Josh Bersin Company: AI “Superagents” Will Reshape HR—and Cut 30% of Roles by 2026

The Josh Bersin Company isn’t hedging its bets on AI in HR anymore. In a sweeping new report, the influential HR research firm declares that 2026 will mark a structural break for the HR profession, driven by the rapid evolution of AI assistants into autonomous agents—and ultimately into what it calls HR “superagents.”

The takeaway is blunt: AI adoption in HR is no longer optional, experimental, or incremental. According to Bersin’s research, core HR headcount could decline by 30% or more, not because HR becomes less important, but because it becomes radically more automated, data-driven, and architected around AI-first operating models.

For CHROs, this isn’t a trend to monitor. It’s a mandate to act—now.

From Assistants to Superagents

The report, The Superworker Organization: AI Goes Enterprise—HR and Leadership Imperatives for 2026, outlines a clear progression already underway across enterprises:

• AI assistants handle narrow, task-based support

• AI agents begin operating semi-autonomously across workflows

• AI superagents orchestrate multiple agents, data sources, and decisions across entire HR domains

In practical terms, this means AI systems that don’t just answer questions or generate content, but hire, onboard, coach, pay, schedule, and support employees with minimal human intervention.

Bersin compares today’s state of HR AI to early automobiles—useful, but still manually driven. The industry, he argues, is quickly approaching the “self-driving” phase.

100 HR Processes Headed for Automation

The research identifies more than 100 distinct HR agent use cases, which can be consolidated into a smaller number of superagent families. Learning and development stands out as ground zero: 60–70% of L&D work can already be automated using today’s AI capabilities.

Recruiting, performance management, workforce planning, employee support, and payroll operations are not far behind.

The implication is stark. Traditional HR operating models—built around functional silos, manual processes, and vendor-heavy stacks—will not survive the next two years unchanged.

Yet Bersin is careful to frame the projected 30% role reduction as job transformation, not destruction. Some roles will disappear. Many new ones will emerge. The firm notes that more than 30 new job titles have already appeared across HR and IT tied to AI governance, architecture, training, and development.

A Redefined Mission for HR

For CHROs, the report argues, the next few months represent a once-in-a-generation inflection point. HR’s corporate mission must be redefined around three priorities:

1. Training HR teams to use and build with AI, not just procure it

2. Identifying high-value AI assistant, agent, and superagent use cases

3. Executing enterprise AI strategies that directly drive growth and productivity

In short, HR must move from being a system user to becoming a system designer and operator.

Josh Bersin himself puts it plainly:
“We believe agents and superagents will eliminate up to 30% of traditional HR roles, enabling HR professionals to spend time on hiring, coaching, and managing the AI infrastructure.”

The 11 Imperatives for the AI-Aware CHRO

At the core of the research is an 11-point playbook for HR leaders navigating the transition. Among the most consequential:

• Build a unified AI architecture to avoid managing dozens—or hundreds—of disconnected agents

• Embrace the corporate citizen developer, enabling non-technical teams to build AI-driven workflows

• Move beyond legacy talent management, focusing on internal mobility, talent density, and upskilling

• Prepare for AI-powered leadership, including digital leadership “twins” trained on internal data

• Expect major HR vendor disruption in 2026, as incumbents are displaced or acquired

• Invest in LLM quality and data governance, not just access to models

Perhaps most notably, Bersin urges CHROs to step beyond HR entirely and become enterprise AI leaders—guiding adoption, governance, and cultural change across the business.

HR Tech Vendors: Disruption Is Coming

The report doesn’t spare vendors. Bersin predicts significant market reshuffling in 2026, as agent-based platforms and superagent architectures render many traditional HR systems obsolete.

Point solutions, fragmented stacks, and static workflows will struggle against platforms that can reason, orchestrate, and adapt in real time. Vendors that fail to reinvent their products around agents, orchestration, and AI-native design risk disappearing altogether.

For buyers, this raises the stakes of vendor selection. HR leaders will need to bet not just on features, but on architectural vision.

Research, Reimagined Through AI

In a move that mirrors its own thesis, The Josh Bersin Company is delivering the research itself through an AI-powered interface. The report is best accessed via Galileo, the firm’s AI agent, which allows organizations to interact with the findings dynamically—asking questions, customizing insights, and aligning recommendations to their specific initiatives.

Rather than a static PDF, the research becomes a living system, continuously refreshed and responsive to real-time needs. It’s a fitting delivery model for a report arguing that static thinking about HR is no longer viable.

The Bottom Line

If Bersin’s predictions hold, HR in 2026 will look fundamentally different from HR in 2024. Hundreds of processes will be automated. Entire role categories will vanish. New ones will emerge just as quickly.

But the end state, Bersin argues, is not a diminished HR function. It’s a more strategic one—focused less on administration and more on designing the systems, talent, and AI architectures that make companies work better.

For HR leaders, the message is unmistakable: the superagent era is coming fast. Those who build now will shape it. Those who wait will inherit it.

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