The Human Edge: Global Future of Work Trends examines how accelerating AI adoption, demographic change, and social disruption are reshaping work, skills, and leadership. Based on insights from more than 12,000 workers and 40,000 employers across 41 countries, the report outlines the critical forces organisations must address to remain competitive.
Key Insights:
- Hybrid Super Teams are becoming the dominant model, blending human talent, AI, freelancers, and gig workers through redesigned roles and workflows.
- AI augmentation is accelerating, but organisations are warned against blunt force automation that removes human oversight and undermines resilience.
- Rapid relearning is essential, with AI literacy, learning agility, and human-centric skills such as judgement, creativity, and empathy emerging as key differentiators.
- Productivity pressure and burnout are rising as leaders overestimate short-term AI gains and expand performance monitoring.
- Changing workplace norms, including RTO mandates and declining trust in leadership, are increasing attrition risks, particularly among high performers.
- The succession crisis is deepening due to ageing workforces, talent shortages, degree scepticism, and declining interest in leadership roles.
- Future advantage will be defined by organisations that invest deliberately in skills, trust, equitable outcomes, and human-AI collaboration.
