A major gap exists between what business leaders think employees need to succeed with AI and what workers actually prioritize. According to a new global study from IBM's Institute for Business Value, 71% of Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) identify the ability to supervise, validate and override AI outputs as the workforce's most essential skill. Yet only 29% of employees rank judgment as important.

The disconnect matters because it reveals a fundamental misalignment in how organizations are preparing their workforces for an AI-driven future. The study surveyed 1,500 CHROs and 8,800 employees across 21 geographies and 23 industries between April and June 2026, making it one of the largest recent examinations of how AI is reshaping workplace priorities.

Why Are Employees Worried About Skills Erosion?

The research points to a troubling reality: 60% of employees worry that AI is eroding their skills, with critical thinking cited most often as the capability in decline. Among those concerned about skills erosion, three out of four say AI has already begun to erode at least some of their skills. This fear is not unfounded. CHROs themselves acknowledge the problem, with 46% citing skills erosion as one of their top concerns.

The irony is stark. While employees fret about losing critical thinking abilities, CHROs identify critical thinking and human judgment as among the most important capabilities for the AI era. Specifically, 49% of employees and 57% of CHROs say critical thinking and problem framing matter most in an AI-enabled workplace.

The gap between worry and priority suggests that organizations are not effectively communicating why these skills matter or how employees can develop them. When judgment is built into how work is actually done, 62% of CHROs report growing employee confidence in AI-enabled decisions. But where judgment is absent from workflows, 57% of CHROs report confidence declining.

How Are Organizations Failing to Prepare for This Shift?

The study reveals several structural failures in how companies are approaching AI transformation. Nearly half of organizations, 46%, do not involve the CHRO when AI strategy is being defined. This exclusion of human resources leadership from technology strategy decisions is a critical oversight, given that the success of AI adoption depends heavily on workforce readiness and culture change.

The consequences are measurable. Only 28% of CHROs report a joint roadmap with IT backed by a shared operating cadence, and 73% say they struggle to coordinate consistently across the C-suite. This lack of coordination cascades down to employees. When something goes wrong with an AI system, 43% of employees report that blame falls on them, while 41% of CHROs believe employees may not feel safe challenging or overriding AI outputs.

Accountability remains murky. Thirty-six percent of CHROs say unclear accountability complicates AI deployment. Without clear lines of responsibility, employees hesitate to exercise the very judgment that leaders say is essential.

What Are the Practical Steps Organizations Should Take?

• Define Workflows Clearly: Organizations that explicitly designate workflows as human-led, AI-assisted, or AI-executed report achieving 18% risk reduction and 20% quality improvement. This clarity helps employees understand where their judgment is needed and where AI handles decisions.
• Involve HR in AI Strategy from the Start: Where the CHRO shares responsibility for which decisions remain human-led, 76% of employees feel safe to question or override AI recommendations. Compare this to just 43% where HR is merely advisory. This structural change is foundational.
• Invest in HR's Own AI Capabilities: Currently, 72% of organizations make limited or no use of AI inside the HR function itself. CHROs rate HR's capabilities particularly low in AI literacy across the team (13%), AI performance measurement (16%), and change management for AI adoption (20%). Organizations with mature HR AI capability are nearly twice as likely to report higher positive business KPIs.
• Redesign Work Around People and Technology: Organizations creating the greatest value from AI are redesigning work, decision-making and workforce capabilities around people and technology, not just deploying tools and hoping for adoption.

What Hidden Work Is AI Creating?

The study uncovers a hidden cost of AI adoption: invisible work. Eighty percent of CHROs believe AI adoption creates "invisible" work for employees, including validating recommendations, fixing mistakes, providing context and managing exceptions. Yet 42% of employees say AI increases their work or their work goes unrecognized.

This burden is not being offset by productivity gains in most organizations. Only 42% of CHROs say AI productivity gains are primarily reinvested for innovation or reskilling. In other words, for many workers, AI is adding tasks without corresponding relief from existing responsibilities.

"AI is changing not only how work gets done, but where people can contribute the greatest value. As AI takes on more routine and process-driven tasks, uniquely human capabilities become even more important. CHROs have a critical role to play in redesigning the workplace of the future so people can focus on the areas where they can have the greatest impact," said Nickle LaMoreaux, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at IBM.

Nickle LaMoreaux, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, IBM

Why Does This Matter Beyond HR?

The IBM findings align with a broader lesson emerging from enterprise AI adoption: technology alone does not drive transformation. Marathon Petroleum, a major energy company, learned this lesson by starting with business problems rather than AI solutions. The company discovered that successful transformation requires standardizing processes, improving employee experience, and redesigning workflows before deploying advanced technology.

"We are not using AI as a solution in search of a problem. We aren't even using technology in search of a problem," explained Daniel Byrne, former Senior Director of Digital Transformation at Marathon Petroleum. This philosophy mirrors what the IBM study reveals: organizations that focus on people, judgment and clear workflows first, then layer in AI, see better outcomes than those that deploy AI and hope employees adapt.

The convergence of these insights points to a critical inflection point in enterprise AI adoption. As agentic AI systems, which can autonomously execute complex workflows with minimal human intervention, move from research labs into production, the need for clear governance, human oversight and employee confidence becomes even more urgent. Organizations that have not yet aligned their HR strategy with their AI strategy are falling behind.

The message from CHROs, employees and transformation leaders is consistent: AI success depends on judgment, clarity and people. Organizations that treat AI as a technology problem rather than a workforce and culture problem will continue to see adoption gaps, skills erosion and missed ROI. Those that redesign work around human judgment and AI assistance, involve HR from day one, and invest in their own AI literacy will be the ones that actually transform.