Fontainebleau Las Vegas HRIS Solutions Senior Manager Henry Bui needed to hire 6,500 people, and he worked with Paradox to roll out an AI recruiting assistant named Morris that reduced application time to 3 minutes and created an average time-to-hire of 14 days with a 92% acceptance rate. "That's not automation of an old process; it's a redesign of it, and it suggests a leader building for where HR is going, not where it's been," Microsoft's Prerna Ajmera says. Bui explains his thought process: "I want to be the leader who understands the business, understands the people and uses both technology and data to make things better."

Corridor, an AI health benefits brokerage focused on small businesses, has raised $25 million in a seed round. Corridor aims to address the needs of small businesses that traditional brokerages often overlook by using AI agents to handle administrative tasks.

Startup company Ema, whose AI agents automate complex HR, finance and IT processes, has pulled in $77 million in a Series B round led by Creaegis, with participation from Section 32, Prosus and Accel. The funding will be used to expand Ema's market presence, particularly in South America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Ema refers to its AI agents as AI employees, and it's attracted customers such as Google, Hitachi, Microsoft and NTT Data.

Employee management startup Warp has launched an employee-generated content program to attract talent by turning employees into influencers on LinkedIn and X. Employees are incentivized to share authentic work-related experiences and receive raffle entries for each post. About one-third of Warp's workforce participates regularly, and the initiative has helped the company hire 30 people in the past quarter.

The ongoing lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple centers on allegations of corporate espionage and trade secret theft involving former Apple employees. Apple claims that one ex-employee downloaded confidential files and OpenAI's chief hardware officer, instructed job candidates from Apple to bring hardware parts to their interviews. While OpenAI denies any wrongdoing, the case underscores the evolving risks companies face in protecting proprietary information during employee transitions and the importance of clear processes to safeguard trade secrets.

The quality of digital experiences provided by retirement plan platforms is increasingly influential in employee engagement and satisfaction, according to a JD Power study. Employees who interact with well-designed digital platforms -- especially mobile apps -- are more likely to stay engaged, consolidate assets and maintain a positive view of their employer. Enhanced digital features, usability and personalization are driving the providers to invest heavily to meet rising expectations.

The use of AI for monitoring employees can have hidden costs that outweigh the benefits. Linus Arauz, who manages retail locations in airports, found that the cost of monitoring for theft exceeded the losses from theft. Research involving a German bakery chain shows that excessive monitoring can lead to higher attrition among skilled workers, as it signals a lack of trust. However, less experienced workers benefit from the structure that monitoring provides, writes Guido Friebel, an HR professor and business and economics dean at Goethe University in Germany.

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Members of ISACA's Emerging Trends Working Group offer their views on the findings of the recent State of Cybersecurity report. Harshad Kadam sees domain-crossing as a key skill in the industry. "That's what is scarce right now: people with genuine depth in two or three areas who can see how a weakness in one becomes an exposure in another," Kadam says. Ekaterina Zuckermann offers insight on integrating AI into workflows: "Effective use requires control over data quality, people capable of recognizing when the output is wrong and clear validation before AI-generated conclusions influence security decisions."