2026 Business Leaders Priorities: AI Helps Offset Challenges to Growth
Businesses want to grow in 2026, with almost two-thirds — 63% — across all business sizes listing it as a top priority. Paychex’s seventh annual Business Leaders Priorities survey, conducted online in partnership with independent research firm Bredin, found this response nearly unanimous from 750 Business Development Managers and HR Development Managers at companies across the United States with five to 1,000 employees.
Highlights From the Report
The survey highlights the strategic priorities in 2026 as well as the challenges leaders foresee in achieving those goals, including:
• Finances: 58% had rising costs/inflation as a top issue.
• HR: 29% said the administration of health and non-traditional benefits
• Compliance: 30% listed data privacy and data protection
• Technology: At 34%, data security/employee data privacy
What Is Hindering Business Growth?
In the current economic environment, the main obstacles standing in the way of growth all relate to money. The combination of rising costs and inflation is the runaway consensus for the top business challenge at 58%, with all five segments naming it first as extremely or very challenging. The second most impactful challenge is tariffs.
Growth vs. Growth
Interestingly, business leaders said their top priority faces itself as one of the biggest challenges. Alison Stevens, Senior Director of HR Solutions at Paychex, said “Many of our clients have plans to expand in the new year, however, we’re also hearing about challenges in sourcing qualified candidates, particularly specialized or even part-time roles.”
With 34% of businesses in the survey spending one to five hours while another 24% logging six to 10 hours weekly on HR administration — this includes 17% of the time on payroll processing and 13% on people management — AI-powered automation can make a difference for any size business.
Cost of Automation
The basic tenet to growth is investment. Businesses must spend money. But even if a business is somehow managing with inflation and tariffs, they run into their next challenge. Interest rates (39%) are tied with customer acquisition and retention — another cost, and quite frankly, the lifeblood of business growth.
“Paychex tries to help businesses make informed decisions that save time and money,” Stevens said. “I talk to clients about the benefits of HR technology integration because many just want to deal with one vendor.”
Turnover
More than half of those surveyed said their company had experienced separation in the past two years, and although the reasons covered a wide range, burnout was a third choice for three of the business segments. Turnover is a deterrent to growth because it puts businesses on a constant cycle of recruiting, onboarding, and training — each requiring significant investment.
“We’re trying to solve supporting clients through best quality hiring decisions. Making sure they are trained. Making sure candidates get put through the right process,” Stevens said.
Using AI To Benefit Your Business
In a different survey conducted by Bredin, different size businesses use AI for different purposes:
• 1-19 employees use it for web analytics and business intelligence
• 20-99 employees automate workflows and strengthen cybersecurity
• 100-1,000 employees use virtual assistants and upgrade customer service
The general pattern that emerged is the smallest businesses use artificial intelligence to get better quality and stronger sales; businesses with 20-99 employees gain sales growth and customer insights; the larger companies lean on AI for better data security and faster growth. As businesses grow, they tend to move from analysis to automation to transformation.
Paychex Can Help Your Business Succeed
If interested in investing in and adopting AI for everyday processes, consider Paychex Recruiting Copilot, in partnership with Findem, an AI-assisted tool that streamlines the hiring process, as well as a Paychex HR solution that fits your business needs.
Paychex can’t change inflation or tariffs, but we provide best-in-class tools, expertise, and human interaction that help remove the barriers to growth.
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