The CHRO Association’s 2026 CHRO Survey highlights the external forces, strategic priorities, and emerging challenges shaping the HR agenda today.
Business leaders in 2026 are navigating an environment defined by external uncertainty and rapid technological change. CHROs identify geopolitical instability, inflation, and regulatory uncertainty as the most significant external forces shaping company performance, reinforcing a focus on resilience and risk management.
While balancing those pressures, AI and workplace digitization have emerged as the dominant priorities on the CHRO agenda. Organizations are deploying AI in targeted areas such as talent acquisition, service delivery, and learning, while beginning to rethink the HR operating model and build new internal capabilities. However, scaling these efforts remains challenging, with organizational readiness—including workforce concerns, governance risks, and investment constraints—emerging as the primary barriers to adoption.
Beyond AI, CHROs continue to navigate rising healthcare costs and evolving benefit strategies, including increased focus on specialty pharmaceuticals and emerging treatments such as GLP-1 medications. Across these areas, leaders are balancing cost management with employee experience and long-term workforce outcomes.
Download the full report to explore detailed findings and analysis.
Methodology
Our 2026 CHRO Survey is based on survey responses from an average of 150 CHROs at major corporations and was conducted in partnership with the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. The findings presented here reflect a selection of questions from the full survey and are organized by topic. Open-ended responses were analyzed and grouped into key themes to identify common patterns and insights.