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State of the Global Workplace: The Human Side of the AI Revolution

Gallup · 2026

22%

of managers are engaged, down from 27% a year earlier and now barely above the people they lead

p8 · The middle layer

9 points

is how far manager engagement has fallen since 2022, most of the recent global downturn

p8 · The middle layer

20%

of the world's employees are engaged at work, down from a 2022 peak of 23%

p6 · Ways of working and decisions

$10 trillion

was the cost of low engagement to the world economy last year, or 9% of GDP

p6 · Ways of working and decisions

45%

of managers report a lot of daily stress, against 39% of individual contributors

p20 · Capacity and time

12%

of European employees are engaged, the lowest of any region in the world

p37 · Connection and belonging

+10 points

more loneliness is reported by leaders than by the people they lead

p15 · Connection and belonging

Handle with care. UK country data (p149) is chart-only with no extractable numbers, so never attribute a UK figure to this report. The 98.7x manager-support multipliers on p9 are US-only single-question likelihood ratios; true, but they read as absurd on a webpage.

2026 Work Trend Index Annual Report

Microsoft WorkLab · 2026

67% vs 32%

organisational factors beat individual mindset two to one in predicting whether AI actually delivers

p17 · AI in reality

66%

of AI users say it has let them spend more time on high-value work

p8 · AI in reality

26%

of AI users say their leadership is clearly and consistently aligned on AI

p13 · Trust

13%

of AI users say they are rewarded for reinventing how work gets done when results do not come immediately

p13 · Ways of working and decisions

85% vs 64%

of the most advanced AI users say their manager openly uses AI, against everyone else

p13 · The middle layer

Handle with care. The sample is AI users only; people who answered "never" were screened out (p23). Every "% of AI users" figure is NOT "% of workers" and this audience will catch that. The p13 readiness-zone percentages contradict the p12 chart and p23 methodology and do not sum to 100 — use 19/10/50/16/5.

2026 Global Human Capital Trends

Deloitte with Oxford Economics · 2026

88% vs 7%

of leaders say orchestrating people and resources faster is critical, and say they are making great progress. The largest say-do gap in the survey

p42 · Ways of working and decisions

80%

of leaders, managers and workers worry colleagues are using AI to look more productive than they are

p33 · Trust

11%

of managers strongly agree they get the data and tools to decide how work is distributed

p44 · The middle layer

68%

of workers say the constant cadence of change has decreased their wellbeing

p59 · Capacity and time

27%

believe their organisation manages change effectively

p57 · Communication

72%

say purpose and belonging are the parts of their culture most worth preserving

p35 · Connection and belonging

Handle with care. Page numbers are PDF pages; printed numbers run two lower. This report mixes at least three populations (3,000+ leaders, a separate 6,000 worker survey, and external citations) and switches without warning. Always say "of leaders" vs "of workers". The p35 culture figure is a 2025 Gallup poll and the trust decline is Edelman — both cited, not measured.

Shifting Expectations: Work in the Age of Change

theSHIFT, fielded by Opinium · 2026

18% vs 35%

of non-managers rate change communication as very good, against managers

p24 · Communication

39%

of managers say they get no clear direction from leaders about the changes they must pass on

p11 · The middle layer

53% vs 73%

of non-managers feel comfortable sharing unpopular opinions, against managers

p24 · Trust

23%

of managers took the role because they actually wanted to manage people

p21 · The middle layer

48%

of managers say junior people are missing key developmental experiences because AI now does those tasks

p6 · AI in reality

Handle with care. Sample is 2,000 via an Opinium omnibus with no stated country, no fieldwork dates and no published demographics, so never describe it as UK or nationally representative. Skip p16 entirely: it conflates percentages with rankings.

The Decisiveness Crisis

Uncertainty Experts · 2026

72%

of managers would rather look decisive and get it wrong than look uncertain and get it right

p22 · The middle layer

46.9%

of C-suite executives make that same choice, the lowest of any level measured

p22 · The middle layer

Handle with care. Quote the percentages, never the sample size. It claims 3,159 professionals but its own cohorts sum to 1,159 (p62, p63), and the organisation count changes three times across the paper. The C-suite figure rests on roughly 49 people. Its "£20bn cost to the UK economy" is derived, not measured — do not use it.

2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer

PwC · 2026

52%

of the new skills demanded of AI-exposed entry-level jobs are senior capabilities, against 7% for the least exposed

p3 · The middle layer

49%

of CEOs expect AI adoption to cut junior hiring within three years, against 12% for senior hiring

p11 · AI in reality

62%

is the wage premium now paid to workers with AI skills, up from 57% last year

p22 · AI in reality

Handle with care. Job-advert and company-accounts data, not a people survey, so it says nothing about how work feels. The CEO figures come from PwC's separate Global CEO Survey — cite them as that.

Bridging the Connection Gap

Inspiring Change · 2026

No figures used from this source.

Handle with care. Not a data source. Thirty pages, zero statistics, anonymous qualitative interviews with senior people leaders in Ireland with no stated method. Excellent for verbatim quotes if attributed as one leader's words. Never present anything from it as a finding.