Episode 263 · 1 January 2026 · 47:45
The Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 2): Hybrid work, unionisation and more of the same?
The Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 2): Hybrid work, unionisation and more of the same?
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Today's lineup of experts
Prediction 1 — Hybrid will fracture before it settles (Ina Purvanova & Alanah Mitchell)
Prediction 2 — More of the same… but with more pressure (Danny Wareham)
Prediction 3 — Unionisation will surge (Rebecca Taylor)
Prediction 4 — AI will break management before it fixes it (Vince Sanderson)
Prediction 5 — The death of assimilation (Sonia Thompson)
Prediction 6 — A reality check for leaders (Jeanette Ramsden)
Prediction 7 — AI will become a dealbreaker for candidates (Becky Simms)
Al & Leanne's own predictions for 2026
Show notes
The Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 2): Hybrid Fractures, Union Surges & AI Chaos
Truth, Lies & Work — Episode 263
Welcome back to Part 2 of our Predictions 2026 series. If Part 1 was warm and reflective, Part 2 brings the heat. Al and Leanne are back with seven more expert predictions for the year ahead — and trust us, they don't hold back.
From hybrid teams fracturing under the weight of distance, to a predicted surge in unionisation, to AI breaking management before it fixes it — this episode covers the forces that will shape how we work in 2026. Plus, Al and Leanne share their own predictions for the year ahead, and they might just surprise you.
🔮 The Predictions
1. Hybrid Will Fracture Before It Settles — Professors Ina Purvanova & Alanah Mitchell
The authors of The New Workplace predict deeper relational fractures across hybrid teams. As employees split across offices, homes and third spaces, meaningful connection weakens and culture becomes harder to sustain. Expect more intentional design, stronger tech integration and a rising demand for purpose and meaning as AI reshapes traditional work.
2. More of the Same… but With More Pressure — Danny Wareham
Danny sees 2026 as a magnified version of 2025: tighter budgets, rising expectations and leaders forced to think smarter rather than scale bigger. His hope? A shift toward evidence-based people practices — job analysis, behavioural data and hiring decisions that finally move past "gut feel."
3. Unionisation Will Surge — Rebecca Taylor
Rebecca predicts a new wave of unionisation across industries. As job insecurity rises and workers feel increasingly squeezed, collective bargaining will gain momentum. Anti-union stigma is fading, and younger generations will be the ones to push workplaces toward shared power.
4. AI Will Break Management Before It Fixes It — Vince Sanderson
Vince foresees a period of chaos where leaders delegate too much emotional labour to AI — and employees do the same. AI responding to AI, while real connection disappears. The result? Frustrated teams, resentful managers and widening distrust. But he also predicts a competitive edge for companies that stay human-first.
5. The Death of Assimilation — Sonia Thompson
Sonia says the old norm of "fit in at all costs" is over. Employees are less willing to hide their identities to succeed, and organisations must adapt. The future belongs to brands that embrace difference rather than smooth it out. Inclusion is shifting from compliance to cultural courage.
6. A Reality Check for Leaders — Jeanette Ramsden
Jeanette highlights a growing disconnect between what leaders think they are communicating and what people actually hear. Feedback fatigue, message overload and constant change will demand a new level of clarity, groundedness and empathy if leaders expect teams to follow them.
7. AI Will Become a Dealbreaker for Candidates — Becky Simms
Becky predicts top talent will increasingly judge companies on their approach to AI. If tools are outdated, restricted or slow, candidates will simply move on. Transparency, experimentation and a clear AI strategy will become as important as salary or flexibility.
🎙️ Al & Leanne's Own Predictions
Leanne predicts a reckoning for people analytics platforms — everyone wanted the dashboard, but when they got it, they realised it's not about how pretty the dials look. Al's prediction echoes Vince's: we're heading for a world where companies proudly declare they're "AI-first" while psychologically disconnecting from their people. Spicy stuff.
🔗 Connect with the Contributors
- Danny Wareham — firgun.co.uk
- Rebecca Taylor — LinkedIn
- Vince Sanderson — vincentsanderson.com
- Sonia Thompson — LinkedIn · frictionlessgrowthlab.com · frictionlessgrowthlab.com/roadmap
- Jeanette Ramsden — LinkedIn
- Becky Simms — LinkedIn
- Alanah Mitchell — LinkedIn
- Ina Purvanova — LinkedIn
Connect With Us
Get in touch, book a call, or find Al and Leanne on LinkedIn — all in one place: truthliesandwork.com/connect
Mental health support: findahelpline.com — UK: Samaritans 116 123 · Mind 0300 123 3393 — US: 988 — Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14
Truth, Lies & Work is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.
Full transcript
Expand full transcript
Leanne ElliottHappy New Year! Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture, brought to you, of course, by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered occupational psychologist.
Al ElliottMy name is Al. I'm a business owner, and thanks to Natalie, I'm going to be changing my intro, right, in a couple of weeks' time.
Leanne ElliottTo what?
Al ElliottMy name's Al and I'm a professional idiot. No, we will see. We'll see. And I've got some great feedback from a listener.
Leanne ElliottYeah. Um, where was I? Together, together we help organisations build amazing workplace cultures.
Al ElliottOkay. Welcome back to part 2 of our 2026 prediction series.
Leanne ElliottHappy New Year, guys.
Al ElliottHappy New Year. How was it? Did you, do you remember the time when you used to have to send a text message at like 8 o'clock on New Year's Eve?
