Artificial intelligence is becoming a standard workplace tool and is having an increasingly strong impact on how organisations operate. The latest Talent Trends 2026 report by Michael Page shows that AI is changing the way work is performed, how recruitment processes are run and how teams are managed. Increasingly, companies’ competitive advantage will depend on their ability to use this potential responsibly.
According to Michael Page’s Talent Trends 2026 report, public discussion around AI often focuses on threats to employment. However, forecasts point to a far more complex picture. Goldman Sachs estimates that as many as 300 million jobs worldwide could be affected by artificial intelligence, primarily through the automation of selected tasks. At the same time, the World Economic Forum forecasts that around 170 million new jobs could be created by 2030 as labour markets transform and demand for new skills grows.
The changes are already visible in everyday work. The share of people using generative AI rose from 27% in 2024 to 47% in 2025 and reached 73% in 2026.
“Artificial intelligence has very quickly become part of everyday work, particularly in the technology sector. However, organisations are still learning how to use it effectively and responsibly. In many companies, employees have considerable freedom to use AI tools, mainly to improve team productivity. The problem is that while the costs of these tools are easy to calculate, their impact on business results is much harder to assess,” says Bartosz Maligłówka, Head of IT Contracting at Michael Page.
Despite media forecasts of widespread job losses, concerns about AI’s impact on employment are expressed by around one-third of professionals. However, these concerns vary significantly between groups. Only 14% of freelancers report such fears, compared with as many as 80% of temporary workers.
The research shows that employees’ sense of security increases when the role of AI and the responsibilities retained by humans are clearly defined within an organisation.
In practice, AI most often supports everyday tasks such as content creation, data analysis and communication rather than replacing entire processes. Full automation is progressing more slowly because it requires organisational change, management-level approval and clear accountability frameworks.
“A major challenge is the skills gap. Employees have access to AI tools, but they do not always know how to use them in the most effective way. At the same time, companies are struggling to keep up with training needs,” adds Bartosz Maligłówka.
AI Is Changing Recruitment on Both Sides
The Talent Trends report also shows that AI is influencing recruitment for both candidates and employers. Around 74% of candidates use artificial intelligence when preparing job applications, while 62% of hiring managers use it to create job descriptions, recruitment questions and candidate communications.
At the same time, 32% of hiring managers admit that they are unsure whether the CVs and cover letters they receive have been created or edited using generative AI. As a result, practical tasks and interviews that allow employers to verify candidates’ actual skills are becoming increasingly important.
One of the most surprising consequences of AI development is the scale of abuse in recruitment. Employers are increasingly encountering candidates whose CVs are entirely AI-generated and perfectly tailored to a particular job offer. There are also cases in which bots or avatars take part in recruitment processes.
“There are situations where one person passes the recruitment process, but someone else performs the job later. This means companies need to invest more in candidate verification, while recruitment itself becomes more complicated and time-consuming. Automation on the candidate side also creates enormous application noise, making the work of HR departments more difficult,” says Bartosz Maligłówka.
New Opportunities and New Risks for Managers
The impact of artificial intelligence goes beyond everyday tasks and recruitment. AI tools are increasingly supporting organisational management by providing managers with new data that can be used in decision-making.
AI is also beginning to change how work is managed. Tools integrated into daily workplace environments can enable highly detailed monitoring of team activity and generate reports on employee performance.
This gives managers new opportunities to make data-informed decisions. However, it also raises serious questions about privacy, ethics and how such data should be interpreted.
“There is a real risk that HR decisions will be made on the basis of simplified indicators that do not reflect the actual value of an employee’s work,” Bartosz Maligłówka concludes.
The conclusions of the Talent Trends 2026 report show that artificial intelligence is not replacing people. Instead, it is changing the way work is organised and how recruitment is conducted.
The organisations that gain the greatest advantage will not necessarily be those that deploy the most new tools. Their success will depend on their ability to use AI responsibly, develop employees’ skills and build processes based on trust and transparency.
