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Succession planning strengthens an organization’s future by preparing for leadership changes before they happen. Transitions are inevitable—if companies aren’t ready, they risk losing critical knowledge and interrupting progress. Today’s business environment makes planning even more important as retirements rise and AI reshapes how work gets done.

Effective succession planning supports the growth of high-potential employees, provides mentorship opportunities and preserves the expertise that keeps projects moving. It also helps build pipelines of capable leaders who are ready to guide the organization forward when key roles open. By prioritizing succession planning, organizations are better equipped to empower their teams and maintain momentum amid inevitable leadership transitions.

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Leadership transitions create opportunities to strengthen teams and support long-term growth. While many organizations have documented succession plans, they are often limited to a few senior roles. This highlights the need for many leaders to broaden their approach by identifying additional future-critical positions and building a deeper leadership pipeline.

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Comprehensive and documented Limited to a few senior positions No plan in place Comprehensive and documented Limited to a few senior positions No plan in place

Top challenges for businesses

Knowledge transfer from departing leaders is the top succession challenge for 53% of leaders. Building stronger pipelines helps ensure future leadership strength—but without action, companies risk losing expertise and stalling growth. Mentorship is key, but only 33% of professionals mentor others. Building stronger pipelines today ensures leadership strength tomorrow. Top succession challenges for businesses include:

Limited internal talent pool for advancement

Difficulty attracting external candidates for leadership roles

No clear exit strategy for leaders

The impact of AI

The future of leadership depends on skills. Organizations that develop early-career talent with strong leadership potential, adaptability and AI fluency are positioned to avoid pipeline gaps.

Skills for an AI era

As organizations integrate AI, leaders report several ways succession planning and leadership pipelines are being reshaped, including:

Accelerated promotions for AI-savvy employees

Changed the skills needed for future leaders

Reduced entry-level positions, creating gaps in leadership pipelines

AI adoption is reshaping careers more quietly than dramatically. For many professionals, career advancement is increasingly tied to adaptability, continuous learning and role evolution. Those who invest in future-ready skills will be best positioned to move forward as work continues to change.

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Created
advancement
opportunities Changed skills
needed for
advancement Created
positions of
interest Created
advancement
opportunities Changed skills
needed for
advancement Created
positions of
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The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000+ employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the U.S.

Over 1.5 million new positions from more than 9,000 independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including 90,000-plus placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 430 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, non-clinical healthcare, and human resources professions.