Slow the Rate of Change. Raise the Rate of Pay.

Slow the Rate of Change. Raise the Rate of Pay.

Over the last three years, workers have lived through an unprecedented rate of change. AI has not just accelerated opportunities for efficiency; it has fundamentally altered the pace at which people are expected to adapt, learn, unlearn, and reinvent work.

That acceleration has created extraordinary gains. It has also come with a cost. The taxation of constant reinvention is real, and I am witnessing its physical and emotional impact on my employees, now that it has had an undeniable impact on the bottom line.

As a founder and CEO who has privately owned and operated a professional services business for sixteen years, I have always preached that our culture stands on three core pillars: Growth. Transparency. Kindness. Make no mistake, the current era of AI has prioritized growth. Growth is often celebrated without acknowledging what it demands from the people who power it. In recent years, the employer exception of AI adoption has accelerated faster than most workers anticipated, rewriting job descriptions – especially for administrative professionals – every few quarters, then sometimes every month.

Many people inside my company became AI-enabled professionals long before the broader US talent pool. They endured steep learning curves, tedious tool-integrations, repeated responsibility reconfiguring, and long stretches where the technology was not ready, but they were. They represent a new archetype of worker, combining human judgment with machine-augmented capability.

Revenue is up 20% and there are sixteen full-time employees at TruLegal, compared to three years ago with thirty-three. Our team is now operating on a scale that once required more than twice as many people only three years ago.

They deserve to be rewarded for that achievement.

Why 2026 Must Be Different

Over the past year, I have experimented with building predictive models using AI that incorporate global economic patterns, geopolitical regulatory trending, and bespoke proprietary data from within the labor market our company serves. Those models keep pointing to a future that may seem counterintuitive but is increasingly plausible.

In the not-too-distant future, the United States could experience unemployment levels approaching twenty percent while still maintaining one of the healthiest economies in recorded history.

How? The majority of those who remain employed will be AI-enabled professionals performing at levels previously unimaginable. Productivity will become so amplified that fewer people can generate far more economic value, creating disproportionate earning power among those who are working as AI-enabled professionals.

Inside my own organization, that future is now a reality. That is not because we demanded superhuman effort. It is because those who remain learned to integrate, leverage, and master new AI-tools faster than peers.

That reality forces a leadership decision.

In 2026, we are intentionally slowing the internal rate of change inside our organization. Our people have earned the right to operate from a place of predictability in 2026, having successfully survived years of sustained disruption.

I am also reinvesting the gains created by AI-driven efficiency directly back into the people who made them possible. That means meaningfully increasing base compensation while continuing to invest thoughtfully in technology that amplifies an individual’s opportunity to impact the business. The future is not about choosing between people and tools. It is about making sure they advance together in harmony.

It is time to slow the rate of change and raise the rate of pay.

A Call to Other Leaders

If you truly care about the people who work for you, or will work for you, consider this:

AI has given teams the ability to do more, learn more, pivot faster, and evolve broadly. But just because people can absorb more change does not mean they should be expected to do so forever.

In 2025, many well-intentioned leaders overlooked a simple truth: humans cannot evolve at the same pace as machines. I believe the most-illustrious leaders in 2026 will take the reins by rewarding and reinvesting in talent before simply turning to technology to accelerate growth.

The potential rate of technological change may be exponential. The human capacity to absorb it is not.

Organizations that recognize this and respond accordingly in 2026 will not only retain their best people – they will attract new ones and define for generations to come what sustainable growth looks like in an unregulated AI-enabled economy.

Jared
Founder and CEO, TruLegal

About TruLegal

TruLegal (formerly TRU Staffing Partners) is a globally recognized, award-winning staffing agency specializing in representing AI-enabled talent for modern legal teams. With a network of relationships reaching over 100,000 legal professionals across 75+ countries, TruLegal has successfully placed thousands of attorneys, legal operations, litigation & eDiscovery, data privacy, cybersecurity and other legal professionals who focus on the intersection of technology and the law. For over fifteen years, TruLegal has provided FLEX contract talent, direct hire contingency staffing, and executive level search services to the Fortune 1000, AmLaw 200, and the community of providers that support the legal industry.

Contact:
TruLegal
marketing@trulegal.ai