Organizations that deeply understand and act on what matters to their employees outperform the rest. The Qualtrics 2026 Employee Experience Trends report found engagement is nearly twice as high when employers increased listening over the past year - with intent to stay, inclusion, and well-being up too. And when employers listen more, employees are more than twice as likely to say action gets taken.

But most organizations only listen to employees who choose to respond-and only 48% of individual contributors say they've seen positive changes as a result of their feedback, down 4 points from 2025. AI now gives leaders the ability to change that equation - understanding what's driving behavior in context, and equipping every manager to act when it matters.

Today at X4®, Qualtrics announced new AI-powered capabilities across the Employee Experience suite-available now-that make it faster for organizations of all sizes to capture richer employee feedback, understand what it means in context to prevent attrition, and equip every manager to act when it matters to deliver better outcomes: higher engagement, lower attrition, and improved customer experience.

Listen to what employees actually say

New conversational feedback uses AI to ask smarter, targeted follow-up questions in the moment based on what each employee actually says in surveys, turning standard engagements into conversations that uncover richer feedback. For example, organizations can turn vague open-ended feedback, such as "lack of growth", into actionable details.

Early results from organizations show conversational feedback captures up to 40% more valuable insights than traditional approaches, with users saying the added depth has proved especially valuable for high-stakes topics like career growth and benefits, giving leadership more concrete examples to consider.

The construction and engineering firm Burns & McDonnell is using Qualtrics to capture more actionable employee feedback by surfacing specific topics, like flexible scheduling preferences, instead of generic sentiment. This enabled the engagement team to equip leaders with data-backed, actionable recommendations grounded in employee language.

"I could immediately see the difference - responses weren't just longer; they were more thoughtful. Employees shared that the smart prompts made them 'stop and reflect,' which is exactly the kind of feedback we need to guide meaningful changes," said Cristina Joy Boshart, Employee Engagement Manager, Burns & McDonnell.

Guided engagement programs enable organizations to deploy expert-designed employee listening programs in weeks with minimal services required. Built on Qualtrics' proven methodologies and behavioral science expertise, the program guides administrators through survey creation, employee setup, communications, and dashboard generation so they can spend more time taking action.

Korn Ferry is using Qualtrics to help its clients get best-in-class employee listening up and running quickly, with less risk and less complexity than traditional approaches.

"The guided engagement creation experience is smooth and intuitive, which makes it especially valuable for smaller or self-service clients who often struggle with where to begin. Features like the ability to customize company and manager terminology add real flexibility, and the error message page is a game changer. We'd recommend using Qualtrics guided functionality to any organization looking to get a best-in-class engagement survey up and running quickly," said Simona Altmanova, Senior Manager, Organisation Strategy Operations, Korn Ferry.

To help businesses navigate changing workplace dynamics and needs, Qualtrics has refreshed its EX25 methodology, a scientifically validated framework developed by the company's in-house I/O psychologists. The model measures five critical employee experience metrics: engagement, intent to stay, experience versus expectations, inclusion, and well-being, and now includes new categories around technology and AI adoption, reflecting the challenges most businesses are navigating right now.

Understand what's driving experiences in context

Employee feedback tells organizations how employees are feeling. The next challenge is combining that with HR data-tenure, attrition history, performance signals-to understand what it means in context and act before it's too late.

Employee retention analytics does this. It connects employee feedback with HR data to identify at-risk groups and model the impact on cost. Managers can surface the differences between stayers and leavers and pinpoint the reasons people are leaving, equipping them with valuable insights so they can act before people leave, not just understand why they left.

Act when it matters with confidence

Understanding is only valuable when managers can act on it. That requires giving managers the context and guidance they need to respond to their team's specific situation.

Personalized action recommendations, based on employee feedback and powered by Qualtrics' AI and EX methodology, give every manager specific guidance tailored to their team's unique feedback. Managers can add specific context on their team dynamics to ensure the recommendations they receive are highly relevant and valuable. Rather than generic advice, managers receive clear priorities and tangible action items that are easier to track and measure, allowing them to act on feedback in ways that drive meaningful impact.

Organizations using these recommendations, including adidas, Verizon, and Community Health Network, see up to a 70% increase in managers creating personalized action plans, which translates into higher engagement, lower attrition, and better performance.

adidas is using Qualtrics to replace 160+ hours of manual content creation per engagement cycle by giving managers tailored guidance in seconds instead of generic resources they had to sift through themselves. The result: 70%+ time saved for managers and an HR team freed to focus on strategic work.

"We could never prepare for this with just human power. Managers now receive highly relevant suggestions tailored to their specific team dynamics, challenges, and context," said Martin Janhuba, Director of People Insights & Analytics, adidas.

Quotes on the news

"Positive employee experiences are a competitive advantage in business today, leading to higher engagement, retention, and customer outcomes. And they're built by managers and employers who deeply understand the needs of their people and take action when it matters. These capabilities make that possible, giving every manager the context and guidance they need to respond to their team's unique challenges," said Brad Anderson, President of Products, Engineering, User Experience, and Security at Qualtrics.

"Organizations that are pulling ahead are using employee sentiment to contextualize workforce trends and prioritize responsiveness in the flow of work. Top organizations are fusing voice of the employee with performance data and metadata to embed responsiveness into daily interactions through nudges as well as digital assistance, advisory, and agency. Voice of the employee is vital for HR and managers to understand each employee's lived work experience so they can build performance frameworks, manage business change, and advance digital strategies that reflect real concerns and lived experiences. Embedded VoE is driving stronger retention and motivated workforce performance and productivity," said Zachary Chertok, Senior Research Manager, Employee Experience, IDC.