In 2026, CEOs are betting big on AI while employees on the ground are feeling the strain, from culture disconnects to “workslop” clogging their workflows. In this episode of “Can You Hear Me?”, Rob Johnson and Eileen Rochford break down Harvard Business Review’s “9 Trends Shaping Work in 2026 and Beyond” and discuss what these shifts mean for leaders, communicators, and employees navigating the future of work.
HBR Article: https://hbr.org/2026/02/9-trends-shaping-work-in-2026-and-beyond?ab=HP-hero-for-you-1
Paul Roetzer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer/
SmarterX: https://smarterx.ai/
Mike Kaput: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekaput/
The Artificial Intelligence Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-artificial-intelligence-show/id1548733275
Rob Johnson: [00:00:17] Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Can You Hear Me Podcast. I'm Rob Johnson, President of Rob Johnson Communications. [00:00:24][6.3]
Eileen Rochford: [00:00:24] I'm Eileen Rochford, CEO of the marketing and strategy firm, The Harbinger Group. Today, we're talking about a Harvard Business Review piece titled, Nine Trends Shaping Work in 2026 and Beyond, which paints a pretty stark picture of how AI and culture are colliding in the workplace. It's not good. CEO expectations for AI-driven growth are sky high, but most AI investments still aren't delivering. The transformational value just isn't there yet, and what leaders are hoping for isn't happening. The gap between aspiration and reality is reshaping decisions about jobs, strategy and culture in practically every industry. [00:01:03][38.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:01:03] That's really true. You and I have been talking about AI all the time on this podcast because it's taken over so much of what everybody does in the communications field. What I love about this article, and you know how I feel about HBR because I think it's a great professional development tool and I use it all the times, is it doesn't just celebrate shiny tech. It calls out the very human consequences of rushing into AI from mental health challenges, trust issues, even new forms of workplace risk. So we're going to walk through a few of these trends. There's nine of them, we're not going to get to all nine of them, but we're just going to. Pick some of the top ones that we want to focus on and discuss what they mean for leaders and communicators, even employees, trying to stay grounded in all of this change and the change coming. Go back. [00:01:45][41.8]
Eileen Rochford: [00:01:45] Change is the word for 2026. There's no doubt about it. Upheaval may even be the word 2026, we'll see. Okay, our first big trend from the article is this one. AI layoffs are outpacing actual productivity gains. So in the article, HPR highlights that many CEOs are making workforce reduction decisions based on expected AI returns that have not materialized yet. One data point they cite is that less than 1% of the layoffs in the first half of 2025 were truly due to be proven AI productivity improvements. Now I know that was a year ago, but. [00:02:23][37.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:02:23] And it changes so quickly, right? Right. [00:02:24][1.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:02:26] You're right, and change is the word, right? However, I don't think anybody can dispute that making decisions without some better data than expected productivity gains. Maybe that's not such a great idea, but I can see kind of why they're doing it, can't you? It's just the picture is so rosy that's being painted about the potential, and they're so eager to the benefits, the upside of not having to pay, I'd count the biggest, most of the time, the biggest cost is payroll. So seeing what all the providers are saying about the possibility and particularly now, and then again, this is the status from a year ago, but now what we're hearing about agents, AI agents being literally like it's going to 10x everything, You know, agents are the connectivity across platforms happening right within your system so that they're accessing all your documents, they're accessing everything, whether you've, you know, putting it out into. Publicly into chat, you don't need to anymore. The agents are going to connect it all and they're going to make decisions and practically fit function like departments. So I can see why they're really, really eager and are making these layoff decisions without actually having the things in place inside their organizations that deliver that productivity that they're Bet he not. [00:03:50][84.5]
Rob Johnson: [00:03:51] What's the role of a CEO to look around corners months, if not a year or a year and a half ahead and try to figure out what the workplace realities are going to be? So naturally, they're going to say, oh, we've got AI. Oh, we hear how great, how efficient it's going to make it. And it's truly, I feel like every four to six weeks, I mean, there's headlines every day, of course, but every four to six week, it feels like there's something really dramatic happening in terms of efficiency. But when you're looking around those corners, as I mentioned, but it's something new like AI, where we know it's going to become more and more and more efficient, but we are not sure in what ways they're trying to hedge a little bit. Saying, hey, we're going to lay off everybody. And this data point from 2025 is completely outdated, but it speaks to the fact that they're trying to figure out ways to do more with less. AI agents, they don't take vacations. They don't call it sick. They don't, you know, I mean, it's like. [00:04:49][57.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:04:49] They're not crabby. [00:04:49][0.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:04:50] They're not crabby. They're having a good day, whatever the case is. So there are obvious places where you can find those efficiencies. But I think nobody's figured out yet exactly. Everybody knows it's happening fast. But I don't know that they can truly understand how much more efficient it is going to make us. Because as we have talked about on this program many a time, it's a great tool. It's more than a tool. I mean, it is the future, right? But also, the humans still need to be paying attention. You can't just get rid of that human element, and that's always going to be the case, I think. [00:05:25][35.