5 ways to build global teams in 2026

If you were building global teams in 2025, you wouldn’t need me to tell you it was a crazy year. We experienced economic volatility and AI disruption. Plus, tightened borders caused companies to adjust and readjust their approaches.

2026 won’t be calmer. But the elements we need to master to stay competitive are now coming into focus: Navigating mobility disruption, creating unity across increasingly distributed workforces, and building the transparent, compliant infrastructure needed to employ people anywhere.

1. Rethink mobility strategies

After a decade or so of relative calm, global mobility is now being disrupted from every angle. That’s because geopolitical instability, along with economic shifts and competing visa regimes are fundamentally changing how companies access and rely on talent.

Governments are modernizing immigration with digital platforms like the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, yet the same environment is producing abrupt travel restrictions, emergency evacuations, and rising protectionism. The result is a system that is technically more advanced but practically more unpredictable.

Sharp increases in visa costs in some major economies have pushed many companies to rethink their talent strategies. High fees and uncertainty are accelerating offshoring and nearshoring, especially for high-value work in AI, product development, and cybersecurity. Yet with many companies facing hiring freezes and restructuring, mobility in 2026 will need to be more selective and strategy-led, not volume-driven.

To thrive in this new landscape, companies should build mobility capability in-house—owning compliance knowledge, digital tooling, and real-time monitoring—while deepening partnerships with specialist mobility consultants who can navigate complex jurisdictions. This kind of hybrid model will ensure companies are poised to rapidly respond to regulatory changes in an uncertain world.

2. Overcommunicate around AI workflows

AI is already embedded in day-to-day work, but without clear communication, it can easily create more noise rather than value: generic content, duplicated effort, and confusion over what is trustworthy. Most teams are still bolting AI onto old workflows, instead of redesigning those workflows with AI in mind.

Overcommunicating around AI workflows means making it clear how AI is used, why it’s used, and where humans fit in the loop. Teams should openly align on what should be automated, what should remain human-led, and how decisions are made and documented. The clearer the communication, the more consistently teams can use AI without compromising quality or accountability.

For AI to support unity rather than undermine it, organizations should:

• Make it clear that AI is a tool for productivity, not as a quiet headcount reducer. Transparency builds trust and encourages adoption.
• Establish shared guidelines on when and how to use AI.
• Create internal spaces where people can share prompts, tools, and lessons.

3. Hire for soft skills

Tethered to the emergence of AI is an increasing skills gap. Workers often feel confident that they are employable, while employers increasingly question whether available talent matches the demands of modern, tech-driven roles.

Education systems still lean toward linear, narrow training, while careers are becoming more non-linear and cross-functional. In 2026, employers that struggle to find hard skills will need to hire for potential instead by focusing on soft skills like communication and problem solving. Also look for curiosity and comfort with ambiguity.

The most resilient global teams will build around people who can move across domains, learn new tools quickly, and evolve with the business, instead of those optimized purely for today’s job description.

4. Understand transparency mandates

Finding the right talent is one problem. Employing people compliantly and fairly across borders is another—especially with the new regulatory challenges 2026 is throwing our way. New pay transparency rules require employers to show not just what they pay, but how they arrived at those decisions.

Early evidence from transparency laws in some regions suggests they can meaningfully narrow pay gaps when combined with structured reporting. The next wave, including EU-wide pay transparency requirements, will push employers to formalize compensation frameworks and maintain audit-ready data.

Many organizations are underprepared. Only just over half of employers are putting money into improving wage transparency. Employees often feel in the dark about how pay works, and ad hoc transparency—such as publishing a few ranges—won’t fix that. In 2026, companies will need payroll and HR systems that can:

• Produce locally compliant payslips
• Classify roles consistently across borders
• Surface pay data by region, role, and gender

Without this infrastructure, it becomes difficult to demonstrate that outcomes are structured, comparable, and non-discriminatory.

5. Build the infrastructure of global employment

In 2026, global companies are expected to expand quickly, de-risk that expansion, and provide a consistent employee experience worldwide. Spreadsheets and fragmented vendors simply can’t keep up.

The response is the rise of dedicated global employment infrastructure: employers of record, global payroll systems, and collaboration suites.

Built correctly, the right stack:

• Keeps contracts, benefits, and payslips locally compliant
• Provides a single source of truth for workforce data
• Enables real-time visibility and control for leaders
• Reduces misclassification, tax, and security risks

In a year of continuous change, this kind of infrastructure will prevent global expansion from becoming a tangle of entities, local providers, and hidden liabilities.

PREPARE FOR 2026

Mobility disruption, distributed work, AI, skills gaps, and regulatory shifts are converging into a single test: Can your organization operate as a coherent global system?

The teams that win in 2026 will:

• Treat mobility as a strategic lever
• Design AI-augmented workflows that enhance clarity and cohesion
• Hire for adaptability and potential, not just narrow experience
• Treat transparency as a business priority rather than an afterthought
• Build compliant employment infrastructure that can scale

The world is not getting simpler. But with the right strategies in place, businesses can leap the hurdles and continue to unlock the benefits of global teams.

Sagar Khatri is CEO of Multiplier.