Leanne ElliottYeah, because it wouldn't get through and then you couldn't, you You couldn't phone anyone.
Al ElliottNo. God, isn't that weird, isn't it?
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottYeah. Anyway, talking of going back, maybe you might wanna go back to part 1 of this. We've got 5 other amazing predictions in part 1. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't.
Leanne ElliottThere are no rules here.
Al ElliottThere are no rules. Anyway, so Lee, what have we got today?
Leanne ElliottToday we've got some really awesome perspectives. What's quite interesting actually is how different these predictions are from each other. So we had a bit of a theme in the last one, didn't we? But some are about technology, some are about identity, some are about going back to basics.
Al ElliottSo first up, we've got Ina Perwinova and Elena Mitchell, who literally wrote the book on hybrid work.
Leanne ElliottThen we have Danny Wareham, inventor of Constellation Leadership and author of the book with the same name. He's taking a bit of a contrarian view.
Al ElliottAnd after that, we've got Rebecca Taylor, former co-founder of SkillCycle and host of HR Confessions podcast. She's predicting something pretty bold that, I'll be honest, I didn't see coming.
Leanne ElliottThen we have the very cool Vince Sanderson, the TikTok superstar who has literally millions of views on his channel about management.
Al ElliottAnd then we've got We've got friend of the show and also fellow HubSpot podcast networker— networker, is that a word? Yeah, that works. Sonia Thompson, host of the Frictionless Marketing podcast and an inclusive growth and customer experience strategist.
Leanne ElliottThen we have Jeanette Ramsden, friend of the show and founder of The Curve Group. You'll have heard her colleagues as well answering some of our more technical HR questions in the surgery, so you know her prediction will be very, very interesting.
Al ElliottAnd finally, Becky Sims from Reflect Digital, who already is famous for encouraging employees to leave her company, but in a good way, in a good way.
Leanne ElliottYeah, so whether you're bracing yourself for disruption in 2026 or hoping for something meaningful, we've got perspectives that's gonna, gonna make you think some. So let's get straight into these predictions right after a quick message from our sponsors.
Al ElliottThe dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across 3 teams and 4 systems. And in our case, it's about 216,000 spreadsheets, which means nobody can actually use it.
Leanne ElliottWhat you should be doing is using HubSpot. Because why? HubSpot connects it all— every interaction, every support ticket, every conversation— into one platform every team can work from. So when sales talks to a customer, marketing already knows the full story. And when you know more, you grow more.
Al ElliottNice. Check out hubspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. Welcome back.
Leanne ElliottOur first prediction comes from not one but two experts, Ina Pervanova and Elena Mitchell, who are co-authors of The New These 2 literally wrote the book on how hybrid work actually functions, not the theory, but the reality of what happens when organisations try to make it work. And they've been researching something really interesting called relational fracturing.
Al ElliottIt does sound a bit ominous, but it's actually something we're all experiencing. What happens to relationships when your team is scattered across different spaces? Let's hear what they think is coming in 2026.
Leanne ElliottAs you know, Leanne, since we had that wonderful conversation with you a couple of months ago now, we talk about 3 main approaches to work, right? Right? Office forward, hybrid, remote first. We do believe that that variety of approaches will continue in 2026. Obviously, we're seeing more companies push a little bit more strongly towards a structured hybrid situation where workers are expected to be in the office a couple of days a week, and then maybe they can work from home a couple of other days a week. Or even a push towards the office is what we've been seeing lately. I don't know that that trend will change much. I expect that that would kind of continue to, those 2 would continue to emerge as perhaps the predominant modalities of work that organizations are probably going to adapt. Again, more of an office-forward approach or more of a hybrid, structured hybrid approach. But what I think is going to be interesting is employers are going to realize that, and we talked about that in the podcast that hybrid is a really structured thing to pull off, even if you do the structured hybrid. So one new idea that we've been kind of working on since the podcast actually is this idea of what we're calling relational fracturing. And what relational fracturing is all about is, is how workplace relationships are really difficult to stay cohesive when people, that is employees, are occupying what we're calling multi- And so, if you think of a hybrid organization from a spatial perspective, right, it is multispatial because sometimes you work together in the office, sometimes people work in a dispersed modality from home. And so, people are occupying different spaces. And so, I think that organizations are starting to realize that when they're spread across spaces, and some of those spaces they control, such as the office space, Mm-hmm. And some of those spaces they don't really quite control, cuz those are people's personal home spaces where we work for, where they work from. But when organizations are multispatial like that, it's really difficult to have cohesive relationships between employees. And so I don't think that organizations are necessarily going to pull away from hybrid because of that difficulty. I actually think that organizations are going to be challenged to continue to think, how can we help employees connect across this Multispatial organizations that we're, that we are creating. I think a lot of those, how can we connect better, will come through technology. I think that we are just starting to scratch the surface on what technology can do to help people connect. I think that there will be definitely more innovations with that. Technology is actually maybe finally forcing us to understand and to almost like accept our humanity, which is an interesting kind of paradox, right? That we needed something to push us to finally realize that we are at the end of the day, human, and that it is about how we connect with each other. And I do think that there is a dark side to technology that is possibly pushing us towards that realization that we may not have necessarily been aware of before as much. I think that that is the reason why so many people do want to spend at least some time in the office being together, because they realize being forced to communicate through technology with each other, that That is not necessarily everybody's person cup of tea. And in fact, that is one very powerful thing that we kept on hearing over and over again in our research that we wrote the book about, where yes, some people felt perfectly fine connecting with coworkers through technology, but most people felt that that is just a substitute for the real thing, and they really wanted the real thing. I'll just give you a quick example. Right now I'm looking at the camera versus looking at you nodding on my screen down below. And so if I want our viewers to be able to see me looking at them, I have to look at the camera, but I can't really feel like I'm actually making eye contact with you very well, right? So even just thinking about how do we position cameras relative to how we see people on the screen can make a huge difference between feeling connected with your coworkers or not quite feeling connected, which is what we're hearing people tell us in our interviews and in our research. And so again, I think that the biggest challenge that organizations are realizing with hybrid is how difficult it is to connect.