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In the world of social impact and sustainability, 2025s word of the year could have been headwinds. It became a euphemism for everything from political pressure and regulatory changes to economic uncertainty, AI disruption, and social upheaval. But in many ways, headwinds is an understatement for what impact and sustainability leaders across the corporate and nonprofit sectors navigated in a year of budget cuts and evolving risk factors. For much of the past year, leaders across the corporate and nonprofit sectors have been recalibrating approaches to advancing their missions against these trends. In 2026, well start to see those new approaches in action. Based on interviews with dozens of experts, here are five big shifts to pay attention to over the next year in social impact and sustainability. 1: Evolving the sustainability narrative One of the most visible shifts to note is that social impact and sustainability are becoming much less, well, visible. For years, companies have been making bold commitments, setting lofty goals, and engaging in the kind of storytellingbut not always following through, a trend that finally led Merriam-Webster to add greenwashing to its dictionary in 2022. 2025 felt like a correction, as companies reacting to a changing landscape of risk and political attention ushered in a period of greenhushing, where companies were reluctant to talk about their sustainability initiatives. As Andrew Winston of Winston Eco-Strategies puts it, “The biggest issue in the U.S. is the very strong desire of leadership teams to keep their heads down and say nearly nothing about sustainability. The work seems to be mostly continuing, but it’s certainly not great for morale or moving at speed and scale if your bosses are telling you to hide out.” Thats why 2026 is likely to bring another narrative correction that grounds sustainability storytelling in business performance and operational rigorwhich has always been where sustainability is heading. The best companies arent just making pledges, theyre building and executing solutions that scale, measure, and return value, says Dave Stangis at Apollo. Seeing capital, innovation, and outcomes align always gives me optimism. 2: Adopting a new leadership mindset An organization laser-focused on delivering results also requires a laser focus from its leaders. As Alison Taylor of Ethical Systems notes, the rapid-fire disruption of 2025 made this focus hard to find: Many of sustainability’s core assumptions no longer apply, and there is a need for a reframe of the profession. The practitioners I talk to are struggling with terminology, legal risk, and threats to their roles. While it is true that much great work is going on behind the scenes, it is difficult for most leaders I speak to to maintain organizational momentum, simply because there is so much fire fighting to do. 2026 will bring new fires to fight, but the demand for results and focus will give rise to a new mindset for leaders. Kristen Titus of the Titus Group predicts that leaders will emerge from this period of uncertainty and paralysis with a renewed willingness to engage: Clients, customers, and employees are hungry for engagementand they’re craving moral leadership. Those that step forward with clarity and courage will help define the next chapter of impact and sustainability. 3: Aligning rapid response with long-term goals One strategy that helps impact leaders maintain their focus involves finding ways to connect their communities immediate needs with long-term business strategy. Uncertainty demands agility, as Laura Turner, VP and Head of Community Impact at TIAA points out: Most companies hold flexible funding that can be adapted for unexpected needs. When the government shutdown hit, TIAAs first-generation college student program pivoted quickly, redirecting funds to local food banks. That flexibility isn’t just nice to have anymore, it’s essential for navigating uncertainty. For many organizations, balancing immediate and long-term needs also means AI-proofing their impact strategy. Royal Bank of Canada, for example, is leveraging business expertise and resources around AI adoption to support nonprofit partners in keeping pace with innovation. There is a broad consensus that AI and digital innovation can drive the biggest economic transformation in a generation. And yet, at this very same moment, the non-profit sector faces unprecedented strain and ongoing barriers to funding and technical training. Without intentional support, the sector risks falling behind. said Kara Gustafson, President of the RBC Foundation USA. 4: Putting well-being first All of this uncertainty and disruption has taken a toll on professionals in this space in 2025. In 2026, well-being will become a core function of impact strategyboth as a response to workforce and community needs. Haviland Sharvit, Executive Director of Susan Crown Exchange (Susan Crown Exchange and TIAA, above, are clients of mine), predicts that more companies and nonprofits will meet the moment with an impact strategy focused on youth well-being in the age of AI: Rapid advances in technology and AI offer powerful opportunities for learning and connection. Yet impact leaders face rising youth mental health strain, widening digital inequities, advancements that have outpaced youth protections, and the erosion of real human connection. Well see a shift toward promoting and safeguarding youth wellbeing in an AI-driven world, more attention on responsible tech, and greater investment in human connection. 5: Investing in community Amid all of this disruption, we asked leaders what gives them hope, and a common refrain emerged: we find hope in each other. Community is, and will continue to be, everything. In real and virtual rooms all over the countryand across impact networks like Trellis, UN Global Compact, NationSwell and many moreleaders spent 2025 reflecting, commiserating, and charting a new course forward. The last prediction Ill offer is one of my own: impact networks and convening spaces will grow rapidly in 2026, as new communities of practice emerge and existing communities grow. With all of the growth and learning 2026 has in store, finding safe spaces for reflection, knowledge sharing, and collaboration is a top priority for impact leaders.
