Across sectors and regions, preparedness tends to be short-term, reactive, and heavily skewed towards technology adoption rather than long-term workforce and capability planning. In this context, we found that AI and technology are widely seen as a source of efficiency, productivity, and growth, but they are also exposing gaps in governance, skills, and organisational readiness, particularly below the C-suite. At the same time, economic, geopolitical, and regulatory volatility is reinforcing the need for better scenario planning and leadership capability. The report ultimately points to a widening gap between perceived readiness and the deeper structural changes required to make workforces resilient over the long term.
What follows is an overview of the key insights relevant to the tech sector.
1. Tech at the forefront, but not immune to the readiness gap
Tech organisations stand out in the Future@Work 2026 data as the most confident sector overall. Over 90% of employers in this field, in fact, describe themselves as either ‘well prepared’ or ‘very well prepared’ for developments in AI and technology, geopolitics and regulation, workforce demographics, and sustainability, as well as for managing the pace of change itself. This aligns with the wider profile of the sector as an early and fast adopter of new technologies, and it reinforces a core finding of the report: familiarity with change tends to breed confidence.
That said, this confidence is not evenly distributed. Even within tech, geopolitics and regulation emerge as the area where confidence is comparatively lower. While tech firms still report higher confidence here than organisations in other sectors, this mirrors the wider report finding that regulatory volatility and political uncertainty are now structural features of the operating environment, even for sectors that see themselves as highly adaptive.
2. High confidence, short horizons
Despite their strong sense of preparedness, tech firms are affected by the same short-termism diagnosed across the wider economy. When planning horizons are examined, the tech sector emerges as the third most short-termist, behind only law and media and advertising, with a striking 64% of tech organisations prioritising short-term outcomes over long-term ones. This is a particularly important insight, because it challenges a common assumption that high digital maturity automatically translates into long-term strategic foresight.
In this respect, tech reflects what the report refers to as a ‘readiness mirage’: confidence remains high, but it is often anchored in near-term responsiveness rather than sustained, longer-range planning.
3. AI adoption: pressure, promise, and risk
AI sits at the centre of the tech sector story. Qualitative interviews suggest that tech firms often feel compelled to ‘do something with AI’, largely as a consequence of peer pressure, client expectations, and market signalling, rather than clearly articulated strategies or governance frameworks. This creates a familiar gap seen across the report between C-suite confidence and HR or operational readiness, with leadership optimism outpacing delivery capability.
The anticipated benefits of AI adoption in tech are clear and closely aligned with the wider dataset. Increased efficiency and productivity (41%), enhanced decision-support (32%), improved workforce experience (31%) are consistently identified as the primary upsides. This optimism is reflected in how tech firms predict AI will reshape jobs: transformation, rather than elimination, is the dominant expectation, with around one in two (50%) organisations anticipating that between 6% and 15% of roles will be transformed, and a further 36% expecting transformation to effect more than 16% of roles. By contrast, job elimination is expected to be far more limited, with nearly two in three (65%) anticipating impacts lower than 5%. Job creation is also predicted to be modest but tangible and concentrated in specialist roles, as over half of tech firms anticipating some level of net job creation rather than overall contraction.
At the same time, the risks loom large. For tech organisations, the single biggest concern linked to AI adoption is cybersecurity and data privacy (65.6%), closely followed by resistance to change among employees (35%), and regulatory, compliance, and legal uncertainty (34%). This reinforces the report’s broader conclusion that AI risk is now as much about trust, governance, and legitimacy as it is about capability and workforce design.
4. Investment skew and the human skills paradox
Intended investment patterns in tech closely mirror the wider findings of the report, but in a slightly more pronounced form. 80% of tech firms report being more likely to invest in technology than in workforce development, as opposed to a meagre 2% who expect to prioritise the latter over the former. This is consistent with sector identity and competitive pressure, yet it sits in tension with another important insight.
Compared with other sectors, tech organisations report the third strongest need (68%) for human-centred skills, such as judgment, communication, and emotional intelligence. These capabilities are widely recognised as critical for long-term performance, especially in environments shaped by AI and rapid change. However, they are also described as harder to define, measure, source, retain, train, and fund. As a result, they are frequently deprioritised in practice, despite being acknowledged in principle. This paradox echoes a central theme of the wider report around misalignment between stated priorities and actual investment.
5. Workforce shape, performance culture, and early-career risk
Several structural workforce shifts are particularly acute in the tech sector. AI-driven automation is accelerating the compression of traditional workforce pyramids into ‘diamond-shaped’ structures, reducing junior and entry-level roles. This poses a direct threat to traditional learning pathways and raises downstream risks for leadership pipelines unless early-career roles are deliberately redesigned.
Alongside this, the report identifies a marked shift toward more performance-driven cultures in tech. Qualitative interviews indicate that regular improvement plans, faster exits, and reduced tolerance for underperformance reflect an ongoing cultural reset. However, performance management infrastructure often remains underdeveloped, creating friction between heightened expectations and managerial capability.
These dynamics intersect with another challenge highlighted in the report: the management of younger, highly mobile employees. Tech firms report particular difficulty meeting expectations around rapid progression, to the point where some are actively pulling back from Gen Z hiring due to perceived mismatches between expectations and organisational reality.
6. Culture, sentiment, and attraction strategies
On culture and values, tech firms perform strongly relative to most sectors. 88% report measuring DEI and ESG, and an additional 8.7% one or the other. Many also indicate that DEI and ESG are either fully or strongly embedded in decision-making architectures, placing tech among the higher-performing sectors in this area. AI is also more likely to be seen as supporting sustainability and ESG goals, reinforcing the sector’s narrative of purpose-driven innovation.
Employee sentiment data paints a more nuanced picture. Tech organisations are the most likely (65%) to report positive sentiment shifts, yet they are also far from immune to negative sentiment (25%). This aligns with the wider report’s finding that confidence and engagement gains remain fragile and uneven, particularly in periods of restructuring or rapid transformation.
When it comes to attraction and retention, tech firms are more likely (75%) than their peers to prioritise meaningful work over reward as a strategy to attract talent. This reflects broader labour market shifts, while also increasing pressure on organisations to deliver on cultural and purpose-based promises.
7. Planning capability and regional divergence
One area where tech clearly outperforms most other sectors is in scenario and contingency planning. Together with law firms, tech firms are the most likely (43%) to use these tools to mitigate uncertainty arising from economic, geopolitical, and regulatory volatility. This suggests stronger institutional muscle for structured foresight, even if planning horizons remain short.
Regionally, the comparative analysis highlights a significant divergence. UK, EU, and US tech organisations report substantially higher perceived preparedness across all macro trends than their APAC counterparts. APAC-based tech firms also express lower confidence in managing the pace of change, underscoring the importance of regional context in interpreting global tech narratives.
8. Regulation, mobility, and growth expectations
Finally, external constraints loom large. Tech firms are the most likely (40%) sector to report concerns about immigration restrictions limiting access to the right people, reflecting their reliance on global workforce flows. They also face particular regulatory complexity, including pay transparency requirements, evolving AI regulation, and heightened data privacy obligations.
Despite these pressures, tech remains the sector most likely to expect an expansion in workforce size. This optimism reinforces the sector’s role as a bellwether for future work trends, while also highlighting the scale of the organisational, cultural, and governance challenges that must be addressed to sustain that growth.