The appetite for global hiring continues to grow in 2026 despite ongoing regulatory volatility, according to the newly released The Global Atlas Report: 2026 from Atlas HXM. The report, based on a survey of senior HR, legal, finance and operations leaders across North America and Europe, reveals significant shifts in how organizations approach international expansion, talent access, and distributed workforce management.
Finding international talent has become as challenging as maintaining compliance, with 49% of organizations with an international workforce reporting that attracting and retaining international talent is very or extremely challenging. This matches concerns about managing operational complexity across countries and surpasses worries about high international workforce costs and visa complexity. In the United States specifically, 37% of respondents cited attracting and retaining international talent as highly challenging, nearly identical to concerns around operational complexity and immigration management.
Contrary to expectations, immigration and regulatory uncertainties are not deterring expansion but accelerating it. Sixty-eight percent of organizations globally report that changing immigration policies are accelerating workforce expansion and hiring decisions, with fewer than one in five reporting delays. Fifty-two percent of organizations plan to expand their international presence in the next 18 months, compared to just 16% maintaining current structures. Ninety percent of respondents say they feel prepared to navigate new or changing immigration policies.
The report also highlights the accelerating impact of AI across international workforce management, with one in ten decision-makers now reporting fully automating certain tasks using AI. At least 80% of HR leaders use AI for employment law research, regulatory monitoring, and report summarization. Rather than eliminating work, AI appears to be reshaping skill demand, with 53% reporting increased demand for creativity and innovation, 52% for risk assessment, and 51% for human-AI collaboration. Simultaneously, 51% of organizations report widening skills gaps within their workforce.
As global expansion and AI adoption accelerate, employee engagement is emerging as a major concern. Sixty-nine percent of leaders say they find it challenging to keep their international workforce engaged across borders. Organizations report increases in higher turnover and job-hopping, cultural friction impacting collaboration, burnout, and quiet quitting. Meanwhile, 54% report an increase in employees using AI-assisted workarounds. Despite expanding globally, 77% of organizations say return-to-office mandates are "good to enforce," rising to 83% in the US.
The findings point to a fundamental transformation in global expansion strategy, where the infrastructure to hire globally has matured, and the differentiator is how strategically organizations design their workforce architecture. The report suggests that while global hiring continues to accelerate, organizations must address engagement challenges and skill gaps to build sustainable international workforces.