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:05:25] Yeah. Yeah. Pumping the brakes a bit, especially in 2026, I think is what we're hearing more about now that more leadership teams are doing just that. They're calling a pause and saying, let's just figure this out better and determine, do we even have the right training in place? Do we even the right people to do things in this different way? So they're really taking a pause in scrutinizing a little more carefully right now, though we are seeing that the job situation certainly was not improved at all in February. So, yeah. [00:05:54][28.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:05:53] Well, I mean, look, and then Meta announces, you know, hey, we're going to lay off a bunch of people and it's all AI related. That's, yeah, that's a that's a that' a hyperscaler. That' a big tech company. And it's like we're gonna lay off a ton of people. And you're like, Oh, so let's talk about trend number two. Which is cultural dissonance. So the article describes organizations that are expecting more, more output, more speed, more flexibility from employees without offering more in return in terms of support, autonomy, more rewards. You touched on it just a little bit a second ago. So that mismatch is directly tied to lower engagement, performance, damage to the employer brand. So they're saying, hey, go, go go go, but maybe they're not giving them the proper support they need to, whether it comes to training or other things. And that is causing a disconnect in the workplace with the human. [00:06:41][47.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:06:41] For sure, training being number one. It's teaching people how to leverage the power of, not just productivity, but strategy, analysis, incredible things can be done with these tools when you know how to use them. So I just think that everything that I'm hearing from really, really smart people like Paul Reitzer from the Artificial Intelligence Marketing Institute, who... If there's anyone that you listen to people, I will again say Paul Reitzer and Mike Kaput who host a fantastic podcast called The Artificial Intelligence Podcast. Very clever. Just kidding, guys. Love your show. [00:07:21][39.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:07:22] By the show notes. They'll probably be in the show. No, they will be in this show. [00:07:26][3.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:07:26] But, you know, Paul's always saying that the training is lagging almost light years behind the advancements being made and the promise of productivity that is present today so that inside organizations, they're not recognizing we need to go to places that can teach us how to leverage this power. They're just saying, why can't you use this? There's this expectation of knowledge and understanding when the training and support isn't there. So if there's anything that leadership teams should doing right now is finding the great resources. To teach their teams and I will say another plug for Paul Reitzer, his company called SmarterX is one of the best, most up-to-date and kind of channel-specific and role-specific and department-specific AI usage training in existence. So if you're looking for a place to start, go there. It's phenomenal Smarter X, all their uh artificial intelligence uh courses are just the best and uh and really reasonably priced but what i think is the best is how well thought through they are and you know functionally focused so phenomenal resource but you're right the Weaker performance, slower engagement, all those things is because there's tremendous amount of fear present. There's a tremendous amount of angst in the world, period, for a multitude of reasons. But now people also have to worry about their future. No matter what stage that they're in, if they're coming out of college or their entry level, entry level jobs are most at risk. They're freaking out. So of course engagement is really low. They don't even know what to do. You know where to go next. [00:08:57][91.2]
Rob Johnson: [00:08:58] Think about trimming your workhorse considerably because of AI capabilities. And then the people you do keep around that you want to be part of the solution, you haven't given them the tools they need to be good. So let's say you got rid of a bunch of people because you don't need as many people as you once did. And the ones you have around that wanted to have them solve the problem are now feeling disengaged in that dissonance that we were talking about. That's not a good thing. You've got to make sure those people are fully engaged because you are going to do more, faster, quicker, better. With less, but if you're gonna be relying on those people, you need to make sure that they're fully bought in and they feel like they're part of the solution and that they are not gonna be phased out in the next three to six months. I think that's human nature, right? [00:09:38][40.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:09:39] Oh, for sure. Culture, though, I just, I really wonder what that's going to happen and what's going to happened to corporate culture, you know, even in two, three years from now, will it even be the differentiator that it used to be? I don't know that one, there's a big question mark over corporate culture for me. But humans are going to win guys. That's all. That's the message I want. [00:10:01][21.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:10:01] That's what it has to be that way, doesn't it? Humans have to win. [00:10:03][2.7]
Eileen Rochford: [00:10:03] Have to win. Otherwise, like why wake up every day? What the heck are we doing to ourselves? What the heck are we doing to ourselves? [00:10:07][4.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:10:07] If we're going to get defeated, we're not going down without a fight. [00:10:10][3.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:10:12] Fight, fight, fight. Go humans. I am team human all the way. Me too, me too. [00:10:16][4.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:10:17] I'm with you [00:10:18][0.8]
