📊 Over the past few years, workplaces all over the world and at home have undergone significant changes — thanks in no small part to the rise and proliferation of agentic AI in the workplace and ensuing restructures. Some workplaces have fared better than others, but most haven’t quite yet seen the ROI that was promised. In 2025, the job market faltered, trust between employees and employers eroded, and AI “workslop” — as the Harvard Business Review (HBR) so eloquently put it — seemingly made workers less productive, and more disengaged.

Now, the mn USD question, what can we expect in the professional sphere in 2026? The short answer? Probably more of the same, according to a recently published report by the HBR. The long answer? Let’s dive in.

Despite flailing performance from agentic AI in the workforce — with only one in 50 AI investments actually delivering any value and only one in five offering measurable ROI, according to research cited by the HBR — CEOs aren’t ready to give up all that fast, with many operating on the basis that the payoff is nigh and making decisions accordingly.

Some of these decisions? Layoffs. Despite there being a massive slew of layoffs attributed to AI in 2025, less than 1% of layoffs in 1H 2025 were actually the direct result of AI — or at least, the result of AI being more productive than humans, HBR reports. On the surface, it might look like AI is indeed replacing the human workforce, and executives may feel inclined to cull herds based on just that — the reality is that 88% of HR executives report getting almost no benefit from AI tools, according to research from Gartner.

This means workers are being laid off on a mere possibility, with HBR noting that 2026 might see talents rehired after being prematurely let go — and that will likely come at a greater cost, both fiscally and metaphorically.

And with AI, burnout is at an all time high. HBR and Gartner note that the pressure to perform in an AI-driven world has begun to bear serious consequences, leading to a cultural dissonance between what an organization claims to be and how its employees feel. Performance is faltering and employee engagement is at a disastrous low. Too much effort is dedicated into adjusting to the future of a workplace dominated by AI, but none is devoted to assessing how this change will impact the humans behind (and in front of) the machines.

HBR predicts that company survival will be limited to those that course-correct by re-assessing their culture and expectations while investing in human talent — particularly amid rising evidence of a link between continuous AI use and emotional and cognitive damage. As things stand, some 91% of leaders dedicate little to no time to the impact of AI use on employees, according to Gartner.

What can we expect from the workplace in Um El Donia this year? Through analyzing some 10k Egyptian job postings, 20k job skills, and 84k job-skill relationships, a group of researchers from the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) reached a worrisome conclusion — it’s not looking great for Egyptian talent navigating the job market.

Nearly 75% of all Egyptian employees who are at risk of having their jobs replaced by AI will not be able to find alternative career paths, according to a recently published paper (pdf) by ECES researchers. Only 24.4% of high-risk workers — those whose jobs encapsulate primary functions deemed automatable by Gen AI — have realistic transition pathways. For the remaining 75.6%, intensive reskilling is a necessity.

Among those high-risk workers, those who would be able to find a viable alternative are ones possessing transferable job skills — skills pertaining to management, leadership, and other soft skills. The majority, however? They’re stuck. The paper notes that technical upskilling may not be the way to go as much as operational upskilling. Instead of pigeonholing oneself into the technical nooks and crannies of jobs, the research argues that workers that seek to safeguard themselves need to hone their strategic, creative, and management skills.

In short, what makes us human is what will keep us employed. But the job market — at home and abroad — will need to expand into offering jobs that allow both human talent and technological advancement to complement one another, rather than eliminate. ECES research suggests that viable courses of action include comprehensive reskilling programs, standardized certifications for transferable skills, and blanket training for administrative and managerial roles. While 2025 exposed the systemic flaws of AI integration, 2026 marks a turning point in how organizations will navigate the long-term sustainability of the human workforce.

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