The 2026 HR landscape is being shaped by three converging forces: rapid AI adoption, rising expectations for employee well-being, and a complex regulatory environment across states and countries. This report highlights how organizations are shifting toward skills-based workforce planning, redefining

The HR Policy Association, a Washington-based nonprofit representing over 400 major corporations employing 20 million people worldwide, has officially rebranded as the CHRO Association. The move reflects the evolving role of Chief Human Resource Officers as strategic business leaders driving perform

zvoove, the leading software and AI provider for staffing, security, and cleaning industries, has acquired adata Software GmbH to strengthen its presence in Germany and expand its cloud ERP offering for the facility management sector. The acquisition brings adata’s market-leading payroll and finan

Lightcast, the global leader in labor market intelligence, has acquired UK-based consulting firm Simply to strengthen its professional services and extend its leadership in skills intelligence. Simply brings expertise in aligning organizational strategy with workforce capabilities, with clients acro

Visier has launched its new AI-powered Org Design solution as part of its Workforce Planning Suite, aiming to revolutionize organizational design from guesswork into data-driven science. Announced at HR Tech 2025, the tool enables enterprises to model, evaluate, execute, and monitor workforce transf

Draup has launched Etter.ai, an agentic AI platform designed to help enterprises transform their workforce strategies. Built on Draup’s extensive global labor and market data, Etter decomposes job roles into individual tasks, classifying them as human, AI, or human+AI, and models their automation

SAP has officially completed its acquisition of SmartRecruiters, a leading enterprise-grade talent acquisition platform. This strategic move integrates SmartRecruiters’ intuitive recruiting workflows and AI-enabled capabilities into the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite. The combination is designed to

Deel has launched its AI Workforce, a new platform feature designed to help global HR and payroll teams manage administrative workloads through AI-powered agents. With seven specialized AI agents for functions like hiring, payroll, compliance, time-off requests, and offboarding, Deel aims to reduce

CandorIQ, an AI-powered compensation and workforce planning platform based in San Francisco, has raised $4.8 million in seed funding led by Array Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, CRV, and Switch Ventures. The platform helps HR and Finance teams align on people spend decisions through i

TeamOhana, a strategic headcount management platform, has secured $7.5 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to over $11.5 million. The company plans to expand its AI-driven "Agentic AI" workforce planning platform, which acts as a CFO’s co-pilot for real-time, data-driven headcount