AI is redesigning work: Adecco Group whitepaper reveals the need for hybrid workforce orchestration
New Adecco Group-commissioned whitepaper finds AI is transforming work, and outlines how organizations can orchestrate people, AI agents and physical AI
- OECD employment rates remain near record highs
- AI is changing tasks faster than eliminating jobs, but adjustment is uneven by sector, jobs and organizational readiness
- Between 2022 and 2025 1.9 million new AI-related jobs were created1
- The opportunity is in helping enterprise adoption: only 18% of U.S. firms and 20% of European firms have integrated AI into core workflows at scale, leaving significant room for further workforce transformation
- Hybrid workforce orchestration emerging as new management discipline for the intelligence era
Zurich, Switzerland, July 23, 2026: The Adecco Group (SIX: ADEN) today published a whitepaper developed in partnership with Altermind. The report outlines the actual risk facing the global economy is corporate inertia. Organizations are failing to redesign work fast enough to capture productivity, protect trust and create value from AI investments. The paper introduces a new model that the Adecco Group believes will define the organization of work for the next decade: hybrid workforce orchestration. This is the discipline of redesigning work so people, AI agents, automation and physical AI each contribute to creating the most value and impact.
The whitepaper “On the threshold: AI, the future of work and the rise of hybrid labor markets” draws on deep academic research, institutional data and historic technological transitions. It concludes that AI is likely to follow the pattern of prior general-purpose technologies, ultimately expanding employment and raising real wages. Three and a half years after the release of ChatGPT, OECD employment rates remain at record highs (72.1%) and unemployment near historic lows (4.9%) across 38 member countries. Analysis on the U.S. from June 2026 shows the employment share of AI-exposed jobs continues to remain stable, and indications from a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) study suggest firms that adopt AI technologies experience higher productivity gains, without the technology replacing labor in the short term. Multiple sources show that AI is changing tasks faster than it is eliminating jobs. At the same time, large scale deployment remains limited, with fewer than one in ten firms in the U.S. having integrated AI into core workflows at scale.
Integrating the workflows of physical AI, through robotics, autonomous systems and humanoid technologies that perceive, decide and act in real-world environments, is becoming increasingly important as AI moves beyond knowledge work into factories, logistics, healthcare and infrastructure.
The enterprise AI question is changing. Leaders no longer only need to know what AI can do. They need to decide where it should be applied, how people, agents and intelligent systems should work together, what return is expected, and whether that return was realized. As AI usage and cost become more distributed across the enterprise, those decisions increasingly require the same rigor as other forms of capital allocation. The challenge for companies is to ensure that AI implementation creates sustainable value.
Key findings include:
- AI is reshaping tasks, workflows and skills requirements faster than eliminating entire occupations.
- Employment effects remain uneven and sector specific.
- Entry-level and routine knowledge work faces the greatest change, increasing the need for reskilling and career transition, while the impact on many care, service, skilled trade and physical-world(2) roles remains limited by real-world complexity.
- Firms that redesign workflows around hybrid human–AI systems are pulling ahead of those treating AI as a standalone productivity tool. AI is not only automating work, but creating new categories of work centered on orchestration, oversight and integration.
For organizations this means building new capabilities in workforce analytics, work redesign, AI workflow management, reskilling, redeployment, governance and impact measurement.
Denis Machuel, CEO of the Adecco Group, said: “The evidence is clear: AI is fundamentally changing what work will look like in the future and creating an opportunity to redesign how organizations create value. The next phase of AI will be won by redesigning work – understanding what people should do, what AI agents can do, how skills are evolving and what skills will be needed in the future, and how value is created and measured. That is the role of hybrid workforce orchestration, and this is exactly our mission.
“Technology creates capability. People turn it into value. Hybrid workforce orchestration makes it scalable. We are ready to lead the human side of the AI transformation.”
Four future scenarios for AI and labor markets
The whitepaper sets out four plausible scenarios for AI and labor markets: In a Flourishing Economy, AI drives productivity, job creation, and continuous reskilling. Under Capital Rules, faster automation displaces routine work before new opportunities rebuild labor demand. In the Walled Garden scenario, employment remains stable but dependence on a few AI platforms reduces mobility and wage dynamism. Finally, Deus Ex Machina, envisions highly autonomous AI and robotics substituting for labor at scale – the most disruptive scenario and the least consistent with current evidence. Across all four scenarios, the central opportunity is to support organizations redesigning and orchestrating work across people, AI agents and physical AI to enable workforce transition and capture productivity.
Andreas Schaffer of Altermind, added: “The companies that capture the greatest value from AI will not be those with the best models or robots, but those that most effectively redesign workflows, operating models and workforce systems around them. Organizations that move early and lead sustained hybrid workforce transformation are building a lasting advantage: the ability to continuously adapt as AI evolves.”
The full whitepaper “On the threshold: AI, the future of work and the rise of hybrid labor markets” is available for download here.
1 World Economic Forum / LinkedIn Economic Graph, AI has already added 1.3 million new jobs, according to LinkedIn data, January 2026
2 Jobs performed primarily in physical environments that depend on human presence, manual tasks, or real-world judgment
For further information please contact:
The Adecco Group Corporate Press Office
Group External Communications, The Adecco Group
media@adeccogroup.com
Rodrigo Sánchez Flores – Tel: +34 658 06 54 02
Jürg Schneider - Tel: +41 79 876 09 21
About the Adecco Group
The Adecco Group is the world’s leading talent and technology expertise company. Our purpose is making the future work for everyone. Through our three global business units - Adecco, Akkodis and LHH - across 60 countries, we enable sustainable and lifelong employability for individuals, deliver digital engineering consulting to innovate and accelerate business transformation and empower organizations to optimize their workforces. The Adecco Group leads by example and is committed to fostering sustainable employability and supporting resilient economies and communities. The Adecco Group AG is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland (ISIN: CH0012138605) and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ADEN). https://www.adeccogroup.com/
About Altermind
Altermind is a boutique advisory firm that helps CEOs and the C-suite navigate their most critical challenges. It combines scientific insights with leading expertise at the intersection of strategy, capital markets, M&A and policy. For capital markets clients, the company provides comprehensive support in strategic positioning, high-stakes communication, and technology enablement. Altermind has offices in Paris, Munich, London and Luxembourg. https://altermind.com/