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E-Commerce
Severance is the hit sci-fi show about office workers who sever their consciousnessslipping into another mode the moment they arrive at the office, then forgetting everything about their 9-to-5 as soon as they leave. The concept was inspired by the creators own monotonous desk job before he found success in television. Part of the shows appeal lies in how familiar the premise feels: a dull, repetitive workday that people cant wait to escape. In the real world, employees dont have a mental switch to flip, but theyve found subtler, and potentially more insidious, ways to disengage. The latest trend, dubbed task-masking, has taken over Instagram and TikTok. Its all about looking busy without actually being productive: charging around the office with a laptop, pretending to be on an urgent call, or typing furiously with no real purpose. According to recent research, more than a third of U.K. workers admit to faking productivity. Task-masking doesnt just waste timeit slows career growth and hurts company performance. Employees miss out on meaningful progress and promotion opportunities. Leaders lose engagement and confidence in their teams. In short, task-masking is a problem no leader can afford to ignore. Here are some strategies to stop it. Be clear on the companys values Task-masking isnt born of laziness or lack of ambitionits a fear-based response to productivity pressure and always-on work cultures. Research from Workhuman found that strict time-tracking exacerbates the problem: When workers strongly agree they are expected to respond immediately to Slack, Teams, or other instant messages, the rate of fake productivity shoots up to 51%. To free employees from the sense that their time card matters most, leaders should clarify what the company truly values. Face time or hours logged at a desk shouldnt be measures of successmeaningful productivity should. What that looks like will vary by organization, but at Jotform, for example, it means advancing projects and meeting reasonable deadlines. It also includes less-measurable but equally valuable behaviors like showing curiosity, supporting teammates, and helping create a more engaged work culture. Leaders should also be explicit about what doesnt count: busywork, unnecessary meetings that could be handled asynchronously, and burning the midnight oil just to give the impression of busyness and commitment. Break down projects into more manageable tasks As AI and automation boost efficiency and productivity, theyve fundamentally transformed workloads. In many ways, thats a positive change. Employees can devote more time to meaningful, higher-impact work. For example, you can spend more time on strategizing and creative writing, and fewer hours sifting through your inbox and searching through meeting notes. But it also brings a challenge: When technology accelerates what you can accomplish in a day, leaders expectations often rise in tandem. The slope to burnout becomes slippery. One of the best antidotes to that pressure, especially when facing large, intimidating projects that can leave employees feeling paralyzed or faking productivity, is to break them into smaller tasks. For starters, this helps people identify steps that can be automated, eliminated, or delegated. It also makes progress more tangible. Ticking off one item at a time, with restorative breaks in between, keeps momentum steady. When a daunting to-do list is broken down into a sequence of manageable tasks, employees can work efficiently and stay on track toward deadlines without burning out. Make psychological safety a priority If task-masking is rooted in fear, a quick fix wont eliminate it. Economic downturns, global pandemics, and rapid technological change have all contributed to a heightened sense of workplace anxiety, especially among the younger generations. More than one-third (37%) of Gen Z workers fear losing their jobsmore than any other generationaccording to research from Edelmans Gen Z Lab. Creating an environment where psychological safety is a priority can help assuage career-related fears and the pressure to appear productive all the time. When employees feel safe admitting theyre stuck or uncertain, theyre less likely to mask their struggles with performative busyness. At Jotform, we have multiple channels where employees can voice their concerns, ranging from all-hands meetings and dedicated chat threads to a general management open-door policy. I make a point to share the challenges Im facing, too, in hopes that my candor will encourage others to speak openly about their own doubts and setbacks. Ultimately, leaders must be explicit about the resources available to support employees and model the transparency they want to see. A bit of vulnerability from the top can help promote psychological safety throughout an organization. Employees shouldnt fear work so much that they want to escape itthrough severance or through task-masking.