Eileen Rochford: [00:10:19] Okay. So another trend that these authors from HBR highlight is that AI has taken a toll on employees mental fitness, kind of tied to the last one a little bit. People are juggling constant change. There's our key word for 2026, they have to learn new tools. And frankly, as we said a second ago, they're worried about job security and who the heck isn't, right? Right now, it's just in a world of complete upheaval. Yes, it is all on the table. We're worried about job security all while dealing with this massive cognitive weight fatigue that comes Run. Headlines, everything that's happening in the world right now, but at work, in particular, you're having to review a lot of crap that's coming out of AI land. And so it's like you're doing two jobs. You're like, oh, I still have to produce this great stuff that my role is for. But then I also have to look at whatever my team members or other departments have to pass through me that maybe they put through AI and it screams AI. So now I'm being dumbed down every minute. So there's a lot happening in terms of the cognitive weight and fatigue, that's for sure. So there is a toll and recognizing that it's a toll is as important as ever. Don't forget that just because things are speeding up and people are hanging on to those jobs and everybody knows if you have one, you're really lucky to have one. That doesn't mean that you can't be a human being and recognize and work with your employees on a human level to say, it's a lot. I get it. It's a lot. It is a constant change business. I don't think you may have heard me say this, Rob, but I equate what's happening with the impact of AI. On search and all kinds of other things that have to do with marketing. I say to people, it feels to us like we woke up in the last couple of months in the same country, but our country has changed its native language. And everyone is speaking this native language, yet we're still expected this new native language that we don't know. And yet we are still expected to do the job that we had the day before the language changed and still do it as well. But we're kind of like, wait, what this the all everything, the entire rule book has been rewritten. On so many levels. Um, so it does, it feels very, very hard to, to keep up. And that's, that's real, man. That's real. And, and it's the expectation to be able to learn all of that while applying and continuing to do a high quality job. It's a bit unrealistic. Let's be frank about that. [00:12:52][153.5]
Rob Johnson: [00:12:52] It is, but you know what I was thinking about? I was think about one of our episodes in the fall with Chris Gwynn came out in late September. We were talking about local journalism and he was telling us, we're turning a profit now. We're counting on the newsroom to be our revenue generator. That doesn't mean they're going out making sales call at sales call. But what he was challenging people to do and where I think there is maybe a little bit of hope there when people are feeling like, oh my gosh, mentally I'm just I'm fried because I don't know what jobs are gonna look like tomorrow and he said his challenge was to convince his newsroom that um you got we need you we need to do stories we need to do follow-up stories but he was also providing ai as a tool hey you you want to go to the courthouse and dig through files all day or do you want let ai do that you become a more efficient journalist, or for the sake of this discussion, a worker in general, how can you use those tools to make you better? Yes, it's scary. Yes, it is. It's hard. It is replacing some of the things you're doing right now. But if you want to stay in the workplace, if you have transferable skills, You need to and they need to provide the training. We just talked about that. But there is a chance, there's an opportunity to make sure that you're relevant moving forward. And how can this AI juggernaut help me be better at what I do? And so, yes, 100%. I mean, I think you and I would agree. Doing what we do, like, do you have fear? Of course I do. I think I think, you would agree with that. But I also see opportunity. And so I see tremendous opportunity as opposed to, oh, gosh, I'm not going to have a job in six months. [00:14:25][93.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:14:26] But I want to go back to the point I was trying to make, which is that the reality is it is very difficult to have to learn an entirely new thing on the job while still doing your existing job. That is the only point I'm trying to [00:14:40][14.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:14:40] that's it that's a very valid point [00:14:42][1.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:14:42] It's very hard and everybody should be learning this shit. Even if you're doing it at night, on the weekends, in the morning, wake up an hour earlier, you should be. And we all know that. So it's not that I, heck, we embrace the heck out of this. And in fact, it's, again, the Smurfs stuff in particular from the Paul Waiters company, just mind blowing potential and incredible applications for using their tools or strategy and planning. And looking a few years into the future for your industry, you can think through scenarios with their CEO, GPT. It's amazing. So if you're not doing it, all I can say is, why not? Yeah, better. If you're scared of it, what's a smart thing to do is to face your fears. The train is coming down the track. Head on. THE TRAIN? I'd rather get on. Face your fears head on and put on your big boy fence, as they like to say. It's happening. Exactly. That's your point. [00:15:40][58.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:15:41] I love it. This is so inspirational. Thank you. And since we're giving people hope, we started this off with like, oh gosh, this, that, lots of things to think about. But we always like to end on something actionable for the end of this. The article does point out to a hopeful trend, and this is relative to hiring people and that sort of thing. Forward-thinking employers are restoring humanity to the hiring process. That's right. After years of automated screening and ghosting, which I'm sure a lot of people gone through. You know, there was AI helping them make decisions, that sort of thing. Some organizations are reintroducing human touch points, clear communication, and skills-based evaluation rather than just keyword matching, which is the way they've done it for the past few years. And I know people get very, very frustrated when they realize all these people apply for the same job that I did. And it's just going through analytics and it's looking for keywords. Imagine humanity and the hiring process. Imagine. [00:16:40][58.7]