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne Elliottto create a sense of culture, even though hybrid still involves some office time, right? Yeah, I agree with what everything that Ina said. I would say as we look towards 2026, leaders really need to be prepared to address the overall employee experience. Employees are not going to be as motivated by fancy work perks as they were before, right? Like the free meals and the social events in the office, they're not as interested in those as they have been before in the past. They are more focused on having meaningful work and things that they care about, autonomy over the work that they're doing, purpose, flexibility. Those are the things that they care about. SHRM recently reported that there are more jobs than employees to fill them. So that means that we're going to have Employees are going to want more agency over what their options are, and leaders are going to be really challenged to attract and retain talent with that kind of dynamic labor market. So I think that that's going to be really important. Microsoft's CEO talked recently about empathy being really important, a superpower, I think, calling it a superpower. And so I think that that's part of it. I think not only is empathy going to be a part of it, but making sure that people find meaning in their work is going to be important. Particularly with AI and the disruption there, we can't just have people doing work to be productive because AI is going to check off those boxes, right? Like AI is going to handle the productivity. So we just need to make sure that people have work that is important to them. And these disruptions that we're seeing about where people are working and what work they're doing, those are— that's the challenges that we're going to be facing. So really just thinking about that overall employee experience is going to be important. I think that leaders are just going to have to figure out what part of the task can be done by AI and what part of the task is really human that would actually require that human connection and that human touch. And that is what's going to give employees meaning.
Al ElliottIf you want to dive deeper into this, go grab their book, The New Workplace. It's probably the most research-backed look at hybrid work you're going to find. We're going to put a link in the show notes, of course.
Leanne ElliottRight, onto prediction number 2, please.
Al ElliottOur next prediction comes from Danny Wareham, who's the creator of Constellation Leadership and author of the book with the same name.
Leanne ElliottDanny has got a bit of a contrarian take on 2026. He starts by telling us about a Stanford study that predicted the weather with 90% accuracy using the simplest method imaginable. And that's kind of where his prediction begins.
Al ElliottBut don't worry, it's not doom or gloom or all about weather. Danny reckons there's a silver lining to everything we're seeing, particularly those of us in the UK dealing with the recent budget changes.
Leanne ElliottLet's hear Danny's prediction for 2026.
Al ElliottThere was a study by Stanford in 2003 that found a way of predicting the weather with an accuracy of over 90%. And it was simply same as today. The weather tomorrow is most likely to be the same as it was today. So my prediction, my first prediction for 2020, 2020, 2026 is going to be very much more of the same. In 2025, we saw a tightening fiscally, particularly in the UK around wages, attracting talent, succession planning, et cetera. We saw big investments in technology like AI that weren't always intentional. We've seen people looking for silver bullets for how do I fix all of these challenges? And my first prediction is that I think it's going to be much of a muchness. It's going to be very similar to going to 2026 because people don't really change usually. What we found comfort in last year, we will find comfort in next year. Unfortunately, every silver lining does come with a cloud, so I will share a silver lining. But I think there is going to be a marked change in how we approach people, but it's not going to be driven potentially by a desire to improve the people experience, but because of a necessity to improve the people experience. But as a people experience person, I'll take that. Anything that kind of improves and adds a bit of intentionality and purpose around how we approach the soft squishy bits in our organisations has got to be a good thing. So recently the budget in the UK was announced and it's going to be a bit of a squeeze when it comes to talent attraction. Things like the national minimum wage are going up. There are higher taxes on things like dividends for business owners. So on one side, you've got a real squeeze on the on the resources that are available to businesses and people. On the other side, there are benefits, grants, and tax breaks for introducing technology. So R&D credits and things like this, which are going to almost encourage people to start to look at simplifying, automating, and that dreaded word AI into our organisations. And also labour laws are also being looked at as well. So they're tightening up. So for me, it creates this kind of pressure cooker of we need to be more clear and purposeful around who and how we attract people into our organisations. For years, people like you and I have been banging on about how do you do that a little more scientifically rather than, oh, he just feels like the right person for the role. So, I think that organisations are going to have to become a lot smarter with their talent attraction and their succession planning. Because they're going to have to look after the people that are in their organisation because of these labour law changes, but also getting people into the business is going to become more costly as well. So, I hope things like job analysis are going to be done. I hope HR is going to have a little bit of science and leverage the community of occupational and organisational psychologists out there who can help remove bias in your hiring processes, who can identify not just what are the competencies that somebody's had in the past, but what are their predictions? behaviours in the future, particularly when they're under stress, under change, et cetera. And that's the sort of the clarity and intentionality that people like us can bring to organisations. So my hope, my silver lining, is that we start to take the soft squishy bits and the processes around them a little bit more scientifically and a little bit more seriously.
