HR professionals join the field with a clear-eyed mission to build better workplaces. But are mounting challenges and changes chipping away at our sense of optimism – especially for the next generation? Lattice’s 2026 State of People Strategy Report, which surveyed over 1,000 HR professionals on their priorities for the year ahead, found that more than half of Gen Z HR professionals have recently weighed a career change.
This finding demands action and presents a powerful opportunity: a chance to rethink and reshape the HR function with the next generation in mind. HR leaders must evolve our strategies, processes, and operating models to meet this need for the future leaders of our profession.
It’s time for HR transformation – here’s how.
Engage Early-Career Talent by Realigning Strategy with Purpose
Gen Z professionals are entering our field with high expectations around meaning and impact. This sentiment is not entirely new, which is why the most effective HR leaders should consider a back-to-basics approach of aligning their sense of purpose to business strategy. But in a world where there are near-constant change management and transformation, what does this look like in practice?
Let’s look at a “channel” as old as time – the human-to-human conversation – to help drive both performance and engagement. Conversations are powerful levers. But in recent decades, technology has made it more challenging to have them – not less. Employees and managers are inundated with so much data and information that we lose what really matters: the meaning behind the work.
Now, AI technologies contextualize large quantities of data that allow leaders to quickly act and make decisions without missing key details. This allows more time and presence to have connected conversations with each other, to promote transparency, and link execution to broader strategy. In short – to show up as better managers able to connect meaning to their team’s work.
We can truly embrace a continuous feedback culture – instead of relying on once-annual conversations – to boost performance and engagement. The result: stronger leaders and employees who understand how their work ladders up to business goals.
Build the HR Operating Model of the Future
As AI transforms org charts, skills, and processes across entire business units (its full impact yet to be realized), HR leaders are working together with fellow executives and leaders across the organization to understand its full potential. HR leaders are at the forefront of building what future operating models look like.
This is an exciting opportunity.
Lattice’s report found that 42% of HR professionals in corporate environments are using agentic AI regularly, and a wide majority of HR professionals in all settings are excited about outsourcing busy work to the technology. This enthusiasm, however, is tempered by ethical concerns, including the risk of AI replacing roles. For instance, another report found nearly 4 in 10 businesses are reassessing organizational structures or cutting back hiring due to AI.
As business and technology leaders prioritize automation, HR leaders have an obligation to ensure that organizations’ AI strategy keeps people – especially early-career talent – at the center. In doing so, HR leaders have an opportunity to build the blueprint for new operating models and organizational structures that factor in how AI will amplify employees’ impact, not replace it.
Within the HR function, leaders should redesign career pathways for both current and future early-career talent. Embrace agentic AI for repetitive or time-consuming administrative tasks, like clearing support tickets to free up employees’ time for more meaningful work and hands-on training. Further, formalize rotational programs for early-career talent that offer firsthand insight into various roles across the HR function, such as talent acquisition or learning and development. And critically, focus on upskilling and training to boost AI fluency.
Put Agentic AI to Work for People
It’s important to remember that nobody has a decade of experience with agentic AI. We’re all at the starting line. Those who stay curious and embrace innovation today will set the standard for how we use it tomorrow. Gen Z and early-career HR professionals – often the most digitally native on the team – can play a leading role in experimentation and modeling AI fluency for their peers.
To start, prioritize near-term use cases to drive immediate results. Among my own team, early successes included AI-powered virtual assistants for functions like HR and IT. This helped standardize and streamline common employee questions and workflows, such as IT onboarding or HR policy inquiries. When our IT team replaced repetitive, time-intensive onboarding processes with AI-driven workflows, they freed up nearly a day in team capacity each week. Likewise, we deployed a people operations help agent to reduce human intervention in repetitive, low-complexity tasks by 50% while providing 24/7 service for employees. Win-win for everyone.
AI will soon underpin nearly every HR process – from performance management to workforce planning – which elevates the importance of building AI literacy now. HR teams can also create spaces like AI-focused lunch-and-learns or “AI wins-and-lessons” channels in their digital workspaces for employees to share what’s working well, discover new use cases, and teach peers along the way.
For example, our team recently ran a team-led workshop during an onsite focused on building AI co-pilots that help employees communicate more effectively based on their DiSC profile. We learned as a team, and gleaned key insights by taking best practices from each other.
Reimagining HR for the Next Generation
Gen Z professionals aren’t simply the future of the function – they’re a bellwether for HR’s ability to evolve in an AI-enabled workplace. HR leaders are among the best equipped to meet the moment, leading the shift from a traditional support function to a core architect of organizational success. When we realign on purpose, redesign how HR works, and harness AI to scale the human touch; we won’t just retain Gen Z and early-career talent – we’ll build an HR function well-equipped for today and bold for tomorrow.
Sophie Hurcombe is Senior Vice President of People at Lattice. Prior to joining Lattice, Sophie held roles at Canva and Workfront, where she played a key role in delivering company-wide people programs and engaging with leaders to help them navigate and solve business challenges. Sophie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management and Sociology & Anthropology from the University of NSW.