Eileen Rochford: [00:16:40] And stick with it. [00:16:41][1.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:16:40] Letting humans play a role in what's going on in your company. [00:16:45][4.9]
Eileen Rochford: [00:16:46] Perfect place, particularly skills-based evaluation. I don't think that you can test critical thinking and reasoning without meeting people and having them conduct some exercises. In our case, multiple writing assignments are done within a time frame when we know, you're not given the question until this time of day, you've given us maybe 45 minutes of your time, maybe half an hour, and we give you the writing prompts right then and there and we see how well do you do. And there's plenty of AI bullshit detectors out So it's easy to know did you write this yourself or not? But making sure people are able to do it in a compressed timeframe and exercise their own critical thinking at skills-based evaluation. Perfect way to keep the humans involved. Yep, love it. [00:17:31][44.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:17:31] Amen to that. [00:17:32][0.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:17:32] Yep. All right. So finally, the article flags a set of emerging risks that most organizations are only beginning to grapple with. So let's listen up because these are key. One is insider corporate espionage, because as AI tools and data access expand, the opportunities for employees to misuse information or models grow exponentially. So that's a real fear. So putting guardrails around that, that's another thing. To think about as a leader in an organization right now, how can I protect what goes on inside my organization more than I have in the past because the need is much greater. Another is the demand from employees to be, and I love this one, this is a meaty one, too bad we're wrapping up in a few minutes, but another is the demands for employees to be compensated for training their, quote, digital doppelgangers, end quote, which are AI systems built on their data expertise or likeness. This should be illegal. If you ask me, this is crazy. This is one of those- Teach a robot how to fish. Lawsuit-ripe areas. And then let the robot fish. If this is actually happening, yeah, people are gonna have quite a case for getting back in institutions that are stealing their likeness and they're basically their brains. [00:18:44][72.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:18:44] Breaks. Because that's one of the only things that you have that is unique as a value proposition for the place you work is all that experience, all those years of doing what you did. And then all of a sudden it's like, well, this AI bot, it's been trained on you, so it's you. [00:19:01][17.3]
Eileen Rochford: [00:19:02] But it's not. I mean, we all know that. I don't. [00:19:04][2.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:19:05] I don't think it is. I don, but I mean, who's gonna, you know. It's not. [00:19:08][3.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:19:08] Not. But I love it that if they're going to try and do that, bring on the lawyers, that's crazy. So hopefully there's soon to be some cases where we can see how they play out in the court system. You stole my likeness and my thinking patterns, thought patterns, and made money off of it by shoving it into your enterprise AI. [00:19:27][19.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:19:28] And then you didn't need me anymore, because you got the digital version of me. That's really a slippery slope, I think you would agree with that, wouldn't we? Yeah, it sure is. [00:19:36][8.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:19:37] Yeah, absolutely. Very slippery slope. So there's, there's good ways to say hi, and there's bad ways. And I think we just labeled a really, really bad one. So stay away. [00:19:46][9.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:19:47] That's a lot to think about too. Again, we didn't get to all nine of the trends, but you can see they're all based around AI. I got to tell you, HBR, whenever I read it, seven out of ten articles have to do with something related to AI. That's how much it's taking over, not just the communications and marketing workspace, our workspace, but all workspace. It's something to think about and I hope that we gave everybody some good ideas. We mentioned that we have some of the things we've referenced here are in the show notes. [00:20:16][29.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:20:16] Absolutely! [00:20:16][0.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:20:17] And that is going to do it for another episode of Can You Hear Me? I'm Rob Johnson. If you'd like to comment on the podcast or suggest a topic, please contact us at our Can You Hear Me podcast page or subscribe to the Can You hear Me newsletter. Both can be found on LinkedIn. [00:20:32][15.3]
Eileen Rochford: [00:20:33] Absolutely. And I'm Eileen Rochford. If you liked what you heard, please consider giving Can You Hear Me? A positive review wherever you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, wherever. Doesn't matter. It helps other listeners to find our show and we greatly, greatly appreciate that. And one last reminder, please check out our brand new website at canyouhearmepod.beam.ly. And we'll also put that in the show notes. Thanks Thank you so much for listening and we hope you learned something today. [00:20:33][0.0]
[1196.4]