Leanne ElliottI guess what I'm getting a theme here is that, is it that we're not next year, we're not Going to be doing more, but we are going to be doing better.
Al ElliottI mean, I'm not Nostradamus, but I do know that people tend more so to either conform with the comfortable and the familiar of what they have, which is why I think that it will be more of the same. The weather tomorrow is the same as the weather today, 90% of the time. However, when the pain gets too great, then we do have avoidance behaviours that happen as well, that manifest as well. The reality of business, particularly in the UK at the moment, is it's getting more and more expensive. If you are profitable, it is then more and more of that is being sliced off for things like taxation. And the regulations around how you operate, particularly with people, are also in flux at the moment as well. And that kind of pressure cooker is putting an awful lot of stress and risk on organizations and small business owners and kind of forcing their hands to consider how do I do more with less? How do I improve the kind of social capital and the discretionary effort that my people provide? Well, the way to do that is understand more about what are the environments that encourage motivation? Are you trying to fit, as we said in my podcast, are you trying to fit a Dave-shaped hole just because you've got a Dave-shaped hole rather than what other skills can people bring? And doing things like job analysis and understanding what's actually needed today and tomorrow, You can more cleverly identify where there is competencies within your organisation already. We tend to be more comfort and familiarity, but I think there's that much stress in the marketplace at the moment that people are, they may be looking for a silver bullet. It's not there, but there is some silver buckshot. You know, there's lots of little things we can do. Job analysis, using the science, using psychologists, and understanding your business a little more intentionally are never bad things, particularly when we're in a storm.
Leanne ElliottIf you want to learn more about Danny's approach to leadership, and of course you do, check out his book, Constellation Leadership. We've put the link in the show notes.
Al ElliottRight, let's keep going, Le.
Leanne ElliottOur next prediction comes from one of our most favourite people, the winner of Hot Take of 2025, Rebecca Taylor. She's a content creator, host of the HR Confessions podcast, and co-founder of SkillCycle.
Al ElliottAnd if you know Rebecca, you'll know she doesn't mince her words. Her opening line for this prediction is pretty much, people are getting sick of the bullshit, which gives you a flavour of where this is going.
Leanne ElliottRebecca's prediction is about power dynamics in the workplace and what happens when employees decide they've had enough of being commoditised. This one is bold. I think that people are coming to a point where we're just getting sick of the bullshit, and we're just getting sick of seeing ourselves as being commoditised. We're just sort of expected to spend all this money, and yet we're all losing all of our jobs, and everything is more and more expensive. So what I think we're going to see is a rise of unions. I think we're going to see more people try to unionise. Maybe in industries and in fields that typically aren't usually unionized, or people actually join unions who maybe those unions already do exist, but they're just not, you know, they're just not in them now for whatever reason. And, you know, through a union, I think they're going to be looking for more collective bargaining power, more job protection, more insurance protection, more, you know, more compensation protection, all of the things, because those are the things that people are lacking the most right now.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottSo that's my take. But let's be honest, in the UK anyway, I can't speak for the US. In the UK, unions have— do come with a bit of a stigma. Yeah, here too. How are people— how can we engage people in this idea that unionising could actually be a way forward and a way of improving working lives for the majority? Well, they come with a stigma because they're kind of not anti-capitalist, but they're They cause friction in capitalism, and we're a capitalist society. So it makes sense that there's propaganda that says things that benefit employees are bad because that's a narrative that supports the people who have most of the wealth and most of the control in this country. Yeah, you always think about sort of, you know, the union workers who aren't working and are getting paid, or the people who are on furlough and all that other stuff. And so there is, there is a lot of propaganda about it. I think that there have been really interesting measures in organizations like Starbucks where they did unionize and they've seen benefits. And you see people making good wages, you see people getting healthcare coverage and parental care and in parental leave. And those are things that they're only going to benefit other people in other organizations too. And I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it is gonna be an uphill battle. There is gonna have to be sort of Some leaders, some people who are unafraid of remessaging unions and really driving, almost like campaigning for them the same way you'll campaign for an election. And it is gonna be, it is gonna take a bit, but I think that once you start to realize the benefit that that has and you start to unwind your narrative and realize that there's more, there's, there could be more benefit to you as an individual, even if it hinders the company that you work for, I think people are gonna start to be okay with that narrative because is people are also realizing that companies will replace you in a second. And it's something I see all over social media. I see, we talk to a lot of people who are in coaching, a lot of people who work in HR, like our customers are HR customers. And there's this talk about companies will replace you in a second, so there's no such thing as loyalty anymore. So I think that that narrative that is usually the one that starts to support that anti-union narrative is is kind of like making people realise like, oh, because it's bad for them, it's good for us. We want it to be bad for them because we want it to be good for us. But it is gonna take almost like a, like a rebranding, a rebranding of, uh, of unions in order for it to work. Where could we be by this time next year if people actually took this agency and did something about it? It'll probably be sort of like important steps towards massive change, but I wouldn't expect the whole thing to be blown up, right? Unless everyone just strikes everywhere and stops working and That would be a really, really bold move, which I'm also here for. You know, but I think if we're looking at it sort of within the next year, if people are sort of taking the steps of what that is, we could start to see more laws being formed around worker protections because it's going to be, if a company doesn't want a union because they don't want to have to deal with collective bargaining, they don't want to have to deal with the process that, and the, I'll say it, bureaucracy that sometimes comes with working in a union, it might push the government to push to regulate more employee-centric laws so that They can get protections from their employees that don't involve being in a union. So, there could be sort of a benefit that people can get that could be passed sooner because that pressure is applied. I would still advocate for pressuring for unions because that is, again, a move that will benefit the company more than it'll benefit you as an individual.