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E-Commerce
While traveling to Riyadh for the Fortune Global Forum, FII9, and the Global Health Exhibition, I witnessed something that should be a wake-up call for health systems everywhere. Saudi Arabia is already operating the kind of connected, AI-enabled healthcare infrastructure many countries are still debating how to build. At FII9, the conversation was unmistakable. Global innovation momentum is shifting toward the Middle East, and nowhere more than Saudi Arabia, where national digital platforms like Sehhaty already give millions of residents unified access to their health data. At the Global Health Exhibition, I saw population-level analytics, AI-powered diagnostics, multiomic initiatives, and interoperable infrastructure deployed at a speed and scale that would take years in other countries. It made something clear: Healthcare does not have a data problem. We have a connection problem. LIFESTYLE DRIVES OUTCOMES, BUT REMAINS CLINICALLY INVISIBLE Studies show that lifestyle and environmental factors account for more than 80% of health outcomes. A healthy lifestyle can prevent the vast majority of chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. And yet, the data that reflects how people actually live, how they eat, move, sleep, and manage stress, remains largely absent from clinical care. In the United States, for example, healthcare is not suffering from a data shortage. Its drowning in data. Every day, people generate powerful information through wearables, continuous glucose monitors, fitness and sleep apps, and smart rings. As of 2023, nearly one in three Americans use a wearable to track their health, according to a Health Information National Trends Survey. These tools capture meaningful lifestyle signals that directly affect clinical outcomes. Yet almost none of this data reaches the exam room. It remains siloed on consumer platforms, invisible to clinicians, and unusable in medical decision making. This disconnect has consequences. Preventive opportunities are missed. Chronic conditions go unmanaged. Healthcare remains reactive instead of proactive. Clinicians rely on structured snapshots like lab results and prescriptions, important, but incomplete, because they capture what happens in the clinic rather than daily life. AI AS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN LIFESTYLE DATA AND CLINICAL CARE Its not that clinicians are uninterested in wearable data. Many are eager. Remote patient monitoring has grown rapidly, with a 1,300% increase in related procedures between 2019 and 2022. However, the friction points are real. Data security is a concern. Device accuracy varies. Practices often lack the IT infrastructure to onboard new tools, train staff, and integrate multiple data streams. Most importantly, clinicians are overwhelmed. More raw data is not the solution. This is why healthcare systems need a bridge that makes lifestyle data usable, reliable, and safe in clinical settings. That bridge is clinical-grade AI. When lifestyle and longitudinal behavioral datasets are used at inference time via retrieval, AIs outputs are grounded in real-world signals rather than abstract reasoning alone, distilling only the most relevant insights for the point of care. The goal is not another dashboard, but meaningful signals embedded within existing workflows that reduce burden rather than increase it. With the right tools, AI also empowers patients. Personalized, real-time guidance rooted in their own physiology helps them understand their data, make better decisions, and stay aligned with their care plan. A NATIONAL DIGITAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE Countries such as Saudi Arabia are demonstrating what happens when clinical and systems-level data come together. The unified national health platform Sehhaty serves as an access point for millions of residents and offers integrated services far beyond scheduling. These include secure medical records, online prescriptions, lab results, vaccination history, teleconsultations, and remote monitoring. The app reportedly contains 31 million unified health files, representing nearly 88% of the population, and 140 million online prescriptions. At the center of this transformation is the Seha Virtual Hospital, which delivers remote specialist care across 224 hospitals and dozens of specialties, including critical-care consults and AI-driven diagnostics. Investments in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and advanced AI at institutions such as King Faisal Specialist Hospital rival those of some of the best programs in the United States. The result is a coordinated model of nationwide digital health integration, something long envisioned but not yet achieved. TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF HEALTH, CONNECT THE DOTS The United States has the devices and data, but has long lacked the infrastructure and incentives to connect them meaningfully. That is beginning to shift. Recent CMS initiatives signal recognition that prevention, lifestyle data, and technology-enabled care must play a larger role in how health outcomes are measured and reimbursed. Initiatives such as MAHA ELEVATE and the CMS ACCESS Model reflect a growing shift toward prevention-first, lifestyle-driven care. MAHA ELEVATE supports Medicare pilot programs that test whether whole-person, lifestyle-based care can improve health outcomes and lower costs, while ACCESS helps bring these approaches to scale through new care delivery and outcome-based payment models. In parallel, CMS Aligned Networks is focusing on improving interoperability and coordination across the healthcare ecosystem, creating standards and incentives that allow data to move safely between patients, providers, and care teams. The opportunity is to ensure that lifestyle data are treated as essential clinical information and that AI translates complexity into actionable insight at the point of care. The most valuable health data we possess is already being captured on our wrists, in our pockets, and throughout our daily routines. The challenge is no longer collection. Its connection. To close the gap, we must treat lifestyle data as essential clinical information and not a consumer novelty. Interoperable systems must allow this information to move securely to the right stakeholders, with AI surfacing timely, relevant signals that support decision making without adding friction for clinicians or patients. Only then can healthcare move from fragmented snapshots to continuous understanding, from episodic and reactive care to a model that anticipates risk, promotes healthy behaviors, and supports the whole person. The future of healthcare is already taking shape in places such as Riyadh, where vision, infrastructure, and execution are aligned. Other countres, including the United States, can get there too, but only if we connect the dots. Noosheen Hashemi is founder and CEO of January AI.
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E-Commerce
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