A conversation we keep having with CEOs goes something like this. They ask, “Is AI going to cost us headcount?” What they are often hoping for is a clean answer — yes or no, this percentage, over this many years. The honest answer is messier: AI reshapes roles, but it reshapes them unevenly. Some functions compress dramatically. Some functions grow. Some stay almost unchanged. The enterprise-wide “AI displaces N percent of jobs” number is the wrong frame for almost every practical decision a leader has to make. The more useful question: where is the change largest in our specific business, where is it slower, and what do we need to be investing in now? This article lays out where we see the impact concentrating across enterprises in 2026, where it is muted, and what the organizations that handle this transition well are doing that the others are not.…