Al ElliottIf you want more of Rebecca's unfiltered takes on workplace issues, check out HR Confessions podcast. We'll put a link in the show notes and also go and check out her LinkedIn. She is one of the LinkedIn queens.
Leanne ElliottShe certainly is. Onto our next prediction. Right after this short break. Do we need a break? Should we have a break?
Al ElliottLet's have a break. I think we all need a break.
Leanne ElliottI'm gonna put the kettle on. Did you know that the UK's number 1 management podcast— that's us, by the way— and the UK's number 1 marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network?
Al ElliottWe actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioural science to help people do better at work.
Leanne ElliottAnd we both had to wrangle Rory Sutherland on an episode.
Al ElliottAnd 2 out of 3 of us are devilishly good-looking. And you're not gonna say which. Phil, host of Nudge, UK's number one marketing podcast. It's brought to you— we need to do this in threes—
Leanne Elliottthe HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.
Al ElliottSeamless, seamless. Tell us about your latest episode, Phil. Uh, we've just done an episode on fake fandom and how New York indie bands are paying agencies to create fake TikTok videos about how much they like their work. And we talk about the behavioural science behind fandom and how that encourages people to enjoy the music and all of that good stuff, and do some big things about how this affects the worlds of politics, business, and brands as well.
Leanne ElliottIt is, it's such, it's such a good show. Of course, you'll hear all the stuff you want to hear about how to grow your business by using behavioural science in your marketing. But there's also just some really interesting episodes that will be right up your street. Personally, I enjoyed Can Balsamic Vinegar Make Beer Taste Better? And are we all just status-seeking monkeys?
Al ElliottI am. Go and listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts.
Leanne ElliottBut come back.
Al ElliottYeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this.
Leanne ElliottSo come back.
Al ElliottI'll cut that out. Keep that in.
Leanne ElliottWelcome back, brew in hand, I hope. Our next prediction comes from the amazing Vince Sanderson, who's a bit of a TikTok legend in the management world.
Al ElliottYeah, he's got 260,000 followers and over 1.6 million likes on TikTok. where he shares management advice that actually makes sense. He's also the CEO of Velion Consulting Group. Very fancy.
Leanne ElliottAnd he's been on the show before, so we know he doesn't hold back. His prediction for 2026 is about what happens when AI starts doing the job that managers should be doing, and he thinks it's going to be pretty messy.
Al ElliottThere has been a massive increase in trying to use AI as a replacement of management and leadership skills as well. Coaching agents, guidance agents, goal-setting agents. And so even though they're, I think they're quite distinct skills, I think, so what I think is going to shift this year in 2026 is we're going to see a messy phase where we're trying to combine these 2 very different skill sets. And I think, I don't know how it's going to turn out. I think in the long run, it'll end up separating again, probably, hopefully. Maybe that's just my opinion on it. But I think next year, maybe even into 2027, we're going to see this kind of messy, maybe even frustrated phase where, well, you imagine I'm a manager and you're a team member.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottAnd you are using AI, ChatGPT in the background because you are now used to it as we see the general population increasing using it. And you are summarising what your thoughts are and then it gets sent to me and then I read a bit of a summary based on what AI thinks you are after. And then I go, oh, well, I'll just put it into ChatGPT. What shall I do about this? And then I reply with an AI summary to you and then you go, oh, I'm not sure And then you reply with, are we actually having a conversation? Am I doing any leading here? Are your issues or frustrations actually being resolved? Or are we just going around in circles using AI agents or whatever it may be? If you get met with that response, I'll speak for myself, I wouldn't be happy.
Leanne ElliottWell, why?
