For years, the phrase “a seat at the table” has been tossed around regarding HR’s aspirations. It’s been a metaphor for inclusion in strategic conversations and for being heard alongside finance, operations and technology leaders.
But reality suggests that metaphor is dead.
CHROs aren’t fighting for a seat. They’re the ones holding the map while everyone else at the table is still reading yesterday’s news.
Disruption hits HR leaders hard
The data, based on consulting firm AlixPartners’ Disruption Index 2026, proves this. The report included 3,200 executives across multiple industries, with 1,000 respondents from North America, 1,200 from EMEA and 1,000 from APAC. Sixty percent of CHROs surveyed report that their companies face high disruption, a rate that mirrors that of CEOs exactly.
Meanwhile, the executives you’d expect to be most attuned to disruption—chief technology officers, chief data officers, chief information officers—register just 46%. CFOs come in at 37%. And chief operating officers? A mere 21% say disruption is intense, with only 14% believing their companies are leaders in navigating it.
Why innovators worry most
Executive anxiety itself is bifurcating in unexpected ways. Thirty-seven percent of executives say they are less anxious than they were a year ago. This is a leap from just 14% in 2025. Still, nervous leaders haven’t gone away, as 24% report greater anxiety, up from 17%. The split isn’t random, according to AlixPartners. The most anxious leaders are concentrated among those on the front lines of AI transformation, which the researchers suggest is a sign they are innovating.
These high performers see firsthand how quickly the goalposts move. Their anxiety is a byproduct of success, a recognition that staying ahead requires continuous reinvention and the courage to make bold choices while the terrain shifts beneath their feet.
According to HR Executive’s recent What’s Keeping HR Up at Night? survey, human resource leaders spend nearly 23% of their time on change management, which registers more than any other responsibility. For CHROs, this means managing, not just facilitating, organizational change, including the psychological toll of perpetual disruption on leadership teams themselves.
Every disruption lands on HR’s desk
Stress levels across the HR function have reached new highs, according to What’s Keeping HR Up at Night?, driven by a convergence of pressures that are hitting HR simultaneously and creating a broader, more sustained strain than in previous years.
Consider the major disruption drivers identified in the AlixPartners Index, and notice how many ultimately become people problems.
‘Second Age of Electrification’
Energy constraints have emerged as central to corporate strategy for the first time in decades. Sixty-two percent of CEOs say energy prices significantly disrupt budgeting and forecasting. The computational demands of AI and the electrification of transportation are straining existing grid infrastructure, creating what AlixPartners calls the Second Age of Electrification.
But implementing energy-efficient operations, redesigning facilities and managing the transition to new technologies all require workforce planning, change management and skills development—a roster of concerns in HR’s domain.
Supply chain complexity
Supply chain reconfiguration is reshaping global business as governments abandon the level playing field consensus that dominated post-World War II trade policy. Fifty-two percent of growth leaders say geopolitical conflict creates opportunity, while 71% report tariffs have had a positive impact. But executing on these opportunities—relocating operations, building new supplier relationships, navigating regulatory complexity—demands talent strategies that CHROs must architect.
Legacy tech
Legacy technology systems are blocking business model transformation, with 23% of companies citing them as major obstacles (rising to 35% in financial services). Yet, modernizing these systems isn’t just a technology challenge. It requires reskilling existing staff, attracting new talent with different capabilities and managing the organizational resistance that inevitably accompanies fundamental change.
Demographics x AI acceleration
AI is inverting the fundamental calculus that determines organizational boundaries. When AI agents can handle routine coordination, monitoring and data processing at minimal cost, transaction costs plummet. Thirty percent of companies are already driving value by reducing outsourcing through automated internal workflows.
But this isn’t a technology decision. It’s a workforce design decision. What capabilities do we build internally? What talent do we develop versus access? These questions sit squarely in the CHRO’s lap.
Sixty-five percent of companies focus AI investments on revenue growth rather than cost reduction, according to AlixPartners. Eighty-four percent of executives report that productivity is increasing, while 49% worry their employees’ skills are rapidly becoming obsolete.
Meanwhile, there is also a change in workforce demographics, as many parts of the world look down the pike to aging or disappearing talent. Some facts to consider, according to AlixPartners:
- Two-thirds of humanity lives in countries with below-replacement fertility rates.
- Japan’s working-age population has declined 16% from its 1995 peak and is projected to fall another 31% by 2060.
- China’s workforce shrank by 11 million people in 2023, even as it added 7 million jobs.
- Europe faces working-age population declines of 30% or more in a quarter of OECD countries by 2060.
- In the U.S., the fastest employment growth is among workers 65 and older.
This creates a dual imperative: Companies must simultaneously retain experienced older workers who possess institutional knowledge and sound business judgment while reskilling both younger and older employees for AI-augmented roles. Human-machine collaboration will become the norm, not the exception.
And the executive responsible for navigating this transition? The CHRO.
The sustainability execution gap
Ninety-six percent of CEOs report having a net-zero emissions strategy in place, and 75% have revised these strategies within the past 12 months. This suggests active engagement rather than static compliance exercises. Approximately 90% of CEOs report that environmental policies have had a positive impact on financial performance, organizational culture and their ability to attract and retain employees.
But strategies don’t implement themselves. Achieving net-zero targets requires operational changes that touch every department and every role. It requires employee buy-in, skills development and often fundamental shifts in how work gets done. It also increasingly influences talent attraction and retention—a direct line to HR’s core mandate.
What this means for HR leaders
The convergence of these forces creates an environment where organizational capability matters more than ever. And organizational capability is fundamentally about people: their skills, their adaptability, their engagement, their judgment.
The Index data suggests CHROs recognize this reality more clearly than many other C-suite members. They feel disruption as intensely as CEOs because they understand that every strategic initiative ultimately depends on human capital execution.
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