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CEOs are bracing for a turbulent 2026 as growth pressures, AI disruption and workforce shifts collide, according to Gartner HR Symposium 2025 experts.
“If 2025 was about the promise [of the future of work], 2026 is really about how we realize that promise,” according to Peter Aykens, chief of research at Gartner. “If we were thinking the devil was going to be in the details, now we’re very much in those details.”
CEO uncertainty is on the rise
Those details add up to what Aykens described as a set of “wicked messes” for CEOs. The phrase, which Aykens said was drawn from the “wicked problems” of the 1970s, reflects a moment when politics, technology and business intersect, making old playbooks less effective.
Wicked problems are complex social or planning issues with no clear definition, solution or stopping point, according to Stony Brook University. Coined by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber in 1973, these problems are unique, interconnected and difficult to test or reverse, and every attempted solution has lasting consequences.
Peter Aykens, Gartner
Similarly, today these challenges aren’t just theoretical. Recent data shows that leaders are feeling the strain as uncertainty rises and executive turnover climbs. Gartner’s recent CEO Confidence