Al ElliottI've poured my heart out potentially, or I've put myself in a vulnerable position And you didn't know what to do. The thing is, AI is at its worst point today than it will ever be. But that doesn't mean as it gets better, it's the right replacement for human connection and interaction and support. I think a lot of people are just going to get a bit fed up that it's clearly not a person that's providing this support, advice, guidance. Why do I need you then? And that's only going to feed into the resentment that many people have towards management. You know, that classic stat of 7 out of 10 people leave jobs because of managers. Well, now we're going to get, you know, a little caveat, and 1 out of 10 of those people left because it wasn't even a manager that was helping them, it was ChatGPT. I don't think this is a generational thing. Any managers and leaders that lean more heavily towards I've not got time. Let's just come up with an answer. Oh, I don't know how to do that. What does ChatGPT say? They're only doing themselves and any future people coming through a disservice there. And are we going to see, not just in 2026, but '26 and beyond, an influx of managers that haven't actually experienced a difficult conversation? They've just gone in and looked for an answer and then sent it off. Without knowing whether it's actually a helpful answer. And having used ChatGPT and others out of interest for some of the challenging conversations I've been privy to and part of, and you type it up and see, oh, what would it say? I look at the answers and I'm like, nope, that's not what you should be saying. It looks good on paper, For example, the feedback sandwich. It'll recommend doing that, but we know that that's not a good model to use. And will that change in the future? Maybe. Maybe it'll get better and better, but certainly for next year, the next couple of years, I think we're in for a bit of a frustrating, sticky time because of this. I naturally err on the side of optimism and hope, just in general, but in particular with these things. I wonder whether we'll see more of a separation like we're doing now with remote-first companies compared to companies that are encouraging back in the office. We're seeing this divergence of companies that are really advertising what they're about. And I wonder whether this will be the same, whether it's with customers or internally. We don't use AI agents. You will speak to a person. We don't employ AI agents within our management system. We actively avoid them and we invest in training our leaders and our managers. I wonder whether that will be an incentive as part of your job description. This is what we're about. I don't know, but I would expect we'll see a bit of a separation to those that go, our business is about our people compared to our business is purely revenue. And I think there'll be a bit of a separation there. And I will add, there'll be plenty of people as well that are like, great, I'd take an AI manager over a real person because they've had such bad experiences, sadly, in the past. And they've been burnt by real people. So I have no doubt that that will be of benefit to some people, but I don't, I 100% don't believe that an AI agent can substitute a great manager or leader. That is worth its weight in gold. If you want more of Vince's no-nonsense management advice, go find him on TikTok. We've put his handle in the show notes. Definitely go worth a follow.
Leanne ElliottLook at you, put his handle in the show notes.
Al ElliottI know.
Leanne ElliottYeah, nice. I'm enjoying 2026, Al. Okay, on to our next prediction.
Al ElliottYes. So let's hear from Sonia Thompson, who's the host of the Frictionless Marketing podcast and an inclusive growth and customer experience strategist.
Leanne ElliottSonia spends her time helping brands understand how to be more inclusive. So she is perfectly placed to talk about what's changing in how people show up at work. And her prediction is pretty clear. Something is dead. My prediction is that Assimilation is dead. We cannot expect anymore that people will start to assimilate or that people will voluntarily assimilate, whether that's in the workplace, whether that's as consumers, whether that's just walking down the street, right? Like, people are more and more leaning into their identity. of who they are, and they're expecting other people to embrace and acknowledge their identities rather than having to tuck their identity in their pocket whenever they show up at work, whenever they're in meetings, whenever they're presenting, whenever they show up for a business. And I think that was the standard for many, many, many years. I think back to even my corporate days, There was a lot about me that I felt like needed to be sort of— like I needed to show up as who I thought everybody else needed me to be. I needed to not rock the boat. I needed to not present myself as too differently. I needed to be like them rather than focus on being who I was.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottAnd seeing that as a strength, seeing that as an asset, and seeing that I was great as I was, not as who the polished version or who corporate Sonya was. And I spent some time talking with a woman on my podcast recently, and she validated this trend. Specifically, she focuses on the Hispanic community in the US. And she had done a lot of research with, um, young Hispanic community. And in particular, she called this out, that assimilation is over.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne ElliottIn this instance, she was saying how they were 100% American and 100% Latino. And it's not like they have to sort of hide aspects of themselves. They don't have to hide their accent. They don't have to hide whatever it is about them that makes them them. People are about like, this is me, take it or leave it. This is who I am. And brands are having to adjust and adapt accordingly. I remember way back when, during my corporate time, um, I, I was moving up and I was now like a people leader. And so that gave me an opportunity to go through some like professional development training. And as a part of that training, I had to get feedback from like all of my peers, some of the leaders, and what it came— one of the pieces of feedback that came back was like, we don't really feel like we know Sonya. Like, we need to know Sonya the person, not Sonya the marketer. And I thought about that, and it was interesting that this is one of the things that they felt that was needed for me to be more successful, to to, for me to, I guess, better fit in, um, or build relationships. That mask that I had had for years wasn't working. And like, it limited my ability to just be me. And I think people having this code-switching or people putting on this mask or trying to assimilate, which I, I don't have a formal definition of it, but basically how I interpret assimilation.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne Elliottis people who are trying to sort of shed their identity in a way to make them fit into the people or the group that they're in. So if all the group drinks beer after work and wears a certain type of clothes and they go golfing on the weekends, I don't drink, or I prefer to drink—
Al ElliottWine.
Leanne Elliottmargaritas, I prefer to wear sleeveless clothes, if I prefer to sit on my couch and scroll TikTok on the weekend, right? Like, instead of having to do all those other things to be successful, it's how can you show up and talk about the things that you like and the things that— who you are, and maybe open that up for other people to sort of be introduced and see your world as what is acceptable. And, and really, this is what's— what it boils down to. This is opening up people's view beyond just one way of doing things to where there really is no one right way, and all these ways are beautiful. And if we embrace people as they are, not only do we, like, eliminate all the stress and the costs associated Um, of trying to pretend to be someone that you're not. Um, and business ultimately will be better. Teams will have more trust. Teams will produce better output because people will be able to bring in their perspectives from that they've experienced from all their, um, different walks of life. If you want to find out more about Sonya's work on inclusive marketing and customer experience, head to frictionlessmarketing.io. We've put a link in the show notes.
Al ElliottOkay, on to our penultimate prediction. I like a bit of alliteration, Lea.
Leanne ElliottYes, me too. I also like a bit of Jeanette Ramsden from The Curve Group.
Al ElliottOkay, taken out of context, a little bit weird, but let's go with it.
