As economic uncertainty clouds hiring and workforce planning, HR teams are not reacting to a downturn, but rather preparing for one. In doing so, they’re increasingly leaning on brokers to help them navigate what comes next.

According to isolved’s 2026 Emerging Trends for Brokers report, 93% of brokers say clients now seek support beyond traditional benefits services. That statistic reflects a change in the broker-HR relationship as we know it. Employers no longer just need help managing renewals. They want brokers to year-round strategic partners who guide them towards wise decisions on workforce planning, tech adoption, compliance and long-term resilience.

The challenges keeping HR leaders up at night in 2026 are extensive. However, isolved data reveals that three issues top the list: economic uncertainty, technology adoption and data security. Individually, these factors require careful planning. When all three are hitting at once, they create a level of complexity even the most tenured HR teams haven’t seen before.

AI compounds HR’s historic challenges

AI amplifies the pressure on HR today. There is no established guidebook on how to weather a massive global disruption, but when one happens, everyone always looks at HR for an answer. We’ve seen this with the pandemic, geopolitical events, and now with a technology that changes everything. In all these cases, employees are looking at HR and asking, “What do we do?” And even though it’s the first time HR is facing the disruption too, they are still expected to have an answer.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of a labor market where top talent is hard to reel in, on top of organizations having tight hiring budgets anyway. AI is often positioned as the panacea for labor woes, so HR leaders are drafting new usage and governance policies and testing and learning the tech at the same time to see if it really can fill gaps. In response, brokers are becoming AI heroes as they explore how they can use the technology to supercharge their advisory work and help clients year-round. In fact, isolved’s report also found that, in terms of where brokers are leaning on AI most, 53% are using AI to automate compliance monitoring, 50% use it for financial wellness planning and personalization, and 48% use it in recruiting or AI-powered analytics to customize benefits. So, while AI is adding new challenges for HR, it’s also bringing in new opportunities for broker support.

Read the full article here: