McKinsey & Company’s HR Monitor 2026, published by its People & Organizational Performance Practice in June 2026, argues that the people function has reached a structural turning point. Based on a January 2026 survey of approximately 1,300 HR professionals and 5,500 employees across Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the report examines workforce planning, talent acquisition, employee development, employee experience, and HR operating models in the age of human–AI collaboration. Its central message is that HR must move beyond functional excellence toward system-level transformation. Workforce planning remains too short-term, AI adoption in HR is still fragmented, employee expectations are increasingly grounded in pay, stability, and workload sustainability, and HR operating models are shifting from traditional Ulrich structures toward more agile and machine-powered configurations. For HR leaders, the report signals that the next agenda is not simply AI deployment, but redesigning work, skills, data, and people systems around business strategy.