Leanne ElliottShe is one of the most well-known HR professionals in the UK.
Al ElliottAnd if you know Jeanette, you'll know she's never one to hold back on what's really on her mind. So let's hear her take on what 2026 holds.
Leanne ElliottWell, Al, thanks for inviting me back. I think that AI could ruin the way that recruitment is done in the UK, actually. I feel that we really, really need a human-centric commitment to the recruitment process, quite frankly.
Al ElliottSo, I've seen on X this app, and what people who are going for jobs can do is have this app open. They glue it to their screen, to their laptop screen, on their phone. And then when a recruiter asks a question, it tells them how best to answer it.
Leanne ElliottYes.
Al ElliottNow, is this what we're talking about, that this is just AI? Because also, the other end, we've got other people, AI people, turning up to interview people. So what's going on here?
Leanne ElliottYeah, well, you're exactly right. That's exactly what's happening. I think the trouble is though, that takes out a real element of the people element. Like, what makes, what makes talent in an organisation is having the right skills, the right knowledge, but actually the right attitude. And screening people out based on just skills alone can be extremely discriminatory, doesn't actually check the right attitude, that the people are right. What it's actually doing is checking that they're technology savvy, and that can mean that you miss out on a huge amount of talent, quite frankly. And who wants that? As CEO of a business, you want the very best talent for your organisation, not just the one that managed to answer the avatar questions in the right way. And quite often what I'm also finding now is that certainly graduates are using avatars to answer avatars. So, there's absolutely no human intervention in that process. There's one large bank, they've got a 6-stage process for their recruitment, and the first 2 stages are just totally enabled by robots. And what they are discovering is that the candidates are just doing the first 2 stages robot to robot. Now, don't get me wrong, it's very, very useful to screen out totally inappropriate people. The role requires somebody to be in-country for a real reason. Being able to weedle those out is a sort of a yes/no answer, but anything more in-depth and sort of trying to find the very best talent for your organisation, it's not the way to recruit for me. Don't get me wrong though, we do use a lot of AI, but it's in the appropriate way.
Al ElliottJeanette, so you do use AI. So, what's the right way to use AI in recruitment?
Leanne ElliottIt's where there is a real process involved. So, using AI to make sure that you respond to all candidates, helping you to write an initial job description, using AI to write an advert for you to get the first load of wording down, helping you to do a nice approach on email. But as long as there's a human-centric element, that's where the real winners for me will be, where you're using IA— AI, there's my dyslexia kicking in beautifully— but to sort of cut down a process and make it faster is absolutely brilliant and absolutely genius. Where you're sort of deciding that somebody is not appropriate for a role based on their age or their criteria or their lack of of skills isn't always the best way. And of course, I'll probably get in and out with loads of people making the argument. The reality is it's not working wholesale, particularly for the SME market, which is where we specialise.
Al ElliottClassic Jeanette, straight to the point as always.
Leanne ElliottYes. And of course, you'll want to learn more about Jeanette and her work at The Curve Group. Surprise, surprise, we put a link in the show notes.
Al ElliottI know, I know. It's just, you didn't expect, didn't see that coming, did you? Tell you what you did see coming is our final prediction. Yes, our final prediction. It comes from Becky Sims from Human First Collective, also one of the founders of Reflect Digital, just been voted the Employer of the Year. Very, very, very cool company. We've had her on before, so definitely check the show notes out for the other episode that we had Becky on. Here's Becky Sims.
Leanne ElliottSo thinking about how AI is becoming part of our day-to-day lives, I can see people coming to a job interview wanting to know what AI tech stack am I going to have to support me in my role? And are you open to using AI, because we've got these kind of fearful businesses sitting over here that are not embracing AI as much as others. And that's going to become important to the employee. We're not going to want to go and work somewhere that says, no, you can't use it, or we don't like it. So, they're going to want to know, what does our tech stack look like? How will I be able to work with AI? Because I can be more productive, I can bring better ideas to the table, I can get more work done.
Al ElliottWhat would a tech stack look like? Say you, if you implemented this in Reflect or Human Collective, what would a tech stack actually be described as?
Leanne ElliottWe actually did a big AI session back in September with our whole team as like an away day. And we started saying, we want you to start thinking about your tech stack, what's important to you. So, we use Google as our kind of main platform here. So, Gemini is the one that everybody has access to, but then we have different tools for different people that are using them in different ways. Like, I'm sure you're probably utilising some of the different AI tools for subtitling or for helping you edit videos, et cetera.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottSo, in our creative team, They absolutely have part of that as their tech stack. Within our SEO team, for example, there'll be certain tools they want to use, et cetera. So, we've got different licenses in place for different things, and we're really open to someone suggesting a new technical tool that they want to use, and checking it against our AI policy, and making sure it works, et cetera. Like, I, as much as we use Gemini, I actually been using ChatGPT before Gemini got to being good, and I'm so in bed with my ChatGPT, if you can say it that way. Like, it knows me so well, and I know it well.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottThat I'm kind of really tied to that, and it helps me in so many ways. A lot of our team use Fixer for our emails where it kind of helps draft replies for you. So, I can imagine if one of our team that's used to using Fixer, where the second you've got an email, you've got a draft reply ready to go, it's learning your style, it's learning what you want to say, it can say, I'm free at 3 o'clock for a meeting. If you suddenly went to a company and they said you can't use Fixer, that would turn them off wanting to take that job, I imagine, because they're like, well, hold on. It's been a long time since I've had to go and try draw my own calendar and think about these things. I'm expecting that to be available to me.
