2026 HR AI Report: How HR Leaders Are Using AI

Lively's 2026 HR AI Report offers a ground-level view of how AI is actually being used across HR functions - not how vendors say it should be used. Based on a survey of more than 250 HR leaders at organisations with 1,000 or more employees, the findings cut through the hype to reveal where AI is generating genuine relief, and where scepticism remains well-founded.

The report's central finding is that AI isn't replacing HR - it's relieving it. Rising operational demands, tighter budgets and growing employee expectations have pushed HR teams to breaking point on administrative work. The leaders surveyed aren't reaching for AI because of enthusiasm about the technology; they're reaching for it because the status quo is unsustainable. Benefits administration emerges as the biggest bottleneck - and the area where AI is proving most immediately useful, reducing the manual, reactive work that consumes disproportionate HR time.

Key themes from the report include: where HR teams are losing the most time and why; how AI is being used to reduce friction in benefits workflows; what HR leaders actually expect from AI tools (and what makes them sceptical); and practical guidance on applying AI without adding new layers of complexity. Note: this report is US-based and references US-specific benefits structures (HSAs, FSAs). The underlying themes around AI adoption, capacity constraints and workforce expectations are highly relevant to HR professionals globally.

This report is gated and requires registration to download in full. The overview above draws from Lively's publicly available summary.