2026 Trends: The Year Wellbeing Becomes “How Work Works”  

2026 is already being framed as another year of tight budgets, widening skills gaps and unrelenting AI hype. But beneath the headlines, a more profound shift is underway. Many of today’s workplace, health and wellbeing leaders believe 2026 will be remembered as the year wellbeing stopped being a side project, and became the operating system for how work is designed, led and measured.  

In Part 1 of our three-part series, we explore the macro forces reshaping work and why many leaders believe 2026 marks the point where wellbeing becomes foundational infrastructure rather than an add-on. 

This instalment examines how AI is changing human work, why attention and belonging are emerging as critical workforce metrics, and how flexible and hybrid models are exposing new inclusion challenges. We also look at the rapid evolution of workplace design as organisations aim to create environments that protect focus, energy and connection. 

The macro signals are hard to ignore. UK sickness absence remains at its highest level in years. Long-term economic inactivity due to ill health continues to rise. Employers are preparing for new employment reforms, day-one rights, a tighter regulatory landscape and increasingly explicit expectations on issues such as pay transparency and AI governance. Hybrid work, once the miracle fix, is now being stress-tested: does it genuinely support performance and wellbeing, or just move old problems onto new platforms?  

For many HR teams and boardrooms, 2026 planning means finalising strategies under intense cost constraints. Tactically, many will still be battling winter sickness peaks and backlogs of complex cases. But across our contributors, one message comes through clearly: technology and benefits are only part of the story. The real shift is towards workplaces built around human connection, financial security, inclusion and “whole health”, with AI increasingly sitting in the background, doing the heavy lifting.  

At the heart of this lies a simple question: if machines can do more, what does it mean to work well?  

AI, Attention and the Meaning of Work  

For Paul Sephton, Global Head of Brand Communications at Jabra, an audio, video and collaboration solutions business, says the answer isn’t about volume or velocity of output, but about energy and connection.  “In 2026 and beyond, the future of work won’t be defined by how much we do, but by how well we think, connect and sustain our energy,” he says. “As technology, especially agentic and generative AI, takes on more tasks, human attention and emotional connection will become key drivers of performance and creativity.  

“In this new era, belonging and focus are what help people and organisations thrive. The ability to stay present, build trust and create genuine connection will matter more than constant activity. We will start to see the emergence of new technologies and a shift in approach that protects mental energy and creates a workplace where success isn’t determined by how fast we work.”  

On the technology side, this isn’t framed as a story of replacement, but of redesign. Tiago Azevedo, the CIO of OutSystems, a global enterprise software company that provides a low-code development platform to help organisations build, deploy and manage custom applications believes that – perhaps contrary to some assumptions – AI will rehumanise the enterprise as soft skills become more in demand.  

“In 2026, the rate at which agentic AI automates mundane and repetitive tasks will grow exponentially as the technology matures and multiagent solutions become the norm,” Azevedo says. “That will free up people to focus on creativity, strategy, and genuine human connection. Uniquely human soft skills like collaboration, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and judgment will be more valuable and in higher demand. For example, as the more mundane aspects of talent onboarding and management are handled by agents, HR leaders expect a productivity boost of 30% per employee. They also believe 23% will be shifted to entirely new positions that better leverage their human talents.”  

Taylor Blake, SVP of New Initiatives at Degreed, a learning and skills platform added:  “This year, AI proved it could tutor, coach, and guide individuals in real time. It completely reset expectations of what scalable, personalised learning can look like, and that momentum will only grow in 2026. Technology is no longer the rate-limiting factor. Governance, processes and human capacity are. And next year, the bottleneck becomes people themselves – their attention, energy, and ability to absorb change. The missing piece in most AI strategies isn’t the model or the data. It’s culture, trust, and human readiness. The organisations that win will be the ones that invest just as heavily in people as they do in platforms.” 

If AI is shifting what people do, leadership and workplace design will need to carefully consider and decide how that feels day to day; supportive, or exhausting?    

The flexibility–inclusion debt  

Michelle Carson, Chair and Founder of executive search firm; Holmes Noble, argues that many 2026 strategies are being built on outdated assumptions about who the workforce is – and how they work best. She says too many plans still treat today’s employees as a static group with predictable needs, rather than a workforce that is shifting in real time.  

As hybrid expectations continue to evolve, younger workers are entering the labour market with different values, and mid-career employees are reassessing what they want from work altogether. Yet many strategies still rely on pre-pandemic models of behaviour and engagement.  

“Boardrooms across Britain are finalising their 2026 strategies,” Carson says. “Yet many are unintentionally accumulating what I call a flexibility-inclusion debt, a risk that will materialise sooner than most leaders expect. At least one in seven adults in the UK is neurodivergent, with global estimates placing the figure closer to one in five. Yet many organisations designing return-to-office mandates and leadership programmes for 2026 are creating systems that inadvertently exclude this talent. The debt is accruing faster than you think.  

“The next cohort of leaders expects clarity, flexibility and purpose. They won’t reward a return to presenteeism dressed as collaboration. Quiet environments, high-clarity communication and choice over how work is completed aren’t perks. They function as productivity infrastructure for roles that require depth, analysis and strategic thinking.  

“AI is exposing capability gaps. For neurodivergent talent it can be an equaliser. Leaders must distinguish communication style from performance, and retain analytical thinkers before competitors do. The traditional leadership model was built for a workforce that no longer exists. Organisations that redesign their systems now will take the advantage in 2026.”  

In this view, wellbeing is not an add-on to leadership development; it is baked into leadership systems themselves: how meetings run, how performance is judged, how quiet work is protected, and how flexibility is structured.  

Workplaces that adapt around its people  

It’s not just cultural shifts we are seeing; the physical environment is evolving at pace too. Rather than “one office for all”, data and sensors are being used to shape spaces around people in real time, with wellbeing as a core design principle.  

Leeson Medhurst, Chief Strategy Officer at AIS, which designs and delivers modern workplace interiors, describes how far this could go.  “We can expect to see more emphasis on using data to create hyper-personalised adaptive workplaces. Most of us wear a smart watch or ring daily, or at the very least we have a mobile phone tracking our movements. If you pair the data from those devices with sensors around a workplace, we can reconfigure spaces in real-time based on the immediate needs of its users.  

“As cited in the recent WORKTECH Academy Trend Report¹, researchers in the US have already proved it’s possible by monitoring cues such as facial expressions and speech to then adjust elements like lighting and sound to create the perfect setting.² Making these changes means spaces can shift in the moment to support collaboration or focus, whichever is needed. Not only does this put wellbeing front and centre of the workplace conversation, but it also supports employee engagement and productivity and, crucially, means that designs offer greater longevity and a better return on investment.”  

In other words, 2026’s “office perk” may not be a ping-pong table, but an environment that quietly protects your energy. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow which explores the mechanics of wellbeing; the systems, rights, regulatory shifts and financial pressures influencing how people feel inside organisations. 

References:  

1 – https://www.worktechacademy.com/innovation/trends/

2 – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.21571