and ensuring your organization gets the most out of AI. 
If you are an HR professional struggling with how to best implement AI within your business, it’s time to sit down with the changemakers and IT professionals within your organization to come up with a smart and strategic plan. 

Key Challenges and How to Address Them

The report also highlights some key challenges that respondents said they were facing in driving AI-driven change and adoption within their organization, including: 

• Only 42 per cent of respondents report HR organizations are highly effective at managing through change and uncertainty

• 45 per cent said that “Change fatigue is negatively impacting my ability to be effective in

my job.” 

• 22 percent of CPHR Canada organizations take a “structured and documented approach” to scenario planning. 

• 68 percent of CPHR Canada respondents report facing challenges managing change. 

While any type of organizational change will come with hurdles, there are always innovative and unique solutions that you can use to overcome them. Some of those outlined in the report include: 

Strategically prioritizing changes

As a CPHR, you can partner with senior leaders within your organization to drive changes and identify opportunities that are achievable and impactful for your business. This also helps your organization get ahead of any risks that might come up when implementing change.

This is referred to as “scenario planning”, a proactive and effective strategy that helps HR and the organization prepare for emerging opportunities and mitigate potential issues that might come up. As you can see from the chart below, respondents from organizations that have structured and documented scenario planning in place reported better change outcomes: 

Fostering heavy leadership-involvement in change

As your leaders go, so does the organization. CPHRs are uniquely equipped to enlist leaders in co-owning and implementing changes. Leader is highly connected to the resources and tools needed to drive meaningful change, which can help with change communication to the team. 

Leadership involvement in change is vital. In the report, when CPHR Canada respondents report their organization embeds leadership accountability for managing change in performance management practices, they were 1.3 times more likely to also report their organization being able to quickly adapt to and capitalize on change. 

Additional Top HR Priorities for Organizations for 2026

1. Developing Leaders: While AI and innovation saw the biggest jump on the priority list, developing strong leaders remains the top priority. CPHRs can help develop leaders who excel in the people side of leadership, which leads to better outcomes in opportunities across the organization. The report states: “Organizations that enable leaders to promote change management and develop talent to foster innovation will have significant competitive advantages.”

2. Providing a great employee experience: This includes recognizing employee contributions, getting input from employees on team decisions, providing personalized support and coaching in goal setting, and conducting performance reviews. The more focus you put on giving employees a great experience, the more likely they are to buy into change. 

3. Retaining employees: It’s hard for an organization to settle into change and innovation with high employee turnover. Fostering a healthy and safe work environment will encourage employees to stick around longer and see projects through. 

4. Recruiting: Adopting and refining skills-based hiring practices remains a top priority in 2026. If your organization is going through change (like implementing AI), you will want to hire people with those skills to go along with training your own team. Additionally, you will want to strategically deploy those skills in areas of your organization that make the most sense. 

Read the Full Report

Visit our HR Trends Report page to see the full 2025 report or check out reports from previous years.