As AI takes over more tasks, five trends reshaping the future of work

Resumen detallado

From the growing importance of human judgment and career development to the changing demands of leadership as AI takes on more tasks, an Accenture report examines what is changing at work

Artificial intelligence is supposed to make our working lives easier, but as machines take over more routine tasks, the work left for humans may actually be getting harder.

That’s one of the key findings from Accenture’s Future of Work Trends 2026 report, which suggests the next phase of AI adoption will be less about what technology can do and more about how organizations redesign work around it.

Drawing on global surveys, interviews with executives and workers and labour-market analysis, the report identifies five trends shaping the future of work.

The first is a fundamental shift in how organizations value work. Companies need to determine where human expertise creates the greatest value and how to reinvest the time saved through automation.

While 60 per cent of executives plan to redirect newly freed-up capacity toward higher value or more strategic work, one in five organizations already making extensive use of the technology report that the time saved hasn’t resulted in anything fundamentally new.

The second trend focuses on how jobs and skills are evolving. Accenture found that, in more than 60 per cent of the occupations studied, working alongside AI increases ambiguity, interpersonal complexity and the number of judgment calls employees must make.

The tricky part? Opportunities to develop those higher-order skills may be disappearing, with one in five workers and managers interviewed expressing concern that junior employees are missing out on the hands-on practice and trial-and-error experiences that traditionally help people build expertise.

The third trend highlights the growing importance of employee experience. As AI reshapes roles and expectations, workers increasingly need clarity about where they fit and how they can advance.

Unfortunately, just 21 per cent of employees strongly agree they have clear pathways to grow or transition as AI changes their work.

Inicio del artículo, extracto de The Globe and Mail (Report on Business). Para leer el resto, abra el artículo en el sitio del medio.