What the research measures
The State of HR Technology & AI 2026 measures four things, each asked of the person answering on behalf of their organization:
- Stack composition - which of eleven HR technology categories an organization uses, and which platforms.
- Vendor experience - satisfaction with each platform on a 1–5 scale, how critical it is, and optional comments.
- Renewal cycles - when each platform is next renewed or reviewed, notice deadlines and auto-renewal where known, the organization’s plan, and what drives any potential change.
- AI adoption - a self-described adoption stage, current AI use cases, planned initiatives and the biggest barrier.
We deliberately do not ask for contract values, prices or confidential terms.
Why it exists
HR leaders make consequential, multi-year decisions about their systems with little evidence about what comparable organizations use, how satisfied they are, and when they plan to change. This research aims to make that evidence available - in aggregate - to the people making those decisions.
Who can take part
HR, People Operations, HRIS, Talent Acquisition and HR technology leaders - and finance or procurement colleagues involved in HR software decisions - answering for an organization they work for or advise. The research focuses on organizations with 50–5,000 employees, but responses from any size are welcome and are labelled by size band.
How data is gathered
Through a self-completed online survey (version 2026.1) of about three minutes. Answers are validated on submission; free-text answers are stored as written. Platform names typed by respondents are matched to a vendor catalog (for example, “Work Day” and “Workday HCM” both become Workday). The original text is kept alongside the match, and unmatched names are held for manual review.
Respondents who don’t know their contract terms are not asked to guess: the contract questions are skipped, and “I don’t know” is always available. Exact dates are recorded only when the respondent provides a month and year, and each date is marked as confirmed (from the agreement or its owner) or estimated.
How results are calculated
- One organization, one voice. Organizations are matched by website domain, or by name if no domain is given. When several people answer for the same organization, its most recent submission is used and earlier ones are kept only for audit. Unnamed organizations cannot be matched and are counted individually.
- Two kinds of base. Organization-level figures (adoption, AI stage, priorities) count organizations. Relationship-level figures (satisfaction, renewal timing, plans) count organization × platform pairs. Each chart states which base it uses and its size.
- Small-cohort suppression. Any figure backed by fewer than 5 organizations is not published. Platforms with fewer than 5 organizations in a view are grouped rather than named.
- Computed takeaways. Report takeaways are generated from the current data, so they change as responses arrive.
Sample limitations
Participation is voluntary, so the sample is self-selected and is not statistically representative of any market. Results describe participating organizations. Respondents may be more engaged with HR technology than average, and some regions, industries and sizes will be better represented than others - the sample composition is shown at the end of the report and changes with every filter.
How information is protected
- Published research never names organizations or respondents.
- Email addresses are stored only if you ask for your snapshot or the report, and are never included in research output.
- Your personal results page is reachable only through its unguessable link.
- Each submission stores which permissions were granted, the exact wording shown and the policy version (2026-10-13).
How data may be used and shared
Answers are used for aggregated research and to generate your personal snapshot. If you leave an email, we use it only to send your snapshot and the report when it is published.
- Include my 2027 answers in the research (required to submit). Your answers are combined with other companies' and published only as aggregates. Any group of fewer than 5 organizations is suppressed, and your company and your name are never shown in the report.
- Send my snapshot and the 2026 report to this email (optional). We use this address to send your snapshot and the unlocked 2026 report - nothing else. Unsubscribe any time.
We do not share identifiable company records or contact details with vendors. To delete your response, email hr@hrstackatlas.com with the reference shown on your snapshot. Read the full privacy notice.