Al ElliottWould you not be concerned that your customers might discover you're using AI, or do they know already?
Leanne ElliottWe absolutely tell them how we're using AI, where we're using it, and how it's helping us. So, we've got really clear AI policies in the business, and I think every business needs an AI policy now. And whether that's a really locked-down one or a more kind of open one whereby people can suggest products and tools that they want to But our team, our clients know, like, they know that it means that it's improving productivity. Some of our clients, we do translation work for them, which we would previously work with a translation agency. This year, we've been trialling and have successfully implemented AI translations, where the client's so happy, like, the price is better, the turnaround's quicker, the tone of voice is there, the localised bit's there, and we're getting it right, and it's just working better for them. So, I think we're just really open about it, of how we use AI, like, They know that our fixer turns up to calls and is taking notes. They get the benefit of us sharing those notes with them as well. But we talk about our positioning statement is that we use technology and AI to make space for human brilliance. And we've had some deep meaningful conversations about what human brilliance is. But it's almost like we likened it the other week to going to an artisan bakery. They're going to use a mechanical mixer and they're going to use the help that they can get, but they're finishing it by hand.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottWe're going to use all the help we can get, but we finish it with our minds and our hands, if you like, to follow that analogy, because that's what's important. We need to know that it's very human at the end what you're getting, but it's absolutely like, it benefits everybody if AI can speed things up and can give us access to assess data in a way that maybe we couldn't as a human or would take too long or cost the client too much money to do. So, yeah, I think people need to embrace it, be open about it, but need to start thinking what that means for their employees, because if they're not open to it, it could cause some problems. They might not be able to hire the people they want to hire that want to work in that way.
Al ElliottIf you want to know more about Becky, then just go and find her on LinkedIn. She's very, very active. You will see her posting every single day.
Leanne ElliottOkay. So there we have it. Very different predictions for 2026. Some hopeful, some challenging, all thought-provoking, some terrifying. I don't know. Well, where are we going to end up in 2026? We usually do our predictions.
Al ElliottWe do. Well, I think to be fair, a lot of our— a lot of the predictions have been covered, but what's yours, Leanne?
Leanne ElliottMy prediction, and actually somebody asked me this when we were doing the show, it might have been, it might have been Rebecca actually, um, and I said I think culture is going to die next year. I think culture is going to be like, like the ick of the, of the kind of business world. I think Gen Z are going to hate talking about it. They're going to start mocking it on TikTok even more than they already do. I think anyone who's a culture consultant is going to have to really consider how they're They're kind of communicating this to business owners because I think the last few years we've had a lot of investment, so-called investment in culture. What we've actually had is investment in the things that are shiny and sexy, like Hibob, another, like, such thing.
Al ElliottLattice, yeah. And they're all, share prices are diving and all those.
Leanne ElliottI think Hibob— Yeah, layoffs are coming.
Al ElliottLayoffs are coming. It's, yeah, everyone wanted a dashboard and then when they got one, they realised it's a load of shite.
Leanne ElliottYeah, exactly. It's not about how pretty it looks or how many dials you've got on your board. It's actually about creating an environment where your people are happy, safe, and productive. Yeah, I think culture is going to get cancelled next year. I think we're going to see a hard swing back to science, so long as us psychologists can get our shit together and talk about it in a way that isn't boring or too middle-groundy.
Al ElliottYeah, totally agree. Totally agree. And also, I think that that is a bit terrifying for our podcast because it's about workplace, but we have changed it to Simplifying the Science of Work.
Leanne ElliottWell, as well, though, haven't we always said that culture isn't what you think it is? We don't talk about like break rooms and stuff.
Al ElliottNo, no, no, totally agree. My prediction is kind of— my prediction is very similar to Vince's, is that we are going to go full peak. I don't know what the kids call it, high peak, whatever the word is, on AI responses. And we're going to end up having, like Vince says, people, AIs talking to AIs because everyone's formulating their opinions or their emails through AI. And so those companies, those leaders who actually just go, this is not AI, I never write AI, That's going to win. And also in terms of marketing, I think I can see people putting a branch, putting a thing on, this app does not use AI. And I think that's going to be a big thing. So I think that's going to come through to the way we communicate.
Leanne ElliottI wonder whether those 2 things are actually from the same place of companies proudly declaring that they are human first.
Al ElliottYes.
Leanne ElliottBoth in terms of a technology perspective and in terms of the workplace environment perspective. I think psychosocial risk factors are going to be really hot next year.
Al ElliottYeah, yeah, so hot right now.
Leanne ElliottSpicy.
Al ElliottRight, we will see you, uh, what are we on now? Um, we're gonna— we're on a Thursday, so we'll see you next Tuesday.
Leanne ElliottWho knows what day it is, man.
Al ElliottWe'll see you next Tuesday where we've got what we call a feed drop in the, um, um, in, in the industry, in the biz. Uh, this is Leanne's interview on Josh from Great Mondays, uh, podcast. Uh, Leanne is always effortlessly cool and awesome, so you should definitely listen to that. Unless you listened to it before, in which case, no, listen to it again. Listen to it again.
Leanne ElliottWhy not?
Al ElliottWhy not? So we will, we will see you very soon.
Leanne ElliottHappy New Year!