Subscribe

The most interesting stories in HR & AI weekly

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow says he eliminated his HR department because it created problems that didn’t exist, while retaining People Operations, as part of a broader turnaround. Why it matters: HR teams that can’t demonstrate business impact may be vulnerable during AI-driven restructurings. Reality Check: Don’t buy the ‘HR will be replaced by AI’ hype; while Bolt is a cautionary tale, many HR teams are taking leadership roles in AI adoption.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new executive order aimed at protecting workers from AI disruption, including exploring “universal basic capital” models that give workers ownership stakes in AI-driven economic gains. Why it matters: The conversation is shifting beyond ‘universal basic income’ toward whether workers should directly share in the wealth AI creates. Reality Check: While ‘universal basic capital’ is still largely theoretical, it reflects growing pressure to rethink how AI productivity gains are distributed.

Meta is reassigning 7,000 employees into AI-focused teams while flattening management layers and cutting thousands of jobs. Why it matters: The emerging AI workforce playbook isn’t just about replacing jobs, it’s about redeploying talent and reorganizing around human-AI collaboration. Reality Check: While headlines focus on layoffs, the bigger long-term shift may be how companies retrain, redeploy, and redefine roles in an increasingly agentic workplace. Read more of our thoughts on this topic.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters apologized after comments about reducing “lower-value human capital” through AI sparked backlash, highlighting sensitivity to how leaders communicate workforce transformation. Why it matters: As companies accelerate AI adoption, leaders are under increasing pressure to balance transparency about organizational change with employee concerns about job displacement. Reality Check: The emerging debate may be less about “high-value” versus “low-value” work, and more about understanding which tasks AI can perform effectively versus where human judgment, creativity, and relationships remain essential.

As AI begins to impact the entire employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding to development and promotions, EY is is piloting skills-based hiring, agile promotion models, and AI-supported career pathing. Key Insight: While agile career pathing has been discussed for years, the speed and scale of AI-driven change is making it more urgent for companies to prioritize flexible skill development.

McKinsey launched an AI-powered interview prep tool that allows candidates to practice consulting case interviews using simulated business scenarios. Key Insight: As AI becomes embedded into day-to-day work, companies are increasingly evaluating not just technical expertise, but how effectively candidates collaborate with AI tools as part of the hiring process.

A new Oliver Wyman survey found that more than 40% of CEOs plan to reduce junior-level roles over the next one to two years as AI increasingly automates entry-level tasks, while demand shifts toward mid- and senior-level talent. Why it matters: AI may not just change work itself, it could reshape traditional career ladders and future talent pipelines. Reality Check: While some companies are cutting junior hiring, others argue AI could accelerate early-career development by enabling junior employees to contribute to higher-value work sooner.

Take a 10-15 minute benchmarking survey from PotomacHarbor on how AI is impacting your workforce planning practices. Participants receive a copy of results in the fall. (Disclosure: we run this benchmarking survey through PotomacHarbor).

Anthropic introduced 10 prebuilt Claude AI agent templates for finance workflows, with Microsoft 365 integrations, signaling the next phase of AI: deployable agents embedded directly into day-to-day work. Why it matters: Platform providers like Anthropic are moving beyond chatbots to turnkey “agentic workflows” that automate complex business tasks, raising the question of which enterprise functions, like HR, will be next. Reality Check: Most organizations are still early in deploying agents, but the race is shifting among platform providers from model performance to workflow integration and enterprise adoption.

Eightfold introduced TalentForge, a platform designed to help enterprises build customized HR applications and workflows on top of its talent intelligence platform. Why it matters: HR tech vendors are increasingly positioning themselves as AI platforms that enable organizations to created tailored workflows, rather than relying solely on standardized SaaS products. Reality Check: While the vision of “build-your-own HR software” is gaining traction, most organizations are still early in developing AI-driven workflows and will likely face challenges around governance, integration, and adoption.

Thanks for reading. If you have comments or feedback just respond to this email.

Until next week,

Mike & Adam

Someone forward you this email? Subscribe for weekly updates.

Want to advertise in HRBusinessPartner AI? Send us an email (reply to this message).